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  • 2020-01-31 (xsd:date)
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  • Was This 'Health Bulletin' an Accurate Coronavirus Warning? (en)
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  • In January 2020 we received multiple inquiries from readers about an alert that was shared widely on Facebook and Twitter, purporting to be an emergency notification from an unspecified Ministry of Health about an ongoing outbreak of a new coronavirus. Broadly speaking, the warning appeared in two forms. The most commonly shared was a text post that typically read as follows: The message was typically followed up with an exhortation to share its warnings, such as, Please forward to help others. One version of the viral alert even concluded by pleading with readers, Please share if you care for human life. The second principal form in which the message appeared was as a photograph of a printed email, dated Jan. 28, 2020, and purporting to have been sent by NWLLAB. It contained many of the same key components — it purported to come from an unspecified MOH (Ministry of Health), and its main recommendation to the public was again to keep your throat moist by drinking water. It read as follows: Neither the printed email nor the viral Facebook message were official statements produced by any public health authority. The alert was apt to spread widely online precisely because it did not include any details about its supposed source, aside from mentioning a Ministry of Health in an unspecified country or region. The message also contained erroneous advice, claiming that readers could avoid contracting the virus by keeping your throat moist, avoiding fried or spicy food, and taking vitamin-C supplements. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the so-called novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) outbreak is thought to have first been transmitted from animals to humans in Wuhan, Hubei Province, in China. Since then, it has spread from person to person. Previous coronaviruses like Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) and Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) have been transmitted between humans primarily through respiratory droplets ⁠— that is, coughs and sneezes. The CDC's general respiratory infection prevention advice applies to the 2019-nCoV outbreak, as follows: No evidence exists to indicate that any public health authority is officially advising the public that a dry throat makes individuals more vulnerable to contracting the virus, and that therefore drinking water is an effective prevention method, nor that vitamin C deficiency contributes to one's vulnerability to contracting the illness, nor that fried and spicy food are a medium for transmission of 2019-nCoV. (en)
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