From media misreporting on Home Minister Amit Shah’s claims on using facial recognition to identify ‘rioters’, to the fake news around the novel coronavirus, here’s a quick round-up of all the WhatsApp forwards and fake tweets that misled the public this week.
1. Shah Did Not Specifically Say Govt Used Aadhaar Data to Identify Delhi Rioters
Multiple media outlets including Livemint, India Today and News18, reported on Wednesday, 11 March, that Home Minister Amit Shah had revealed that the government relied on facial recognition software to identify people who were involved in the communal violence that broke out in Delhi between 24-25 February.
The media organisations went on to claim that the Home Minister had admitted the use of data from Aadhaar to identify these people.
However, nowhere during his speech did Shah mention that the government used the Aadhaar data to identify the rioters. Instead, he said the data was taken from ‘voter ID, driving license and all other government data’.
“We have fed voter ID data into it, we have fed driving licence and all other government data into it. More than 1,100 people have already been identified through this software,” Shah had said.
You can read the full story here.
2. FIT-WebQoof: Has Israel Discovered a Vaccine For Coronavirus?
Several posts on social media claim that Israel has discovered a vaccine for the novel coronavirus.
The message shows an image of a vial with the label that reads: "No More Coronavirus Deaths" with "God bless Israelites, they have discovered vaccine for coronaviruses."
However, the World Health Organization has made it clear that currently there is no vaccine ready to be deployed to tackle the novel coronavirus that has spread to over 100 countries and infected over 100,000 people.
Now, Israel is among the countries where research for a COVID-19 vaccine is taking place. MIGAL Research Institute in Israel issued a press release in February that said that they are working towards developing a COVID-19 vaccine and they have had a breakthrough.
What they have created is a vaccine against avian coronavirus Infectious Bronchitis Virus (IBV), which affects poultry, and this vaccine has already passed the clinical tests at the Israeli Veterinary Institute.
The IBV vaccine does give them a boost up – and the team called it "pure luck" that they had selected a poultry coronavirus to test. The press release says that this vaccine will be "adapted soon to create a human vaccine against COVID-19."
You can read the full story here.
3. Old Video of BJP Lawmakers Fighting Shared as AAP Leaders’ Scuffle
A video which shows two politicians thrashing each other is being shared on social media with a claim that the two politicians belong to the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and were fighting during a party meeting.
The claim that is being shared with the video reads: “The broom (AAP Party) meeting was going on and Sanjay Singh beat the Co-MLA with shoes. After that the same MLA thrashed Sanjay Singh well with shoes. The people of Delhi have chosen to rule these monkeys. On the other hand, Kejriwal is bent on making Delhi Pakistan.(sic)”
The claim is false for two reasons. Firstly, the video is from March 2019. Secondly, it shows the lawmakers of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) thrashing and abusing each other in Uttar Pradesh’s Sant Kabir Nagar, not AAP members.
The two lawmakers — BJP MP Sharad Tripathi and MLA Rakesh Baghel — came to blows during the district planning committee meeting.
You can read the full story here.
4. Ramdev Infected With Coronavirus? No, Image Is Old & Unrelated
A picture of Baba Ramdev is being shared on Facebook with a claim that the yoga guru has been infected with coronavirus.
It further goes on to claim that the doctors in Delhi’s AIIMS have said that Ramdev can only be cured with cow urine and cow dung.
However, we found out that the image was from 2011, taken after Ramdev broke his nine-day fast in a hospital in Dehradun. He had been on hunger strike demanding a tougher law against corruption and seeking the return of black money stashed abroad.
You can read the full story here.
5. Turmeric and Lemon Help Fight Coronavirus? Doctors Say No Proof
Amid rising global concern around the novel coronavirus, a tweet has been circulating on social media claiming that consumption of turmeric and lemon helps ‘fight’ coronavirus.
The tweet by filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri goes on to claim that homemade rasam, a south Indian dish, is also very useful and effective against COVID-19.
The Quint spoke to Dr Suranjit Chatterjee, Senior Consultant - Internal Medicine at Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals, who said that there is no evidence to support the argument that these substances are effective against the novel coronavirus COVID-19. “We have no evidence that these substances can treat coronavirus. The claim is not correct and there is absolutely no evidence that these agents are effective against the virus,” he said.
You can read the story here.
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