An edited video falsely claims that eating bananas can prevent COVID-19 - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
March 5, 2021
A video is being shared widely on social media with a claim that eating bananas can prevent COVID-19. The posted video shows a news report which talks about the research by scientists at the University of Queensland. Let’s fact-check the claim made in the post.
Claim: Video of a news report that talks about the research that eating bananas can prevent COVID-19.
Fact: The posted video is an edited one. Multiple video clips from different sources were combined to make it. On the WHO website, it can be read – ‘There is no single food that will prevent you from catching COVID-19’. Hence the claim made in the post is FALSE.
On looking at the posted video, it can be observed that multiple clips with different logos are combined to make the video. When the keyframes of the posted video were run through Google Reverse Image Search, the original videos related to the different clips in the posted video were found in the search results. One of the clips in the posted video can be also seen on the Stock videos website.
Clip 1:
The initial part of the posted video was taken from the news report published by ‘ABC News (Australia)’ in January 2020. The original video talks about scientists at the University of Queensland trying to develop a vaccine for the novel coronavirus. The video does not mention bananas preventing COVID-19.
Clip 2:
Another clip in the posted video is taken from the video published by ‘Herbs cures’ on YouTube in March 2020. The logo ‘Herb cures’ can be seen in the posted video. The video just lists the benefits of bananas. It does not claim that bananas can prevent COVID-19.
Clip 3:
The clip with the ‘WSJ’ logo is taken from the video published by ‘Wall Street Journal (WSJ)’ in February 2020 with the title – ‘How Scientists Are Trying to Develop a Coronavirus Vaccine’. This video also does not claim that bananas can prevent COVID-19.
When the same claim went viral in March 2020, ‘Faheem Younus, MD’ has tweeted – ‘Bananas are a fine fruit and garlic is a fine vegetable. But no. There are no clinical trials to suggest they have anti-coronavirus activity.’
5/10: Does garlic cure COVID-19? Bananas? Vitamin-C?
Bananas are a fine fruit and garlic is a fine vegetable. But no. There are no clinical trials to suggest they have anti-coronavirus activity. Vitamin-C Is not even a fruit or a vegetable!
Also, on the WHO website, it can be read – ‘There is no single food that will prevent you from catching COVID-19’.
To sum it up, an edited video is being falsely shared with the claim that eating bananas can prevent COVID-19.