COVID-19 media surveillance - 6 May 2020

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

USA: more than 1.2 million cases and 71,000 deaths have been recorded; President Trump stated that the coronavirus task force will wind down
UK has the worst coronavirus death toll in Europe with 29,427 confirmed deaths; top UK government scientist resigns after violating his own lockdown guidelines
Spain: fewer than 200 deaths were reported for the third straight day; Madrid City Hall planning on pedestrianizing streets on weekends to avoid crowds from forming
Italy maintains a declining trend in active cases post-lockdown
France reported more than 300 additional deaths bringing the total death toll to 25,531
Germany: museums and shops open as lockdown eased
Belgium reached 50,509 confirmed cases
Luxembourg: 12 new cases reported on Tuesday
Russia reports more than 10,000 new cases for third day in a row
India: cases in India near 50,000 with nearly 3,000 new cases for second day
Indonesia reports highest single-day rise in cases with 484 new cases
Brazil: 115,953 cases and 7,958 deaths with the highest mortality in cities in the North and North-East
Singapore: number of cases crosses 20,000 in Singapore with 788 new infections
South Korea reports no new local virus cases for third day while social distancing is eased; additional measures are taken at Incheon airport as six arrivals from Kuwait tested positive
Japan: cases falling or holding steady in Tokyo and Osaka
Economy: the European Commission predicts that the EU economy will contract 7.5% this year in worst economic shock since 1930s

Twitter

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

"UK has highest number of deaths in Europe after passing Italy's total" (sky)
"Scientists say a now-dominant strain of the coronavirus could be more contagious than original" (latimes, abc)
"Kushner coronavirus effort said to be hampered by inexperienced volunteers" (washingtonpost)
"White House considering phasing out of White House coronavirus task force" (justthenews)

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

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

Extracted Quotes

Valdis Dombrovskis (European Commission, Commissioner for the economy):

"At this stage, we can only tentatively map out the scale and gravity of the coronavirus shock to our economies. While the immediate fallout will be far more severe for the global economy than the financial crisis, the depth of the impact will depend on the evolution of the pandemic, our ability to safely restart economic activity and to rebound thereafter. This is a symmetric shock: all EU countries are affected and all are expected to have a recession this year."

Fact Check

Fact checked: spread of the virus, prevention and treatment

Italian fact checkers contextualise claims that convalescent plasma therapy, a technique in which antibodies from recovered coronavirus patients are given to seriously ill patients in order to boost their immune response, cures COVID-19 by pointing out that while the treatment shows promise, more research is needed (facta).
Fact checkers debunk claims that according to the WHO, vegetarians are not at risk of contracting COVID-19 (thelogicalindian).
Fact checkers debunk claims that semen, when ingested or used as hand sanitiser, can kill and prevent COVID-19 (verafiles).
Fact checkers debunk claims that the University of Oxford has developed a COVID-19 vaccine (boomlive).

Fact checked: downplaying the coronavirus crisis

Fact checkers label American journalist Tucker Carlson’s claim that “the [corona]virus just isn’t nearly as deadly as we thought it was” as misleading, arguing that it is misleading to compare the early reported case fatality rates, which reflect deaths among confirmed COVID-19 patients, with more recent infection fatality rates that estimate the death rate for all infected people (politifact).

Fact checked: conspiracy theories

Fact checkers debunk claims that 5G technology is the cause of COVID-19 (colombiacheck).
Fact checkers debunk a viral social media post claiming that the existence of a canine coronavirus vaccine demonstrates that a human vaccine for COVID-19 should already exist, explaining that the misunderstanding probably stems from the word "coronavirus" and how it pertains to a family of viruses (snopes).
Fact checkers debunk claims that Nobel Prize-winning scientist Tasuku Honjo said SARS-CoV-2 is not natural and originated in a Wuhan lab (afp, faktisk).

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EMM COVID-19 Media surveillance - 6 May 2020

Contact

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

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Publication date: 6 May 2020