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  • News article
  • 24 December 2020
  • 3 min read

COVID-19 media surveillance - 24 December 2020

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.
© European Union, 2020, EMM/MEDISYS

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:

  • "Mutant coronavirus in the United Kingdom sets off alarms, but its importance remains unclear" (science, also: nytimes, bbc)
  • "Preliminary genomic characterisation of an emergent SARS-CoV-2 lineage in the UK defined by a novel set of spike mutations" (virology)
  • "Biden team's multibillion-dollar school testing plan takes shape. The proposal under consideration calls for the federal government to cover the cost of providing tests to K-12 schools throughout the country." (politico)
  • "No ‘negative’ news: how China censored the coronavirus. Thousands of internal directives and reports reveal how Chinese officials stage-managed what appeared online in the early days of the outbreak." (nytimes)
  • "L.A. County outlines wrenching moves to ration healthcare if COVID-19 hospital crisis worsens" (latimes)
  • "Mexico misled citizens about the severity of coronavirus in its capital. The federal government had data that should have prompted an immediate lockdown in early December. Instead, it kept the city open for another two weeks." (nytimes)

The most mentioned English sources were the New York Times, Fox News, Breitbart and Reuters.

El País, RT (Spanish Version) and Infobae, and Le Monde and Le Parisien were among the most mentioned Spanish and French sources, respectively.

Fact Check

  • Fact checkers debunk claims that coronavirus tests are unreliable given that Coca-Cola tests positive for coronavirus. Fact checkers report that antigen tests are designed to analyse human fluids and should not be used to analyse other substances with different acidity or alkalinity (efe).
  • Fact checkers address a selectively edited news clip that has been widely shared in anti-vax social media pages to suggest the COVID-19 vaccine is unsafe. The clip shows a nurse fainting after she gets the vaccine, but - fact checkers note - it does not show her quick recovery afterward when she explains that she is prone to fainting when triggered by the slightest pain (factcheck.org).
  • Fact checkers address an image circulating on Facebook and Twitter claiming to show three of four clinical trial volunteers who have developed Bell's palsy after receiving doses of the Pfizer vaccine. Fact checkers report that while a US FDA document states that four participants developed Bell's palsy during the trials, investigators found "no clear basis upon which to conclude a causal relationship" between the vaccine and the condition (afpfactcheck).
  • Fact checkers debunk a video in which a man, who identifies himself as Muslim, tries to dissuade people from taking the Pfizer vaccine because it is “not halal”, reporting that, according to experts, the vaccine does not have any nonhalal ingredients in it (newsweek).
  • Fact checkers debunk claims that COVID-19 vaccines contain “toxic” ingredients that make them more dangerous than COVID-19 itself, reporting that while the vaccines may cause mild or moderate short-term reactions, these resolve without complication (politifact).
  • Fact checkers debunk claims that cold-storage COVID-19 vaccines are aimed at genetic manipulation (aap).

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  • 2 FEBRUARY 2022
coronavirus_media_analysis_20201224hub.pdf

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
24 December 2020