Fact Check: Coronavirus pandemic is just a hoax to control the general public is FALSE

Hyderabad: A video is viral on Facebook which claims Coronavirus pandemic was planned and is a hoax in order to control the general public.

The video starts with billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates, warning that "we will have to prepare" for the next pandemic."They have never isolated it or identified this virus as actually existing, so the whole thing is just a big scam."

"Of course, the more people that they test, the more people are going to test positive because they're just testing for RNA viruses and genetic material."

"All deaths are basically being labelled as COVID deaths now whether they are or not. All you have to do is test positive for this genetic material in your body, and it'll say COVID-19".

Archived claim can be found here.

Fact Check:

All the claims in the video are FALSE. COVID-19 pandemic is NOT a hoax.

213 Countries and Territories around the world have reported a total of 22,882,731 confirmed cases of the coronavirus COVID-19 that originated from Wuhan, China, and a death toll of 797,428 deaths.

There are total 3 claims in the video as follows:

Claim 1 - COVID-19 virus hasn't been identified or isolated

World Health Organization says the virus was first identified on January 5, 2020, as an unknown cluster of pneumonia cases in Wuhan. Later is named as coronavirus diseases 19. In short COVID - 19.

Claim 2 - COVID-19 tests broadly examines for RNA viruses and genetic material

COVID-19 specifically tests SARS-CoV-2 and not all RNA viruses. RNA viruses include SARS, influenza and Ebola disease. COVID-19 is one of the RNA viruses.

The Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) tests are used to detect SARS-CoV-2 works by detecting the presence of its RNA in the swab sample.

Claim 3 - All deaths being recorded as COVID-19 deaths

It is wrong to say all deaths are being recorded under the name of COVID deaths. Infact, most of the deaths despite due to COVID 19 are not registered under COVID 19 because no tests were done.

According to the Deccan Chronicle, COVID-19 deaths are estimated to be 50 per cent higher than the reported cases in the state's medical bulletin.

Suspected, non-tested and negative report-based deaths are not being registered by the government as there is no proof of the COVID-19 test results and families are unwilling to have the name of the disease on the death certificate.

The coronavirus pandemic is not a hoax. Hence, the claim is FALSE.

This fact check has been published as part of the Internews Information Saves Lives: Rapid Response Fund project to NewsMeter