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News article29 April 2020

COVID-19 media surveillance - 29 April 2020

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

Geolocations mentioned in coronavirus media reports showing large clusters of media reports
Geolocations mentioned in coronavirus media reports showing large clusters of media 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:

  • "'So what? I'm sorry, you want me to do what?', says Bolsonaro about record deaths by coronavirus" (folha)
  • "Trump says he 'closely' follows the 'serious outbreak' of new coronavirus in Brazil and suggests suspending flights" (globo)
  • "Ground Zero: A fifth to half of all coronavirus deaths have been in nursing homes" (justthenews)
  • "The Government banned the sale of PPE to nursing homes, according to our suppliers" (lavanguardia)
  • "Ohio’s G.O.P. Governor Splits From Trump, and Rises in Popularity" (nytimes)
  • "How Do You Reopen a State That Never Closed?" (medium)

The most mentioned English sources were the New York Times, the New York Post, Youtube, the Guardian, CNN and the Washington Post.

Infobae, Clarin, La Vanguardia, El Mundo, El Diario and RT (Spanish version) and Le Monde and Le Parisien were among the most mentioned Spanish and French sources, respectively.

Extracted quotes

Édouard Philippe (France, Prime Minister):

"The lockdown being lifted on May 11 depends on new cases dropping below 3,000 a day … If the indicators are bad, the lockdown will not be lifted on May 11".

Fact check

Fact checked: prevention and treatment

  • Indian fact checkers debunk a yoga guru’s claims that mustard oil helps to fight COVID-19 (thequint).
  • Fact checkers debunk claims that consuming foods high in alkaline changes the body’s pH level and helps to fight COVID-19 (afp).
  • Fact checkers debunk claims that US President Donald Trump announced that American scientists have found a COVID-19 vaccine (afp).

Fact checked: anti-China narratives

  • Indian fact checkers debunk claims that China is shipping clothes of COVID-19 patients to Africa (indiatoday).

Fact checked: anti-vax narratives

  • Fact checkers from all over the world debunk claims that Dr Elisa Granato, one of the UK's first COVID-19 vaccine trial participants, has died shortly after being injected with the vaccine (afp, asianetnews).

Fact checked: conspiracy theories

  • Fact checkers from all over the world debunk claims that Nobel Prize-winning scientist Tasuku Honjo said the coronavirus is not natural and originated in a Wuhan lab (afp, altnews, boomlive, faktograf, lemonde). Google Trends data show that searches for Nobel Prize-winning scientist Tasuku Honjo and “coronavirus” have spiked over the last week. This could indicate that the debunked story claiming that the Japanese immunologist said the coronavirus originated in a Wuhan lab has been driving searches.
The graph shows worldwide Google searches for “Tasuku Honjo” and “coronavirus” from 20 to 28 April (source: Google Trends)
The graph shows worldwide Google searches for “Tasuku Honjo” and “coronavirus” from 20 to 28 April (source: Google Trends)

Among EU Member States, Spain seems to be the country with the highest number of searches on the topic on 28 April. Spanish fact checkers have already debunked the story (newtral).

The map shows the popularity of the search in a given country on 28 April. The darker the colour, the more popular the search (source: Google Trends).
The map shows the popularity of the search in a given country on 28 April. The darker the colour, the more popular the search (source: Google Trends).

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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)

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Europe Media Monitor (EMM)

Medical Information System - MEDISYS

Details

Publication date
29 April 2020