Misinformations on the forms of transmission of the new coronavirus

Misinformation about the types of infection of the new coronavirus has spread through different social media platforms. AFP Factual examined the truthfulness of some of the statements released since the outbreak in late 2019 in the Chinese city of Wuhan.

Can the coronavirus travel in a package ?: FALSE

A video (A) that shows shows a fragment of the animated series The Simpsons circulating ensuring that they “predicted the new coronavirus” or that it shows “how it will expand” throughout the world.

In the sequence, the employee of a Japanese factory sneezes on a package sent by plane to the house of Homer Simpson who, when opened, absorbs the germs and becomes ill.

World Health Organization (WHO) spokesman Tarik Jasarevic told AFP that it is not possible for the virus to survive in a box sent from China.

“By previous analyzes on other coronaviruses, we know that these types of viruses do not survive long on the surface. Viruses generally do not survive more than a few hours with porous materials such as paper or cardboard, ”he explained.

Meanwhile, Dr. Immaculate Casas Flecha, secretary of the Spanish Society of Virology, raised a similar response: “Coronaviruses have a covering like a crown-shaped membrane – hence the name coronavirus – extremely sensitive to ultraviolet light. Any trace of coronavirus that could have ended up in a package or object would disappear as soon as it came into contact with sunlight. ”

He also added that “only environmental viruses, which are found in some waters, for example, are viable outside living organisms.”

Can eating animals cause contagion?: PROBABLE

Although the origin of the new coronavirus was not determined, research points to the role of bats Y pangolins in its transmission, as well as to a market in the city of Wuhan, in the Chinese province of Hubei, where live animals were sold.

In that context, several users stated that the consumption of meat of Chinese origin can cause contagion.

Asked about it, Jasarevic acknowledged that “the source of the virus has not yet been identified, although it is likely to be considered an animal source.”

Is coronavirus transmitted through pets?: FALSE

After the outbreak of Covid-19, social networks warned of the risk of pets being transmitters of the virus, which would have led some inhabitants of Wuhan to get rid of them. Images of domestic animals that walk with masks also circulated.

Jasarevic told AFP Factual that “at present, there is no evidence that companion animals or pets, such as dogs or cats, can become infected with the new coronavirus.”

Covid-19 in pregnancy or breast milk?: IN RESEARCH

On February 4, Chinese doctors detected that a child was infected with the virus 30 hours after birth. Although it was still investigated if it was a mother-to-child transmission, several social media publications gave it as a fact.

The WHO spokesman said that “it is too early to define the risks for pregnant and nursing women and their newborns.”

According to Jasarevic, the WHO clinical network is discussing the transmission of the virus, including “the risk to pregnant and nursing women.”

Surgical operations to extract coronavirus?: FALSE

Several publications show a video in which two doctors are supposedly “operating on the coronavirus.” However, “coronaviruses cannot be removed with surgeries,” the WHO spokesman said.

Some symptoms of the new coronavirus, according to the WHO, are fever, cough, malaise, runny nose and sore throat. There may also be “warning signs” such as respiratory distress and increased respiratory symptoms such as expectoration, as well as digestive symptoms (nausea, vomiting and diarrhea). In more complicated cases, psychic disorders such as confusion or lethargy may arise.

There is currently no cure for this disease. The Chinese government plans to start trials of a vaccine in humans in April.

Covid-19, with a death rate of 2.3%, is not like other coronaviruses.

Although in China it caused more deaths than Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (MRS) from 2002-2003, Covid-2019 is “less lethal,” according to WHO, than that SARS, which had a 13% mortality rate.

It is also lower than that of the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), first identified in Saudi Arabia in 2012 and in progress, with a mortality rate of more than 30%.

The seasonal flu or influenza it causes the death of between 290,000 and 650,000 people per year worldwide.

Coronavirus and room temperature?

The president of the United States, Donald Trump, said on February 10 that this disease will disappear in April, with the arrival of the boreal spring, since “heat usually kills this type of virus.” He also circulated in English and Spanish a story of an alleged doctor who works in Wuhan, who said that Covid-19 “is not heat resistant and dies at a temperature of 26 to 27 degrees.”

According to Jasarevic, “the virus is too new for us to know how warmer weather could affect transmissibility. It has affected people in cold, dry, hot and humid climates. ”

According to the French epidemiologist Arnaud Fontanet, specialist in emerging diseases of the Institut Pasteur, the MRS It appeared in winter and the epidemic ended in 2003 during the summer of the northern hemisphere, which led to speculation that its disappearance was caused by good weather. “Perhaps the warming of the summer contributed to the control of the epidemic, but no one can answer the question of whether the temperature had to do with the end of the epidemic,” he explained.

The MERS In 2012, meanwhile, it circulated in 27 countries and 80% of the cases were found in Saudi Arabia, a warm country with temperatures higher than those of the American summer.

Transmission types of Covid-19?

Asked about the ways of transmission of Covid-19, Jasarevic explained that “the main driver of transmission is people who have symptoms.”

“WHO is aware of the possible transmission of Covid-19 from people who are sick with the virus before they show symptoms. Detailed exposure histories are being taken to better understand the presymptomatic phase of the infection and how transmission may have occurred in these few cases, ”he said.

The epidemic outbreak of Covid-19 began in December 2019 in Wuhan. Since then, more than 83 000 cases of infection and more of 2 800 dead In mainland China. Outside that area, more than 4,000 cases of Covid-19 were recorded in 54 countries, causing the death of more than 70 people.

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