The story from last Saturday about the remarkable properties of toothpaste with zinc and tin, and how it neutralizes the COVID-19 coronavirus, did not spread as widely as…juice of black chokeberry“However, it is important to carefully consider the sources of dissemination.”So, RIA Novosti“launched”On December 12, 2020, it was reported that “toothpastes containing zinc and tin can neutralize the coronavirus by 99.9% in just two minutes. These conclusions were reached by American scientists during laboratory studies. The results were published in the British Dental Journal. The aim of the program was to determine whether it is possible to reduce the spread of SARS-CoV-2 using oral care products.”
It is important to note that the post received nearly800,000views and no links to the original source of information.
Fact-checkers from Factcheck.kz“found out”“having studied the initial”publication.
In the study’s results, the researchers themselves assert that brushing and rinsing are not treatments or ways to completely protect a person from infection. Moreover, the authors state that they are only in the early stages of clinical research, and the results are merely preliminary. The trials involved not 260 participants, but only 50. The scientists also do not indicate anywhere that toothpaste and mouthwash are capable of “neutralizing” the coronavirus. The authors write that with regular use, these products can only temporarily reduce the bacterial load in the mouth, as they contain antiseptic solutions.
Using the social media monitoring platform YouScan, let’s take a look at the number of mentions of “toothpaste with zinc and tin” among Belarusian internet users:
The first was the site infos.by, which indeedremovedThis post:
The first was the site infos.by, which indeedremovedThis post:We are examining which Belarusian information sources “picked up” a straightforward science-pop news item from Russia:
- https://belnaviny.by/mir/nazvany-sposoby-ubit-covid-19-za-neskolko-sekund.html
- https://www.belnovosti.by/koronavirus-covid-19/nazvan-sposob-unichtozhit-koronavirus-za-dve-minuty
- https://pogovorim.by/25341-vrachi-nazvali-sposob-unichtozhit-koronavirus-za-dve-minuty.html
- https://newsbel.by/12/12/uchenye-nazvali-sposob-unichtozhit-koronavirus-za-dve-minuty/
- https://mogilew.by/varied/204074-uchenye-obnaruzhili-bystryy-sposob-neytralizacii-koronavirusa.html
- https://health.ej.by/avtoritetno/2020/12/12/uchenye-vyyasnili-kak-legko-unichtozhit-koronavirus.html
- http://brestnote.by/25135-uchenye-nashli-sposob-unichtozhit-koronavirus-za-dve-minuty.html
- https://belnaviny.by/society/uchenye-zubnye-pasty-effektivny-protiv-koronavirusa.html
- https://www.autoparus.by/publication/29054
- https://www.belnovosti.by/koronavirus-covid-19/uchenye-dokazali-effektivnost-zubnyh-past-protiv-koronavirusa
- https://charter97.org/ru/news/2020/12/13/403784
- https://n1.by/news/1221669-mediki-vyyasnili-kak-legko-unichtojit-koronavirus
- https://www.kobrincity.by/aktualno/item/25135-uchenye-nashli-sposob-nejtralizovat-koronavirus-na-99-9-za-dve-minuty.html
Almost all publications lack citations to the source text, only referencing the British Dental Journal website.
This set of websites includes, as in the previous publication, various Belarusian news aggregators that, for the sake of clickbait and the urgency of the topic of the coronavirus pandemic in Belarus amid the second wave and a record number of registered cases (December 6-13 –It seems like you’ve entered a number. Could you please provide the text you would like me to translate?“People are ready to publish materials of questionable content.”
Author: Mikhail Doroshevich
