The truth behind the images of children with cancer circulating in networks

the Mexican State Public Broadcasting System (SPR), through Infodemia Mxrevealed a fake news campaign determined to misinform social media users about the federal government’s position in dealing with Children with cancer.

Only during this Tuesday, June 29 Infodemia MX exposed five false notes that exposed Mexican children suspected of suffering from the disease in a state of neglect by the government, they also spoke of a suspected shortage of cancer drugs, the death of a child due to inadequate care and the presumption that Hugo López-Gatell said children with cancer were planning a “coup”.

According to data compiled by SPR, among the promoters of this disinformation campaign are Pascal Beltrán del RioMexican journalist and Luisa Maria Calderon, sister of former president Felipe Calderón Hinojosa.

These posts appeared synchronously on Twitter right after Under Secretary López-Gatell gave a TV interview in which he noted a suspected conflict of interest between drug suppliers and government.

1.- False image of a Mexican child who died of cancer.

Reality: The image corresponds to a post on the Facebook profile of the Berradia Berradia Medical Center in Morocco, February 15, 2019.

Luisa María Calderón posted on her official Twitter account a photo of a minor with terminal cancer and wrote that an infant dies every four hours due to lack of medication from Andrés Manuel’s administration López Obrador.

2.- False photograph of a Mexican child suffering from cancer.

Reality: The image has been published on different sites in Portuguese and German, since November 2020.

3.- False photograph of Mexican children with cancer.

Reality: The image circulating on social media corresponds to Carabobo, Venezuela, and was published in May 2019.

The publication, titled “Children with cancer in Carabobo in dire situation due to lack of medicines”, can be viewed on the Child and Adolescent Human Rights Network (REDHNNA).

4.- False, there is a shortage of drugs against childhood cancer.

Reality: The president reported that the drugs are bought abroad, “they are distributed [y] They are coming ”, and announced that a report will be made next week.

5.- It is wrong that Hugo López-Gatell, Undersecretary for Prevention and Health Promotion, said that children with cancer want to carry out a coup.

Reality: The statement was decontextualized, López-Gatell said the groups “have taken hold of something that is socially very sensitive, namely childhood and cancer.

In that case, Beltran del Río, editorial director of a national newspaper wrote on his personal Twitter account that:

“Kids with cancer want to have a ‘bang’, says @HLGatell. And their interlocutors not only do not question it but they agree “

With this statement he attached a fragment of 46 seconds of a program the total duration of which was one hour and ten minutes, which can be viewed in its entirety for free on YouTube.

According to the coronavirus glossary published by National geography, the infodemia “Is generally used to denote information overload (whether it is rigorous or false) on a specific problem, in this case the coronavirus ”. On its own, the World Health Organization (WHO) has been using the word for a long time infodemia in order to “To refer to the overabundance of false information and its rapid spread among the population and the media”. So that what is recommended to avoid falling into this type of lie, it is recommended to turn to valid sources and of scientific rigor.

KEEP READING: