No, COVID-19 is not caused by bacteria

A widespread social media post claims that Italian doctors have found that Covid-19 is not a virus but it is a bacteria. This claim is an incorrect and wrong interpretation of the fact that bacterial pneumonia is a secondary infection that may happen due to COVID-19 in some cases.

Conspiracy theories and claims to prove that coronavirus is a bacteria and thus can be cured by antibiotics, ventilators are not needed to treat Covid-19 patients and Italian doctors secretly found a cure after they discarded WHO guidelines are misleading.

From medical misinformation to blaming the government bodies to fake cures and conspiracy theories all of this has been circulated widely before and is still being done on social media platforms.

A long disturbing message is being circulated on WhatsApp that has caused disruption in the minds of those who believe it. With hardly any solution coming up, more and more fake news is on the rise and is creating further confusion and distrust among people.

This message claims how Italy recovered without the use of respirators. It also claims that China knew about the ill-effects of respirators but they did not inform the world with an aim to do business. It claims that Italy responded before WHO with a cure. These claims have been attributed to the Italian Ministry of Health. We checked their website and COVID-19 guidance released by Italy’s Ministry of Health makes no reference to any such claim. They highlight on their website that, “The situation is constantly monitored by the Ministry, which is in permanent contact with the WHO, the ECDC, the European Commission and promptly publishes any new updates on the portal.”

Since the message is making a number of lengthy claims, we will take them up one by one.

The message firstly claims that the Italian doctors disobeyed WHO’s law and performed an autopsy on a person who died of Covid-19. There was nothing to disobey. On March 24, 2020, the WHO released interim guidance on the safe handling of the dead body in the context of Covid-19 and explained all the preventive measures the experts must take if they decide to perform an autopsy.

The second claim is that the Italian doctors found that it is not a virus. Rather it is a bacteria that causes “Disseminated Intravascular Coagulation” (Thrombosis), leading to the person’s death.

According to a study put forth on The  Lancet, viral respiratory diseases can lead to bacterial pneumonia. Most deaths of the Spanish flu in 1918 as well as serious cases or deaths during the 2009 H1N1 flu had a secondary bacterial infection. Around 50% of the deaths in the current  COVID-19 pandemic are also due to bacterial pneumonia.

SARS-CoV-2 causes COVID-19, in some patients, especially the ones with pre-existing conditions like hypertension, and obesity, it causes the immune system to produce a ‘cytokine storm’ (which means a large number of cytokines are released at once which prove to be harmful).  An article on Nature states that this cytokine storm causes the immune cells to attack the healthy cells, thus causing multiple organ failure as well as clotting.

According to this message, antibiotics, anti-inflammatories, and anticoagulants can cure it, and that the respirators used have only proven to be fatal.

Antibiotics are given, to prevent a secondary bacterial infection which could be the result of the initial viral infection. Jose and Manuel in their article COVID-19 and cytokine storm: the interplay between inflammation and coagulation published on The Lancet explain that under normal conditions, certain factors in the body which usually cause coagulation are tightly controlled. However, in the case of hyper inflammation, these controls could be impaired which may lead to the formation of blood-clots or intravascular coagulation. Hence, anti-inflammatory drugs are given to minimise the effect of inflammation by the immune system, and anticoagulants are given to prevent the clotting of blood.

The COVID-19 infection has been seen to cause severe respiratory illnesses in certain people. In such cases, people may need mechanical ventilators and respirators. Patients who are on mechanical ventilation, are at a high risk of hospital-acquired bacterial infections. Hence, antibiotics are also given to minimise the risks of such bacterial infections.

Furthermore, this message also gives a username of a twitter handle, @italiarevelacurardelcovid19, which apparently does not exist. But this hashtag has become popular on Twitter, with people sharing the same piece of information. The source of the story mentioned is Newspot, which is a Nigerian website and is popular for spreading gossip. The website has mentioned in its section “Terms of Use”, that they do not take responsibility for any error in the content.  Hence proving that the website does not take its content seriously and is not a credible source of information.

While the message has a tone of urgency that asks people to spread this news far and wide, it also builds a narrative of a conspiracy theory stating that the WHO has been covering deaths and deliberately letting the economies of the world collapse. It accuses Bill Gates and his cohorts and asks for their immediate arrest and persecution. It calls the entire coronavirus pandemic a hoax and says that only the US President, Donald Trump has been able to see through it and all the world depends on him now to save everyone and stand up against these “evils of the world”. However, this holds no ground. Multiple theories about Bill Gates have been doing rounds and we have debunked those conspiracy theories here.