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| - AFP's fact-check service debunks misinformation spread online. Here are some of our recent fact-checks: Multiple Facebook posts shared hundreds of times claim that Bill Gates' "ultimate goal" is to "microchip the(COVID-19) vaccine" to create "virtual IDs". The posts also claim the billionaire philanthropist was in New Zealand in May and June 2020 "to test and trial the COVID-19 vaccine". Both claims are false. A Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation spokesperson dismissed the purported link between Gates and microchips and New Zealand authorities say there is no record of Gates visiting the country in 2020. Articles and social media posts in multiple languages claim that the Obama Foundation posted a tweet with a photo of George Floyd on May 17, 2020, eight days before his death in police custody. This is false. The foundation said the tweet's preview image refreshed to a photo taken on May 30 when its website updated. Twitter also confirmed that thumbnails associated with tweets can change. The image of an intubated baby with a large chest scar has been shared tens of thousands of times on Facebook alongside claims that the infant had recently survived heart surgery before testing positive for COVID-19. The baby pictured, however, actually had heart surgery in 2012 and the now seven-year-old child does not have COVID-19, his parents say. Footage of people rushing down a hill has been viewed hundreds of thousands of times on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube alongside claims that the video shows "hundreds of Indians running to block China's illegal construction" along the two countries' border. The posts circulated after a deadly clash between Indian and Chinese border troops in mid-June 2020. The video, however, has circulated online since at least March 2020, months before the June border skirmish, and has been published in reports about jade miners in Myanmar. A claim that Israel has reported no COVID-19 deaths has been shared in multiple posts on Facebook and Twitter. The posts also claim that Israeli citizens have protected themselves from COVID-19 by drinking a remedy of hot water, lemon and baking soda, which purportedly kills the virus. Both claims are false. The World Health Organization has documented over 300 COVID-19 deaths in Israel and health experts say there is no evidence the baking soda concoction can cure or prevent COVID-19 infections. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. afp
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