Coronavirus Latest: Police Investigate Hoax Texts From COVID Tracing App
Wednesday: JobKeeper scams; NRL charges; Logies cancelled; asteroid to miss Earth
Morning! It’s Wednesday, April 29. Here’s today’s ‘5+5: coronavirus edition’.
Each day I’m bringing you 5 things to know about the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak + 5 non-corona things to start your day off.
If you haven’t already, please sign up above ^^ to get this every day in your emails.
You can email me at joshb2@protonmail.com if you have tips, feedback, ideas or want to chat
You can also find me on Twitter at @joshbutler; on Facebook; or on Instagram
Wash your hands and sneeze into your elbow. Practise physical distancing - at least 1.5 metres of separation. “Stay the fuck at home”.
Latest Australian stats: as of 3pm Tuesday, Australia has 6731 reported cases of COVID-19 (that’s +11 since the day before), with 5626 reported as ‘recovered’; there have been 84 deaths; and more than 530,000 tests have been done, according to the latest federal Department of Health stats. Full global stats breakdown below
5 CORONAVIRUS THINGS
AFP investigating COVID hoax texts
As covered yesterday, fake texts are circulating, purporting to be linked to the COVIDSafe tracing app.
It’s unclear at this stage if anyone has actually *received* one of these on their phones, or if Photoshop jobs are just circulating on the internet, but now the Australian Federal Police is on the case (story here). “Any misuse of telecommunications for a hoax is illegal,” health minister Greg Hunt said, warning that:
“anybody who is found responsible will be charged with a significant criminal offence”.
The app does not have text message capability, the health department says.
Twiggy gets 10 million test kits
Aussie mining billionaire Andrew ‘Twiggy’ Forrest has reportedly “secured” some 10 million coronavirus tests, directing them to federal efforts to fight the virus. The Daily Telegraph reports the tests are being brought in from overseas, at a cost of $200 million. It’s not a donation, with his Minderoo foundation to “be reimbursed for the kits as they are used”, but it’s hoped to be a significant expansion of testing capacity.
As a comparison, Australia has done around 530,000 tests so far — and significant expansion of testing capability has been continually cited as a requisite for opening parts of the economy quicker.
‘JobScammer’ campaign tracking workplace rorts
I wrote this story about a union push to monitor “dodgy” bosses doing the wrong thing around the JobKeeper wage subsidy — with claims some employers are asking for kickbacks from their workers. The tax office has set up a dedicated hotline for reporting this kind of thing, but the unions want you to dob in bosses.
Read more here — and if you are experiencing like this, or know anything about it, please get in touch with me on jobutler@networkten.com.au (you can remain anonymous).
DIY “1 metre hats” in Chinese schools
And a cute one — kids in Hangzhou are turning up to school in “1 metre hats” to promote and ensure social distancing. Very ‘primary school Easter hat parade’ vibes on some of these.
The teachers told the children to make the "safety hats" with their parents at home. We love it (story here).
Today’s stats:
The latest stats from the Johns Hopkins University Center for Systems Science and Engineering (as of 7.30am AEST Wednesday) report 3,110,219 confirmed COVID-19 cases worldwide. There have been 216,808 deaths.
The United States has 1,010,017 confirmed cases, the first country to ticker over the million milestone. Spain is next but far behind on 232,128, then Italy (201,505). The U.S. has the most deaths (58,365), then Italy (27,359) and Spain third on 23,822.
In Australia, the latest federal stats (as of 3pm Tuesday) show 6731 cases, 5626 people recovered, 84 deaths, and 530,000 tests.
The latest Australian graph:
5 NON-CORONAVIRUS THINGS
Finally some good news — a massive asteroid, which could have been on a collision with Earth, is now going to miss out little rock of a planet after all. So that’s one less thing you’ve got to worry about (story).
Kinda corona, but kinda not — NRL players Latrell Mitchell, Josh Addo-Carr, Nathan Cleary and Tyronne Roberts-Davis have all been slapped with big fines by the league after breaching stay-home orders (story). Mitchell and Addo-Carr have also reportedly been hit with firearms charges after their camping weekend (story). It comes as the NRL announces plans for a 20-round season (story).
Will the bad news never end??? Even the Logies are now cancelled for 2020 (story), the first time in decades — but last year’s Gold Logie winner, Tom Gleeson, isn’t upset.
Greek tennis player Stefanos Tsitsipas has trolled Nick Kyrgios on his birthday, posting a photo on Instagram of himself holding up a cardboard sign — with the Aussie player’s phone number on it. Kyrgios says he’s been inundated with calls (story).
Climate experts are really upset with the latest Michael Moore doco, claiming his ‘Planet of the Humans’ film is “full of misinformation” about the green energy sector (story).
ONE EXTRA THING
A big passion of mine for reporting is disinformation and fake news. It’s a topic I try to cover as much as I can, especially in this newsletter. There’s a new book out from some of the best reporters who cover this beat around the world — it’s free, and you should check it out for some info on how this stuff spreads, how it can turn dangerous, and how reporters work to find and expose it.
I’ll be spending this week getting into it, with chapters from some of my favourite journalists like Craig Silverman, Jane Lytvynenko, Ben Collins and Donie O’Sullivan. If you’re interested in this stuff, give it a look.
IMPORTANT EVERY DAY
You “must” stay home at all times unless to shop for essential supplies; get medical care; exercise alone or with one other person; or work and education (more info here).
be hygienic; wash your hands properly, at least 30 seconds with soap and water, multiple times a day (here’s how you need to do it, plus a handy Dr Karl video tutorial); sneeze and cough into your elbows.
Listen to only official information from the World Health Organisation and legitimate health bodies — Don’t share dodgy stuff on Facebook. If it looks too good (or bad) to be true, it often is.
World Health Organisation latest statistics here
Australian government latest statistics here
Signing off - stay safe, be healthy, look after yourself and others
Josh