Daily Debunk
Claim: A viral video shows a pet scanner detecting a microchip from the COVID-19 vaccine in a person's arm.
Verdict: False
Read the full story at: Snopes
Social Media Disinfo
Circulating on social media: Thai-language post claiming that Thailand ranked highest in the world for new coronavirus cases on June 28, 2021.
Verdict: False
Read the full story at: Agence France-Presse
Factual Reads on Coronavirus
Rural India sinks deeper into debt as COVID-19 wipes out work
The coronavirus and a lockdown aimed at stopping it last year saw millions of people thrown out of jobs in cities and towns and forced back to their villages, and ever higher levels of debt.
-- Reuters, July 6
Implications of the second wave of COVID-19 in India
Understanding why the second wave has been more dangerous than the first could help to identify the potential areas of diagnostics to target with future control strategies.
-- The Lancet, June 30
How COVID-19 Could Lead to a Golden Age of Innovation
A comparison of the U.S. response to World War II and COVID-19 shows where we’ve gone wrong—and how to adjust course.
-- The Atlantic, June 28
Claim that Chinese team hid early SARS-CoV-2 sequences to stymie origin hunt sparks furor
The unreviewed paper, by evolutionary biologist Jesse Bloom of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, asserts that a team of Chinese researchers sampled viruses from some of the earliest COVID-19 patients in Wuhan, China, posted the viral sequences to a widely used U.S. database, and then a few months later had the genetic information removed to “obscure their existence.”
-- Science, June 23
UK scientist with links to Wuhan lab 'recuses himself' from inquiry into Covid origins
Dr Peter Daszak has left investigation into coronavirus emergence after concerns raised over links with Chinese laboratory.
-- Telegraph, June 22
New Coronavirus Variants Are Urgently Being Tracked Around the World
Genomic sequencing efforts are limited in developing countries, but scientists are mobilizing to help.
-- Scientific American, June 21
Former CDC director Redfield explains why he believes COVID-19 emerged from lab, WHO 'compromised'
Redfield argued COVID-19's efficient human-to-human spread contradicted behavior of other deadly coronaviruses with similar profiles.
-- Fox News, June 15
A Top Virologist in China, at Center of a Pandemic Storm, Speaks Out
The virologist, Shi Zhengli, said in a rare interview that speculation about her lab in Wuhan was baseless. But China’s habitual secrecy makes her claims hard to validate.
-- New York Times (via Todayonline.com), June 14
Why India’s Second COVID Surge Is So Much Worse Than the First
Large gatherings and much more lenient restrictions have allowed the virus to spread at devastating levels.
-- Scientific American, June 9
The Science Suggests a Wuhan Lab Leak
The Covid-19 pathogen has a genetic footprint that has never been observed in a natural coronavirus.
-- Wall Street Journal (via BizNews), June 6
We may never know where the virus came from. But evidence still suggests nature.
Labs like the one in Wuhan are essential to preparing for future pandemics.
-- Washington Post, June 4
The Best Coronavirus Myth-Busting Collections
COVID19 Infodemics Observatory
Reliable Coronavirus Information
U.S. Centers for Disease Control
Federation of American Scientists
Johns Hopkins University & Medicine