Cunningham Memorial Library: COVID-19: Mythbusters [COVID-19]

Mythbusters: What's Fact and What's a Myth (WHO)

Fact: There are currently NO drugs licensed for the treatment or prevention of COVID-19.
Fact: Adding pepper to your soup or other meals DOES NOT prevent or cure COVID-19.
Fact: COVID-19 IS NOT transmitted through houseflies.
Fact: Spraying or introducing bleach or another disinfectant into your body WILL NOT protect you against COVID-19 and can be dangerous.
Fact: Drinking methanol, ethanol, or bleach DOES NOT prevent or cure COVID-19 and can be extremely dangerous. Methanol, ethanol, and bleach are poisons that will not kill the virus in your body. They will harm your internal organs and can lead to disability and death.
Fact: 5G mobile networks DO NOT spread COVID-19. Viruses cannot travel on radio waves/mobile networks.
Fact: Exposing yourself to the sun and to temperatures higher than 77°F (25°C) DOES NOT prevent COVID-19. You can catch COVID-19 no matter how sunny or hot the weather is.
Fact: You can recover from COVID-19. Catching COVID-19 DOES NOT mean you have it for life.
Fact: Being able to hold your breath form 10 seconds or more without coughing or feeling discomfort DOES NOT mean you are free from COVID-19 or any other lung disease.
Fact: Drinking alcohol DOES NOT protect you against COVID-19 and can be dangerous. Frequent excessive alcohol consumption can increase your risk of health problems.
Fact: COVID-19 CAN be transmitted in ANY climate, including areas with hot and humid climates.
Fact: Cold weather and snow CANNOT kill the coronavirus.
Fact: Taking a hot bath DOES NOT prevent COVID-19.
Fact: COVID-19 CANNOT be transmitted through mosquito bites.

SNOPES

SNOPES' INVESTIGATIONS OF COVID-19 MYTHS
Snopes bills itself as the Internet's definitive fact-checking resource. Their original, investigative reporting is evidence-based with contextualized analysis and documented sources. Started in 1994, it is the oldest and largest fact-checking site on the internet. To date (May 1, 2020) there are 58 pages of questions and responses about the COVID-19 virus. Every fact check is rated in order to help readers quickly ascertain the credibility of a claim. The "claim" statement is clearly noted on each fact check because the specific wording of that claim is what the rating evaluates. Rankings are noted as true, mostly true, mixture, mostly false, false, unproven, outdated, miscaptioned, correct attribution, misattributed, scam, legend, labeled satire, and lost legend. Definitions of the ratings are noted on the website.

Two of the latest COVID-19 claims Snopes has investigated are:
• May 1, 2020, query: “Did the 1981 “Farmer’s Almanac” predict COVID-19?” The almanac had contained a passage predicting that a severe pneumatic illness would spread around the globe in 2020. Snopes’ conclusion was that there was no evidence to support the claim and that the quote was MISATTRIBUTED. They had encountered it before when social media users connected it to numerous sources including American author Dean Koontz and self-described psychic Sylvia Browne. The page actually originated from Ms Browne’s 2008 book, “End of Days,” where according to Snopes, the author “…did vaguely write in her 2008 book that a respiratory illness would spread across the globe in 2020.”

• May 4, 2020, query: “Did the CDC significantly ‘readjust COVID-19 death numbers?” The claim was that the CDC had readjusted the COVID-19 death toll from 60,000 down to 37,000. Snopes labeled the claim FALSE. The provisional counts for coronavirus disease (COVID-19) deaths are based on a current flow of mortality data in the National Vital Statistics System. National provisional counts include deaths occurring within the 50 states and the District of Columbia that have been received and coded as of the date specified. It can take several weeks for death records to be submitted to National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), processed, coded, and tabulated. Therefore, the data shown on NCHS's page may be incomplete, and will likely not include all deaths that occurred during a given time period, especially for the more recent time periods. Death counts for earlier weeks are continually revised and may increase or decrease as new and updated death certificate data are received from the states by NCHS. COVID-19 death counts shown on their website may differ from other published sources, as data currently are lagged by an average of 1–2 weeks. CDC’s data are updated daily. Snopes summarized their investigation by saying, “In short, this claim is like comparing stock prices from a two-week-old newspaper with those offered today by a cable news station, and then attributing any differences to a conspiracy rather than the mere passage of time as reflected in more current reporting.”