CLAIM
While countries around the world are struggling to contain the novel coronavirus, visuals of a mass of bodies being unloaded from what looks like a dumping truck are going viral.
The video is claimed to be from Italy and shows a journalist reporting about the inability of city morgues to accommodate the bodies. The video has been widely shared on social media in the backdrop of the global panic over COVID-19.
A YouTube video titled, “Italy Dead bodies of victims dumped | CORONA VIRUS | CSK WORKS” by a channel named CSK WORKS garnered over 6,000 views.
A Facebook user shared the video and wrote, “Italy dumping dead bodies of covid-19 victims .”
Many other Facebook users shared the video with the exact same claim.
The Quint received an email asking for a fact-check of the video.
TRUE OR FALSE?
There’s no truth to this claim.
The video actually pertains to a TV Series named Pandemic that aired in 2007 and is about a deadly bird flu virus called riptide virus, that spreads through Los Angeles. It’s being falsely linked to the real coronavirus pandemic.
WHAT WE FOUND OUT
We came across a video by a Facebook user named मुश्ताक अहमद (Mushtaq Ahmed) one of the comments to which read, “This from TV Film Pandemic. This is not happening. Its part of movie.”
Taking a cue from there, we searched YouTube with keywords ‘Pandemic TV film’ and came across two videos titled “Pandemic | Coronavirus Movie | PART 1” and “Pandemic | Coronavirus Movie | PART 2 |” respectively by a channel named Movie Central.
Both videos were uploaded on 14 February 2020. The visuals in the second part match that of the viral video very closely. You can see them for yourself at 01:01:54 to 01:02:17.
Through a Google search, we found out that it is a TV series about a (fictional) deadly bird flu outbreak in Los Angeles that aired in 2007. It is being linked with the COVID-19 outbreak because of the resemblance of its plot with the current global situation.
Evidently, visuals from a TV series are being shared with false claims amidst rising global tensions over COVID-19.
You can read all our fact-checked stories on the coronavirus outbreak here.
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