A 10-minute video makes some claims about the new coronavirus.

The YouTube video, uploaded by a “ Odysseus ,” begins by saying that it is “breaking news” and that the information about the coronavirus “was leaked to him” and that the press is concealing this information.

Update January 28th, further down in the article: The “Odysseus” channel – Stolen logo angers restaurant owners

Below we would like to address the most important claims in the video and check their veracity.

Claim: “Liquids prolong and enhance the life force of the virus”

Viruses are not living beings, which is why they have no life force.
They also cannot become stronger in water, for example by changing their structure. Viruses reproduce by attaching themselves to a host cell, releasing the virus's genetic material into the cell and replicating it there.

This claim is false. Viruses cannot multiply through liquids alone, let alone become stronger.

Claim: “The coronavirus is a mutated form of the 2003 SARS disease and is far more dangerous”

2019-nCoV and SARS have only one thing in common: they are both coronaviruses, named for the spiked surface that looks like a crown. Coronaviruses are less about genetics and more about how they look under the microscope.

is similar to the SARS virus, many of its proteins have important differences. These differences can affect the infectivity of the viruses and how well the drugs developed to combat other coronaviruses work against the new viruses.

Dr. Sebastian Maurer-Stroh, deputy executive director of research at the institute in Singapore, which reports to the Agency for Science, Technology and Research, says it even more clearly :

The difference between 2019-nCoV and SARS is as big as between dogs and cats.”

Former FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb told CNBC that while 2019-nCoV is less potent than SARS, it could be more contagious because the virus spreads much faster.

Eric Toner, a senior scientist at Johns Hopkins University, offered a similar assessment: " A first impression is that this is significantly milder than SARS ," he told Business Insider . “ That’s reassuring. On the other hand, it may be more transmissible than SARS, at least in cities .

Both SARS and 2019-nCoV affect the lungs, which can be fatal. Around 10 percent of the 8,096 people in 29 countries who fell ill died of SARS in 2003 and 2004; according to the WHO, exactly 774 people died. For 2019-nCoV, the current mortality rate is around 4 percent. But this number can still go up.

This claim is false. SARS and 2019-nCoV both belong to the coronavirus family and therefore have similarities, but the differences are very significant. At this point in time, 2019-nCoV is also less dangerous than SARS.

Claim: “There is no medicine and the disease cannot be cured”

In fact, there is no vaccination yet , so only the symptoms can be combated. However, this does not mean that it will never be curable, as the video suggests. There is currently no cure, but the virus has only been known for a very short time.

This claim is half true. But the virus is still far too new for there to be any cures yet.

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Claim: “As early as January 12, doctors recommended sealing off the city because the situation was completely out of control”

As of January 12, there were only 41 cases in Wuhan, including 1 death. WHO advised against the application of any travel or trade restrictions to China based on the information available at the time.

This claim is false. At the time, it was assumed that there was a serious infectious disease, but it was too localized to justify a lockdown and travel and trade restrictions with China.

Claim: “What the media doesn’t report: The virus is spreading exponentially”

Exponential means: In a steepening curve. However, every media report that the number of infected and dead people is increasing.

This claim is false. We could not find any reputable media that claims that the number of infected people is only increasing in a straight line, is constant or is decreasing.

Claim: On January 23rd Wuhan (…) has been sealed off. (…) The military has completely sealed off the city.

In fact, a state of quarantine was imposed on Wuhan at 10 a.m. on January 23, 2020. All city buses, trains and ferries have been stopped, no buses or trains are allowed to leave the city, and airport operations have been suspended.

The cities of Huanggang, Chibi, Enshi, Ezhou, Huangshi, Suizhou, Qianjjiang, Xianning, Xiantao, Yichang and Zhijiang also each have their own travel restrictions.

This is largely regulated by the police, but the military is also present, for example in one of the many pictures you can see soldiers standing in front of the Wuhan train station. But one shouldn't imagine that everything is full of armed soldiers, because China also sent a few hundred military medics to Wuhan to support the hospital staff, but a broader deployment of the People's Liberation Army is not planned.

The claim is essentially correct. Since the police and doctors cannot handle this logistical operation alone, the military was sent to seal off the train stations and control the streets, as well as military medics to the hospitals.

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The “Odysseus” channel – Stolen logo angers restaurant owners

The seriousness of the YouTube channel “Odysseus” is crumbling even more:
Anargyros Zosis, owner of the restaurant “Odysseus” in Breitenfurt near Vienna, contacted us because regular guests asked him why he would run such a channel on YouTube.

The email from the restaurant "Odysseus"
The email from the restaurant “Odysseus”

In fact, it's the same logo:

The logos of the channel and the restaurant in comparison
The logos of the channel and the restaurant in comparison

The logo of the restaurant “Odysseus” was created over 10 years ago by the owner's girlfriend, who is a graphic designer, as Anargyros Zosis told us by phone. Even the lettering was blatantly copied, so that we are dealing with a clear violation of copyright law, which is probably another reason why the operator of the YouTube channel has largely anonymized himself.

Conclusion

Even if the video claims that it is not scaremongering, but that they just want to inform: it is scaremongering!
We haven't gone into the pictures and videos in this article, but for example the first picture in the video is from a quarantine exercise at the airport from 2019, other pictures are probably real or cannot be verified.

It should also be mentioned that the YouTube channel “Odysseus” tends to publish videos that spread conspiracy theories mainly about 5G with meager claims and sometimes even outright inventions, then moved on to climate change and now took the coronavirus as a new hobbyhorse.

The new coronavirus is a serious matter, no question. But spreading panic and believing dubious sources is the wrong approach at this moment! It is clear that you have to keep an eye on the spread, but you have to do that with all viral diseases.

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Notes:
1) This content reflects the current state of affairs at the time of publication. The reproduction of individual images, screenshots, embeds or video sequences serves to discuss the topic. 2) Individual contributions were created through the use of machine assistance and were carefully checked by the Mimikama editorial team before publication. ( Reason )