The Infodemic: Airline Filters Don't 'Eat Any Form of Virus'
Posted: Thu Aug 20, 2020 1:54 pm
FILE - A flight attendant wearing a face mask sprays disinfectant inside a plane at Sharm el-Sheikh International Airport, Egypt, June 20, 2020.
Fake news about the coronavirus can do real harm. Polygraph.info is spotlighting fact-checks from other reliable sources here.
Daily Debunk
Claim: Filters can “eat any form of virus including coronavirus” on aeroplanes.
Verdict: Misleading
Read the full story at: Africa Check
Social Media Disinfo
Circulating on social media: Photo of a World Health Organization (WHO) guidance on a Fox News segment saying that "masks should only be used by healthcare workers, caretakers or by people who are sick with symptoms like fever and cough."
Verdict: Misleading
Read the full story at: Reuters
Factual Reads on Coronavirus
Long-Haulers Are Redefining COVID-19
Without understanding the lingering illness that some patients experience, we can’t understand the pandemic.
-- The Atlantic, August 19
Evidence lags behind excitement over blood plasma as a coronavirus treatment
Although there have been few data on whether convalescent plasma definitely improves outcomes for people with other diseases, it was logical to test the treatment against COVID-19 when the outbreak began. But researchers have struggled to nail down its effectiveness in the middle of the pandemic, says Michael Joyner, an anaesthesiologist at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.
-- Nature, August 19