Infodemic: Pangolin drama in China; sex, baths and Covid-19 in Ukraine
Welcome back to Coda’s Infodemic. In this newsletter we are tracking how global disinformation shapes the world emerging from the Covid-19 lockdown.
Today, from drama about pangolins in China to coronavirus-related arrests in Bangladesh, and the power of state-controlled media companies around the world, here are a few narratives — both real and fake — that deserve your attention.
The Constitutional Court of Romania has ruled to strike down government quarantine and isolation measures, saying that they are “a true deprivation of freedom and a restriction of fundamental rights.” Prime Minister Ludovic Orban (no relation to his Hungarian namesake) has called on residents to ignore the ruling. Meanwhile, the country’s health minister says that he expects the number of new infections to increase because of it. Romania, along with central and southeast Europe, is already seeing a new surge of cases. The court’s decision seems, at least in part, to be a response to the controversy over remarkably large fines imposed under an emergency decree.
Covid-19 has become a stick that rival Middle East powers are using to beat each other with. Over the weekend, the Qatari-owned New Arab website reported that fresh coronavirus spikes are emerging in Saudi Arabia and the UAE – both part of the quartet of nations that has imposed a diplomatic and economic blockade on Doha since 2017. However, as media in rival Gulf countries have been happy to point out throughout the crisis, Qatar currently has the world’s highest per capita infection rate and very little to crow about.