An Instagram post makes a number of claims about Covid-19, Russia and 5G.
We have covered near-identical claims in the past, but with a focus on Italy rather than Russia. Again, almost every claim—including assertions that Covid-19 is caused by bacteria being exposed to radiation and that Russia broke World Health Organisation (WHO) rules against autopsies for Covid-19 deaths—are false.
“Russia is the first country in the world to dissect Covid-19 corpses (going against WHO’s criminal orders of no autopsies)”
This is false—Russia was not the first country to carry out an autopsy on a Covid-19 patient. Scientists in Wuhan, China performed post-mortems as early as 16 February 2020.
Russia announced its first Covid-19 death more than a month later, in March.
As we have written before, it is not true that the WHO ordered that autopsies not take place on people who died of Covid-19.
“It was determined that Covid does not exist as a virus, but rather a bacterium that has been exposed to radiation…‘bacteria exposed to 5G rays’ are to blame”
Covid-19 is caused by a virus called SARS-CoV-2. It’s true that people with Covid-19 can get secondary infections caused by bacteria, but the bacteria themselves don’t cause Covid-19.
As we’ve said before, 5G has nothing to do with Covid-19.
“Covid-19 has been found to cause blood clotting”
It is true that Covid-19 can cause blood clotting problems. Issues caused by abnormal blood clotting, including strokes and pulmonary embolisms, have been observed in Covid-19 patients.
However, clotting is not the only dangerous outcome of severe Covid-19.
“Ventilators and intensive care units were never used in Russia”
This is not true. For example, one study published in October 2020 specifically looked at more than 1,500 Russian Covid-19 patients in intensive care units.
The same study identified that more than 80% of patients had been given respiratory support with either invasive or noninvasive ventilation.
In May 2020, five Covid-19 patients died in a fire in a St Petersburg intensive care unit after a ventilator reportedly short-circuited.
“This disease can be ‘cured’ by ‘antibiotic tablets, anti-inflammatory and taking anticoagulants (aspirin)’”
As we have written before, antibiotics are not used to directly treat viruses, though can be given to Covid-19 patients who are suffering from secondary bacterial infections.
The anti-inflammatory drug ibuprofen is being tested to see whether it can help Covid-19 patients, and the anticoagulant heparin has been used in some cases to treat Covid-19 illness.
Aspirin can be used for pain relief in adults if they have a cough or cold but is not a specific cure or treatment for Covid-19.