10 widely shared misleading COVID-19 videos that we (almost) believed

In the midst of an outbreak, social media is awash with misleading videos related to the COVID-19 outbreak. We compiled 10 most widely shared videos that mislead people with false claims, fake treatment advices, and conspiracy theories.

Videos with conspiracy theories about the origin and spread of Covid-19 to false advices on how to treat COVID-19 have been widely shared on social media platforms. These videos have wrongly used citations from research papers and studies and some have used catchy keywords and claims that have fooled even the smartest of minds, misleading them to share the information with a wider audience.

Often real footage of events is used out of context to mislead people. The fact remains that there is currently no vaccine and no specific antiviral medicines against COVID-19. According to the WHO, possible vaccines and some specific drug treatments are currently under investigation. They are being tested through clinical trials.

At First Check, we have collected some of the most popular videos on Covid-19 which mislead people with false claims and conspiracy theories.

Claim: Video clip circulating on Facebook, Twitter, and WhatsApp claiming that US authorities have arrested Dr. Charles Lieber, a Harvard professor, for creating coronavirus and selling it to China.

Truth: Dr. Charles Lieber was arrested in January 2020 for lying and making fraudulent statements to US federal authorities about funds and grants he had allegedly received from the Chinese government. His arrest had no connection to coronavirus.

1. Claim: Mutated Covid-19 strain will protect Indians from the virus and Indians have good immunity to protect themselves from this strain.

Fact: Only 2 strains from India have been sequenced to date and submitted to public databases. The sequences are from two Wuhan returnees and they are near identical to sequenced strains from Wuhan. The claim that the Covid-19 strain in India is mutated and Indians have higher immunity to fight the virus has not been yet scientifically proven.

2. Claim: Video of dead bodies being washed ashore with the claim that some countries are throwing COVID-19 infected dead bodies into the seas.

Fact: The video is five years old. In August 2014, a boat with African migrants sunk off the Libyan coast and the video shows dead bodies of those victims being washed onshore onto a beach in Libya.

3.  Claim: A video on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram showing hundreds of Nigerians scrambling for food amid a lockdown due to novel coronavirus.

Fact: The footage has been circulating on social media since at least March 2019 and was taken during an electoral campaign months before the pandemic months before the start of the pandemic.

4. Claim: A TikTok video with a claim that moist throat can prevent Coronavirus attributed to Japanese Medical Staff was widely shared.

Fact: There is no proven evidence that drinking water will prevent people from Covid-19. Neither WHO nor any other public health authority has issued any such advisory that a dry throat can make an individual more vulnerable to contracting the virus.

5. Claim: Ozone generators can be used to kill the virus.

Fact: The US-FDA does not put ozone therapy as a medical treatment and none of the guidelines of WHO or CDC recommend its use against COVID-19 either for treatment of disinfection.

6. Claim: A video claiming that wet wipes can be replaced with face masks and how to make such masks at home gained wide popularity in parts of Asia.

Fact: There is no scientific evidence that wet wipes can be useful to prevent coronavirus or can be effective like respiratory masks.

7. Claim: A TikTok video claiming coronavirus patent was granted to Bill Gates Funded Institute in 2018 and Bill Gates already knew about the virus.

Fact: This is a false claim. The Gates Foundation doesn’t hold a patent for the novel coronavirus causing the COVID-19 pandemic. Conspiracy theories about a connection between the research institute called Pirbright Institute and Bill Gates have been circulating online for months. YouTuber Jordan Sather tweeted a thread claiming that the patents connected to the Pirbright Institute were for the novel coronavirus. The unsubstantiated claim persists on multiple social media platforms and has been especially popular among anti-vaccination groups but Pirbright Institute does not currently work with human coronaviruses.

8. Claim: A video projecting hospital workers in France putting on tattered protective gowns claim that the garments were made in China.

Fact: The protective gear in the video was produced in France and became damaged due to improper storage, according to the official press statement by the hospital authority.

9. Claim: Video showing people in China toppling a 5G tower because of fears that they cause the novel coronavirus.

Fact: This is an old video showing pro-democracy protesters toppling a smart lamppost in Hong Kong in August 2019.

10. Claim: A video circulating on social media claims to shows people in China are converting to Islam after Coronavirus. It has been viewed tens of thousands of times.

Fact: The claim is false; the video has circulated online since at least June 2019 and actually shows Muslims in China during Eid celebration last year. This old video is now being misused in the context of the Coronavirus outbreak.