On Feb. 28, the World Health Organization raised its risk of spread and impact assessment of the deadly coronavirus disease (COVID-19) to “very high at a global level,” due to the growing number of confirmed COVID-19 cases worldwide. The John Hopkins case tracker has so far recorded 85,182 positive cases, with 2,924 fatalities.
As the virus spreads, so are wrong and misleading information on the disease both online and offline causing confusion and panic among the population.
VERA Files debunked a number of these infodemic content which went viral on social media in the past weeks.
(Guided by the code of principles of the International Fact-Checking Network at Poynter, VERA Files tracks the false claims, flip-flops, misleading statements of public officials and figures, and debunks them with factual evidence. Find out more about this initiative and our methodology.)
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