North Korea’s Covid-19 panic, China mocks India’s coronavirus crisis and a vaccine scandal in the Czech Republic
Welcome to the Infodemic and, if you just joined us, thank you for signing up! We are tracking how disinformation surrounding the coronavirus crisis is reshaping our world. Here are the narratives, both real and fake, that have grabbed our team’s attention this week and deserve yours.
In Brazil, a Senate probe into President Jair Bolsonaro’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic is heating up. On Tuesday, the country’s former health minister told investigators that the president ignored his warnings that tens of thousands of Brazilians could die and that the health system could collapse if the government refused to enforce Covid-19 restrictions. That didn’t stop thousands of Bolsonaro supporters flocking to cities across the country amid a surge in Covid-19 cases. The virus is wreaking havoc outside of Brazil, too. Argentina’s health system is on the brink of collapse, deaths in Venezuela have shot up 86% since January, while cases are soaring in Uruguay, Colombia and beyond. Scientists are forecasting a grim picture for the next few weeks in Latin America. Home to only 8% of the world’s population, last week the region accounted for 35% of global Covid-19 deaths.
Covid-19 paranoia has reached new levels in North Korea. There are already shoot-to-kill orders along the hermit country’s border and, last week, the government ordered citizens to stay inside, fearing that a dust storm would blow in the virus from China. The state-backed newspaper Roding Sinmun has now warned citizens to be extra-vigilant against propaganda leaflets floating over the border from the south. “We must consider them a possible route of transmission of the malicious virus,” it said. Covax is being painfully slow at delivering vaccines to North Korea, with no proper timeline on when the country’s delayed 1.7m AstraZeneca doses might arrive. It could be anytime between July and December, the vaccine giant Gavi told North Korea News.
Like India, Iran is battling its worst wave of infections. This week, officials unveiled a new “anti-corona spray,” used to “convert ordinary masks into masks that can kill coronavirus” according to the Tehran Times. The spray was launched in a special ceremony at a Tehran hospital, but already Iranians online are nicknaming it the “Mosta’an” spray, in memory of the widely ridiculed quack “Covid scanners” Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps publicized last year.