A MESSAGE CIRCULATING In WhatsApp groups in the last 24 hours suggests the government has a detailed, though ‘tentative’, plan for reopening businesses and services in Ireland.

The list of dates includes those for opening small businesses, bars, tourism accommodation, international transit and sports events. 

For a start, the language used in the message raises a red flag. The US spelling for the word ‘centre’ is used, for example, and the phrase ‘national population transit’ is not one that would usually be used here in relation to transportation. The message also includes parks in the list and most parks in communities are open in Ireland already. 

TheJournal.ie also asked Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan about the message at this evening’s Department of Health briefing. 

“It’s false,” he said. “No such list exists, that’s just not authentic and people should ignore it.”

He said the National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET) is now considering the next steps for after 5 May. This could include an easing back of measures, but there are no plans in place for this yet. 

“I want to continue to emphasise that all of the social distancing measures that we recommend across society are still in place and it’s very important that people continue to observe them. Any sense of complacency – there’s no room for that,” he said.

“We’re not at the point that we think we can start to recommend to people that we start thinking about changing some of these measures.

“In preparatory terms we’re making plans along those lines for when the time would be right. We will make those assessments obviously on public health grounds and will work with our colleagues across other government departments.”

Dr Holohan said NPHET wants to understand both the economic and social impacts of easing certain restrictions before it recommends a relaxation of measures. He also said it will not be the case that measures are lifted in the same order in which they were introduced. 

“There’ll be a very different order that will apply to those measures. What we’d like to do first is to identify those measures where we think the risk of increasing the rate of infection is low, and where maybe the economic benefits or the social benefits of society is high,” he explained. 

“But as we do that, we’ll want to be in a position to track what the impact is, whether there’s any impact in terms of increasing the rate of infection to pick that up as quickly as possible.

“Even if we model and identify measures for relaxation, it may well be that we’re wrong in terms of the impact that has on the spread of infection and we want to pick it up if we’re wrong.”

He also said there is a risk that lifting some measures could lead to “other behaviour that we don’t intend”.

“As we stepped up through the measures, the public were mostly ahead of us – they were certainly with us and often ahead of us. By the time we got to a point of formally recommending cocooning, in reality, many people have already taken that position themselves.

There is a chance that as we begin to introduce some relaxation, that people may think that we’re on a path to rapid relaxation and they may start to go ahead of us, and start to organise parties and get-togethers and things like that that really would be not what we would intend and likely to spread infection in ways we wouldn’t have predicted. 

“So for those reasons, we really need to be very careful as we step our way through any change in the measures that are in place at the moment.”

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There is a lot of false news and scaremongering being spread in Ireland at the moment about coronavirus. Here are some practical ways for you to assess whether the messages that you’re seeing – especially on WhatsApp – are true or not. 

STOP, THINK AND CHECK 

Look at where it’s coming from. Is it someone you know? Do they have a source for the information (e.g. the HSE website) or are they just saying that the information comes from someone they know? A lot of the false news being spread right now is from people claiming that messages from ‘a friend’ of theirs. Have a look yourself – do a quick Google search and see if the information is being reported elsewhere. 

Secondly, get the whole story, not just a headline. A lot of these messages have got vague information (“all the doctors at this hospital are panicking”) and don’t mention specific details. This is often – but not always a sign – that it may not be accurate. 

Finally, see how you feel after reading it. A lot of these false messages are designed to make people feel panicked. They’re deliberately manipulating your feelings to make you more likely to share it. If you feel panicked after reading something, check it out and see if it really is true.

TheJournal.ie’s FactCheck is a signatory to the International Fact-Checking Network’s Code of Principles. You can read it here. For information on how FactCheck works, what the verdicts mean, and how you can take part, check out our Reader’s Guide here. You can read about the team of editors and reporters who work on the factchecks here

Have you gotten a message on WhatsApp or Facebook or Twitter about coronavirus that you’re not sure about and want us to check it out? Message or mail us and we’ll look into debunking it. WhatsApp: 085 221 4696 or Email: answers@thejournal.ie