Some devotees of the Legio Maria church have been using Facebook groups as echo chambers to propel a controversy about the coronavirus pandemic.
In a viral video on Karfi TV Youtube, an itinerant preacher popularly known Malam Bakwana na Yar Mariya, who spoke in Arabic and Hausa, and transcribed in part said “so the issue of corona is a futile idea and child’s play….the idea of corona virus is false; it is a huge lie’. In a second video, he also postulated that corona virus does not exist. He criticized Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna state for closing down mosques and schools because of Corona which does not exist.
The claim that hot weather kills COVID-19 is widespread in Nigeria, a reason facemasks and social distancing are considered unnecessary preventive measures against the pandemic.
“Politicians have a role to play in spreading the virus through their action of commission or omission, including holding rallies and gatherings that act as super spreader events where people crowd without masks even when the politicians’ aides wear masks,” he said.
On March 30, a former Nigerian minister announced on Twitter that he had taken the COVID-19 vaccine. Strange news! For over a year since the virus was first detected in Nigeria, his name, Femi Fani-Kayode, rang a deterrent bell of anti-vaccination.
Consumption of raw onions and garlic, raw onions mixed with salt, lemon drops and onions, neem leaf (locally known as ‘dongoyaro’ leaf), and Christmas melon (locally known as ‘tagiri’), among others. However, fact-checks have shown that they neither prevent nor treat Covid-19.
Vaccine hesitancy among Catholics in Nigeria: why a proclamation from The Pope is not a strong enough influence for Nigerian Catholics to accept the vaccine.
Kibera is the biggest slum in Kenya and the largest urban informal settlement in Africa. It is, just like many other slums in Nairobi, characterized by high poverty levels, high unemployment rates that keep ballooning with years and lack of access to basic necessities like running water, affordable medical care, sanitation, good housing and electricity.
Editor’s note: One of the most damaging conspiracy theories about the pandemic is that it is all a hoax. It’s...
"the claim that the antiviral drug Remdesivir is a vaccine produced to be tested in African countries is false."