Thread by @astroehlein

"'Spain will only have a handful of cases,' said Dr Fernando Simón, the head of medical emergencies in Madrid, on 9 February. Six weeks later he gives out daily figures of hundreds of deaths."
bit.ly/3bouCV5

Good article but for this line: "The number of dead per capita is already three times that of Iran, and 40 times higher than China."

No one has any idea what the real numbers are in Iran & China.

Authoritatian regimes lie to protect leaders & no free press there to check them

World media covering #coronavirus should be more sceptical about the numbers coming from authoritarian regimes like China and Iran.

Don't simply pass on their stated statistics unquestioningly.

At least say, "figures reported by the government" maybe?

We know China censored early reporting of #COVID19, causing at least a 3-week delay in fighting it. This was done to protect political egos.

This is default mode for authoritarian regimes: censorship to support leaders.

China's system hasn't changed since then. Use caution.

We should use Twitter to call out this problem when we see it in mainstream media reporting. Everyone can help.

Authoritarian lies & misinformation only help #coronavirus spread.

Thanks.

And yes, politicians in democracies lie, too (every day in Trump's case), but free speech & independent media in the country can fact check them and call out their lies.

There's no equivalent of @ddale8 in the Chinese media. There's a huge machinery of censorship instead.

Authoritarian regimes lie by nature.

We need a free press, we need freedom of speech - we need democracy - to fight #coronavirus.

FT today: ft.com/content/4aa352…

See also this from Bloomberg news...

Chinese authorities lied about the spread of the virus before. There's nothing stopping them doing it again.

Journalists & everyone on Twitter: Never quote #coronavirus numbers without saying where they come from.
bloom.bg/33Pptmh