How you can fact check claims about the new coronavirus

FACT CHECK

What you can do to fact check claims about Covid-19

Before you share something, ask yourself three questions: Where is the information from? What’s missing? And how does it make you feel?

Be wary of anonymous sources. When you don’t know who the source really is, it makes it a lot harder to verify if it’s true or false, so think twice before you share advice from a “friend’s uncle” or a “friend in parliament.” 

Images and videos can be misleading. If you’re using Google Chrome, you can right-click on an image and select “Search Google for image.” Google will tell you where it thinks the image is from and where it has been used before.

People who make false news try to manipulate your feelings. They know that making you angry or worried means they’re more likely to get clicks. When it comes to Covid-19, be wary of any story that sounds like a conspiracy or makes sweeping statements about which people are most likely to be badly affected.

FACT CHECK

Beware of scammers taking advantage of Covid-19 panic

This week we’ve seen images of a text being shared on social media. The text claims to be from the government, offering recipients a £258 “goodwill payment.” This text is a phishing scam and is not from the government.

The link in the text message directs recipients to a website built to mimic the government website, and prompts users to input their bank details. You should not interact with these texts. There are some signs to look out for if you should receive messages similar to this. 

Look for mis-spellings. In this instance, the phrase ‘Covid-19 relief’ was wrongly written as “Covid-19 relieve.” The website linked also ended with a .com url. The government’s website ends with a gov.uk url.

The government has also not made an announcement regarding any one-off payments to the whole UK population following the Covid-19 outbreak.

FACT CHECK

There’s still no evidence that you can catch the new coronavirus from your pet

Social media posts that have been shared over 800,000 times insist that you cannot catch the new coronavirus from your pet. Public Health England and the World Health Organisation are in agreement that there is no evidence that pets can transmit Covid-19.

A dog in Hong Kong did test ‘weak positive’ for the virus, but it had no symptoms. Experts have questioned whether there was enough evidence that the dog had the virus at all.

Following the dog’s release from quarantine, it died. But it was 17 years old and according to reports it is very unlikely it died of coronavirus.

FACT CHECK

Also this week...

• Vladimir Putin did not say that all Russian people should stay at home or face five years in jail
• Xbox and PlayStation servers are not being shut down during school hours
• An adoption centre did pause adoptions of rabbits for fear they’d be used as food
• And no, Russia has not unleashed 500 lions to stop people going outdoors