Jonathan Ashworth, shadow Health Secretary, misinterpreted remarks by Baroness Dido Harding

12 Feb 2021 | Full Fact needs your support
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FACT CHECK
Labour wrong to say that 20,000 people ‘sick with Covid’ fail to self-isolate every day

Last week, Labour’s shadow Health Secretary Jonathan Ashworth incorrectly claimed that 20,000 people “sick with Covid-19” are failing to self-isolate every day.

His comments followed a Science and Technology Committee in which Baroness Dido Harding referred to a University College London (UCL) survey. The survey showed that 80% of the UK population are isolating for the correct amount of time when they come into contact with someone that had symptoms of Covid-19.

The 20,000 figure was based on Ms Harding’s rough estimate that in the previous week around 700,000 Covid “cases and contacts” (roughly 100,000 a day) were identified.

If 20% of these did not properly isolate, this would equate to 20,000 people every day. But “cases and contacts” includes people who have either tested positive for Covid-19, or have been asked to isolate after coming into contact with someone with symptoms of covid. That means it is wrong to claim that the 20,000 figure discussed is made up solely of people who are “sick with Covid-19”.

The UCL survey also says that while 80% of those who are told they have come into contact with someone with symptoms of Covid-19 isolate for the full 10 days, just 62% of those who develop symptoms themselves do the same.

The survey did not contain data on the self-isolation habits of confirmed coronavirus cases, so it is not possible to create a very reliable estimate of the number of Covid “cases and contacts” who are not self-isolating properly from this data.
The evidence is inconclusive ([link removed])
FACT CHECK
Covid-19 vaccination programmes aren’t medical experiments ([link removed])

A video that’s been shared over 10,000 times on Facebook from someone who calls himself the “Old Man in a Chair” makes a number of misleading statements about the status of various Covid-19 vaccines being issued in the UK.

His main claim seems to be that the Covid-19 vaccines are “experimental”, and that anyone who gets a vaccine is taking part in an experiment without their consent. This is not true.

Three Covid-19 vaccines have been approved by the UK regulator for use at the time of writing: the Moderna vaccine, the Oxford and AstraZeneca, and the Pfizer-BioNTech.

Multiple stages of trials have proved that these three vaccines are safe and effective, some of which have happened concurrently to speed up the process.

Just because studies into these vaccines are continuing at the same time, doesn’t mean anyone getting the vaccine in the nationwide roll-out is part of a trial.

Consent must be given by patients to get any vaccines, and for that to be valid they must be “offered as much information as they reasonably need to make their decision, and in a form that they can understand”.
Also, healthcare workers will not be tried as war criminals ([link removed])
False information puts lives at risk. Can you help protect people across the UK? ([link removed])

Social media posts like the one we fact checked above, is one of many that we’ve seen making false claims about the harms of vaccines.

It is leading people to ignore good health advice, and put their lives at risk.

We need your help to give people across the UK safe, accurate information about the coronavirus.

You can help us spot false and harmful errors that spread in our newspapers, in Parliament, and online–so that more people have the information they need to keep themselves and their loved ones safe.

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FACT CHECK
No, polling company Ipsos MORI isn’t trying to kill you ([link removed])

A number of posts on social media claim that the name of market research company Ipsos MORI translates to ‘they die’ in Latin.

A TikTok video being shared widely on Whatsapp warns people this means they will die if they get a Covid-19 test. Other claims on Facebook also warn about the company name.

Online translators do say that Ipsos MORI translates to ‘they die’ in English (although in fact the literal translation is more garbled and not grammatically correct).

Ipsos MORI says its name “doesn’t mean anything”; it is the product of a 2005 merger of Ipsos—a French company which took its name from the Latin phrase ‘ipso facto’—and UK firm Market and Opinion Research International (MORI).

You are not going to die if you get tested for Covid-19. More than 71.5 million Covid-19 tests have been conducted across the UK since the pandemic began.

There are no reports of anyone dying because of a Covid-19 test. It is important to get tested if you have symptoms.
What is Ipsos MORI? ([link removed])
MORE FACT CHECKS
Also this week...
* False death figures go viral ([link removed])
* Some people have died after Covid-19 vaccination—not because of it ([link removed])
* No evidence that nanoparticles in Covid-19 vaccines affect fertility ([link removed])
* Fake letter from Cabinet Office spreads on social media ([link removed])

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