Rantburg

Today's Front Page   View All of Tue 04/16/2024 View Mon 04/15/2024 View Sun 04/14/2024 View Sat 04/13/2024 View Fri 04/12/2024 View Thu 04/11/2024 View Wed 04/10/2024
2020-03-12 -Signs, Portents, and the Weather-
Disinformation about the coronavirus is spreading as quickly as the virus, thanks to the usual players.
[Defense One] Chinese authorities maintain that COVID-19 likely originated at a market in Wuhan where people were selling bat meat. But Iranian, Russian, and Chinese propaganda media outlets would like you to believe, without evidence, that the emerging public health crisis comes from U.S. biological weapons.

Disinformation about the coronavirus is spreading as quickly as the outbreak, fueled by Iranian, Russian, and Chinese government-backed campaigns blaming and attacking the United States as the source for the scourge.

"One narrative all three countries [including China] highlight is the notion that the United States is weaponizing the crisis for political gain and thus worsening its spread globally," Rachel Chernaskey, a project manager for the Foreign Influence Election 2020 Project with the Foreign Policy Research Institute, or FPRI, wrote yesterday.

"While all three countries’ state-sponsored outlets pushed explicitly anti-U.S. sentiments, Iran and Russia appeared to push far more conspiratorial content than China. In the disinformation ecosystem, each country’s state-sponsored media played off the others to promote shared preferred narratives," she wrote.

The outbreak has hit Iran particularly hard, with confirmed 291 deaths and 8042 cases according to today’s numbers released by the Iranian government. Government officials, including about 10 percent of Iran’s parliament and various health officials such as Deputy Health Minister Iraj Harirchi, have tested positive for the virus.

Iran has most aggressively pushed fake news about the illness. State-backed PressTV repeatedly has broadcast the theory that COVID-19 may be a U.S. manufactured bioweapon, or that Isreali and "Zionist" scientists have used the epidemic as a cover to engineer an even more deadly strain of the virus to spring on humanity, and specifically on Iran.
Posted by Besoeker 2020-03-12 01:30|| || Front Page|| [5 views ]  Top

#1 scientists have used the epidemic as a cover to engineer an even more deadly strain of the virus

Ah'm waiting for the secondary effects of a binary platform.
Posted by Skidmark 2020-03-12 07:40||   2020-03-12 07:40|| Front Page Top

#2 Yet unavailable at Walmart or Target, SPAM from discarded Chiroptera lab subjects is still in beta-testing.
Posted by Besoeker 2020-03-12 08:11||   2020-03-12 08:11|| Front Page Top

#3 See China ban on incoming passengers.

The other shoe sandal dropping.
Posted by Skidmark 2020-03-12 10:02||   2020-03-12 10:02|| Front Page Top

#4 This is where the next conspiracy theory will come from. They'll say Trump caused it to close the borders, and because he's racist and all that rot.
Posted by rjschwarz 2020-03-12 10:38||   2020-03-12 10:38|| Front Page Top

#5 They're trying desperately to Katrina the OrangeMan.

This too will fail-- just as PeachMint, and Wusskies-are-poisoning-our-precious-bodily-fluids, and illegals-in-cages all failed.
Posted by Lex 2020-03-12 11:55||   2020-03-12 11:55|| Front Page Top

#6 I'm surprised that it's hitting Iran so hard. I figured bat soup would be haram.
Posted by Abu Uluque 2020-03-12 15:30||   2020-03-12 15:30|| Front Page Top

#7 “Coronavirus in South Korea: How 'trace, test and treat' may be saving lives,”
“Health officials believe this approach may be saving lives. The fatality rate for coronavirus in South Korea is 0.7%. Globally the World Health Organization has reported 3.4% - but scientists estimate that the death rate is lower because not all cases are reported.”
BBC
Posted by Slats Gray4104 2020-03-12 16:00||   2020-03-12 16:00|| Front Page Top

10:04 M. Murcek
09:57 MikeKozlowski
09:57 Whiskey Mike
09:56 AlmostAnonymous5839
09:50 trailing wife
09:49 trailing wife
09:48 NN2N1
09:43 ed in texas
09:43 Super Hose
09:42 Super Hose
09:41 Super Hose
09:41 M. Murcek
09:41 trailing wife
09:40 Super Hose
09:39 M. Murcek
09:38 Super Hose
09:38 AlmostAnonymous5839
09:38 NN2N1
09:35 Super Hose
09:34 Super Hose
09:32 Super Hose
09:30 Super Hose
09:29 Super Hose
09:28 Frank G









Paypal:
Google
Search WWW Search rantburg.com