As India is facing a renewed increase in Covid-19 cases, there is a shortage of plasma from recovering patients in several states.
As India is facing a renewed increase in Covid-19 cases, there is a shortage of plasma from recovering patients in several states. Below is a list of names with blood groups and telephone numbers social media with the claim that these people are ready to donate their plasma.
Plasma therapy is a treatment for Covid-19 where antibody-rich plasma is extracted from a Covid survivor and administered to a patient. One such list which claims that he of plasma donors of Delhi-NCR can be seen below.
India Today Anti Fake News War Room (AFWA) found the allegation misleading. This is an old list of blood donors that has been circulating on social media at least since 2015. It has nothing to do with the Covid-19 pandemic.
The archived versions of the posts can be seen here, here and here.
AFWA investigation
We did a keyword search for the names mentioned in the viralis and found that the same list of more than 50 names was shared on 5 December 2015 on a Facebook page in Tamil Nadu with the hashtag ‘#blooddonors’. The new face of society (TNFS).
Over the years, the same list has been shared by several Facebook pages with different claims. In 2016, a Facebook page called BLOOD DONORS shared the same list as from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.
The same list was also shared on a blog called I love Trichy and medium.com in 2016 and 2017 respectively as a list of blood donors in Tamil Nadu.
AFWA tried to contact the telephone numbers in the list. But while most of them were non-functional or did not exist, the rest did not respond.
Even in 2020, after the Covid-19 pandemic broke out in India, the same list went viral, claiming it was from plasma donors. The fifth then spoke to V Mohan, one of the donors mentioned in the list, who confirmed that the names of blood donors are from Chennai and have nothing to do with plasma donation for Covid patients.
It is therefore clear that the list in circulation is more than five years old and is not related to the Covid-19 pandemic or plasma donation for coronavirus patients.
ClaimHere are names and contact numbers of people in Delhi-NCR who are ready to donate their plasma for Covid patients. ClosureThis is an old list of blood donors that has been circulating on social media at least since 2015. It has nothing to do with the Covid-19 pandemic.
JHOOTH BOLE KAUVA KAATE
The number of crows determines the intensity of the lie.
- 1 Crow: Half true
- 2 crows: mostly lies
- 3 crows: absolutely false
