Coronavirus: The truth about the conspiracy theories and fake news on China’s outbreak

As cases of the new strain of coronavirus have spread around the world this month, so too has fake news and conspiracy theories about the outbreak.

The virus, which was first identified in the city of Wuhan, China, has already caused more than 100 deaths and spread to Europe, North America and the Middle East.

Although health authorities outside of China have maintained that the threat to the public is low, misinformation has repeatedly gone viral on social media and stoked fears over the possibility of a devastating pandemic.

Fake news about the outbreak has ranged from wildly-inaccurate claims about the number of deaths from the virus to conspiracy theories about its origin.

Here are some of the most popular false claims about coronavirus and why they are untrue.