By: Archana Naresh
May 9 2020
False: Black people are immune to coronavirus.
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Fact-Check
The Verdict False
The claim is false as several black people including actors and athletes have tested positive for coronavirus.
Claim ID ae2f768b
The claim is false as several black people including actors and athletes have tested positive for coronavirus. A claim that black people cannot contract coronavirus because the melanin in their skin is resistant to the disease has gone viral on social media. However, this claim is false and black people are not immune to the virus. In a press briefing, Kenya's Secretary of Health, Mutahi Kagwe denied that black people cannot get coronavirus and added that the first person infected with COVID-19 in Kenya is a 27-year-old black African woman. NBA player Rudy Gobert, a Frenchman of Caribbean heritage and Idris Elba, an Afro-British actor tested positive for the coronavirus. Moreover, according to Otis Brawley, a professor of epidemiology and oncology at Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, 'there is no relation between coronavirus and the genetic difference between people.' The COVID-19 pandemic has given rise to a lot of potentially dangerous misinformation. For reliable advice on COVID-19 including symptoms, prevention and available treatment, please refer to the World Health Organisation or your national healthcare authority.