An article suggesting that the Swiss prime minister Alain Berset has visited the hospital with dummies instead of Covid-19 patient has appeared on a popular Polish portal wykop.pl.
The piece of disinformation has immediately circulated in social media, to prove that the coronavirus pandemic doesn’t exist and everything around it is a mystification. Worth noticing that similar posts appeared also on social media in other parts of Europe. Where does this piece of disinformation come from?
First of all, Alain Berset is not the prime minister of Switzerland and it should turn the readers’ attention in the first place, suggesting them that they can be dealing with fake news. Secondly, it is highy doubtful that any self-respecting politician would let himself be photographed with dummies, pretending that he is visiting Covid ward. This mystification, as we can see in the photos, is easy to recognise. So why the “news”?
The reason for the misunderstanding is, in fact, the incorrect description of the photo on on e of the portals reporting of the visit of the Minister of Internal Affairs and Health of Switzerland, who has visited on the same day both the hospital and the Arc Santé University of Applied Sciences in Neuchâtel, where future nurses are being trained. The photo from the university was described as one from the hospital.
Blick, which posted the feral description, clarifies:
Whole situation is also described in this article:
There is no scandal, just a canard. And the prime minister (or, rather the president) of the Swiss Confederation is currently Simonetta Sommaruga.
WP
