COVID-19 media surveillance - 4 June 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

• USA: more than 1.8 million coronavirus cases have been reported with recent increases seen in states such as Arizona, Florida and Mississippi; tear gas used on protesters harms the respiratory system and can add to coronavirus spread; autopsy shows George Floyd tested positive for coronavirus
• Brazil reports a new record of 1,349 daily deaths
• UK: plans to force almost all arrivals to the UK to isolate for 14 days have been confirmed by the home secretary
• Spain: Premier Minister Pedro Sánchez won the vote to keep the state of alarm in place until 21 June
• Italy reopened to tourists easing lockdown restrictions
• France records 81 new deaths as number of ICU cases continues to drop
• Germany: number of new cases and infection rate decline further
• Belgium to reopen businesses on June 8 and borders on June 15
• Luxembourg reported four new confirmed cases with 53 active infections
• Russia surpassed 440,000 cases; St Petersburg death tally casts doubt on Russian coronavirus figures
• Mexico issues highest daily death tally with more than 1,000 deaths
• India reported record spike with 9,304 new cases and 216,919 cases in total
• Pakistan surpasses China in COVID-19 cases with 85,246 cases
• South Korea's weather agency issued this year's first heat wave advisory for the country's southern region raising concerns over wearing face masks amid the warmer weather
• Japan: Tokyo governor Yuriko Koike says 'simplified' Olympic Games may be necessary to avoid cancellation; Tokyo confirms 28 new cases on second day after warning
• China: Hubei province reports no new confirmed cases

Twitter

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

• "[Spanish] National Statistics Institute increases the number of deaths in the pandemic to 48,000 with data from all records" (elconfidencial)
• "A mysterious company’s coronavirus papers in top medical journals may be unraveling" (sciencemag)
• "Cited as an example by Bolsonaro, Sweden admits it should have taken tougher isolation measures against Covid-19" (globo)
• "Coronavirus: With 1,349 deaths in 24 hours, Brazil reports a record" (veja)
• "Corrosive effects of tear gas could intensify coronavirus pandemic" (nytimes)
• "‘Major spike’: 200 employees at Kansas City firm have COVID-19, health officials say" (kansascity)
• "Keir Starmer warns PM: get a grip or risk second coronavirus wave. Labour leader accuses Boris Johnson of ‘winging it’ in stinging attack" (theguardian)
• "Boris Johnson declares himself 'very proud' of coronavirus response" (theguardian)

The most mentioned English sources were the Guardian, the New York Times, the Independent and Science.

El Confidencial, Publico, El Periodico, Clarin and El Diario, and Le Monde and Le Parisien were among the most mentioned Spanish and French sources, respectively.

Extracted Quotes

Sven-Eric Jordt (USA, Professor of anesthesiology at Duke University):

"I’m very concerned in the current situation around COVID-19 that people who are exposed to tear gas may be more at risk of getting infected and developing serious complications".

Yuriko Koike (Japan, Governor of Tokyo):

"Holding the Olympic and Paralympic Games calls for sympathy and understanding of Tokyoites and the Japanese people"; "For that, we need to rationalize what needs to be rationalized and simplify what needs to be simplified.

Fact Check

Fact checked: claims about/by public authorities

• Fact checkers debunk claims that “a leaked confidential report from Germany’s Ministry of the Interior proves that lockdown policies were excessive”, reporting that the document in question is not from the Interior Ministry, but was drafted by a Ministry employee and reflects his personal views (ellinikahoaxes).
• Fact checkers examine Donald Trump’s claims against WHO, reporting that the US President falsely accused WHO of ignoring research articles when the articles did not exist, he ignored actions WHO took to alert the global public health community and he assumed that WHO knew that China was censoring reports of the spread of the disease when there is no evidence to support that WHO knew of a cover-up (politifact).

Fact checked: health-related claims

• Fact checkers debunk a video in which alleged doctors claim that asymptomatic carriers cannot spread the virus and that the prolonged use of face masks causes hypoxia (maldita).
• Fact checkers debunk claims that the prolonged use of masks causes cancer and death (open).

Fact checked: conspiracy theories

• Fact checkers debunk claims that the pandemic is part of a plan by the world’s elites to “chip us through forced vaccination and kill us with the push of a button” (faktograf).

• Fact checkers debunk claims that COVID-19 is caused by a bacterium that causes thrombosis and is exacerbated by 5G networks (voxukraine).

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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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