[NFB_of_Georgia] Fwd: COVID-19 - A viral list of dubious coronavirus tips claims to be from Stanford — it isn’t

Sat Mar 14 09:20:11 UTC 2020

Please read for immediate update.

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: McGill, Kay <Kay.McGill at ablegeorgia.ga.gov>
Date: Fri, Mar 13, 2020 at 10:01 AM
Subject: COVID-19 - A viral list of dubious coronavirus tips claims to be
from Stanford — it isn’t
To: McGill, Kay <Kay.McGill at ablegeorgia.ga.gov>
CC: Housley, Danny <danny.housley at gatfl.gatech.edu>, Anika Futch <
afutch at savannahcblv.org>, Jane Boynton <jboynton at garrs.org>

Hello everyone, pls read the following. The concern is that there is
information in the article recently sent that is true e.g. washing your
hands. Lesson learned – we have to be vigilant regarding info on COVID-19.

So I am sending this email to the bazillions of people I sent the original
article to yesterday. My goodness gracious, what times we are living in
these days!

Thank you, Danny (Tools for Life)  and Jane (GaRRS) for this alert!

Hey Kay, just a heads up: the information in the e-mail you shared is a
hoax.

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2020/03/theres-a-facebook-coronavirus-post-going-viral-claiming-to-be-from-stanford-dont-believe-it/
<https://gcc01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.motherjones.com%2Fpolitics%2F2020%2F03%2Ftheres-a-facebook-coronavirus-post-going-viral-claiming-to-be-from-stanford-dont-believe-it%2F&data=02%7C01%7CKay.McGill%40ablegeorgia.ga.gov%7Cd4827516569944185e8508d7c74c689e%7Ce54ad2e331314ed797e3e6e95d089c4e%7C0%7C0%7C637197003305944894&sdata=ygyMOOZPlmdGgv5cdTuiVw5lBPOwRwYJza22gEpr3GE%3D&reserved=0>

*Danny Housley*
Assistive Technology Acquisition Manager

Tools for Life
Georgia Institute of Technology | College of Design
512 Means Street | Suite
<https://www.google.com/maps/search/512+Means+Street+%7C+Suite+250+%7C+Atlanta,+GA+30318?entry=gmail&source=g>
 250 | Atlanta, GA 30318
<https://www.google.com/maps/search/512+Means+Street+%7C+Suite+250+%7C+Atlanta,+GA+30318?entry=gmail&source=g>
O: 404.385.7029 | F: 404.894.1215
amacusg.org
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gatfl.org
<https://gcc01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fgatfl.org%2F&data=02%7C01%7CKay.McGill%40ablegeorgia.ga.gov%7Cd4827516569944185e8508d7c74c689e%7Ce54ad2e331314ed797e3e6e95d089c4e%7C0%7C0%7C637197003305954865&sdata=2eGHqeY9ti3WnWLwHSRYOyaQ7Vp5gIosebMRLiQSRr4%3D&reserved=0>
(Formerly known as AMAC Accessibility)

A list of dubious coronavirus tips is going viral on Facebook and Twitter,
as well as spreading through email. It falsely claims to be from the
Stanford Hospital board and contains advice like “take a few sips of water
every 15 minutes at least,” to kill the virus. None of these tips have
anything to do with reality; it is dangerous misinformation.

Stanford confirmed the message did not come from the university. In a
statement emailed to *The Verge*, Lisa Kim, a media relations specialist at
Stanford Health, said “A widely distributed email about COVID-19 that is
attributed to a ‘Stanford Hospital board member’ contains inaccurate
information. It did not come from Stanford Medicine.”

“Even if the virus gets into your mouth, drinking water or other liquids
will wash them down through your throat and into the stomach. Once there,
your stomach acid will kill all the virus,” one tip reads. Loren Rauch, an
emergency room doctor in Los Angeles who has a master’s degree in
epidemiology, told *Mother Jones*
<https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2020/03/theres-a-facebook-coronavirus-post-going-viral-claiming-to-be-from-stanford-dont-believe-it/>
this advice was “totally bogus.”

Another tip tells people to check for the virus by holding their breath for
10 seconds. “If you complete it successfully without coughing, without
discomfort, stiffness or tightness, etc., it proves there is no Fibrosis in
the lungs, basically indicates no infection,” it adds.

Unfortunately, this is also false. “That can check if you are anxious or
have respiratory compromise,” Rauch said
<https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2020/03/theres-a-facebook-coronavirus-post-going-viral-claiming-to-be-from-stanford-dont-believe-it/>
.

The message also says the virus “hates the sun” and isn’t heat-resistant.
It can be “killed by a temperature of just 26/27 degrees,” (roughly 78
degrees Fahrenheit). This is not entirely true. “If something’s in
sunlight, it’s going to get disinfected pretty quickly, because that’s
ultraviolet light, just the same type of sanitation we use in hospitals,”
Rauch told *Mother Jones*. “But just, like, ‘It’s gonna be a warm day
today. We don’t have to worry about coronavirus,’ I don’t think that’s
gonna work.”

I received the tips firsthand, in an email from a friend who was sending
them out in a sincere effort to keep people safe. When I read that I didn’t
have coronavirus if I could hold my breath for 10 seconds, I felt relieved.
Then I felt suspicious. I remembered Adi Robertson’s advice for spotting
fake news
<https://www.theverge.com/2019/12/3/20980741/fake-news-facebook-twitter-misinformation-lies-fact-check-how-to-internet-guide>:
if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

So I did what any of us should do if we’re on the receiving end of
misinformation from a friend or loved one: I told my friend that the tips
were fake. The most reliable sources of information on the coronavirus
continue to be the World Health Organization’s
<https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019> guidance on
COVID-19, or the Centers for Disease Control’s coronavirus page
<https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/index.html>.

Another article from *Mother Jones*

If you’ve opened Facebook or Twitter in the past few days, you might have
come across a post <https://imgur.com/5qQSoqc> with alarming information
about the coronavirus attributed to Stanford University.

The post goes something like this: People with coronavirus may not show
symptoms for several days, but if you can comfortably hold your breath for
more than 10 seconds, you’re probably not infected. You should sip water
every 15 minutes to wash the virus into your stomach, where stomach acid
kills it, to prevent the virus from entering your windpipe and lungs. And
if you have a runny nose, you have a cold, not the coronavirus.

Most of this is false.

I emailed Stanford’s office of communications to check the post’s
authenticity. “The post is not from Stanford,” Lisa Kim at Stanford Health
Care wrote back. She directed anyone who is confused to the university’s actual
coronavirus information page
<https://nam11.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fstanfordhealthcare.org%2Fstanford-health-care-now%2F2020%2Fnovel-coronavirus.html&data=01%7C01%7Caweinberg%40motherjones.com%7Ceede403645714facf10508d7c5711684%7C012f9e2f06f14827a96c9a54d367d83e%7C1&sdata=qhI4zZhiYR5sA1mSr3LhJIaTW13YhqOx1JYp5s0QeRk%3D&reserved=0>
.

Then I called Loren Rauch, a community ER doctor at Antelope Valley
Hospital in Los Angeles with a master’s degree in epidemiology, to dispel
some of the rumors circulating online. The statements in bold are quotes
from the viral Facebook post, and Rauch’s responses—lightly edited for
length and clarity—follow.

“The new coronavirus may not show signs of infection for many days. By the
time you have fever and/or cough and go to the hospital, the lung is
usually 50 percent fibrosis.”

That doesn’t mean anything. Fibrosis is a late scarring process. You may
have 50 percent of your lung affected by the virus, causing pneumonia or
fluid in your lungs. But fibrosis—that is not correct.

If you can breathe fine, do not go to the doctor. Only go if you cannot
breathe or are very ill.

“Taiwan experts provide a simple self-check that we can do every morning:
Take a deep breath and hold it for more than 10 seconds. If you do this
successfully without coughing, without discomfort, stiffness or tightness,
there is no fibrosis in the lungs; it basically indicates no infection. In
critical times, please self-check every morning in an environment with
clean air.”

That’s not true. That can check if you are anxious or have respiratory
compromise.

“Everyone should ensure your mouth and throat are moist, never dry. Take a
few sips of water every 15 minutes at least. Even if the virus gets into
your mouth, drinking water or other liquids will wash them down through
your throat and into the stomach. Once there, your stomach aid will kill
all the virus. If you don’t drink enough water regularly, the virus can
enter your windpipe and then the lungs. That’s very dangerous.”

Totally bogus. That’s not real.

“Drinking warm water is effective for all viruses. Try not to drink liquids
with ice.”

No.

“If you have a runny nose and sputum, you have a common cold. Coronavirus
pneumonia is a dry cough with no runny nose.”

Editor’s note: On this one, we thought new research might help: A pre-print
study <https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.03.05.20030502v1> by a
group of German researchers suggests that upper respiratory tract symptoms
like runny nose may be more common than previously thought.

However, the CDC
<https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/about/symptoms.html> still
emphasizes fever, cough, and shortness of breath as the main symptoms. And
Whitney Adams, a former pandemic preparedness coordinator and programs
manager for CARE <https://www.care.org/>, issued a word of caution when
considering the deluge of non-peer-reviewed research information relating
to the coronavirus. “While it’s really important for the research
community, the medical community, public health community keep sharing
these findings, we should take those with a grain of salt,” she said.

“It’s not necessarily helpful for people to try to self diagnose based on
these things that are really hard for even clinicians to understand,” Adams
said.

So the short answer is: It’s complicated.

“This new virus is not heat-resistant and will be killed by a temperature
of just 26/27 degrees Celsius (about 77 degrees Fahrenheit). It hates the
sun.”

If something’s in sunlight, it’s going to get disinfected pretty quickly,
because that’s ultraviolet light, just the same type of sanitation we use
in hospitals. The temperature in a dryer, for example, would kill
everything. But just, like, “It’s gonna be a warm day today. We don’t have
to worry about coronavirus,” I don’t think that’s gonna work.

“If someone with coronavirus sneezes, it goes about 10 feet before it drops
to the ground and is no longer airborne.”

The general rule of thumb we’re using is about six feet.

The bottom line is that “there’s a lot of misinformation floating around,”
said Adams, who noted she received an email containing the text of the
false viral Facebook post last week. So to prevent the spread of rumors, do
the information equivalent of social distancing: If someone posts something
that sounds even the slightest bit fishy, don’t pass it on.

*                      Phone number 770-414-3006*

*[image: cid:image007.png at 01D2808C.45BBAD70]*

*Project Independence: Georgia Vision Program for Adults Age 55 and Over*

*Kay McGill, M. A. Ed., CRC*

*Program Manager*

*Georgia Vocational Rehabilitation Agency*

*Office**: (770) 414-3006*

*Fax: **(770) 414-2674 | Georgia Relay: 711*

*2082 East Exchange Place│Suite 120
<https://www.google.com/maps/search/2082+East+Exchange+Place%E2%94%82Suite+120+%0D%0A+%0D%0A+Tucker,+GA+30084?entry=gmail&source=g>*
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<https://www.google.com/maps/search/2082+East+Exchange+Place%E2%94%82Suite+120+%0D%0A+%0D%0A+Tucker,+GA+30084?entry=gmail&source=g>*Tucker,
GA 30084
<https://www.google.com/maps/search/2082+East+Exchange+Place%E2%94%82Suite+120+%0D%0A+%0D%0A+Tucker,+GA+30084?entry=gmail&source=g>*

*kay.mcgill at gvs.ga.gov <kay.mcgill at gvs.ga.gov>*
*https://gvs.georgia.gov/project-independence
<https://gvs.georgia.gov/project-independence>*

-- 
Dorothy Griffin - President
National Federation of the Blind of Georgia
dgriffin at nfbga.org
770-374-4832

The National Federation of the Blind knows that blindness is not the
characteristic that defines you or your future. Every day we raise the
expectations of blind people, because low expectations create obstacles
between blind people and our dreams. You can live the life you want;
blindness is not what holds you back.
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