Disinfo: Smoking protects against coronavirus

This is an unfounded narrative promoted by the Kremlin to highlight that the EU has been incapable in making common decisions and reaching common solutions to the coronavirus outbreak. This news article is ignoring certain initiatives by EU institutions such as the decisions made by the Eurogroup on a common economic policy response and the European Commission on closing temporarily the EU borders for 30 days to protect health but also the announcement made by the European Central Bank (ECB) to launch a 750 billion euros Pandemic Emergency Purchase Programme (PEPP) to help the public and the private sector. See related pro-Kremlin disinformation cases about the coronavirus.

Conspiracy theory about the 2019-nCoV coronavirus, based on recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narratives about biological weapons. The narratives also resemble a recurring conspiracy theory about the Lugar Lab in Georgia.

The virus "2019-nCoV” comes from a family of viruses that include the common cold and viruses such as SARS and MERS. There is no evidence to suggest it was developed artificially in a laboratory as a weapon of mass destruction. A group of public health scientists have condemned rumours and conspiracy theories about the origin of coronavirus outbreak. "We stand together to strongly condemn conspiracy theories suggesting that COVID-19 does not have a natural origin.The authors of The Lancet statement note that scientists from several countries who have studied SARS-CoV-2 “overwhelmingly conclude that this coronavirus originated in wildlife, just like many other viruses that have recently emerged in humans.