A video shared on social media in which an unidentified man shouts at a member of the Irish police force, An Garda Síochána, contains false information about the COVID-19 pandemic.
At one point in the video, the man, whose car was stopped at a checkpoint in Ireland, told the Garda: ‘Covid is imaginary, it has not been proven by science and it has not been isolated.’ (here timestamp 1.01)
Reuters has already unmasked these claims (here and here and here).
The virus that causes COVID-19 has been shown to exist independently in different countries (examples: China here, South Korea here, Canada here and Italy here) and the genetic sequences for different strains of the virus isolated in different countries is, is readily available online (for example: China here, Turkey here and the UK here).
When the man was then asked by the Garda if he was within a five-kilometer radius of his residence, as recommended by Irish guidelines, he replied: ‘I can walk 100 kilometers if I want to, because I have constitutional, inalienable rights , given to me by God himself who no one can take away from me. He threatens to take a case to the Supreme Court for violating his ‘basic human rights’ (timestamp 1.15 here).
Challenges against legislation and regulations used to enforce COVID-19 restrictions have already been considered by the Irish High Court. The Court’s published judgment from a case in May 2020 (Judgments | The Irish Court Service) specifically refers to travel restrictions (paragraph 16) and does not find that it violates the Constitution of Ireland, the European Convention on Human Rights or the EU. Bill of Fundamental Rights (paragraphs 52 and 59 Judgments | The Courts Service of Ireland).
A relevant section of the summary from Justice Meenan’s ruling reads: ‘The legislation enacted to address the health and economic issues arising from the COVID-19 pandemic undoubtedly restricts people’s constitutional rights. However, the constitutional rights in question are not absolute, so the applicants must present such facts on affidavit which, if proved, would prove that such restrictions are disproportionate. No such facts have been settled. ”
VERDICT
Untrue. The existence of COVID-19 has been proven independently in different countries, and the genome of the virus that causes COVID-19 has also been followed up independently in different countries. Challenges against travel restrictions during the pandemic were brought to the Irish High Court, which did not find that it violated the Irish constitution or European human rights law.
This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. Read more about our fact-checking work here.