Disinfo: WHO impedes the use of cheap, accessible drugs that can effectively cure COVID-19

Summary

Dr. Didier Raoult, the famous French infectious disease specialist, creator and director of the Mediterranean University-Clinical Institute of Infectious Diseases, used chloroquine for treatment. The results of Dr. Raoult and his institute were outstanding: by the end of March, only 10 of the 2,400 people who received treatment at his institute had died. [—] For 80 years, chloroquine has been a cheap, common, safe generic. And only when it turned out that the medicine was priced at 4 cents, it was established that it couldn’t cure COVID-19 because it would potentially be too cheap and accessible. Another promising drug was remdesivir, an Ebola drug developed by Gilead Sciences. And what? On April 23rd, WHO “accidentally” posted on its website test results that showed that remdesivir was no good.

Disproof

This is part of the pro-Kremlin disinformation campaign around the coronavirus, and specifically its efforts to spread false or misleading health information related to COVID-19, its prevention, and its treatment. See similar false claims like that COVID-19 can be cured with saline solution, that treatment for COVID-19 will lead to forced vaccination, and that handwashing is useless for preventing the spread of the virus. False and misleading health claims are the most dangerous and irresponsible aspect of coronavirus-related disinformation, as they can have a direct impact on people’s health and even their lives. According to the World Health Organisation, “no pharmaceutical products have yet been shown to be safe and effective for the treatment of COVID-19.” In a statement, WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said: “We call on individuals and countries to refrain from using therapeutics that have not been demonstrated to be effective in the treatment of COVID-19. The history of medicine is strewn with examples of drugs that worked on paper, or in a test tube, but didn't work in humans or were actually harmful. We must follow the evidence. There are no short-cuts.” On 20 March, the WHO announced a major global trial called SOLIDARITY to test four potential treatments for COVID-19, including the malaria medications chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine. The SOLIDARITY trial will involve 45 countries and is designed to “dramatically cut the time needed to generate robust evidence about what drugs work.” Chloroquine has recently garnered public attention after a small study of 36 COVID-19 patients in France demonstrated initially promising results; however, infectious disease experts have said the findings are not conclusive and require further study. Importantly, chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine can have serious side effects, especially at high doses or when combined with other medicines. They should not be used without a prescription and without medical supervision. Experts and health authorities, including the WHO and the European Medicine Agency, have also expressed concern that premature use of these drugs for COVID-19 may create dangerous shortages for patients who need them for other serious conditions, including lupus and rheumatoid arthritis. The WHO advises against “unnecessary stockpiling and the creation of shortages of approved medicines that are required to treat other diseases”. See the WHO’s mythbusting page about false COVID-19 health advice for more information.

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southfront.org (Archived)
  • Reported in: Issue 195
  • DATE OF PUBLICATION: 30/04/2020
  • Outlet language(s) English
  • Countries and/or Regions discussed in the disinformation: France, US
  • Keywords: coronavirus
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Disproof

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Disinfo: Ukraine lost territorial integrity after Zelenskyy signed the land market law

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Disproof

This is a recurrent narrative aimed to discredit Ukrainian statehood. The claim that the adoption of the law on the land market is an illustration of foreign control and loss of territorial integrity for Ukraine is false. The law states that only Ukrainian citizens and companies registered in Ukraine and under Ukrainian law will be eligible to buy agricultural land in Ukraine. Other restrictions are prescribed by the law. Also, the Association Council welcomed the official Kyiv steps to open the land market, which "should be based on the rule of law and the principles of sustainability, transparency, fairness and inclusiveness."

Disinfo: The Skripal affair was forgotten because after two years no essential evidence was found

The Czech Republic accused Russia of attempting to poison officials who demolished the Marshal Konev monument. These accusations remind us of the Skripal affair which everyone forgot because no essential evidence was ever found.

Apr 29, 2020
Disproof

A recurring pro-Kremlin narrative attempting to delegitimise any criticism of Russian actions by presenting it as a manifestation of the West's "anti-Russian" provocations. In fact, incidents such as the Skripal case and the downing of MH17 are well-documented cases of acts of Kremlin-enabled violence outside Russia. Although the entirety of evidence against Russia in the Skripal case has not been made public, the evidence in the public domain is very significant and leaves no room for doubt. Two operatives of the Main Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation (known as its former Russian acronym GRU) have been identified by UK Police Authorities as the chief suspects. Their identities have been further studied by investigastion network Bellingcat: Anatoliy Chepiga and Aleksandr Mishkin. The monument in Prague to Marshall Konev was erected in 1980 during the "normalisation" period in communist Czechoslovakia. The democratically elected leadership of Prague's Municipal District 6, which retains legal ownership of the statue, voted to move the monument to a museum and replace it with a memorial commemorating Soviet sacrifices in the fight against Hitler in general, and the liberation of Prague in particular. More information available here. The Kremlin's reaction to this decision has been extremely hostile, and as of last week, the mayor of Prague 6 has been under police protection after a Russian agent allegedly arrived in the Czech Republic carrying ricin poison. See similar cases here that there was no evidence of Russia's involvement in the poisoning of Skripals and that Russia is accused of US election meddling and the Skripals’ poisoning without proof. For further cases on the Konev monument, see here.