Public urged to ignore fake message on child fatalities

A MESSAGE circulating on social media from a supposed paramedic warning that a third of coronavirus fatalities will be children has been dismissed as bogus by health officials.

The audio clip, on the Whatsapp messaging platform claims to contain information directly from Public Health England. However, the South East Coast Ambulance Service insisted the information was “not correct” and urged people to “disregard” it and not share it further.

The warning comes as tech giants were yesterday told by ministers to increase the number of their out-ofhours moderators to catch dangerous misinformation about Covid-19 before it is widely shared.

Oliver Dowden, the Culture Secretary, met senior executives from social media companies after a series of fake news posts peddling false claims about the disease have gone viral.

Social networks will be asked to explain how they can stop the spread of baseless claims about 5G’s mobile signal spreading the disease which led to about 20 phone masts being torched or vandalised across the UK over the weekend.

Mr Dowden is understood to have also told the tech companies they need to come up with more effective techniques to spot false posts and report back to ministers with a plan of action.

The false Whatsapp message making claims about the expected death count at the peak of the virus’s spread. was recorded by a woman who claimed she was at a meeting of the South East Coast Ambulance Service.

She said: “As of Thursday of this week we will be hitting our peak and we will be seeing 900 deaths a day … one third of them are going to be babies, children and teenagers with no underlying health issues.”

The unknown woman also claims that the spike in cases will mean anyone who rings 999 while struggling to breathe will not be taken to hospital.

A statement from the ambulance service said: “The alarmist information being shared in the message is not correct. We would urge people to disregard the message and not share it.”