The deadly Coronavirus in China has sparked a wave of health related misinformation with the latest being an old and unrelated video showing larvae being extracted from a person's lip, falsely linked to the outbreak.
The 1.37 second clip, shows a person removing the larvae with a pair of tweezers from the skin under the affected person's lip.
The video is being shared with the caption, "Korona virus, very new deadly form of virus, china is suffering, may come to India immediately, avoid any form of cold drinks, ice creams, koolfee, etc, any type of preserved foods, milkshake, rough ice, ice colas, milk sweets older then 48 hours, for atleast 90 days from today."
Click here to view, and here for an archive.
We also received the same video on our WhatsApp helpline number (7700906111) inquiring about the veracity of the message.
We searched with the same caption on Facebook, and found that the misleading message is viral with the same video.
Also Read: Hoax Alert: Viral 'Emergency Notification' On Coronavirus Is Fake
FACT-CHECK
BOOM found that the viral video has no relation to Coronavirus as it is an old video which can be traced back to October 2019, before the Coronavirus outbreak that was first reported in December 2019.
We broke the video into keyframes and ran a reverse image search using Yandex, a Russian search engine which search results showed that the video can be traced back to October 24, 2019, in a video uploaded on YouTube.
In the 1.45 seconds video which is seconds longer than the viral video, one can spot the same visuals and the caption when translated from Spanish to English reads, "Worm on the lip". (Original caption - Gusano en el labio).
However, BOOM cannot independently verify the origins of the video.
The Coronavirus is microscopic (not visible to the naked eye) and is not a larva / insect as seen in the viral video.
Additionally none of the research or advisories from any country have mentioned the steps recommended in the viral message. The official Twitter handle of the Ministry of Health had shared preventive measures recommended by the World Health Organisation, however there are no measures recommended as stated in the viral message.
Also Read: Coronavirus In China: India On Alert
