Infodemic: Putin’s vaccine for Mexico, fake virus strains in India and the real victims of misinformation
Welcome. We are tracking how disinformation is shaping the world during the Covid-19 pandemic. Here are the latest narratives — both real and fake — that have grabbed our attention and deserve yours.
Mexico will be among the first countries to receive Russia’s coronavirus vaccine, if it is proven to be effective. For now, Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard has said that 2,000 doses of Sputnik V — heralded by President Vladimir Putin as the world’s first Covid-19 vaccine — are being sent there as part of phase three clinical trials. A number of African nations have also expressed interest in signing up. And here’s why it matters: As the race for immunization against the virus picks up, scientists and the World Health Organization are warning about the dangers of “vaccine nationalism.” The new Russian formula has faced accusations of being a “publicity stunt” rushed through with incomplete research and trials, in order to burnish Russia’s global image. This French-language opinion piece stated that Sputnik V is a “godsend for Russia,” a nation it goes on to describe as “greedy for influence.”
It’s been a while since we’ve heard of chloroquine, but now the Chinese government is officially recommending the use of the malaria drug in new Covid-19 treatment guidelines released on Wednesday. This is not to be confused with hydroxychloroquine, the related medication that President Donald Trump has promoted. The updated guidelines make China the first country in the world to officially endorse chloroquine as a coronavirus treatment. Speaking to the South China Morning Post, Professor David Hui Shu-cheong, a respiratory medicine expert at Chinese University of Hong Kong, said that the new guidelines are contradictory because chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine are similar, and that backing one over the other simply proves that “China does not follow Western literature.”
India is approaching three million coronavirus cases, a number that places it third in the world, behind only the US and Brazil. Now, health authorities are finding creative excuses for these figures. Officials in two states have blamed high mortality rates on nonexistent differences in Covid-19 “strains.” A health official from Odisha told a journalist earlier this month that the reason for rising numbers in a particular district was that migrant workers had brought in a “highly infectious and very virulent” variant from Gujarat. This echoed claims made by Gujarati officials in April that their state was the victim of a “virulent L-strain,” in contrast to the milder “S-strain” affecting other parts of India. The problem? According to virologists, there is only one strain of Covid-19. The designations “L-type” and “S-type” merely denote lineages by which the virus can be traced back to Wuhan, and do not indicate different levels of infectiousness.