FALSE: DO NOT SHARE
Claim:
COVID-19 has not been proven to exist.
Answer:
False. It was first identified as a novel coronavirus in January 2020.
FURTHER INFORMATION
A tweet claims that COVID-19 is not proven to exist, that death certificates have been falsified (it doesn’t say by whom), that there is weak evidence that masks help and that ‘RT-PCR’ is not proven to detect Covid-19.
This is false. The World Health Organization (WHO) states that ‘Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is an infectious disease caused by a newly discovered coronavirus’, and first reported that Chinese authorities had determined that the outbreak was caused by a novel coronavirus in January 2020.
There is no evidence that national authorities have falsified death certificates in way of COVID-19. The WHO and national health authorities have regularly provided updates on the threat that COVID-19 poses.
The WHO states that the wearing of masks can help with COVID-19 in indoor spaces.
The COVID-19 RT-PCR Test is a real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (rRT -PCR) test used to detect the presence of antibodies.
SOURCES
World Health Organization (WHO) – Coronavirus (Overview)
World Health Organization (WHO) – Timeline of WHO’s response to COVID-19
World Health Organization (WHO) – WHO Statement regarding cluster of pneumonia cases in Wuhan, China (9 January 2020)
Origins of Claim
FULL TEXT OF CLAIM
“Falsified death certificates – FACT
Covid never proven to exist – FACT
RT-PCR cannot detect covid – FACT
Weak evidence masks help – FACT
More flu deaths 2 years ago – FACT
Thousands dead from LD – FACTAre we really going to accept this?”
