Claim: A viral social media post in January 2020 represented an authentic, accurate "health bulletin" about the new coronavirus outbreak from an official public health authority.
Verdict: REFUTES

Retrieved passages:
title: ProMED-mail
text: Saudi Health Ministry announced the diagnosis of a new form of coronavirus. The importance of using unofficial sources of information for public health surveillance has become increasingly recognized. Sometimes referred to as “event-based surveillance” or “epidemic intelligence,” informal disease reporting services, pioneered by ProMED, have become a crucial component of the overall global infectious disease surveillance picture. According to the WHO Epidemic & Pandemic Alert & Response, more than 60% of the initial outbreak reports come from informal sources, including ProMED-mail. ProMED-mail publishes reports to the website ProMEDmail.org in addition to sending e-mails to service subscribers. There is no cost

title: 2012 Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus outbreak
text: with confirmed cases of a SARS-like virus. The delays in obtaining data and absence of basic information (which would usefully include: sex, age, other medical conditions and smoking status) have been noted and decried by Dr. Margaret Chan and in Pro-Med comments on numerous briefings. At the annual meeting of the world’s health ministers, Dr. Chan, director-general of the World Health Organization, said the virus was now her “greatest concern.” On 28 May 2013, the Saudi Ministry of Health reported five more cases of MERS-CoV. The cases have been "recorded among citizens in the Eastern Region, ranging in age from

title: 2012 Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus outbreak
text: was referred to the RITM last 4 July 2015. Another person, who was also showing symptoms, was placed in isolation after he had close contact with the said patient; eight others, who also had contacted with the patient, were identified. DOH is in the process of tracking all the people whom the patient had contacted with. The first known case of a previously unknown coronavirus was identified in a 60-year-old Saudi Arabian man with acute pneumonia, who died of renal failure in June 2012. As of 12 May 2013, two more deaths have been reported in the al-Ahsa region of

title: 2012 Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus outbreak
text: said virus. The Evangelista Medical Hospital in San Pedro, Laguna, the facility where the patient was first admitted, was temporarily closed by DOH for fourteen days. On 17 February 2015, all those who had exposure or had contact with the said nurse were tested negative of the said virus. On 6 March 2015, The Department of Foreign Affairs confirmed three Filipino female healthcare workers in Saudi Arabia who were infected with MERS-CoV. On 6 July 2015, DOH confirmed the second detected case of MERS-CoV in the country. The patient who had contracted the virus was from the Middle East and

title: 2012 Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus outbreak
text: man from the Orlando area, has been reported, and a third Illinois man is as yet asymptomatic but has tested positive for a past infection with the healthcare worker from Indiana. The latter case is the first human-to-human transmission in the United States. On 28 May 2014, the CDC announced that the third person who was found positive for the virus was not infected. The announcement came after a further laboratory analysis by CDC indicating that the person was never infected with the virus. 2012 Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus outbreak Since 2012, an outbreak of Middle East respiratory syndrome

title: Coronavirus
text: in a small number of nucleotides. In 2003, following the outbreak of Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) which had begun the prior year in Asia, and secondary cases elsewhere in the world, the World Health Organization (WHO) issued a press release stating that a novel coronavirus identified by a number of laboratories was the causative agent for SARS. The virus was officially named the SARS coronavirus (SARS-CoV). The epidemic resulted in over 8,000 infections, about 10% of which resulted in death. X-ray crystallography studies performed at the Advanced Light Source of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have begun to give hope

title: Severe acute respiratory syndrome
text: protocol for protecting healthcare workers and identifying infected patients as a major contributing factor to the continued spread of the virus. The atmosphere of fear and uncertainty surrounding the outbreak resulted in staffing issues in area hospitals when healthcare workers elected to resign rather than risk exposure to SARS. The CDC and Canada's National Microbiology Laboratory identified the SARS genome in April 2003. Scientists at Erasmus University in Rotterdam, the Netherlands demonstrated that the SARS coronavirus fulfilled Koch's postulates thereby confirming it as the causative agent. In the experiments, macaques infected with the virus developed the same symptoms as human

title: 2012 Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus outbreak
text: being followed up. On 31 May 2013, the Italian health ministry announced its first case of MERS-CoV in a 45-year-old man who had traveled to Jordan. The patient is being currently treated in a hospital in Tuscany and his condition was reported as not life-threatening. On 1 November 2013, a woman who had recently traveled to Saudi Arabia for the Hajj, contracted the disease. She is stated to be in stable condition, and investigators from the World Health Organization are investigating whom she came in contact with. In February 2013, the first UK case of the novel coronavirus was confirmed

title: Severe acute respiratory syndrome
text: strain of a particular virus known as a coronavirus. This strain has all the genetic building blocks of the type that triggered the global outbreak of SARS in 2002." The research was "published in the journal "Public Library of Science Pathogens"" and "was led by Shi Zheng-Li and Cui Jie of the Wuhan Institute of Virology, China... In their paper, the Chinese team warn that another deadly outbreak of SARS could emerge at any time. As they point out, the cave where they discovered their strain is only a kilometre from the nearest village." The World Health Organization declared severe

title: Coronavirus
text: one discovered the virus first and has the right to name it. Early in 2005, a research team at the University of Hong Kong reported finding a fifth human coronavirus in two patients with pneumonia. They named it Human coronavirus HKU1. In September 2012, a sixth new type of coronavirus was identified, initially called Novel Coronavirus 2012, and now officially Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV). The World Health Organisation accordingly issued a global alert. The WHO update on 28 September 2012 said that the virus did not seem to pass easily from person to person. However, on May 12,

title: 2012 Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus outbreak
text: of unknown origin. Of the six, two died. All the cases were reported to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC). After the September identification of a novel CoV strain, a retroactive analysis of the hospital workers was performed. Epidemiologists discovered the Jordan cases. Using stored laboratory samples for all six, it was found that samples from the two patients who had died tested positive for nCoV. On 24 April 2014, a 25-year-old male was found positive for the coronavirus. He had history of exposure to camels and had consumed camel milk. The Ministry of Health and Medical

title: 2012 Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus outbreak
text: the alpha and beta genera. Both MERS-CoV and SARS-CoV (severe acute respiratory syndrome) are betacoronaviruses. Global surveillance of potential epidemics and preparation has improved since and because of the SARS epidemic, and MERS is being closely monitored. The Fourth Meeting of the International Health Regulations Emergency Committee concerning MERS-CoV was held on 4 December 2013. The committee decided that the conditions for a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) had not at present been met. In November 2012, Egyptian virologist Dr. Ali Mohamed Zaki sent a virus sample from the first confirmed case to virologist Ron Fouchier, a leading

title: 2012 Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus outbreak
text: coronavirus researcher at the Erasmus Medical Center (EMC) in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. The second laboratory-proven case was in London, confirmed by the UK Health Protection Agency (HPA). The HPA named the virus the London1_novel CoV 2012. On 8 November 2012, in an article published in the New England Journal of Medicine, Dr. Zaki and co-authors from the Erasmus Medical Center published more details, including a scientific name, Human Coronavirus-Erasmus Medical Center (HCoV-EMC), which was then used in scientific literature. In the article, they noted four respiratory human coronaviruses (HCoV) known to be endemic: 229E, OC43, NL63, and HKU1. In May

title: Middle East respiratory syndrome
text: based on the virus's RNA obtained from the Qatari case. On 25 September 2012, the WHO announced that it was "engaged in further characterizing the novel coronavirus" and that it had "immediately alerted all its Member States about the virus and has been leading the coordination and providing guidance to health authorities and technical health agencies." The Erasmus Medical Center (EMC) in Rotterdam "tested, sequenced and identified" a sample provided to EMC virologist Ron Fouchier by Ali Mohamed Zaki in November 2012. On 8 November 2012 in an article published in the New England Journal of Medicine, Dr. Zaki and

title: Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus
text: similar cases appeared in Qatar and Saudi Arabia. Additional cases were noted, with deaths associated, and rapid research and monitoring of this novel coronavirus began. It is not certain whether the infections are the result of a single zoonotic event with subsequent human-to-human transmission, or if the multiple geographic sites of infection represent multiple zoonotic events from a common unknown source. A study by Ziad Memish of Riyadh University and colleagues suggests that the virus arose sometime between July 2007 and June 2012, with perhaps as many as 7 separate zoonotic transmissions. Among animal reservoirs, CoV has a large genetic

title: SARS coronavirus
text: been confirmed by other independent groups. The SARS coronavirus is one of several viruses identified by WHO as a likely cause of a future epidemic in a new plan developed after the Ebola epidemic for urgent research and development before and during an epidemic toward new diagnostic tests, vaccines and medicines. SARS, or Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, is the disease caused by SARS coronavirus. It causes an often severe illness marked initially by systemic symptoms of muscle pain, headache, and fever, followed in 2–14 days by the onset of respiratory symptoms, mainly cough, dyspnea, and pneumonia. Another common finding in

title: Coronavirus
text: 2013, a case of contamination from human to human in France was confirmed by the French Ministry of Social Affairs and Health. In addition, cases of person-to-person transmission have been reported by the Ministry of Health in Tunisia. Two confirmed cases seem to have caught the disease from their late father, who became ill after a visit to Qatar and Saudi Arabia. By Oct. 30 2013, there were 124 cases and 52 deaths in Saudi Arabia. After the Dutch Erasmus Medical Centre sequenced the virus, the virus was given a new name, Human Corona Virus-Erasmus Medical Centre (HCoV-EMC). The final

title: 2012 Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus outbreak
text: a nurse who came in contact with the deceased patient are suspected to have contracted the disease. The victim's son-in-law is also reported to have been infected. According to Dr. Gooya, the infection of 1 out of the 3 suspected patients is confirmed and more tests are under way to determine the situation of the other two patients. On 7 May 2013, a case was confirmed in Nord departement of France in a man who had previously traveled to Dubai, United Arab Emirates. On 12 May 2013, in a case of human to human transmission, a man previously hospitalized in

title: 2012 Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus outbreak
text: have been at least 3800 quarantined. On 16 April 2014, Malaysia reported its first MERS-COV related death. The person was a 54-year-old man who had traveled to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, together with pilgrimage group composed of 18 people, from 15–28 March 2014. He became ill by 4 April, and sought remedy at a clinic in Johor on 7 April. He was hospitalized by 9 April and died on 13 April. On May 11, 2014, two persons on Medan were suspected infected by MERS-Cov (Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome-Corona Virus). On 31 October 2013, the World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed that one

title: 2012 Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus outbreak
text: in Manchester in an elderly man who had recently visited the Middle East and Pakistan; it was the 10th case globally. The man's son, whom he visited in the hospital in Birmingham, was immuno-suppressed because of a brain tumour, and contracted the virus, providing the first clear evidence for person-to-person transmission. He died on 19 February 2013. The second patient was a 49-year-old Qatari man who had visited Saudi Arabia before falling ill. He was flown privately by air ambulance from Doha to London on 11 September where he was admitted to St Mary's Hospital and later was transferred to