An article shared online states that Public Health England (PHE) acknowledged in a reply to a Freedom of Information (FOI) that it could not scientifically prove that the new coronavirus could be transmitted in person . It is not true.
The headline of the article reads: “Bomb! Public Health England concedes that it can not scientifically prove that COVID-19 is contagious ”(here), and was spread in a screenshot (here) on social media.
In the article itself, from an online blog (humanarefree.com/), the author submits an FOI request sent to PHE requesting information “related to experimental evidence proving that COVID-19 person- to-person transferable “. The agency then responds: “PHE can confirm that it does not contain information in the manner specified by your request.” A verbal interaction can be seen (here).
According to the article, the PHE response is evidence that ‘no specific investigation’ has been done or that COVID-19 is transmitted from person to person. However, this is not true – and the article seems to be a misunderstanding of the level of information that FOI requests can get.
The Freedom of Information Act allows people to access records held by public bodies, including government agencies such as PHE (here). These records can only be given if PHE keeps them in the first place.
Although PHE may not have information available to respond to the FOI request, the transmissibility of COVID-19 has been extensively studied and documented elsewhere (here), (here), (here), (here).
SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19 disease, is very easily spread, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), mainly through close human contact. The World Health Organization (WHO) meanwhile explains on its website (here) that evidence suggests that the virus is mostly spread by respiratory droplets between people in close contact.
VERDICT
Untrue. PHE does not have information regarding the FOI request; however, this does not mean that such research is lacking. The transmissibility of COVID-19 has been extensively studied and evidence suggests that it is spread by respiratory droplets.
This article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team. Read more about our work to actually check social media posts.