Coronavirus misinformation, debunked: Ibuprofen, furry friends and a COVID-19 vaccine | ABC News

As the world grapples with an unprecedented health crisis, it is now more important than ever to ensure that the information we share is accurate and fact-based. Fake news and misinformation seem to be spreading as fast and as far as the virus itself, infecting our newsfeeds and timelines at this crucial moment.

For this reason, RMIT ABC Fact Check has launched CoronaCheck, an email newsletter in which we will bring you the latest in fact-checking from around the world in relation to the coronavirus.

Ibuprofen and the virus:
Many people have sent us versions of a text claiming that “information from Vienna’s laboratory studying COVID-19” suggests that the “vast majority” of people dying from coronavirus have ibuprofen in their systems.

Fact checkers have been unable to find a basis for this claim, and the Medical University of Vienna has called it “fake news”.

Additionally, a spokesperson for Vancouver Coastal Health, which is also cited in the post as advising against ibuprofen, told the ABC, the hospital had not issued advice to that effect “at all”.

PolitiFact, Full Fact and BBC Reality Check found there had not been enough research to know whether ibuprofen had any adverse affect on coronavirus sufferers.

Some experts noted, however, that ibuprofen could compromise the body’s immune response.

Workers without paid leave:
Images reminiscent of the Great Depression dominated the media in the past week, with newly unemployed Australians queuing outside Centrelink offices in a bid to access welfare payments.

Many were likely to be workers without paid leave entitlements, such as casuals and the self-employed. RMIT ABC Fact Check examined the issue of insecure work in a fact file published this week.

We found that combining the estimated number of self-employed workers with those in casual employment suggests as many as 4.8 million Australian workers (37 per cent of the national workforce) did not have access to paid leave entitlements in the lead-up to the coronavirus outbreak.

Furry friends:
Many of us stuck at home are taking comfort in the fact that we get to spend more time with our favourite four-legged friends.

Some people have expressed concern, however, that our pets may be able to pass on the coronavirus to humans.

A number of fact checks — by our IFCN colleagues at USA Today, Africa Check, PolitiFact and Full Fact, among others — found that while at least one dog did test “weak positive” for coronavirus in Hong Kong, there were questions over the validity of the test and no evidence pets could transmit the virus to humans.

A COVID-19 vaccine:
Scientists around the world, including researchers at the University of Queensland, are hard at work on a COVID-19 vaccine.

But posts shared on social media claiming a vaccine is ready for use are false, according to fact checkers at Full Fact and Reuters. The image included in the posts, which appears to show a packaged vaccine, is actually a photo of a COVID-19 testing kit.

The Department of Health says that, according to the WHO, a publicly available vaccine is 18 months away.

Read more here: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-04-01/corona-check-ibuprofen-vaccine-pets/12105792

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In This Story: COVID-19

Covid-19 is the official WHO name given to the novel coronavirus which broke out in late 2019 and began to spread in the early months of 2020.

Symptoms of coronavirus

The main symptoms of coronavirus are:

  • a persistent new cough (non productive, dry)
  • a high temperature (e.g. head feels warm to the touch)
  • shortness of breath (if this is abnormal for the individual, or increased)

Latest News about Covid-19

Below are stories from around the globe related to the 2020 outbreak of novel Coronavirus – since the WHO gave the Covid-19 naming. Most recent items are posted nearest the top.

5 Recent Items: COVID-19

Global national: jan. 19, 2024 | health data shows influenza, covid-19 cases decreasing in canada 1

Global National: Jan. 19, 2024 | Health data shows influenza, COVID-19 cases decreasing in Canada

Stock market today: Dow, S&P 500 hit record highs as tech stocks soar | January 19, 2024

Stock market today: Stocks climb with techs ready to roar | January 19, 2023

Dr Anthony Fauci ‘became part of the problem’ when it came to the spread of Covid misinformation

WEF summit: Canada warns of future supply shocks amid global instability

In This Story: Hong Kong

Hong Kong, officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China (HKSAR), is a metropolitan area and special administrative region of the People’s Republic of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta of the South China Sea. With over 7.5 million residents of various nationalities in a 1,104-square-kilometre (426 sq mi) territory, Hong Kong is one of the most densely populated places in the world.

Hong Kong became a colony of the British Empire after the Qing Empire ceded Hong Kong Island at the end of the First Opium War in 1842. The colony expanded to the Kowloon Peninsula in 1860 after the Second Opium War and was further extended when Britain obtained a 99-year lease of the New Territories in 1898. The whole territory was transferred to China in 1997. As a special administrative region, Hong Kong maintains separate governing and economic systems from that of mainland China under the principle of “one country, two systems”.

3 Recent Items: Hong Kong

Bloomberg Markets: China Open 01/19/2024

ANDREA ATZENI in Hong Kong! Star jockey talks Group One hopes & more!

Exploring Shanghai in Blossoms: A microcosm of Chinese urban modernity

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