Misleading comparisons have been made about links between the COVID-19 outbreaks in India and the United Kingdom, claiming that this is a British government plan to scare citizens.
The comparisons were made in a graphic posted on Facebook, which has been shared hundreds of times. The post reads: "In the last 14 months, I have seen some nonsensical posts in the media. What other way could have a greater effect on convincing the population to scare them about the double 'Indian' mutation of Covid-19, than horrific images from India?"
https://www.facebook.com/kirk.morgan.10/posts/10220637563710788
The post goes on to point out India's population of 1.4 billion and how its "current peak" on April 20 (1,625 single-day cases) was lower than the UK's peak infection rate (1,823 single-day cases). "Do you really think a country with 1.4 billion people can't handle 1,625 deaths? 1,625 deaths is 0.000% of India's population," the post reads.
“It’s all a ploy by the UK Government to keep you terrified. The UK Government has paid the UK media over £1.1 billion. And of course the media will not ‘bite the hand that feeds them’. Make no mistake, the so-called Indian version will be used to bring in more draconian measures and send us deeper into poverty and despair.”
This post, however, is inaccurate in many respects. First, population size is not an indicator of a country's ability to cope with a pandemic. In this case, a comparison between healthcare systems and capacities, population density, and others is more useful.
It is also important to highlight that the reported cases of infection and deaths on April 20 in India have broken records.
For 8 consecutive days (after April 20), global records have been broken for new daily cases of infection, as well as deaths from COVID-19. On April 29, 379.257 new daily cases and 3.645 deaths were recorded.
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2776292
The level of public health in India is extremely poor, which has been highlighted as a risk. Compared to the UK's healthcare system, which is among the best in the world, THE WORLD.
Analyze:
Lack of context. It is inaccurate and misleading to compare the COVID-19 situation between India and the UK. This is because experts believe that the official data on infections and deaths in India are deliberately reduced by the authorities. This comparison should also take into account the differences between the public health systems of the two countries, as well as the increasing number of daily infections and deaths.
(This fact-checking article was done by the fact-checking team of the British news agency Reuters.)