In the second half of April, misinformation about the new type of coronavirus continued to circulate. The tragic events in Gavar were followed by numerous misinformation. It turned out that Vladimir Putin did not play “Adana’s lament.”

Is the end of COVID-19 a prediction of scientists or a program?

On April 29, a number of websites (shantnews.am, politik.am, yerkir.am, etc.) wrote that experts from the Singapore Institute of Technology and Design, studying the statistics of people infected with COVID-19 in 131 countries, made predictions about the disease in different countries regarding the end of the outbreak. According to that forecast, the peak of the disease in Armenia has already passed and will be completely neutralized on August 19.

The news came from Russian sources in the Armenian domain: rusarminfo.ru, news.mail.ru. In publishing the same content, iravunk.com headlined “When will coronavirus leave different countries?” Opinions of epidemiologists.”

It turns out that the predictions of epidemiologists and specialists are exaggerated. The predictor is a website created by the above-mentioned Institute for Data-Based Innovation Laboratory. It is clearly stated here that the site is for educational and research purposes only and may contain errors. And the predictions were made based on the code of the model for measuring epidemics based on the confirmed cases of coronavirus on the Our World in Data website.

By the way, a few days ago media.am referred to a number of cases when the media almost literally translated misinformation about COVID-19.

The cause of death is not changed to the coronavirus in exchange for money

In the second half of April, information had circulated on Facebook according to which the relatives of the person who had died of a heart attack in Armenia were offered 100,000 AMD in order to register the cause of death as coronavirus in the autopsy. It was also mentioned that regardless of the decision of the relatives, the death was registered as being the coronavirus. According to the same information, there is an order from the Ministry of Health to register all those with a fever as infected with COVID-19.

Infocheck.am reported that the rumors being spread have nothing to do with reality. It added that the same false news was being spread in the Russian media.

The “Platform for fact-checking” also touched upon the topic and found out that the circulation of the news is based on the model of the game telephone. Nune Nersisyan, the source of the news, who circulated suspicious theses about the artificiality of the coronavirus, said in her post that the source of the information spoke about an incident that happened to their relative. Meanwhile, it turns out that the source spoke about the neighbor of their acquaintance’s aunt. According to the source, it is not possible to contact the acquaintance.

The people of Noratus did not attack the Republican Hospital

The shootings in Gavar on April 28 and the subsequent developments, in the absence of official information, were followed by unverified news. On the same day, in order to carry out a vendetta, the relatives of the killed party broke into the hospital and inflicted severe injuries to the other side.

Against the background of these alarming events, on the evening of April 29, Hraparak.am wrote that they had received information that the bloodshed was continuing in Yerevan’s Republican Hospital. This time, the relatives attacked the hospital and a doctor. However, the news was later denied by the police in a comment to Armtimes.com.

Putin did not play “Adana’s lament”

On April 24, tens of thousands of users posted a video on the Internet, in which Russian President Vladimir Putin allegedly played the “Adana lament” on the piano. The “fact-checking platform” found out that this video was edited. It was shot in 2017. Putin was in China on May 14 to meet with President Xi Jinping.

At that meeting, Vladimir Putin appeared a little earlier and decided to “fill in” the anticipation by playing the piano. He played the pieces Moscow Windows (Московские окна) and The City Over The Free Neva  (Город над вольной Невой).

Denials

❌ Ararat Mirzoyan’s assistant denied the rumors about people infected with the coronavirus in the National Assembly.

❌ Hraparak.am published news that Serzh Sargsyan had a meeting with Robert Kocharyan in the NSS isolation cell which lasted “about four hours,” and that the organizer and sponsor of the meeting was Nikol Pashinyan. In a conversation with 168.am, the officials of the offices of the second and third presidents denied this news.

❌ The Ministry of Emergency Situations informed that the ministry does not have a plane. Earlier, citing Russian sources, the media had reported that the transit plane arrested on April 25 in the Russian Federation belonged to the RA Ministry of Emergency Situations.

Arshaluys Barseghyan