The human cost of coronavirus misinformation

The human cost of coronavirus misinformation

(Web Desk) - Coronavirus misinformation has been found linked to assaults, arsons and deaths but experts say the potential for indirect harm caused by rumours, conspiracy theories and bad health information could be much bigger.

"We thought the government was using it to distract us," says Brian Lee Hitchens, "or it was to do with 5G. So we didn t follow the rules or seek help sooner."

Brian, 46, was talking by phone with a British news channel from his hospital bed in Florida. His wife is critically ill - sedated, on a ventilator in an adjacent ward.

"The battle that they ve been having is with her lungs," he says, voice wobbling. "They re inflamed. Her body just is not responding."

After reading online conspiracy theories, they thought the disease was a hoax - or, at the very least, no worse than flu. But then in early May, the couple caught Covid-19.

"And now I realise that coronavirus is definitely not fake," he says, running out of breath. "It s out there and it s spreading."

Dangerous misinformation

A team of BBC has been tracking the human toll of coronavirus misinformation which has investigated dozens of cases - some previously unreported - speaking to the people affected and medical authorities in an attempt to verify the stories.

The effects have spread all around the world.

Online rumours led to mob attacks in India and mass poisonings in Iran. Telecommunications engineers have been threatened and attacked and phone masts have been set alight in the UK and other countries - all because of conspiracy theories.

And in Arizona, a couple mistakenly thought a bottle of fish tank cleaner contained a preventative medicine.

Poisoned by cleaning products

Hydroxychloroquine may have potential to fight the virus - but as research continues, it remains unproven. The World Health Organisation halted its use in trials after a recent study suggested it could actually increase the risk of patients dying from Covid-19.

Speculation about its effectiveness started circulating online in China in late January. Media organisations, including Chinese state outlets, tweeted out old studies where it was tested as an anti-viral medicine.

Then a French doctor claimed encouraging results. Although doubt was later cast on that study, interest in hydroxychloroquine surged. It was mentioned, with various degrees of scepticism, by a variety of media outlets and influential people including Tesla chief executive Elon Musk and Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro.

It also found its way into White House press briefings - and President Trump s Twitter feed.

 

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 21, 2020

Overdoses of the drug are rare, but the anxiety produced by the pandemic has driven people to extreme measures.

In Nigeria, hospital admissions from hydroxychloroquine poisoning provoked Lagos state health officials to warn people against using the drug.

And in early March, a 43-year-old Vietnamese man was admitted to a poison control clinic in Hanoi after taking a large dose of chloroquine. He was red, trembling and unable to see straight. The clinic s director, Dr Nguyen Trung Nguyen, said the man was lucky he received treatment quickly - or else he might have died.

But Gary Lenius from US was not so fortunate. The cleaner he and his partner Wanda gulped down contained a different chemical, and was poisonous.

Within minutes, both started feeling dizzy and hot. They vomited and struggled to breathe. Gary died, and Wanda was hospitalised.

Wanda later explained why the couple drank the concoction.

"Trump kept saying it was pretty much a cure," she said.

Alcohol poisoning

In Iran, authorities say hundreds have died from alcohol poisoning after viral rumours about its curative effects.

The total was put at 796 by the end of April by Kambiz Soltaninejad, an official from Iran s Legal Medicine Organisation, who said it was the result of "fake news on social media."

The truth behind the number is murky in a country where alcohol is banned in Iran and bootleg moonshine is routinely contaminated.

However in this case, BBC journalists did see rumours of the supposed "cure" spreading on the messaging app Telegram before the official announcement.

Shayan Sardarizadeh of BBC Monitoring s disinformation team notes that the announcement was potentially embarrassing to the Iranian authorities and, if anything, the number could be an underestimate.

In one case we verified, a 5-year-old boy went blind after his parents plied him with illegal booze in an attempt to fight the disease.

"We know that bad information can ruin lives," says Clare Milne, deputy editor of UK fact-checking organisation Full Fact. "There s such great potential for harm."

 My friend ate soap 

President Trump has speculated on a number of other cures beside hydroxychloroquine. In late April, he opined that ultraviolet rays could neutralise the virus.

"And then I see the disinfectant where it knocks it out in a minute. One minute. And is there a way we can do something like that, by injection inside or almost a cleaning?"

Trump later said his comments were sarcastic. But some Americans didn t see it that way, and poison control hotlines received calls asking about the advice. Officials at one in Kansas said they heard from someone who said his friend swallowed disinfectant soap after the president s briefing.

Dr Duncan Maru, a doctor at Elmhurst Hospital in New York, says his colleagues have treated patients who have become acutely ill after ingesting disinfectant.

"These ingestions also can have long-term consequences, like cancers and gastrointestinal bleeding," he says.

Arsons, assaults and conspiracies

Social networks have also been fertile ground for conspiracy theories. One particular coronavirus-related one - there are many circulating online - has resulted in arsons and assaults.

Across the UK, more than 70 phone masts have been vandalised because of false rumours that 5G mobile phone technology is somehow to blame for the virus.

In April, Dylan Farrell, an engineer for Openreach, was driving his van in Thurmaston near Leicester. It had been a long day and he was thinking about what he might have for tea as he pulled up to a roundabout. That s when he started to hear shouting.

At first, he thought it was directed at someone else. But when he heard "5G!" being screamed through his passenger side window, he realised the shouting was meant for him.

"You ve got no morals!" a man shouted. "5G is killing us all!"

"I have no doubt he would have tried to get inside and physically attack me had I not locked the doors straight away," Dylan says. "It was so frightening."

He drove away quickly. There have been no arrests in connection with the incident.

"We ve seen a lot of conspiracies which have been online for a long time now about 5G," says Claire Milne of Full Fact. "Those have evolved to be connected to the new coronavirus."

Racial tensions and violent attacks

In March, WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned that the pandemic would lead to a flare up of a "dangerous enemy".

He was referring to racism against people from Asia and China, but the virus has exacerbated tensions in several countries.

 

— World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) March 2, 2020

In April, three Muslim men were violently attacked in separate incidents in Delhi. They were beaten up after rumours circulated that Muslims were spreading the virus.

In Sisai, a small village in eastern India, rival gangs clashed. It came after an attack on a Muslim boy, again linked to false rumours suggesting Muslims were spreading disease. One young man lost his life and another was seriously injured.

False reports have circulated within ethnic communities as well. In Bradford, England, rumours circulated that non-white patients were being left to die.

And in Indore, a city in west-central India, doctors on a mission to track down someone who might have been exposed to the virus were attacked with stones. Misleading WhatsApp videos claimed that healthy Muslims were being taken away by health care workers and injected with the virus.

Two doctors were left with serious injuries after the incident in early April.