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News article8 April 20203 min read

COVID-19 media surveillance - 8 April 2020

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

Geolocations mentioned in coronavirus media coverage showing large clusters of news reports in on Italy, France, Spain, Germany, the UK, Russia, China, South Korea and Japan.
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:

  • New White house press secretary said a month ago that the coronavirus would never spread to the U.S. (slate)
  • Trump removes independent watchdog for coronavirus funds, upending oversight panel (politico)
  • Navarro memos warning of mass coronavirus death circulated in January (axios)

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

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

Extracted Quotes

Donald Trump (USA, President):

"The W.H.O. really blew it. For some reason, funded largely by the United States, yet very China centric. We will be giving that a good look. Fortunately I rejected their advice on keeping our borders open to China early on. Why did they give us such a faulty recommendation?"

Jason Kenney (Canada, Premier of Alberta province):

"It reminds me of what happened in 1939 and 1940 when Canada was part of the fight against global fascism — the United States sat out the first two or three years and actually initially refused to even provide supplies to Canada and the United Kingdom that was leading the fight at the time."

Fact Check

Fact checked: coronavirus is not dangerous

  • Fact checkers report that in the video showing medical personnel adjusting a ventilator on a mannequin, there is nothing to suggest that it is supposed to show an actual COVID-19 patient on a ventilator (reuters, leadstories).
  • A video filmed by a German blogger claiming to show the empty corridors and rooms of Charité University Hospital’s COVID-19 unit is debunked and said to show a different structure (correctiv).

Fact checked: treatment

  • There is no definitive evidence that chloroquine cures COVID-19 (bbc).
  • Though an initial lab study in Australia has suggested anti-parasitic drug Ivermectin could show promise as a treatment against COVID-19, it is important to point out that the results are from an in vitro study and there are no in vivo data yet (open).

Fact checked: conspiracy theories

  • Experts dismiss claims that 5G wireless technology created the novel coronavirus (afp) or aids the spread of the disease by suppressing the immune system (theguardian).

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2 FEBRUARY 2022
EMM COVID-19 media surveillance - 8 April 2020

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
8 April 2020