Fake News Site Invents Story About COVID-19 Patient Zero Having Sex With Bats

An article from a notorious fake news website - World News Daily Report (WNDR) claiming Chinese authorities said patient zero of the Coronavirus had sex with bats, is going viral online with netizens believing it to be real.

Patient zero is the person identified as the first carrier of a communicable disease in an outbreak.

At the time of writing this story the article titled -'COVID-19: Chinese health authorities confirm patient zero 'had sex with bats' had over 300,000 interaction on Facebook and nearly 40,000 shares according to data from Crowd Tangle, a social media monitoring tool.

The article makes up a bogus story about Chinese authorities identifying a 24-year old man Yin Dao Tang from Hubei province as the first case of the novel coronavirus that emerged on November 17. The website further claims Tang is believed to have contracted the disease after indulging in sexual acts with several animals, including bats. The bizarre story includes a ficticious quote attributed to a Chinese official and includes a picture of a old man - supposed to Tang's father, admitting to being deeply ashamed of his son's actions.

FACT-CHECK

The entire story is a work of fiction. The main image used in the story is from this article by Hong Kong Free Press.

World News Daily Report is a known disinformation peddler that passes of harmful disinformation under the guise of satirical content.

The site also finds mention on a list of fake news websites.

BOOM has debunked articles from the website in the past (see below)

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With a 'newsy-sounding names such as World News Daily Report, netizens often fall for its bogus articles which go viral on Facebook.

Other stories on the site show how all its content thrives on shock value.

"SATIRICAL CONTENT"

The site's 'About Us' section does not give away much but scroll to the bottom of the same page and one can see a disclaimer which makes it clear that the website should not be taken at face value.

"World News Daily Report assumes all responsibility for the satirical nature of its articles and for the fictional nature of their content. All characters appearing in the articles in this website – even those based on real people – are entirely fictional and any resemblance between them and any person, living, dead or undead, is purely a miracle," - World News Daily Report.