On December 3 Facebook profiles Gia Ukleba and Nino Kogua published the post about Japanese Professor Tasuku Honjo’s statement about coronavirus. Identical information was published by the online media outlets ProgressNews.press and News-Front Georgia. ProgressNews.press cited megatv.ge as the source of the information, albeit as of December 6 the material isn’t available on the said webpage On December 4, Tvalsazrisi.ge’s Facebook page published the information based on Nino Kogua. Disseminated information comprises several claims:
- Tasuku Honjo worked with researchers from Wuhan University for 4 years.
- If coronavirus was natural, it’d only impact countries in the same climate zone as China – It would spread only in cold places, and die in hot places.
- Coronavirus didn’t evolve naturally.
A statement that is ascribed to a Japanese Nobel laureate professor, in reality, doesn’t belong to Tasuku Honjo, he has denied the information. Claim that Honjo worked in Wuhan Laboratory is disinformation as well, Honjo has only worked in Japan and the U.S for years. As for the claim that coronavirus was manufactured and its outbreak in various climate zones is proof of that, it’s a conspiracy that lacks scientific evidence.
- Professor Honjo has denied that statement belongs to him
Nobel laureate Tasuku Honjo denied the information that was disseminated in his name. On April 27, 2020, an official statement was published on the Kyoto University webpage, in which Honjo expresses his concerns about the fact that “his name and that of Kyoto University have been used to spread false accusations and misinformation”.
On April 10, 2020, Professor Honjo in an interview with Japanse newspaper Nikkei Asian Review said that coronavirus originated from China, albeit there’s no evidence that he has ever said that the virus was manufactured in China.
- Tasuku Honjo has only worked in Japan and the U.S.
The fabricated statement that was disseminated in Georgian sources reads that Tasuku Honjo worked with researchers from Wuhan University for 4 years. English version reads that Honjo worked at Wuhan Laboratory itself. In reality, Tasuku Honjo has only worked in Japan and the U.S for years. Honjo’s biography published on the Kyoto University webpage reads that currently’ he’s a Deputy General Director at the Kyoto University.
- There’s no evidence that climate affects the transmission of the coronavirus
According to the information published on the World Health Organization’s webpage, there is currently no evidence that either weather or climate has a strong influence on transmission. WHO also emphasizes the fact that COVID-19 has been transmitted in all regions of the world, from cold and dry, to hot and humid climates.
Coronavirus is thought to be mainly transmitted directly from person-to-person through close contact, or through respiratory droplets produced when an infected person coughs or sneezes. People may be infected by touching exposed surfaces, but this is not thought to be a major transmission route.
- There’s no scientific evidence that coronavirus was manufactured
One of the most common conspiracies about the coronavirus is that it was manufactured. Albeit, the majority of scientists who have studied the coronavirus agree it evolved naturally and most likely crossed into humans from a bat.
On this topic, read a fact-check from “Myth Detector”
On May 4, Reuters published an article about a Japanese professor’s fabricated statement. The article reads that a fabricated statement was disseminated in various countries at the end of April 2020. Whereas, in Georgia, this disinformation has disseminated at the beginning of December.
Dissemination of fabricated statement from Japanese Nobel laureate professor
Facebook profile Gia Ukleba was the first to publish the fabricated statement of Japanese Professor Tasuku Honjo at 13;36, December 3. As of 15:00 December 4, the post has 994 reactions, 271 comments, and over 1700 shares.
Gia Ukleba on his profile doesn’t indicate any personal information such as place of living, workplace, and age. He hasn’t uploaded any personal photos either. On his profile, the photos we found were mostly religious, and the profile photo is a picture of the grape. At the same time, one of the profile photos of Ukleba has a solidarity frame for the ultra-national platform “Alt-info”, whose network Facebook removed on November 5 for coordinated unauthentic activities.
On the same day with a few hours difference, the identical text was published by ProgressNews.press webpage and pro-Kremlin News-Front Georgia.
ProgressNews.press indicates Megatv.ge as the source of information, but Megatv.ge’s material isn’t accessible as of December 6. According to data from Facebook search tool crowdtangle, ProgressNews.press’s article has 27 shares, while Megatv.ge’s – 22.
As of December 4, an article published on pro-Kremlin media outlet News-Front Georgia was removed, albeit it can still be found as a post on the Pro-Russian media outlet “Georgia and the World” Facebook page, which shared the link of News-Front Georgia’s article.
The identical text was published by individual Facebook profile Nino Kogua at 19:12, December 3. As of December 4, the post has 695 reactions, 150 comments, and over 1100 shares.
Pru-Russian Tvalsazrisi.ge’s Facebook page published the information based on Nino Kogua’s post on the morning of December 4. Tvalsazrisi.ge’s post has 43 shares.
Tvalsazrisi.ge has shared its’ post in 10 public groups including the group “Corona Mafia“.
The article uses data by CrowdTangle, a Facebook search tool.
Archives:
Gia Ukleba – https://archive.ph/E6fNv
Nino Kogua – https://archive.ph/2MJY6
Tvalsazrisi.ge – https://archive.ph/WsTqT
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