Cuss Word Used to Tell 3rd COVID Wave’s Impact? No, Pic’s Morphed!

A morphed image of a newspaper clipping showing derogatory language being used to indicate the impact of a third wave of COVID is being shared across social media platforms.

We found that the original clipping featured in the Lucknow edition of Hindi newspaper Hindustan that was published on 10 June and the headline had been altered to add the derogatory word.

CLAIM

The newspaper clipping's headline uses derogatory language to indicate that the impact of the third coronavirus wave will be less.

The headline in Hindi reads: ‘राहत: कोरोना की तीसरी लहर **** बराबर आएगी’. (Translation: Relief: The third wave of Corona will have less impact.)

(Note: The Quint has blurred the derogatory word seen in the viral clipping.)

More instances of the newspaper clipping being shared with a range of different claims on Facebook can be accessed here and here, while those on Twitter can be accessed here, here and here.

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WHAT WE FOUND

Using cues such as the publication's name in the viral clipping, we went through Hindustan's website to look for articles that matched the content in the clipping. We found an article published on 9 June that discussed whether the third coronavirus wave would be as dangerous as the second one.

We then checked the e-paper version of the newspaper in the aforementioned date range and went through different city editions. This led us to an article published in the newspaper's Lucknow edition on 10 June.

We found that the original headline read: ‘राहत: कोरोना की तीसरी लहर छोटी रहने के संकेत’, which translates to ‘Relief: Signs of Corona's third wave to remain small.’

On comparing the viral clipping with the original one, we found several similar elements in the two. However, we noticed a stark difference in the words used in the headline.

Even the font of the headline is different in the two clippings.

Clearly, an edited newspaper clipping was used to falsely claim that the outlet used derogatory language to indicate that the impact of the third coronavirus wave will be less.

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HOW CAN INDIA PREPARE FOR THE NEXT WAVE OF COVID?

In an exclusive webinar hosted by The Quint’s health vertical – FIT – on 20 May, Dr Rakesh Mishra, former director, CSIR-Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology & Advisor to CSIR CCMB said that any new variant, when it emerges, “has the property of being more infectious since it is replacing the old one due of its efficiency of infecting people”. He further said that a change in human behaviour is needed.

Meanwhile, an interim result of an ongoing study jointly conducted by the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Delhi, and the World Health Organization (WHO) has found that children are unlikely to be affected disproportionately if a third wave of COVID-19 pandemic hit India.

(With inputs from SM Hoax Slayer)

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