DISINFO: Patients in Italy and Spain likely to be constantly infected by the coronavirus tests
SUMMARY
On March 30, Luxembourg’s intermediary company Eurofins responsible for the supply and quality control of tests for the Covid-19, informed government’s laboratories that the virus was found in their delivery lot. The company’s official letter stated that the virus was found in key components of the test, namely in probes and capsules supplied from the United States. Eurofins also reported the discovery of coronavirus and some other intermediary companies also receiving their test kits from overseas. The shocking news bypassed by both international and national mainstream media. […] Why, in countries such as Italy and Spain, where the population has been under quarantine for a month and a half, the death rate from Covid-19 is not going down? The number of victims in these countries still ranges from 500-800 per day! But according to the most respected experts, the average incubation period of Covid-19 is of 14 days. Two weeks after the quarantine was introduced, there should have been a sharp decline in the death rate from coronavirus. But for some reason this does not happen. Most likely, people are continuously infected by the tests for Covid-19! […] We can add with confidence that this list will be continued by France, Great Britain and the USA. Specific facts now speak in favour of this version: the tests are infected on a very large scale, and the authorities nonetheless show little concern about this.
RESPONSE
The disinformation claim, first written on Eadaily.com, was republished by Gumilev-Center.ru and than became viral on Russian social media and messenger, including Whatsapp messages, without mentioning the original source. The original claim on Eadaily.com amplifies and misrepresents the reporting by The Telegraph. The original reporting by the Telegraph says that "Britain’s attempt to ramp up mass coronavirus testing has been dealt a blow after key components ordered from overseas were discovered to be contaminated with coronavirus, the Telegraph can disclose" and "traces of the virus were detected in parts due for delivery". The supplier, Eurofins company said that the issue can be resolved by ‘proper cleaning’ but admitted the discovery would result in a delay. No other issues, such as contamination of humans by tests, was announced by Eurofins or anybody else. The claim that Spain's and Italy's death rates do not go down since the beginning of the quarantine is untrue. It does, as we can see on the graph for Spain is here, for Italy here. See more disinformation narratives on coronavirus.