Disinfo: People with blood type A are more affected by coronavirus

Summary

The assumption made earlier was confirmed. People with the second blood group (A) are affected by the coronavirus most of all.

Disproof

Unconfirmed claim about the coronavirus, part of the pro-Kremlin disinformation campaign around the pandemic.

Only one study, which has not been peer-reviewed, has found any evidence of this claim - researchers studying COVID-19 in Wuhan and the city of Shenzhen found the proportion of blood type A patients both infected and killed by the disease was “significantly” higher. However, the authors cautioned that these preliminary findings should not be used to guide clinical practice and came with several caveats. First, the study is a draft of a research paper that has not yet been peer-reviewed or published in any journal. Second, the study is limited in both sample size and geographic scope. Speaking to the South China Morning Post, Gao Yingdai, a Tianjin-based researcher not involved in the study, said that while a 2,000-person sample is not necessarily small, it is dwarfed by the number of cases globally.

While evidence does support the hypothesis that COVID-19 — or other infections — can affect people differently depending on their blood type, such a conclusion about COVID-19 cannot be made conclusively on the basis of a single study that has yet to be peer-reviewed or published in a journal.

Read further debunking by Snopes. For other disinformation cases about the coronavirus, see here.

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publication/media

Rossia 24 - YouTube [from 51:28 to 51:35] (Archived)

Reported in: Issue 199
DATE OF PUBLICATION: 15/05/2020
Language/target audience: Russian
Country: Russia
Keywords: coronavirus, health

Americans incited Ukrainians to destroy the Crimean bridge

Americans themselves incited Ukrainians to destroy the Crimean bridge and even took part in training them.

May 19, 2020

Disproof

Conspiracy theory with no evidence provided. A recurring pro-Kremlin narrative about Ukraine's statehood, the impact of the West on Ukraine and Ukraine allegedly supporting terrorism. It is also part of the Kremlin's disinformation against regarding the Azov Sea.

The construction of the Crimean Bridge took place without Ukraine's consent and constitutes a violation of Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity. It has led, in parallel with the militarisation of the Azov Sea, to tougher controls on naval traffic in the Kerch Strait.

No evidence of Russian meddling in 2016 US presidential election

When Mueller’s final report came out, in the spring of 2019, it found zero evidence of “collusion” but insisted there had been Russian “meddling” in the election. The only trouble was that he had no proof of meddling, basing it entirely on US intelligence community “assessments” and his own indictments.

May 19, 2020

Disproof

Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative denying Moscow's interference in the 2016 US presidential election and, by extension, other well-documented instances of such meddling in Western democracies (see the section on Elections).

The Mueller report is not based on the January 2017 ICA (intelligence community assessment). It arrives at similar conclusions, but is based on its own body of investigative and counterintelligence evidence-gathering. During its two-year investigation, "the [Special Counsel's] Office issued more than 2,800 subpoeanas; [...] executed nearly 500 search-and-seizure warrants; [...] obtained more than 230 orders for communications records; [...] and interviewed approximately 500 witnesses, including almost 80 before a hgrand jury" (Mueller report, p. 13).

Poland reached mutual agreement with Nazi Germany and participated in the partition of Czechoslovakia after the Munich Pact

Moscow considers the attempts by the Polish authorities to blame the Soviet Union for the outbreak of the Second World War unacceptable. Poland reached a mutual agreement with Nazi Germany and participated in the partition of Czechoslovakia after the Munich Pact.

May 19, 2020

Disproof

This message is a part of the ongoing Russian disinformation campaign against Poland claiming that Poland was an ally and partner of Nazi Germany and was the main instigator of WWII.

The article suggests that it was the Munich Agreement of September 1938 that triggered WWII, a recurrent pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative that seeks to relativise and erode the disastrous historical role of the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact (the Treaty of Non-Aggression between Germany and the Soviet Union) and its secret protocols, which divided Eastern and Central Europe into German and Soviet spheres of influence. The Munich Pact has historically been seen as a symbol of dangerous “appeasement policy"; it has been widely criticised for its disastrous consequences. Great Britain and France, without inviting Czechoslovakia, decided that for the sake of peace in Europe, the Czechoslovak Sudetenland region, which was predominantly inhabited by Germans, must be surrendered to Germany.