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AS NEWS ABOUT the coronavirus Covid-19 has continued to dominate public discussion, misinformation has been flooding social media.
As the virus continues to spread, so too do rumours about the outbreak – from which communities have become affected by it to how the outbreak is being managed by health authorities.
More recently, people have been seeing information circulating about how to protect themselves from coronavirus.
One image that has circulated on social media in recent days is a message that appears to offer “useful info” from the Stanford Hospital Board and Japanese doctors treating Covid-19.
While medical professionals are offering plenty of advice on trying to reduce the spread of Covid-19, such as regular hand-washing, this particular advice is FALSE.
Let’s take a look at the misinformation in more detail.
The advice
The claim is being circulated on Whatsapp and on Facebook. On Whatsapp, it has been described as being “from a friend whos [sic] brother is at the Stanford hospital board”.
The advice is said to be from Japanese doctors treating the coronavirus Covid-19.
It tells people that they should take a few sips of water every 15 minutes, because “even if the virus gets into your mouth, drinking water and other liquids will wash them down through your throat and into the stomach”. There, the advice states, stomach acid will kill the virus.
It has been widely shared on Facebook. One post, shown below, was shared nearly 200,000 times from an Irish Facebook page.
Why it’s fake
Firstly, the message did not come from Stanford. A spokesperson for the Stanford School of Medicine in California confirmed to TheJournal.ie that the information did not originate with them.
The advice is also not medically sound. Dr Kim Roberts, an expert in virology in Trinity College Dublin, told TheJournal.ie that the advice is not accurate.
“You’re not going to wash the virus down into your stomach by drinking water,” she said.
“Staying hydrated is a good idea because that helps keep respiratory mucus at the effective thickness so that any virus caught in the respiratory mucus is moved away by the normal mechanisms our bodies have to protect us from infection,” she said.
But there is no evidence to support the idea that drinking water every 15 minutes will help protect you from coronavirus, according to Roberts.
The claim has been widely debunked elsewhere too. The World Health Organisation tweeted last month that “while staying hydrated by drinking water is important for overall health, it does not prevent coronavirus infection”.
World Health Organization Philippines / Twitter
World Health Organization Philippines / Twitter / Twitter
The BBC Reality Check team also de-bunked the claim. Writing that a version of the same claim in Arabic has been shared over 250,000 times, the BBC quoted an Oxford University professor who said that there is “no biological mechanism” to support the claim.
While coronavirus is a respiratory illness with symptoms such as fever, dry cough and shortness of breath, drinking water won’t be enough to prevent you from catching Covid-19.
The best thing you can do is to regularly wash your hands and to reduce touching your face.
There is a lot of false news and scaremongering being spread in Ireland at the moment about coronavirus. Here are some practical ways for you to assess whether the messages that you’re seeing – especially on WhatsApp – are true or not.
STOP, THINK AND CHECK
Look at where it’s coming from. Is it someone you know? Do they have a source for the information (e.g. the HSE website) or are they just saying that the information comes from someone they know? A lot of the false news being spread right now is from people claiming that messages from ‘a friend’ of theirs. Have a look yourself – do a quick Google search and see if the information is being reported elsewhere.
Secondly, get the whole story, not just a headline. A lot of these messages have got vague information (“all the doctors at this hospital are panicking”) and don’t mention specific details. This is often – but not always – a sign that it may not be accurate.
Finally, see how you feel after reading it. A lot of these false messages are designed to make people feel panicked. They’re deliberately manipulating your feelings to make you more likely to share it. If you feel panicked after reading something, check it out and see if it really is true.
With reporting from Aoife Barry
Have you gotten a message on WhatsApp or Facebook or Twitter about coronavirus that you’re not sure about and want us to check it out? Message or mail us and we’ll look into debunking it.
WhatsApp: 085 221 4696 Email: answers@thejournal.ie
TheJournal.ie’s FactCheck is a signatory to the International Fact-Checking Network’s Code of Principles. You can read it here. For information on how FactCheck works, what the verdicts mean, and how you can take part, check out our Reader’s Guide here. You can read about the team of editors and reporters who work on the factchecks here
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Rich people talking about corruption. Climate change with all the private jets. Hunger and poverty while paying 40 euro for a whiskey. Billionaires telling people to tighten their belts while flying in private jet and bringing the nannies. Oh the irony.
We live in a country that have a government for the rich and only the rich,and that has been the case for decades.Time has come to get rid of these people for good.
The more we learn of these guys dishing out the rules but not living by them, the more likely there will be mass civil unrest. What’s brewing around todays world is unfortunately unpleasant… And doesn’t bode well for the future. These guys need to watch scrooged or a Christmas carol.
Or in their case. A Muppets Christmas Carol.
Enda: ‘Now what colour tie shall I wear today’!
I brought my nanny on the train to Dublin once. Grandad said he was glad to get rid of her for the day.
Really wish I could just ignore the nonsense these idiots are spouting but unfortunately they hold the power and the wealth. They make me sick, especially enda the lick arse!
Tough luck if I wasn’t invited?.They’re all a bunch of tossers in expensive suits.
Is bono there?
Bono not rich enough!!! Enda is there on taxpayers money !!!
I thought davos was someone’s gaff in finglas
Seen the humble pilgrim Archbishop returning from the conference 2 years ago. His cash strapped church could only afford to send him Business class on Swiss air!
What’s your point Wayne? or are you just ‘bashing the bishop’.
Strap on
Norman, his church is unable to pay compensation to it’s victims, and the bishop who lives in a 50 room palace & is one of the largest land and property owners wants the government to take action!
Wayne his church is able to pay but our government did a deal with them.
Norman check again, they are about a quarter of a billion short on what they owe under that deal!
But obviously that’s ok, with you
This is mind blowing ignorance on the part of Al Gore.
He said that the earth’s mantle is “several million degrees” at “2 kilometers or so down”and that the “crust of the earth is hot” too.
He said that the Arctic ice would have disappeared by 2014.
His homes use more power than some small nations.
He is a bloviating self-declared genius who has built up a fortune of over $200 million on the back of his involvement in the climate scam.
This is like some episode of Dynasty isn’t it? I’m sure many of them need minders/ nannies… to keep them away from, you know, the poor, the old, the people who work… oh, you people! Hey, where’s Mitt?
al gone still sprouting his man made global warming crap. how many private jets are there yet its the common person using the shower for too long that does all the damage.
all the data presented supporting climate change theory leaves out the correlation between it and solar activity.
however the green market is big business and the right people are making money. if any researcher wants to put out data against man made climate change they will not get funded and ngos/think tanks will go all out to discredit them.
its a con job. the cultural Marxists love it. look into the matter for yourself.
too long to read.
@John Fergus, the fool Gore advises Obama and has made presentations to congress as their adviser and yet will not enter into any debate with scientists who can call his bluff.
Hi John,
Al Gore may be a hypocrite and a bit of a tool, but ‘man-made global warming’ as you like to call it is not ‘crap’.
There’s a tonne of peer-reviewed articles online, but NASA is a good place to start: http://climate.nasa.gov/evidence/
Happy reading.
Remember, when NOAA and NASA declare “hottest years”, just how poor their surface temperature coverage is. Just 6000 stations in the northern hemisphere, none in much of China or northern Russia or the Arabian Peninsula to mention just a few places and far too many of the 6000 are estimated, either because the stations are closed, or have missing months.RSS recently released the satellite measured global temperature for 2014 and found it is not even close to a new record.
I wonder could anyone with 200k attend?
Imagine winning the Euromillions and telling the lads … ‘Here I’m off to Davos for the week to have the craic with Inda and DOBS … Totes!’
Jeff must have been schooled by CJ
Our green isle is densely populated by us green eyed and immensely jealous moaners….
Is it just the angle of the foto or is our Enda getting a bit of a belly on him? All that rich food and champers……..not everyone is suffering due to the economy…….but 1 in six children in the Republic don’t have enough warm cloths or heat……”let them eat cake”……
Im a business grad; trying to work out why a bishop is there? Economies of Scale, probably…
have your say