Dettol, bleach and garlic, among other things, are touted as 'cures' for the novel coronavirus, with 'scary messages' about drinking or using bleach products to combat the virus doing the rounds.
Ambassador of China in South Africa, his excellency Lin Songtian, can be seen thanking the U-Mask medical face mask manufacturer for their donation of masks to china in an attempt to fight the spreading coronavirus, 2 February 2020, Pretoria. Picture: Jacques Nelles
And to make things worse, people are readily sharing false information without first fact-checking. News24 has been inundated with calls and messages from well-meaning members of the public who have “information” about government cover-ups and outbreaks of the coronavirus at local hospitals. None turned out to be true.
The first case of the coronavirus in South Africa was confirmed on Thursday. It was contracted by a local who returned from a trip to Italy and began experiencing symptoms three days after returning. Kate Wilkinson, deputy chief editor at Africa Check, there are a number of misconceptions about Covid-19.
According to Wilkinson, there have also been a number of “scary messages” about drinking or using bleach products to combat the virus. Using the viral Dettol message as an example, Wilkinson said it led to conspiracy theories and speculation that Dettol knew about the new virus and had been able to prepare their products, which was simply untrue.While Africa Check has seen a lot of false information about vaccines and cures for Covid-19, none of these currently exist.
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