This year, many fake news, have spread very quickly and on a large scale. Lots of fake news shared on social media has snowballed. Each adds his little comment, what he heard here and there, to give totally absurd infox.
The Covid-19 epidemic and more particularly vaccines have been particularly targeted. No wonder when we see the multitude of figures, all different, announced by politicians, doctors, so-called experts … Not easy to navigate. And in our top Fake Off articles you’ve read the most in 2021, many are about the virus and bites.
So here’s a quick recap of the articles that most interested you this year.
FAKE OFF
1. Are the side effects of Pfizer vaccine “more important” than those of other vaccines?
On Monday April 12, during a debate on CNews around vaccines, Doctor Jean-Michel Cohen declared: “We never tell about the side effects of the Pfizer vaccine. […] The side effects of Pfizer are more serious than the side effects of other vaccines. “Words that prompted a reaction on social networks.
If “more important” is used in the sense of “more”, then it is true. With 13,485 cases recorded on April 1, 2021 for Pfizer against 9,336 for that of AstraZeneca and 730 for that of Moderna – according to data from the National Medicines Safety Agency (ANSM) stopped on April 1, 2021. But this figure remains to be put into perspective by the number of doses used since the start of the vaccination campaign.
And if “more important” is used in the sense of “more serious”, nothing allows to affirm it. In its latest report in April, the ANSM noted that “the majority of adverse effects [du vaccin Pfizer] are expected and not serious ”. Professor Antoine Pariente, head of the Regional Center for Pharmacovigilance (CRPV) in Bordeaux, explained to 20 minutes that a comparison was not relevant given the difference between each population targeted by each vaccine.
2. Health pass: Yes, a clinic refused a patient who did not have a pass
“I am a paramedic and today we dropped a patient off at a private clinic for a heart exam. Small examination which was refused to him [au] one and only reason that this lady could not present a health pass. This is an assertion that sparked a social media scandal in July.
The ambulance company had confirmed the event with 20 minutes : “It’s very good that he posts things like that, so that people can see the reality on the ground. He did take this lady to a clinic, where she was refused. A situation considered problematic and which had already arisen in certain territories, according to the National Chamber of Ambulance Services. At the time, this first alert worried professionals about the future of admissions to care.
3. Provence: Lavender essential oil soon to be banned by Europe?
In Provence, lavender growers mobilized this summer for fear of seeing lavandin essential oil banned by the European Union. The European Commission immediately denied the information to 20 Minutes. The only statement: “European legislation will be revised with the aim of better protecting consumers’ health and the environment. »Modifications in consultation with the actors of the sector and in particular the producers. “There will be no legislative proposals before the end of 2022”, the Commission concluded.
4. Unemployment insurance: Yes, a former minimum wage worker will see his allowance drop by more than 300 euros with the reform
A calculation of the amount of unemployment benefit after the July 1 reform sparked strong reactions on Facebook last April. An affirmation which, after verifications, is authentic and complies with the new method of calculating this allowance, which entered into force on that date. However, the publication fails to specify that the jobseeker concerned will benefit from this allowance over a longer period.
“These new calculation rules lead to less compensation, but longer: 14 months on average, compared to 11 currently. According to Unédic estimates, overall, 63% of beneficiaries will receive a total of lower compensation and 23% higher compensation ”, detailed the Public Service site. However, several experts had explained that beneficiaries very rarely go to the end of their rights. Even by increasing their compensation period up to 14 months, the government is therefore making sure to save money.
5. Tattoo inks banned from January 2022? Be careful!
A misleading message, which affirmed the ban on tattoo inks by January 2022, circulated this year on social networks. In fact, a European regulation provides for the prohibition of some twenty pigments, new mandatory labeling of bottles, and a limitation of certain substances. A new wave of ban is due to take place by 2023, but this time it will be “essential and irreplaceable” pigments.
How will they replace the pigments removed? Will there be a solution for those in 2023 for which we do not know of a possible replacement to date? When are the new labels going to hit the market? What about stocks already purchased by tattoo artists? So many unanswered questions for professionals. Karine Grenouille, secretary of the National Union of Tattoo Artists, explained to 20 minutes that the new regulations were modeled on the standards in force in cosmetics, but it is very different.
6. Meal for one euro: Yes, a student was served a meager portion of pasta in Metz
In January, meals served for 1 euro were set up in university restaurants across the country, to fight against student insecurity. The quality side of the meal was questioned by a Twitter post which showed a 200 gram serving of ravioli, a yogurt and a bottle of water. The Metz student noted a significant difference in meals since the switch to 1 euro.
Crous Lorraine estimated that the student behind the photo may have been the victim of “an exceptional manufacturing anomaly”: “Our homemade pasta is sold in portions ranging from 250 to 300 g. “
7. Coronavirus: Beware of this figure on the side effects of the Pfizer vaccine put forward by Didier Raoult
In April, Didier Raoult had argued, in a video, that there are 70% side effects with the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. The professor explained that he was relying on work from the prestigious journal Nature. This was actually the percentage of people who felt pain at the site of the sting after their injection.
Nature is based on data from Tom Shimabukuro, a researcher with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which is dated Jan. 14. Of nearly a million people who participated in this research, 67.7% reported “pain” after the first dose of Pfizer-Moderna vaccine and 74.8% after the second dose.
8. Coronavirus: No, Jacques Attali did not predict, in 1981, a “pandemic” intended to “reduce the population”
Throughout the year, Jacques Attali, former adviser to François Mitterrand at the Elysee Palace, was accused of having foreseen or even wished for the Covid-19 pandemic. Several quotes were shared on social networks, allegedly from an interview between Jacques Attali with the journalist and doctor Michel Salomon published in his book L’Avenir de la vie, published in 1981.
Contacted by our colleagues from AFP Factuel, the former adviser denounces a text “totally invented”. If Jacques Attali expressed himself well in the book L’Avenir de la vie, his words have been totally invented in viral publications for a few days. The text reproduced on Facebook is “nothing close to the initial text”. Despite this denial, fake news does not seem to stop circulating, especially on Facebook, where the publications are still viral.
9. Coronavirus: Hundreds of deaths caused by Pfizer’s vaccine? It’s wrong !
At the start of the year, using data from the European database EudraVigilance, which compiles the reports of adverse reactions likely to be linked to drugs, Internet users deduced that the vaccine from Pfizer and BioNTech caused deaths, or even is more dangerous than Covid-19. A table containing the numbers had gone viral.
Asked by 20 minutes, the European Medicines Agency had refuted the conclusions drawn by Internet users: “The total number of deaths and the total number of cases for the consequence of the reactions [hospitalisation ou non, mort] are incorrect and lead to misinterpretation of the data. Importantly, the EMA pointed out that the numbers in the death column (“fatal”) “do not necessarily mean that the events reported were caused by the vaccine.”
10. A gendarme summons you by email to the juvenile brigade? Watch out for this spam campaign
If the virality of social networks causes the spread of fake news, it also helps prevent possible scams, as was the case last October. A reader alerted 20 Minutes following the receipt of an email convening by the gendarmerie due to an alleged ongoing affair. The author of the message invited to click on the attachment to read the invitation.
It was actually a scam. “If facts of such a nature were blamed on you, the gendarmes would go directly to your home and would not summon you by email”, explained the National Gendarmerie.