COVID-19 misinformation by governments

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Argentina

Argentinian president Alberto Fernández

Argentinian president Alberto Fernández and health minister Ginés García have been accused of spreading misinformation related to COVID-19 multiple times.

In a radio interview Fernández recommended drinking warm drinks since "heat kills the virus". Scientific studies proved that this information is false. Fernández, in response to criticism, later said: "It's a virus that, according to all medical reports in the world, dies at 26ºC. Argentina was in a climatic scenario where temperature was around 30ºC so it would be hard for the virus to survive." He later added: "The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends us to drink warm drinks since heat kills the virus"; however, the WHO did not recommend that at all.[1]

On June, in a press conference, Buenos Aires Province governor Axel Kicillof falsely stated that Spain was in an extremely strict lockdown at that time. A few hours later, the Spanish embassy in Argentina denied it.[2]

Brazil

Brazilian president
Jair Bolsonaro

Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro openly attempted to force state and municipal governments to revoke social isolation measures they had begun by launching an anti lockdown campaign called "o Brasil não pode parar" (Brazil can't stop). It received massive backlash both from the media and from the public, and was blocked by the supreme court justice.[3][4]

Some analysts have noted that Bolsonaro's positions mimic those of US president Donald Trump, who also tried to downplay the pandemic and then pressured states to abandon social distancing.[5]

China

Mishandling of crisis

Chinese Communist Party general secretary Xi Jinping (left) and State Council Premier Li Keqiang

In the early stages of the outbreak, the Chinese National Health Commission said it had no "clear evidence" of human-to-human transmissions.[6] On 20 January 2020, it announced that human-to-human transmission of the coronavirus had already occurred.[7] Research published on 29 January 2020 indicated that, among officially confirmed cases, human-to-human transmission may have started in December 2019, and the delay of disclosure on the results until then, rather than earlier in January, brought criticism of health authorities.[6] Wang Guangfa, one of the health officials, said that "There was uncertainty regarding the human-to-human transmission";[8] he was infected by a patient within 10 days of making the statement.[8][9]

On 26 January 2020, the editor of the People's Daily, the official newspaper of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, tweeted a claim that the first building of the Huoshenshan Hospital had been completed in only 16 hours. The Daily Beast reported the next day that the building shown in the picture accompanying the tweet was actually a marketing photo of a modular container building sold by the Henan K-Home Steel Structure Company, and not of the actual hospital. A Human Rights Watch researcher claimed that the post was part of the Chinese government's misinformation campaign to hype the government's response.[10] The tweet was later removed and replaced with a video of the modular container buildings being assembled at Huoshenshan Hospital, again stating that the first building had been completed in only 16 hours.[11]

On 15 February 2020, China's paramount leader and General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party Xi Jinping published an article which claimed he had learned of the epidemic on 7 January 2020 and had the same day issued a request for information on activities to contain the spread of the disease. However, the original public announcement of that 7 January 2020 meeting did not mention the epidemic, and Xi's claim was unsupported by the evidence.[12][13]

Disinformation campaign

Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Geng Shuang promoted claims that the US had engineered a bioweapon.

There is evidence that the Chinese government has made a vigorous effort to play down its early failures in the crisis and to mitigate the damage it has wrought to its image, by claiming the virus originated outside of China. Chinese State Media has misconstrued research from academics such as Alexander Kekulé, the director of the Institute for Biosecurity Research in Halle, suggesting it was Italy, not China, where the virus began. Chinese state media also misrepresented statements from Michael Ryan, the World Health Organization's emergency director, insinuating that the virus may have originated outside of China.[14] CNN, Quartz, The Washington Post, Financial Times, and others have reported that Chinese government officials, in response to the outbreak, launched a coordinated disinformation campaign seeking to spread doubt about the origin of the coronavirus and its outbreak.[15][16][17][18][19] A review of Chinese state media and social media posts in early March 2020, conducted by The Washington Post, found that anti-American conspiracy theories circulating among Chinese users "gained steam through a mix of unexplained official statements magnified by social media, censorship and doubts stoked by state media and government officials".[20] United States Department of State officials,[21] as well as sinologist Dali Yang, have said the campaign was intended to deflect attention away from the Chinese government's mishandling of the crisis.[20]

At a press conference on 12 March 2020, two spokesmen for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Zhao Lijian and Geng Shuang) promoted the conspiracy theory that the coronavirus had been "bio-engineered" by Western powers and suggested that the US government, specifically the US Army, had spread the virus.[22][23][16] No evidence supports these claims.[16][24] Zhao also pushed these conspiracy theories on Twitter, which is blocked in mainland China but is used as a public diplomacy tool by Chinese officials to promote the Chinese government and defend it from criticism.[16] China's ambassador to South Africa also made these claims on Twitter.[15][25] Some Chinese state media had propagated the speculation that the virus may have spread in Italy before the Wuhan outbreak, after Italian doctor Giuseppe Remuzzi mentioned reports of strange pneumonia cases in November and December. He later said his words were "twisted".[17][26]

An "intentional disinformation campaign" by China was discussed among the Group of Seven (G7),[27] and the Chinese efforts were condemned by the US Department of State,[15] which criticized Chinese authorities for spreading "dangerous and ridiculous" conspiracy claims.[21] The US summoned China's ambassador to the United States, Cui Tiankai, to issue a "stern message" over the Chinese government's claims;[21] Cui had disavowed the US military conspiracy theory as "crazy" in a February interview and affirmed his belief in another one in mid-March.[28]

The Observer reported in April 2020 that China has clamped down on the publication of research on the origin of the virus, requiring that all academic papers containing information on COVID-19 be vetted by China's ministry of science and technology before they can be published.[29] CNN, for example, published a report about the imposition of new restrictions and central government vetting, quoting an anonymous Chinese researcher's belief that the crackdown "is a coordinated effort from [the] Chinese government to control [the] narrative, and paint it as if the outbreak did not originate in China."[30]

In May 2020, Twitter placed fact-check labels on two of the Chinese government tweets which had falsely suggested that the virus originated in the US and was brought to China by the Americans.[31] In February 2020, the People's Daily published an article stating that the virus "did not necessarily originate in China."[32] In May 2020, the same newspaper stated that the virus had "multiple origins."[33] In November 2020, the People's Daily published the false claim that COVID-19 was "imported" into China.[18][34][35]

An investigation by ProPublica and The New York Times found that the Cyberspace Administration of China placed censorship restrictions on Chinese media outlets and social media to avoid mentions of the COVID-19 outbreak, mentions of Li Wenliang, and "activated legions of fake online commenters to flood social sites with distracting chatter".[36]

Kazakh virus

In July 2020, misinformation about a deadlier virus appearing alongside COVID-19 in Kazakhstan was traced to the Economic and Commercial Office of the Chinese Embassy in Kazakhstan. The misinformation was picked up by Xinhua and from there spread to other Chinese outlets and internationally.[37]

Cuba

Cuban president Miguel Díaz Canel claimed on Twitter that Cuban Interferon alfa-2b was being used to treat and cure COVID-19 in China, linking to an article written by state-owned newspaper Granma.[a] The Chinese embassy in Cuba also made similar claims. Several Latin American news outlets[38][39] relayed the story, which was also relayed on social media, and the claims were eventually translated to Portuguese and French.[40] In reality, the interferon was made by a Chinese company, in China, using Cuban technology, and it was under clinical trials in China as a potential cure, but it was not actively being used as such, as the claims suggested.[40]

Egypt

Twitter suspended thousands of accounts linked to El Fagr, an Egypt-based media group "taking direction from the Egyptian government" to "amplify messaging critical of Iran, Qatar and Turkey."[41][42]

Estonia

On 27 February 2020, the Estonian Minister of the Interior Mart Helme said at a government press conference that the common cold had been renamed as the coronavirus and that in his youth nothing like that existed. He recommended wearing warm socks and mustard patches as well as spreading goose fat on one's chest as treatments for the virus. Helme also said the virus would pass within a few days to a week, just like the common cold.[43]

France

In mid-April, the Chinese embassy published an article entitled "Restoring distorted facts – Observations of a Chinese diplomat posted to Paris", in which it criticised western countries' slow response and accused workers at nursing homes in France of "abandoning their posts overnight ... and leaving their residents to die of hunger and disease". Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian summoned the Chinese ambassador, and said that the remarks were not in line with the "quality of the bilateral relationship" between France and China.[44]

Iran

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei suggested the US government was responsible for the spread of coronavirus.

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said the US created "a special version" of the virus that is "specifically built for Iran using the genetic data of Iranians which they have obtained through different means".[45][46]

Bahrain accused Iran of "biological aggression that is criminalised by international law" by lying about the extent of the outbreak in Iran.[47]

Mexico

In late March 2020 Mexico's federal government was strongly criticised for responding slowly to the COVID-19 pandemic.[48] President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has continued to hold rallies, be tactile with crowds, and downplay the threat of the pandemic to Mexicans' health and to the Mexican economy.[49][50]

Russia

The European Union watchdog group EUvsDisinfo reported that Russia was pushing what they believe was false information related to the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic through "pro-Kremlin outlets".[51] On 18 March, Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov denounced the findings.[52] Mark Galeotti, a RUSI Senior Associate Fellow, questioned these claims and wrote that "it seems strange that the Kremlin itself would launch and push a disinformation campaign at the very time it is clearly launching a soft-power charm offensive on the back of the pandemic."[53]

A social media joke suggesting lions had been freed to keep people off the streets in Moscow was passed around as if it were true.[54][55]

Serbia

As the number of infections rose throughout Europe, on 26 February 2020 president Aleksandar Vučić called a press conference where he addressed the possibility of the virus impacting Serbia. This news conference made headlines after a pulmonologist, Dr. Branimir Nestorović, made joking statements about the virus, calling it "the most laughable virus in the history of mankind" and suggested that women should travel to then virus-affected Italy for shopping because "estrogen protects them". The president, who was visible in the background expressing amusement and chuckling at this during the TV broadcast, later denied any accusations of portraying the virus as such by Dr. Nestorović.[56]

In April 2020, a decree that limited access to public information about COVID-19 was announced and a journalist was arrested for writing an article on alleged shortages of medical equipment and neglect of medical staff, but after public outcry and reactions from the EU, RSF, and IPI, charges were dropped and the journalist released.[57][58][59] The declared goal of the decree was to limit the spread of fake news about SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19 in Serbia. On 21 April 2020, Dr. Predrag Kon, a guest on the Ćirilica TV show on Happy TV, confirmed the lack of medical supplies.[60][61]

On 22 June, the BIRN (Balkan Investigative Reporting Network) released an official document from the government's COVID-19 database stating that from 19 March to 1 June, there were 632 COVID-19-related deaths, compared to 244–388 more than officially reported. The database also showed there to have been more new daily cases, between 300 and 340 compared to the official 97. Throughout the pandemic, many government critics and opposition leaders have accused the government of purposely downscaling the numbers so the vote turnout would surpass the 50% percent for the parliamentary elections.[62] The report's release inspired Marinika Tepić, a Serbian MP and a member of the Party of Freedom and Justice, to file a lawsuit against the members of the Crisis Staff, Serbian PM Ana Brnabić and Minister of Health Zlatibor Lončar, for allowing mass gatherings to be held, football matches to be held with crowds, and ignoring risks to public health to give the impression that the pandemic was over and that it was safe to vote.[63][64]

During an interview on RTS 1, Vučić showed pictures of hospital beds, oxygen canisters and ventilators,[65] accusing political opponents of spreading fake news to the effect that hospitals in Novi Pazar and Tutin did not have the medical equipment they needed. On 5 July, a syndicate of pharmacists and doctors accused the president of spreading untrue statements regarding the equipment and of taking credit for combating the pandemic, denying facts from Raška oblast, and presenting a false impression of the state of the Serbian healthcare system. They state that the photographs were taken on 6 April when Vučić personally had the ventilators delivered to the region. None of those photographs show ventilators in use, or the 10 ventilators claimed.[66]

On 7 July, epidemiologist Zoran Radovanović stated that on 2 July alone there had been 52 COVID-19 deaths, conflicting with the official numbers presented to the public by the government.[67] The following day, he repeated his claims that there were more infected people than officially reported.[68]

Sweden

Officials from Sweden misrepresented data from a 7 July 2020 report comparing Sweden to Finland to claim that the "closing of schools had no measurable effect on the number of cases of COVID-19 among children," neglecting that testing among Swedish children is almost non-existent when compared to Finnish children.[69] However, the Public Health Agency and the Minister of Education still cited this report as justification for not closing schools.[69]

In April 2020, scientists and physicians criticized the Swedish government for the 105 deaths per day in the country at the time, but the Public Health Agency and Anders Tegnell (the Public Health Agency epidemiologist in charge of the country's pandemic response) wrongly claimed that the actual number was 60 deaths per day in response.[69] The revised government figures later showed that the critics were right.[69]

Turkmenistan

Reporters Without Borders reported that the government of Turkmenistan had banned the word "coronavirus" and that people could be arrested for wearing masks or discussing the pandemic.[70][71] The organization later corrected their report, clarifying that the word itself was not banned, but maintaining it had been removed from informational brochures and the government was restricting information about the virus and providing "very one-sided information".[72] According to Chronicles of Turkmenistan, state media did not begin reporting on the measures that had been taken until 25 March.[73] The BBC quoted an anonymous Turkmen citizen who said citizens may get into trouble for suggesting that COVID-19 had spread to Turkmenistan. The BBC article also states that the Turkmen government is working to control a possible outbreak.[74]

United Arab Emirates

According to BuzzFeed News, "Twitter took down a pro–United Arab Emirates network of accounts that was pushing propaganda about the coronavirus".[75]

United States

Further information: Misinformation related to the COVID-19 pandemic by the United States

Venezuela

In a 27 February 2020 announcement, Nicolás Maduro warned that the COVID-19 disease might be a "biological weapon" created against China and the rest of the world.[76][77]

Through social media, Maduro has supported the use of herbal infusions to cure COVID-19. On March, Twitter deleted a tweet by Maduro that quoted the works of Sergio Quintero, a Venezuelan doctor that claims having found a natural antidote against the sickness, as well as argued that the virus was created by the United States as a biological weapon. The Venezuelan Institute for Scientific Research (IVIC) rejected his publication, and both Agence France-Presse and other fact checking sites have described Quintero's publications as false and misleading.[78][79][80]

Maduro's administration has authorized the use of chloroquine, a medication to treat malaria that can cause heart problems if not used properly,[81] and interferon alfa-2b,[81] an antiviral used on a small scale in China that has been promoted by Cuba's government, labeled sometimes even as a "vaccine".[82] Chloroquine and interferon alfa-2b's efficacy against COVID-19 has not been demonstrated by international organizations.[81]

On 24 March, Maduro accused Colombia of promoting the "intentional infection" of Venezuelan migrants that returned to their country, saying they were "biological weapon" and threatening them with quarantine. Local authorities have repeated the accusations since.[83]

Notes

  1. ^ Granma is owned by the ruling political party in Cuba, the Communist Party of Cuba.

References

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