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News article21 January 2021

COVID-19 media surveillance - 21 January 2021

This media surveillance collects articles reported through publicly available web sites.

Geolocations mentioned in coronavirus media coverage showing large clusters of news reports.
Geolocations mentioned in coronavirus media coverage showing large clusters of news reports.
© EU 2020

This media surveillance collects articles reported through publicly available web sites.

It is created with the Europe Media Monitor (EMM).

The selection and placement of stories are determined automatically by a computer program.

Headlines

Twitter

The following news were found among the most mentioned/retweeted items:

  • "UK now has highest Covid death rate in the world. Nearly 1,000 people are dying each day on average in the UK. Meanwhile, New Zealand has not recorded a single death since September" (theindependent)
  • "Vaccinators could lose their licences for giving second doses prematurely. ‘There is a complete refusal at the highest levels to grant permission for second doses before 12 weeks’" (theindependent)
  • "Devi Sridhar: Independent Scotland could have handled coronavirus better" (heraldscotland)
  • "[Spanish] Ministry of Health sells 30,000 doses of the coronavirus vaccine to Andorra" (abc)
  • "Germany makes medical face masks use mandatory in public transportation" (asahi_jp)
  • "The lockdown is extended - with no perspective. Again politics only reacts. A group of experts relies on a zero-case plan. 'No Covid' could be a way out." (zeit_de)

The most mentioned English sources were the New York Times, the Independent, CNN and Reuters.

RT (Spanish version), El País, ABC and El Diario, and Le Monde and Ouest France were among the most mentioned Spanish and French sources, respectively.

Misinformation

Over the past week, 375 articles were selected forming 8 supernarratives:

misinformation_nbr_articles20210121hub.png
© European Union, 2020, EMM/MEDISYS

The treemap shows the narratives and subnarratives associated with anti-vax articles. The colours represent the narratives, while the text indicates each subnarrative.

covid-narratives20210121hub.png
© European Union, 2020, EMM/MEDISYS

Fact Check

Fact checkers are debunking several COVID-19 vaccine misinformation narratives including:

  • claims linking the death of 23 people in Norway to the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, reporting that while it is true that 23 elderly people died after getting the vaccine, it is still being investigated whether getting the vaccine was what caused these people’s deaths (fullfact);
  • Putin’s claim that the Sputnik V vaccine “ is the best one worldwide” as no other vaccine “demonstrates such level of protection and safety”, reporting that there is no evidence substantiating Putin’s claims (polygraph);
  • conspiracy theories alleging that mRNA vaccines are designed to stimulate human cells to become creators of pathogens (factanews).

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2 FEBRUARY 2022
coronavirus_media_analysis_20210121hub.pdf
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Contact

Mail to JRC-EMM-SUPPORTatec [dot] europa [dot] eu (subject: COVID-19%20media%20surveillance) (JRC-EMM-SUPPORT[at]ec[dot]europa[dot]eu)

Related Content

Europe Media Monitor (EMM)

Medical Information System - MEDISYS

Details

Publication date
21 January 2021