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News article9 July 2020

COVID-19 media surveillance - 9 July 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:

  • "Sweden has become the world’s cautionary tale. Its decision to carry on in the face of the pandemic has yielded a surge of deaths without sparing its economy from damage – a red flag as the United States and Britain move to lift lockdowns." (nytimes)
  • "Welcome to Johnson’s alternative reality – where care home workers get the blame" (theguardian)
  • "Brazil’s Bolsonaro tests positive for coronavirus" (washingtonpost)
  • "Scientists warn of potential wave of COVID-linked brain damage" (reuters)
  • "Trump administration sends letter withdrawing U.S. from World Health Organization over coronavirus response" (washingtonpost)
  • "Health official: Trump rally ‘likely’ source of virus surge" (apnews)
  • "Tom Hanks baffled by people who don’t take COVID-19 seriously: ‘It’s killing people’" (la times)

The hashtag #bolsonaro trended after the Brazilian president tested positive (theguardian).

Due to the ongoing debate on lockdown measures in Serbia, the hashtag #serbia appeared more frequently in Covid-19 related tweets (euronews).

The hashtag #airborne trended as the WHO acknowledged that there is emerging evidence that the coronavirus can be spread by tiny particles suspended in the air (bbc).

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

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

Extracted Quotes

Joe Biden (USA, Presidential Candidate):
"Americans are safer when America is engaged in strengthening global health"; "On my first day as President, I will rejoin the WHO and restore our leadership on the world stage."

Fact Check

Fact checked: claims by public figures

  • Fact checkers debunk US President Donald Trump’s claim that "99%" of coronavirus cases "are totally harmless", reporting that based on identified cases, the US CDC shows a cumulative case death rate of 4.5% (factcheck.org, politifact).
  • Fact checkers debunk Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s claim that pandemics occur once every century (verafiles).

Fact checked: health-related claims

Fact checkers debunk an array of false prevention methods and cures, such as:

  • The consumption of foods with a pH level above that of coronavirus could prevent an infection and cure COVID-19 (thelogicalindian);
  • Steam inhalation kills SARS-CoV-2 (boomlive);
  • Sunlight kills SARS-CoV-2 and it is, therefore, a bad idea to wear sunblock during the pandemic (nationalacademies).

Fact checked: downplaying COVID-19

  • Fact checkers debunk claims that hospital laboratories falsify COVID-19 tests to inflate numbers, reporting that there is no evidence of this and that while false positives do occur, experts agree that they are a rare event (healthfeedback).
  • Similarly, fact checkers debunk claims that nurses submitting coronavirus tests say they all are coming back positive, reporting that data currently shows more than 90% of coronavirus tests come back negative (politifact).

Fact checked: conspiracy theories

Fact checkers debunk claims that Nobel laureate Denis Mukwege resigned from the coronavirus task force in the Democratic Republic of the Congo because he was offered money to falsify COVID-19 cases, reporting that the renowned gynecologist blamed organisational problems, outpaced strategy and slow testing for his resignation from the task force (snopes).

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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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Details

Publication date
9 July 2020