“Important Information against fear of the coronavirus”
Almost all of the time, but especially in these times of the coronavirus people share information through different common platforms such as WhatsApp, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc...
People are panicking, and since everyone is sitting at home, they have enough time to read the news, and promptly inaccurate news are being shared and distributed.
According to the website: “https://www.marianne-e-meyer.com/2020/03/04/wichtige-informationen-gegen-die-angst-vor-dem-coronavirus/” there are important aspects for the fight against corona to consider. The blog entry has the title: “Important information against fear of the coronavirus “. The publisher of the article is a woman called Marianne E. Meyer, who informed on her website about a Facebook user that uploaded a post that has already been shared over 300 times. And yes, of course the topic has to be the late- breaking news of coronavirus and its characteristics.
How do we find out though if this information is correct or not?
STEP 1: THE PERSON BEHIND THE INFORMATION
The first considered step to know whether the information of this source is true or not is checking who the person behind the information is.
Marianne E. Meyer is an author, whose writings have mainly spiritual topics. Except for her own website and the presentation of her works on book-selling platforms, no more information can be found that could help on our research.
The next clue is the Facebook user under the name “Peter Lee Goodchild”, to whom the spreading of the information leads back.
Although there are different versions of his claim roaming around in social media, the origin of this source is Peter Lee Goodchild.
By now the account got blocked, so we cannot find further background information to who is behind this information.
Yet, through further research we came upon numerous articles accusing Peter Lee Goodchild of previously spreading news in social media that turned out to be incorrect.
Another post by Goodchild caught the attention of BBC, one of the world’s most known broadcaster. BBC declared the post to be false.
„The man who shared one of the most viral versions of the photo on Facebook tells BBC Trending that he took the photo off a twitter feed and that he’s sorry for getting the facts wrong. “
STEP 2: THE EVIDENCE OF THE INFORMATION
The second step is checking the evidence of the information.
Peter Lee Goodchild claims his uncle works at the Shenzhen Hospital in the province Guangdong in China and has a master’s degree.
Our search for the alleged uncle, however, reached a dead-end; there is not any information regarding his uncle on the internet.
Since no proof is supporting the claims, it is not far to seek that these are fake news, but seriatim!
STEP 3: WHAT DO OTHER SOURCES SAY?
In the third and last step, we draw a comparison to what other sources say about the content of the Post. In the following, we reviewed the alleged facts listed in the article.
1. If you have a runny nose and sputum, you have a cold.
2. Coronavirus pneumonia is a dry cough without a runny nose.
The world health organization asserts that from the data hitherto collected „very few people will report diarrhea, nausea or a runny nose. “
It is thus incorrect and reckless to completely exclude a running nose from the list of symptoms. Imagine you have a fever, dry cough and a runny nose and only because some guy claims a runny nose is only part of a cold and not of coronavirus, you don’t worry about it.
This is dangerous!
3. This new virus is not heat-resistant and is killed at a temperature of only 26/27 degrees. It hates the sun.
According to the WHO the Virus can be spread in every area regardless of the temperature. Thus, neither the climate nor a hot bath can kill the coronavirus.
This fact is refuted and no, the coronavirus does not hate the sun.
4. If someone sneezes with it, it takes about 3 m until it falls to the ground and is no longer in the air.
Indeed, it depends on the size of the droplets how long it takes to fall to the ground.
Principally experts say that sneezed droplets can reach someone within a 1-meter radius.
That means, surely it could take about 3 meters until it falls to the ground depending on different factors, but nevertheless this claim is not accurate and therefore totally invalid.
5. If it falls on a metal surface, it will last for at least 12 hours. So if you come into contact with a metal surface, wash your hands with bacterial soap as soon as possible.
6. It can survive 6-12 hours on fabric. The regular detergent will kill it.
As stated by BBC, studies found out that other coronaviruses „can survive on metal, glass and plastic for as long as nine days.” https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20200317-covid-19-how-long-does-the-coronavirus-last-on-surfaces
How the author of the post came up with the number of 12 hours for metal surfaces remains unclear. It is true though, that the ability of the virus to survive for a couple of days on surfaces points up the importance of washing the hands as soon as possible.
Regarding the fabric, there are so far no scientific findings in how long the virus survives on this surface.
Professor Bloomberg from the Johns Hopkins University says “to actively kill the virus you need temperatures of around 60 degree (Celsius)” outside the body.
Consequently, wash your clothes at around 60 degrees and you can be pretty sure that the heat kills the virus in any fabric.
7. Drinking warm water is effective for all viruses. Try not to drink liquids with ice.
In a statement on coronavirus misinformation by Charlotte Petri Gornitzka, Unicef deputy executive director for partnerships it is mentioned that „avoiding ice cream and other cold foods can help prevent the onset of the disease []is, of course, wholly untrue. “
8. Wash your hands frequently as the virus can only live on your hands for 5-10 minutes. A lot can happen during this time. You can rub your eyes, accidentally peck your nose and so on.
"It is not certain how long the virus that causes COVID-19 survives on surfaces, but it seems to behave like other coronaviruses. Studies suggest that coronaviruses (including preliminary information on the COVID-19 virus) may persist on surfaces for a few hours or up to several days. This may vary under different conditions (e.g. type of surface, temperature or humidity of the environment). “
A time frame of 5-10 minutes is definitely too short, yet it is even more important to wash the hands frequently and avoid touching parts of the face such as mouth, nose or eyes.
9. Can't stress enough - drink lots of water!
Drinking lots of water is unquestioned important for health, from a young age parents keep telling their children to drink more water.
However, this has not much to do with “important information against fear of the coronavirus” and no scientific link has been made between drinking enough water and the virus.
The symptoms:
1. It will infect the throat first, so you will have a sore throat for 3-4 days.
2. The virus then melts into a nasal fluid that enters the trachea and then the lungs, causing pneumonia. This takes another 5-6 days.
3. Pneumonia is accompanied by a high fever and difficulty breathing.
4. The stuffy nose is not like the normal one. You feel like you're drowning.
You must seek medical help immediately!
Yes, this list includes symptoms that may appear during the infection, such as high fever and Pneumonia. However, the author set up a detailed description from beginning to end of the course of the disease. Goodchild loses more and more his credibility because unlike he says, the progression of disease is unspecific and varies considerably.
Here another example of what the author listed that helps preventing covid-19.
Chinese doctors have also had success with vitamin C infusions to treat severe pneumonia-infected 2019 nCoV.
Surely, it is a known myth that vitamins strengthen the immune system, but there is no evidence that these vitamin infusions can be used as a treatment. „There is no vaccine and no specific antiviral medicine to prevent or treat COVID-2019. “
As we have ran through all three steps in order to check the reliability of a source and its content, we arrive at the question of questions. Have we exposed fake news in social media?
I think the answer could not be more obvious.
First off, the post does not completely consist of false information, yet there are valid approaches among all the arguments.
However, every writer has the responsibility to verify what he writes and publishes (which clearly didn’t happen). But not just the author, also it is every individual person’s responsibility who shares that information and sends them to their family or friends to check whether he handed correct information to the next person or not.
In the end, this new Coronavirus should not be underestimated because it has a massive impact on every part of our life. Wrong knowledge may even make the situation worse by giving people the wrong level of confidence about what characterizes the virus and how to prevent a contraction of the disease.
In this case, the claims are questionable and unverified, underpinned by a very dubious source with basically no information about the person behind the information.
Honestly, how are we supposed to believe someone that has no valuable background info except for articles that show up Peter Lee Goodchild as a liar. So undoubtedly we can say that these are FAKE NEWS.
Some final advice: Rely on sources such as WHO to obtain authentic and up-to-date information about the new coronavirus.
Sources: