A voice note purporting to be from a member of the ambulance service has been widely shared on WhatsApp. It's misleading.
10 April 2020 | Latest fact checks about coronavirus
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** Genuine-sounding voice message claiming to be from ambulance worker is incorrect
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A voice note purporting to be from a member of the ambulance service has been widely shared on WhatsApp.
It makes several claims, including that one third of deaths ‘at the peak’ of the outbreak will be children without underlying conditions, that ambulances will no longer be sent out to help people struggling to breathe, and that the mortuaries are full and ice rinks are now being used to store dead bodies.
The Ambulance Trust says this is incorrect and has urged people not to share the message. Be wary of anonymous voice notes, since you can never know the original source of the message. Even though the woman in the clip claims her information is from Public Health England, there is no way to verify this.
Full Fact’s guide on fact checking claims related to the coronavirus can be found here ([link removed]) .
What does the voice recording say? ([link removed])
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** Viral videos claiming to show scenes inside St Mary’s Hospital were not filmed in the UK ([link removed])
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Two separate video clips spread widely this week, claiming to show London St Mary’s Hospital struggling to cope with the pressure of coronavirus.
The first showed patients lying in corridors, and the second showed rooms filled with body bags. The first video was actually footage from two Madrid hospitals. If you pause at the right moment, you can tell it is not of a UK hospital as the exit signs are written in Spanish.
The second video was filmed in Ecuador. Although faintly, you can hear ‘Hospital General Del Nortel’ being mentioned on the tannoy at one point.
And a man’s name is briefly visible on one of the body bags. Spanish fact-checkers Maldita looked into this and found the name on the bag matched up with a man who had recently died in Guayaquil, where the hospital is based.
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** Beware of people capitalising on the uncertainty around Boris Johnson’s condition ([link removed])
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This week, a Twitter account impersonating the BBC claimed that the Prime Minister had died. Before being deleted, the tweet was shared hundreds of times including by verified journalists in Canada and Australia.
It’s important to look for the verified tick - the BBC’s Breaking News account has a blue verified tick next to it, whereas this fake account did not. It is unlikely the death of the Prime Minister would be announced by an unverified Twitter account.
By clicking on the profile, you could see the account only had a handful of followers, and the errant handle @BBCBreaki could be easily missed by people skim-reading.
If you see something like this, take the time to look into the account, see what trustworthy sources are saying, and make an informed decision before deciding to share.
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