Stop scaring people by spreading fake news about animals and covid-19: Maneka Gandhi

By Aasawari Shenolikar :

“THE best way to grab somebody’s attention is to scare them. Newspaper agencies and television channels, during these tough times, are fighting for readership and viewership. And the best way to do this is by spreading panic among them,” says animal rights activist, environmentalist and politician Maneka Gandhi while talking to ‘The Hitavada’, in response to the news item that was carried in major newspapers under the headline ‘Stray dogs may have played a role in novel coronavirus origin: Study’. “Most newspapers retained the headline which is misleading for there is not a single line in the study that states that dogs have the coronavirus and that they can pass it.

It’s a technical article that talks of receptors et al without specifically mentioning anything about dogs,” she clarifies, adding that every now and then fake news about the coronavirus rings an alarm bell and gets people talking about it. Elaborating on this aspect, Maneka Gandhi brings to fore another news item that made headlines a few days after the world was gripped by pandemic scare. “An item about a tiger in Bronx Zoo testing positive for coronavirus went viral, but the news was completely fake,” she states and cites reasons for the said news being false. Firstly, tigers in Bronx Zoo are not fed by humans, they are fed by machines. If a human feeds them by hand, there are chances that the wild animal can attack the human and make him his food.

Secondly, as public places were shut down due to coronavirus scare, the zoos were also closed. So none of the animals, including the said tiger, came in close contact with any coronavirus positive patient. And if it were to be true, why weren’t other animals tested for the virus? Thirdly, Bronx Zoo has 20 tigers, why was only one tiger talked about randomly and then there was no follow up? “Abroad also people are looking for headlines that will cause a sensation and when this tiger came into limelight, suddenly people started talking about whether the other members of the cat family were also susceptible,” she says. By promoting such dangerous perceptions, the motive is to spread panic, feels Gandhi.

As for dogs being infected or spreading the coronavirus as denoted by the headline in question, Maneka Gandhi very perceptively points out that when the pandemic made inroads in our country, Prime Minister Narendra Modi along with the Health Minister, had specifically instructed three main institutions to conduct research to find if animals can get or transmit the coronavirus. “Haryana Veterinary University, Research Centre at Pantnagar University and Tanuvas - Veterinary University in Tamil Nadu tested thousands of animals, including dogs and came up with a report that stated that the coronavirus cannot be transmitted by animals.” Throwing more light, Gandhi states that coronavirus is part of the flu virus. Every year humans get infected with the flu and most recover.

Each time as the body develops immunity, the same virus loses its virulence and hence it mutates. “But the parent family remains the same. For tens of thousands of years, humans have been getting the flu. Like Hurricanes are given different names, each major epidemic is given a different name. This time it’s corona, before that it was Swine flu, even before that SARS, Chickengunya et al. Have we, over these years and over the different epidemics, ever heard that dogs or cats were infected with the virus?” Similarly, during these four months since the COVID-19 has gripped the entire world, has anyone heard of even one dog or cat dying because of coronavirus?

Agencies, she feels, have run out of news. In a lighter vein she adds, that there are no accidents happening, women are not getting molested, domestic violence has increased but that is not likely to cause sensation. So now agencies are looking for angles in coronavirus and coming up with stories that have no substance or truth, but is able to cause sensation by blowing things out of proportion. For cementing her point Gandhi discloses that Dr CK Pandav, Head of Community Health Medicine at AIIMS has quoted, “In all my experience of Community Health Medicine, I can vouch for the fact that animals can neither get nor give coronavirus.”

People like listening to ‘Bhoot Bangla’ story and the agencies feed it to them via fake news like animals causing the spread of the virus. Applauding the efforts being taken by thousands of animal lovers across the country, who since the time of the outbreak, are caring for and feeding the stray animals, Gandhi asks one pertinent question - “Have any one of these volunteers caught the virus by coming in contact with the animals?” Stop scaring the people by spreading such fake news, the founder of the organisation People For Animals asserts.