No, satellite maps do not indicate burning bodies in Wuhan

This week, multiple newspapers suggested that satellite maps may indicate the mass burning of dead bodies in areas of China affected by coronavirus.

The Sun reported that “Satellite maps in recent days have detected alarming levels of sulphur dioxide (SO2) around Wuhan”. Other titles such as Metro and the Express included claims that high numbers of dead bodies being cremated might have been the cause of excess sulphur dioxide.

These claims are wrong. The maps the claims are based on are not satellite images, and they do not show real, observed data on current levels of sulphur dioxide.

NASA, which provided the data in the first place, told Full Fact that they are simply forecasts based on weather patterns and historical information about SO2 emissions.

As such, they could not possibly show an unexpected event such as a mass cremation. We have emailed all four newspapers that published the story asking for a correction.

False and harmful

BLOG

Online harms strategy must do more to tackle bad information

On Wednesday, the government released a first response to its online harms proposals, which were published last April and aim to better regulate damaging and harmful content on sites like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

Bad information can damage democracy, but it also ruins lives. Today’s response from the government recognises this threat, but there isn’t enough concrete action on how to tackle it.

What needs to happen now

FACT CHECK

Home Office's immigration numbers don’t add up

A newspaper claimed that Home Office figures suggest the UK is set for an impossibly large reduction in migration of unskilled EU workers.

An article in the Sunday Times claimed that the government’s planned change to immigration rules will reduce unskilled EU migration to the UK by around 90,000 a year.

It also reported that “the number of skilled migrants coming to the UK … [is] currently 65,000 a year. At the moment they are split equally between EU and non-EU migrants.”

This appears to show the Home Office briefing two incompatible numbers. As economics professor Jonathan Portes pointed out, the total number of migrants who came from the EU for work in the year ending June 2019 totalled 90,000.

If there are only 90,000 EU migrants coming to the UK for work and roughly 32,500 (half of 65,000) are skilled, then around 57,500 must be unskilled. You can’t reduce 57,500 by 90,000.

We have asked the Home Office for more information on how the figures were calculated.

Maths mishap

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