Fact check: Video repeats COVID-19 conspiracy theories

A video showing a man sharing conspiracy theories and misleading comments about the COVID-19 pandemic has been posted online.

The clip (example here ) carries the on-screen text “The Greatest Hoax Since 9/11” and shows a speaker examining aspects of the pandemic he finds suspicious. Some of this purported evidence is examined here, but many of the claims and opinions are outside the scope of this check.

“What about homeless people?”

The monologue begins with the rhetorical question: “If the virus is so deadly, why hasn’t it wiped out the homeless who don’t social distance, wash themselves regularly, let alone live in or have access to a sterile environment?” (1:16)

While homeless people have been affected by the pandemic, official statistics are limited. In June 2020, the UK’s Office for National Statistics (ONS) identified 16 deaths involving COVID-19 of people who were homeless in England. However, the ONS said that these figures were unlikely to be complete (bit.ly/3cAF7Zg).

In the US, the National Alliance to End Homelessness (NAEH), a non-profit organisation, told Reuters: “The local data to date shows an inconsistent impact of COVID-19 among people experiencing homelessness, with some communities experiencing larger outbreaks than others”.

Homeless people are at greater risk of contracting and spreading the novel coronavirus because they lack stable shelter and food supplies, but protective measures taken by governments have reduced the pandemic’s impact.

In the U.S., the National Alliance to End Homelessness (NAEH), a non-profit organisation, told Reuters in October 2020 that homelessness systems had “worked hard to mitigate the effects of the pandemic through a variety of measures”, including delivering meals and using motels as shelters.

In the UK, an article from September 2020 in medical journal The Lancet estimated that government efforts to place rough sleepers in emergency housing had prevented over 21,000 infections and saved 266 lives during the pandemic’s first wave (here).

Despite this, there have been media reports of deaths among unhoused communities. British newspaper the Independent reported on Feb. 3, 2021 that 127 COVID-19 cases were reported among London’s homeless population in January, compared to 17 recorded in December 2020. (here). U.S. News also reported a death in a homeless shelter in early January 2021 (here).

Reuters has addressed misleading claims about coronavirus and homeless people here .

“What about tuberculosis?”

Later in the video, the speaker says: “Last year, 1.5 million people died of tuberculosis. Why were you not worrying about the tuberculosis pandemic? You were endangering public health and safety along with billions of other people around the globe. So why didn’t you wear a mask? It’ll tell you why. Because the mainstream media didn’t tell you to wear a mask. Because 1.5 million people died from tuberculosis. There was no tuberculosis pandemic, anymore than there’s a coronavirus pandemic.” (1:26)

The post presents pretty accurate statistics about the prevalence of tuberculosis (TB), which killed 1.4 million people in 2019 and stands as the leading infectious cause of death worldwide, according to the World Health Organisation (here).

However, it does not consider the differences between the transmission and geographical distribution of COVID-19 and TB, and how these differences influence what measures are used to tackle the diseases.

For instance, TB is not widespread in the U.S. so it is unlikely preventative measures would be implemented. In 2019, the country provisionally recorded 8,920 cases of TB, out of 10 million globally (here). That compares with more than 26 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the U.S. so far, with more than 445,000 deaths (here).

The post does highlight a lack of global awareness about TB, which Dr Tom Wingfield, Senior Clinical Lecturer and Honorary Consultant Physician at Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, suggested was due to the majority of TB cases being among poorer people living in low- and middle-income countries. Reuters spoke to Dr Wingfield in August 2020 as part of a similar fact check comparing TB with COVID-19 (here).

“COVID-19 is a normal threat”

Finally, the man in the video claims: “At best the pandemic is gross over-reaction to a normal threat” (13:20).

The novel coronavirus pandemic has killed 2 million people across the world, according to the latest figures from the World Health Organisation (covid19.who.int/). Reuters reported in October 2020 than the U.S. had reported 300,000 more deaths during the pandemic than in a typical year, and the New York Times wrote in January 2021 that 446,000 more Americans died than normal since the pandemic began (here). Across the world, the latest figures produced by researchers from Oxford University show that most countries saw an increase in excess deaths in 2020 (here and bit.ly/3axYIGH).

VERDICT

False. The coronavirus pandemic is real and the fact it has not ‘wiped out’ the homeless community does not prove the virus isn’t deadly. Comparisons with TB fail to highlight key differences in transmission and geographical distribution. There is no credible evidence to support the theory that the pandemic is a hoax.

This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. Read more about our work to fact-check social media posts here .

*** This article has been archived for your research. The original version from Reuters can be found here ***