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| - AFP Fact Check debunks misinformation spread online. Here are some of our recent fact-checks: A video of hospital workers in France putting on tattered protective gowns was viewed hundreds of thousands of times on Facebook and Twitter alongside a claim that the garments were made in China. The claim is false. The hospital authority in the French city of Marseille said the protective gear in the video was produced in France and was damaged due to improper storage. A list of purported COVID-19 facts and figures attributed to John Hopkins University was shared widely on social media. The US university's medical program, however, said it did not produce the report. "We do not know the origin of these rumours and they lack credibility," a spokesperson for the university said. As scientists continue efforts to develop a COVID-19 vaccine, Facebook posts claiming to detail "how to legally decline a vaccine" were shared in the United States, Canada and Australia. Immunisation, however, is not compulsory in most Australian states and Canadian provinces, and exemptions are widely available in regions that do mandate vaccinations. In the US, which does have stricter immunisation policies, exemptions are also readily available. Footage of hundreds of people in Nigeria scrambling to collect free food was shared thousands of times on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram alongside a claim the incident occurred during the country's coronavirus lockdown. But the video has circulated online since at least March 2019 -- months before the COVID-19 crisis -- in reports about a food distribution campaign ahead of an election. A hoax claim was shared hundreds of times on Facebook and Twitter that certain viral outbreaks in the last 100 years aligned with the introduction of new telecommunications technologies. The posts, for instance, suggested the COVID-19 pandemic is linked to the rollout of 5G mobile phone technology. Yet health authorities and technology experts maintain that telecommunication technologies have no relationship with the creation or spread of viruses. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. afp
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