In Hong Kong, a 40-year-old doctor is outraged by the messages she has received on Whatsapp to a group set up by her family. "I saw some information… a tip to use hair dryer to sterilize the face and hands and drink hot water 60 degrees Celsius to stay healthy. I also saw a message on Facebook recommending that people drink Dettol. "
As a doctor, he knows that none of these measures are effective, but they can be dangerous.
Since the announcement of the appearance of the new Chinese virus in the city of Wuhan in early January, fake news has invaded the Internet.
Christina Tardagilla, a media specialist at the Poynter Institute, says more than 50 cross-border organizations have identified "three waves" of such information. "One is about the origin of the virus, the second is about fake drug patents, and the third is about prevention or treatment," he said.
Journalists in charge of cross-checking and verifying the reliability of information in AFP have encountered a wealth of fake news.
Such information, circulating in Sri Lanka, states that the 11 million inhabitants of Uhan will die. Another is that food and some communities in Australia are infected with the new Chinese virus, at a time when many publications are advertising that a saline solution protects against the virus.
Many of the misleading posts are based on prejudices about eating habits in China or racist stereotypes.
The images of the woman eating a bat with "sticks" went viral and were also published by Western tabloids, which see in this proof that the cause of the crisis is the Chinese appetite for the consumption of exotic wild animals. The video was taken by a blogger in 2016 in the Palau archipelago in the Pacific. Few media corrected the information a posteriori.
The truth is that, although the Chinese gastronomic tradition wants to consume ingredients that are considered disgusting in other places and the sale of live animals is a source of concern, the bat is not a common delicacy.
In Australia, where a large Chinese community lives, there is a flood of fake news. On Monday, a Brisbane lawmaker warned voters about a false announcement by the health ministry about the dangers of moving to areas with large Chinese populations. "The fake news broadcast by idiots racists causes a sense of fear and uncertainty," he says.
On the Internet, far-right sites are taking advantage of the epidemic. One of the fake news that circulated on the far right is the existence of a vaccine against the new Chinese virus with a patent for 2015. In fact, this patent concerns a virus that was detected in poultry.
Hal Turner, a presenter of a far-right radio station that supports racist positions, published an article stating that 112.000 people have already died in China and that 2,8 million people have been quarantined.
"It is a classic process that allows the spread of rumors that emerge in an atmosphere of fear and uncertainty," explains Robert Bartolomew, a New Zealand sociologist.
Impressive media headlines and a historic lack of confidence in the Chinese government have facilitated the spread of rumors.
"But for many people, the main source of information is social media, ideal for circulating unconfirmed information," he says.
For health authorities, this inexhaustible flow of false information complicates their work.
"In Taiwan, people are starting to call hospitals and government agencies, flooding them with questions and mobilizing valuable human resources," said Kevin Xuen, an executive at Cardinal Tien Hospital in Taipei.