Public Health Fakes: full-scale Russian invasion proved the falseness of the pandemic Issue #29
newsletter via Feeds on Inoreader 2023-05-23
Summary:
In this issue, we once again debunked the Russian Ministry of Defense’s claims about “military-biological experiments” conducted in Ukraine at the Pentagon’s request. According to Russian officials, Ukrainians were studying the possibility of uncontrolled transmission of avian flu. Ukrainian bloggers also spread disinformation, claiming that COVID-19 is just the regular flu, and the full-scale Russian invasion proved the falseness of the pandemic.
With the support of the USAID Health Reform Support project, VoxCheck analyzes and refutes public health narratives spread in the information space of Ukraine, Belarus, and russia on a weekly basis.
Ukrainian anti-vaccine bloggers Ostap Stakhiv and Serhii Hula commented on the news of the end of the COVID-19 pandemic. In particular, they stated that:
- Coronavirus is simply a type of flu that should not be feared;
- COVID-19 was invented to make money;
- Viktor Liashko, even as a sanitary doctor, claimed that healthy people did not need to wear masks;
- The pandemic ended when a full-scale war started in Ukraine;
- Vaccination was unnecessary, and now the World Health Organization (WHO) is quietly canceling it.
What’s the reality?
COVID-19 is not the flu. COVID-19 is a respiratory illness caused by the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus. The flu is also a respiratory illness, but it is caused by different viruses (such as H1N1, H3N2, etc.) and not by a coronavirus. Coronavirus infection differs from the flu in terms of higher infectivity, lethality, and more serious and longer-lasting health consequences for individuals.
Coronaviruses are a large group of viruses that cause upper respiratory tract illnesses. Only 7 of them can be transmitted to humans. Scientists first discovered a coronavirus infecting humans in 1965, while the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus was only documented in late 2019. In contrast, the first major influenza pandemic occurred in 1918, and the virus that caused the disease was identified in 1933.
Viktor Liashko did not say that healthy people do not need to wear masks. In fact, during a briefing in March 2020, the then Chief Sanitary Doctor of Ukraine, Viktor Liashko, called on everyone to wear masks in public places. A mask protects not the wearer but the surrounding people from possible infection. Additionally, a mask reduces the distance over which an infected person spreads the disease-causing agent.
In April 2020, Liashko also recommended wearing masks: “Yes, we understand that a mask does not protect the person. It is not a means of individual protection. When there is a mask, the release of biological material that may contain the pathogen is reduced and does not reach one and a half meters but may only extend up to 10-15 centimeters. Therefore, in case of non-compliance with social distancing, a mask on the face of a person who may still be without symptoms but potentially infected reduces the risks of infecting others”.
According to the latest recommendations from the World Health Organization (WHO), masks should be worn in crowded places, enclosed or poorly ventilated spaces, and when in contact with people who have symptoms of COVID-19. Wearing a mask reduces the number of infectious particles that can be inhaled or exhaled, thus protecting both the mask wearer and the surrounding individuals.
After the start of the fu