Infodemic: Fake cures from elephant dung to salt to industrial bleach; fraudulent mask exemptions in Spain
Welcome. We are tracking how disinformation is shaping the world during the Covid-19 pandemic. Today, Coda’s Gautama Mehta will take you from Spain to Namibia and Argentina, for the latest narratives — both real and fake — that have grabbed our attention and deserve yours.
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As schools reopen, fake news stories are stoking fears that pupils will be quarantined and separated from their families. In August, multiple versions of a Facebook post appeared in the UK, the U.S, and Canada, detailing an imaginary dialogue between a concerned parent and a teacher refusing to disclose the location of a quarantined child. The post referenced legislation believed to be the UK’s Coronavirus Act 2020, which does not give school officials any such power. This week, an Urdu-language video featuring these claims gained so much traction in the British city of Bradford, where Pakistanis make up a large portion of the population, that local officials released a YouTube announcement to deny them.
A Spanish doctor is under investigation for issuing false certificates exempting people from the requirement to wear protective masks. Reporters found that, for €40, they could simply walk into a clinic in the city of Coslada, near Madrid, and receive documentation stating that they had a respiratory condition that prevented the use of a mask. No medical examination took place. Similar fake certificates have been cropping up in the U.S. for months. In July, reports emerged that the so-called Freedom to Breathe Agency was selling fraudulent cards, featuring the Justice Department’s official seal, which read: “Wearing a face mask posses (sic) a mental and/or physical risk to me. Under the Americans with Disability Act (ADA), I am not required to disclose my condition to you.”
Fake Covid-19 cures continue to abound. In Namibia, claims that elephant dung can cure the virus have spread via social media, generating an online market in which it is sold for “exorbitant prices,” a government spokesman told The Namibian newspaper. In Iran, a popular preacher and practitioner of traditional Islamic medicine went on TV to state that “eating salt frequently protects from corona infection better than wearing a mask.” However, a much more dangerous pseudoscientific treatment is sweeping South America. Read on for more.