Tag Archives: Reuters

Did George Soros Die Suddenly From Heart Attack?!

Claim : George Soros Just Died Suddenly From Heart Attack

People are sharing Twitter posts, YouTube and TikTok videos claiming that billionaire financier George Soros just died suddenly from a violent heart attack!

Politics For All Ireland : BREAKING: FAMILY CONFIRMS GEORGE SOROS HAS DIED AGED 92

BREAKING: George Soros has died of a violent heart attack, according to Politics For All Ireland.

RIP George Soros Passed away at the age of 92 | Died today

According to the news in the Western media, George Soros passed away.

Truth : George Soros Did Not Die From A Heart Attack!

This is yet another example of FAKE NEWS on social media, and here are the reasons why…

Fact #1 : No Legitimate Media Posted His Death

George Soros (born György Schwartz on August 12, 193o) is one of the world’s most famous businessman with billions to his name, a generous philanthropist who has donated over 32 billion dollars, and a popular foil for right-wing conspiracy theorists.

Even if you ignore his wealth, you cannot ignore his influence which extends globally through his Open Society Foundations.

If George Soros died, the worldwide media would have quickly published their prepared obituaries. In fact, Reuters infamously accidentally published its pre-written obituary of George Soros in April 2013, before withdrawing it 30 minutes later, and apologising to George Soros.

George Soros, who died XXX at age XXX, was a predatory and hugely successful financier and investor, who argued paradoxically for years against the same sort of free-wheeling capitalism that made him billions.

He was known as ‘the man who broke the Bank of England’ for selling short the British pound in 1992 and helping force the United Kingdom to withdraw from the European Exchange Rate Mechanism, which devalued the pound and earned Soros more than $1bn (£650m). And his Soros Fund Management was widely blamed for helping trigger the Asian financial crisis of 1997, by selling short the Thai baht and Malaysian ringgit.

No legitimate media outlet has published its obituary for George Soros, only a few predatory websites, TikTok and YouTube channels capitalising on the fake news. That’s because – George Soros is NOT dead!

Fact #2 : George Soros Is Still Alive + Well!

After the claims that George Soros died from a violent heart attack went viral on social media, George Soros himself posted on his personal Twitter account that he’s very much “alive and healthy”.

Rumors that I had a heart attack are completely false. I am alive and healthy.

A spokesperson for the Open Society Foundations also confirmed that he is alive and well:

George Soros is alive and healthy. Rumors on social media that he suffered a heart attack and died are false.

Fact #3 : It Started With A Tweet

This latest rumour that the billionaire philanthropist died started with a tweet from the Twitter account of Politics for All Ireland, which only had 3 followers at that time.

It was picked up by conspiracy theorists, Cillian, who claimed that George Soros “died from a violent heart attack” even though the original Politics for All Ireland tweet never said that.

However, adding that bit appeared to have made it go viral, because it was viewed over a million times, and shared by many people.

Fact #4 : George Soros Death Hoax Is Driven By Fake Fact Check Too

This George Soros death hoax is, ironically, also being driven by a fake fact check article by the MediaMass Project, which keeps “updating” the dates in their fake fact check article:

News of business man George Soros’s death spread quickly earlier this week causing concern among fans across the world. However the May 2023 report has now been confirmed as a complete hoax and just the latest in a string of fake celebrity death reports. Thankfully, the the Man Who Broke the Bank of England is alive and well.

Rumors of the business man’s alleged demise gained traction on Sunday after a ‘R.I.P. George Soros’ Facebook page attracted nearly one million of ‘likes’. Those who read the ‘About’ page were given a believable account of the American business man’s passing:

“At about 11 a.m. ET on Sunday (May 14, 2023), our beloved business man George Soros passed away. George Soros was born on August 12, 1930 in Budapest. He will be missed but not forgotten. Please show your sympathy and condolences by commenting on and liking this page.”

Hundreds of fans immediately started writing their messages of condolence on the Facebook page, expressing their sadness that the talented 92-year-old business man was dead. And as usual, Twittersphere was frenzied over the death hoax.

Where as some trusting fans believed the post, others were immediately skeptical of the report, perhaps learning their lesson from the huge amount of fake death reports emerging about celebrities over recent months. Some pointed out that the news had not been carried on any major American network, indicating that it was a fake report, as the death of a business man of George Soros’ stature would be major news across networks.

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Their claim of a viral R.I.P. George Soros Facebook page is false. There is no such Facebook page. It is their standard fake fact check spiel for fake celebrity deaths.

The statement from George Soros’ unnamed rep confirming that he is not dead is exactly the same as statements from other reps whose celebrities MediaMass claimed were victims of death hoaxes, like Simon Cowell, Celine Dion, Cristiano Ronaldo, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Justin Bieber, Harrison Ford, Sylvester Stallone,, Tom Hanks, Dolly Parton, Lucy Liu, Clint Eastwood, and Melanie Laurent.

He joins the long list of celebrities who have been victimized by this hoax. He’s still alive and well, stop believing what you see on the Internet.

Hidden in the description page for the MediaMass Project is a disclaimer that they are a “satire” website. That’s the usual “cover” for websites peddling fake news.

Regardless of their reasons, anything posted by MediaMass.net must be considered as fake news, until proven otherwise.

Fact #5 : This Is Just Fake Celebrity News

This is yet another example of fake news about celebrities and other famous people, just like these examples:

Please help us FIGHT FAKE NEWS by sharing this fact check article out, and please SUPPORT our work!

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Support my work through a bank transfer / PayPal / credit card!

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Dr. Adrian Wong has been writing about tech and science since 1997, even publishing a book with Prentice Hall called Breaking Through The BIOS Barrier (ISBN 978-0131455368) while in medical school.

He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.

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2023 Turkey Earthquake : Fake Photos + Scam Alert!

2023 Turkey Earthquake : Fake Photos Alert!

Many people have been sharing photos of the massive earthquake that devastated both Turkey and Syria on 6 February 2023.

Unfortunately, quite a number of fake photos on WhatsApp and social media. They also appear in TikTok and YouTube videos. Here are a few notable examples.

Old Man With Bread

This photo of an old man with bread is being shared as a lesson on why we should be humble, respectful and kind.

It took just 17secs to change his status from the owner of 33 buildings to a person who’s surviving on bread and finding shelter where he can.

#TurkeyEarthquake teaches us an important lesson that life is unpredictable and nothing is permanent. Be humble, respectful and kind.

How being humble, respectful and kind could have helped this poor man was not explained. Neither did the people sharing this “lesson” explain why this photo has been circulating since 1999…

Yes, this photo was taken by photographer, Abdurrahman Antakyalı, almost 24 years ago, after the Düzce Earthquake that occurred on 12 November, 1999.

Needless to say, that old man was not a rich man who owned 33 buildings. It is incredible that people who create a fake story about this poor man. If there is a lesson to be learned, it is that everyone should “verify before sharing“!

Dog Looking For Survivor

Many people are sharing photos of dogs looking for survivors, like this example below, which was shared with messages like:

The little heroes will save many lives. Pray for Turkey.

This is incredible! A dog in Turkey was seen digging trying to rescue its owner. When the dog failed to move the heavy debris, he started barking to ask for help while holding one of his owner’s fingers!

Syrian🇸🇾 Turkish🇹🇷 Earthquakes!

Dogs are sensitive to their owner ❤️😊

The truth is – that is one of many stock images of “dogs looking for people in earthquake” available online.

That photo, and similar examples featuring the same dog as well as others dogs were posted by Czech photographer, Jaroslav Noska, on November 2020.

This suggests that the photos were staged for use as stock photos, and not actual photos of a real disaster area, or even real rescue dogs.

Tryon The Rescue Dog

Many people shared this photo of a dirty-looking dog, claiming that it just saved 10 lives in the 2023 earthquake in Turkey.

This dog worked all night last night and saved 10 lives

This dog hero who worked the whole night and saved 10 lives in Turkey.

The truth is – this is Tryon the rescue dog who helped to search for victims of a deadly mudslide near Oso, Washington, in the United States.

This photo was taken by Rick Wilking, a freelance photographer for Reuters, on March 30, 2014. He provided the following caption for this photo:

Tryon the rescue dog waits to go through the decontamination area at the mudslide after searching for victims in Oso, Washington March 30, 2014.

2023 Turkey Earthquake : Donation Scam Alert!

People are not just posting those fake photos to “virtue signal” or increase their popularity, some are using them for donation scams!

Photos of Tryon the rescue dog above, for example, is being used to solicit donations for the people in Syria.

(Need Some reputable or NGO in Syria to pay or food. Shelter, blankets the Earthquake affects from the donations if gathered from this page.

As Sanction Syria from all over the world needs our help. Turkey has been helping by many.

He (Reputable) or NGO must be at the Earthquake affected areas of Syria and make video or come live while giving blankets, food, donation etc. Thanks )

– Those who want to Help/Donate. Message us. Thanks!

Even more egregious is this photo of a firefighter holding a child with a Turkish flag on his sleeve.

Friends, we have launched an aid campaign to reach people who have experienced an #earthquake disaster in Turkey.

#btc B : 1)n3C4GiFCzERTWd6nvCc4hTzvK8Viz88y

#eth: Ox2cff2ad875£68bf4ec5a478e505767c348dd61d

#Suns suns

The trouble is – the photo isn’t real! It was created by Major General Panagiotis Kotridis of the Aegean fire brigade using the AI image generator called Midjourney.

While they are capable of creating really realistic images, such artificial intelligence image generators often leave tell-tale mistakes.

In the viral photo below, you can see that the firefighter has six fingers on his right hand with an abnormally long thumb. His left hand is also missing, with a third “hand?” right next to it.

The BBC investigated further, and found that one of the crypto wallet addresses had been used in scam and spam tweets since 2018, while the other crypto wallet address had been posted on VK – the Russian social media website, together with pornographic content.

Ax Sharma, a cybersecurity expert at Sonatype, also pointed out that scammers are creating fake disaster relief accounts on social media to cheat people. One example is @TurkeyRelief on Twitter, which was created in January 2023 with just 31 followers and asked for donations using PayPal.

Scammers are also using TikTok Live to ask for donations, using captions like “Let’s help Turkey”, “Pray for Turkey” and “Donate for earthquake victims” over their videos. According to the BBC, TikTok takes up to 70% of the proceeds of these digital gifts.

So please WATCH OUT for such donation scams, which use real or fake photos / videos to trick people into sending them money.

If you want to help, please donate DIRECTLY to reputable organisations like the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, Médecins San Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders), OxFam, or the nearest Turkish embassy.

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Support my work through a bank transfer / PayPal / credit card!

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Dr. Adrian Wong has been writing about tech and science since 1997, even publishing a book with Prentice Hall called Breaking Through The BIOS Barrier (ISBN 978-0131455368) while in medical school.

He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.

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Ivermectin Has Antiviral Effect vs. Omicron + All Other Strains?

Claim : Ivermectin Has Antiviral Effect vs. Omicron + All Other Strains!

This viral post claims that a Kowa and Kitasato University study just proved that ivermectin has antiviral effect against Omicron and all other mutant strains of COVID-19!

The creators of this viral post also pointed out that this news was written by Reuters. It’s a long post, so feel free to skip to the next section for the facts!

Ivermectin Has ‘Antiviral Effect’ Against Omicron And All Other ‘Mutant Strains’ Of Covid-19

A Japanese pharmaceutical company, Kowa Co, said on Monday that the drug ivermectin has an “antiviral effect” against Omicron and other Covid-19 variants.

The finding was made with Tokyo’s Kitasato University on a joint non-clinical research project, which has been testing the drug as a potential treatment for the disease, according to Reuters.

Kowa says that ivermectin showed the “same antiviral effect” on all “mutant strains,” including Alpha, Delta and Omicron. The company also noted that ivermectin suppresses invasion of the virus and inhibits its replication.

“[Ivermectin] is expected to be applied as a therapeutic drug (tablet) for all new coronavirus infectious diseases,” reads the report.

According to xxxxx.xxx, Ivermectin showed an average 64% improvement as an early treatment, a 39% improvement as a late treatment and an 83% improvement as a prophylaxis, across 77 studies.

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Note : I removed the two links in the original message because they lead to fake news websites.

Ivermectin Has No Clinical Antiviral Effect vs. Omicron + All Other Strains!

This is yet another piece of fake news created by ivermectin proponent and antivaxxers, and here are the reasons why…

Fact #1 : Reuters Screwed Up

Reuters screwed up their reporting, and ivermectin proponents and antivaxxers quickly made use of that.

Reuters published their piece with the title, “Japan’s Kowa says ivermectin effective against Omicron in phase III trial“.

They compounded their mistake by promoting it as such in Twitter :

Japanese trading and pharmaceutical company Kowa Co Ltd said on Monday anti-parasite drug ivermectin has been found effective for treating the Omicron variant of COVID-19 in a Phase III trial.

The truth is Reuters misrepresented the Kowa press release. Reuters later corrected their story, but the damage was done.

CORRECTION: Japan's Kowa said anti-parasite drug ivermectin showed an 'antiviral effect' against Omicron and other variants of coronavirus in joint non-clinical research. The @WHO has warned against its use https://t.co/kBgUxaYjaL We will delete a tweet with a misleading headline pic.twitter.com/gX535ttNd3

— Reuters (@Reuters) January 31, 2022

Fact #2 : It Was A Non-Clinical Trial

In their press release, Kowa triumphantly reported that their study with Kitasato University showed that ivermectin has an “antiviral effect” against the Omicron variant.

However, that was a non-clinical trial – a lab study. Basically, they ran “test tube” studies of ivermectin on Omicron samples in the lab.

Just for context, a non-clinical trial (also called pre-clinical trial) is often conducted before actual clinical trials on human volunteers.

That’s because clinical trials are expensive and difficult to conduct, consisting of multiple phases :

Phase 1 : To study safety and dosage in healthy volunteers
Phase 2 : To study efficacy and side effects in a small group of volunteers with the disease
Phase 3 : To demonstrate that the drug has clinical benefits in a large group of volunteers, and look for adverse reactions.
Phase 4 : To ensure safety and efficacy after approval by health authorities.

What Kowa did is nowhere close to an actual clinical trial, much less a Phase 3 trial.

Fact #3 : Non-Clinical Results Do Not Mean Clinical Effects

It is important to point out that most successful non-clinical drug tests do not end up delivering safe and/or useful drugs that deliver clinical benefits.

That’s because many drugs that work well in the lab either do not deliver clinical benefits in actual human beings, or only work at doses toxic to human beings, or introduce adverse effects when taken at the required doses.

That is why it is critical for all drugs to undergo clinical trials.

I should also point out that soap and alcohol have both been proven to destroy the SARS-CoV-2 virus in lab tests. But that does not mean drinking or eating soap or alcohol will prevent or cure COVID-19.

Fact #4 : Kowa Confirmed Reuters’ Mistake

Kowa told Newsweek – “We sincerely apologise for any confusion. The press release announced that ivermectin was effective against [the] Omicron strain on in vitro study (i.e. non-clinical study), not in the clinical study. Presumably the original content was replaced with incorrect information in the process of translation.”

Fact #5 : Omicron Variant Is Still A SARS-CoV-2 Virus

The Kowa lab test is nothing special – ivermectin was first shown to work against the SARS-CoV-2 in lab experiments by Monash University back in April 2020.

The only difference was Kowa tested it against the Omicron variant. But because the Omicron variant is still a SARS-CoV-2 virus, it would have the same results as previous lab tests.

In other words – the Kowa lab test and press release were basically marketing fluff. In that respect, they scored big.

Fact #6 : Kowa Is Conducting A Phase 3 Trial

Kowa is conducting a Phase 3 trial of their 3 mg ivermectin tablet called K-237 (ClinicalTrial NCT05056883).

It will involve 1000 volunteers, half of whom will receive 0.3 to 0.4 mg/kg of their K-237 drug, once daily for 3 days.

This Phase 3 trial is not expected to be completed until 31 March 2022. That does not necessarily mean it will be successfully completed on time.

After all, Kitasato University’s own CORVETTE-01 Phase 2 study of ivermectin took a year to recruit just 214 volunteers, and has not even concluded despite kicking off in January 2021.

Fact #7 : I-TECH Study Showed No Clinical Benefit

One of the most recent randomised clinical trials of ivermectin was the I-TECH study involving 490 volunteers.

Like many previous clinical trials, it showed that despite ivermectin demonstrating effectiveness in lab tests, it has no obvious clinical benefits.

Study Findings	Results	Significance
Symptom Recovery by Day 5	Very similar	Not significant (p=0.77)
Progress to Severe COVID-19	IVM : 21.2% SOC : 17.3%	SOC : -3.9 points Not significant (p=0.30)
Time to Severe COVID-19	IVM : 3 days (±2.3) SOC : 2.9 days (±1.8)	IVM : +0.1 day Not significant (p=0.68)
ICU Admission	NA	Not significant
Mechanical Ventilation	NA	Not significant
Symptom Recovery	NA	Not significant
Blood Parameters	NA	Not significant
Chest X-Ray Resolution	NA	Not significant
Adverse Events	3X more in IVM group	Significant
Mortality	NA	Not significant (p=0.09)

Fact #8 : Ivermectin Clinical Studies Show No Significant Benefit

Here is a meta-analysis of ivermectin RCTs (randomised control trials), with three fraudulent studies removed – Elgazzar, Okomus and Niaee.

Results towards the left suggest a clinical benefit for ivermectin. For the I-TECH study, they used its most promising result – post-study mortality, but even that did not reach clinical significance (p<0.05)

Taken in totality, the latest meta-analysis show that the clinical effect of ivermectin on COVID-19 patients is NOT SIGNIFICANT enough to warrant its use as a treatment.

Fact #9 : Ivermectin Prophylaxis Is Not Cheap

Ivermectin proponents always claim that Big Pharma is against ivermectin because it’s dirt cheap. Ironically, they are now promoting Kowa, which itself is a member of Big Pharma.

While ivermectin is cheap to make and was cheap to buy earlier, its price has been jacked up by the very people promoting it as a cure for COVID-19.

And unlike vaccines, ivermectin is meant to be taken on a regular basis, even daily or with expensive supplements. The end result – ivermectin protocols are far more expensive than COVID-19 vaccines.

The truth is – there is far more money to be made from ivermectin protocols like I-MASK+, than COVID-19 vaccines.

Don’t believe me? Take out your calculator and do the math yourself.

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Support my work through a bank transfer / PayPal / credit card!

Name : Adrian Wong
Bank Transfer : CIMB 7064555917 (Swift Code : CIBBMYKL)
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Dr. Adrian Wong has been writing about tech and science since 1997, even publishing a book with Prentice Hall called Breaking Through The BIOS Barrier (ISBN 978-0131455368) while in medical school.

He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.

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