Authors
Amid a rapidly rising COVID-19 active case count in India, a message beginning with “Anyone requiring Plasma for Covid treatment” along with a list of approximately 29 alleged plasma donor names and numbers is circulating on Whatsapp.
The entire message can be viewed below.
Similar messages with sometimes more or fewer names and numbers were shared on Twitter in the past week.
This message is shared amid India’s second COVID-19 wave where blood plasma therapy is being tested in select patients as a possible treatment. The procedure includes transferring antibodies from a recovered coronavirus patient to one suffering from the viral infection in order to help generate a faster immune response. More details on how plasma therapy can be effective and who is eligible to donate can be read here.
India registered 3.52 lakh active cases in the last 24 hours (as of April 26). In view of this, guidelines for people who’ve recovered from COVID-19 and want to donate plasma in Delhi can be read here.
Fact Check / Verification
By searching for the first name and number on the list on Google, Newschecker found a longer list of alleged donors (including the names from the current claim) on a Facebook group called Blood donor group. The November 2016 post includes around 62 alleged donor names and numbers under the caption, “blood donor contact numbers”.
We also found this list published on a website called Gleauty.com. The posts published on the website are from 2016.
Newschecker tried contacting several numbers on the list. Almost all numbers were not functioning and a few did not respond.
Also Read: Old Whatsapp Forward Concerning Disaster Management Act With A Live Law Report Is Misleading
Conclusion
The Whatsapp message beginning with “Anyone requiring Plasma for Covid treatment” suggesting a list of people donating blood plasma in the wake of India’s second COVID-19 wave is misleading.
Result: Misleading
Our Sources
Direct contact
Blood donor group: https://www.facebook.com/blooddonorgroup.in/posts/1621584817867884
Gleauty.com: https://www.gleauty.com/XX/Unknown/509619592397751/Blood-donor-group
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