Fact Check: Old Video Of People In PPE Shared To Allege It Shows ‘HMPV Situation In China’

Video shows individuals in white personal protective equipment (PPE) dragging people. An X user shared the video, writing, ‘Pandemic 2.0 is coming…’ 

Social media users shared the old video, falsely linking it to the recent HMPV outbreak in China.

Source : X/Modified by Logically Facts

 

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The Verdict: Misleading The video, online since at least 2022, predates the recent rise in HMPV cases in China and is unrelated to the current outbreak.

What is the claim?

A video showing individuals in white personal protective equipment (PPE) dragging people has been shared online, claiming to show the situation in China amid an outbreak of respiratory disease caused by Human Metapneumovirus (HMPV). The claim has circulated alongside reports of rising HMPV cases in China.

An X user shared the video, writing, “Pandemic 2.0 is coming Curiously, just with Trump’s presidency, China has just declared a state of health emergency. The authorities are not giving information about the virus or variants (translated from Spanish).” Archived links to similar posts can be found here and here.

HMPV is a virus from the Pneumoviridae family that affects the lungs and causes respiratory illness similar to the common cold. First identified in the Netherlands in 2001, the virus can cause symptoms such as coughing, fever, nasal congestion, and wheezing. [Learn more about the virus and the outbreak in China here.]

Screenshot of the viral video shared online. (Source: X/Facebook/Modified by Logically Facts)

However, we found that the video currently circulating is at least two years old and predates the HMPV outbreak.

Here are the facts

A reverse image search revealed the same video was posted by X user @fangshimin on October 29, 2022 (archived here). The caption stated, “China’s ‘Crystal Night’: large numbers of White Guards went out in the middle of the night and dragged people to concentration camps (translated from Chinese).”

The video was also uploaded to a YouTube channel called ‘China in Real Life’ on May 22, 2022 (archived here). It was captioned, “China Guangdong Medical Staff Drag Citizens to Quarantine Camp at Midnight.” This indicates the video has been online since at least 2022 and cannot depict a recent HMPV outbreak in China.

A November 2022 Yahoo News report referenced the video, noting that X user Songpinganq shared it on October 22, 2022. The report did not confirm the exact location or date of the footage.

Comparison of the viral video and the visuals published by Yahoo News in 2022. (Source: X/Yahoo News)

While Logically Facts could not independently verify the precise date and location of the video, available evidence shows it is not recent.

The verdict

A video that has been online since at least 2022 has been misattributed to the current HMPV outbreak in China.

This report first appeared on logicallyfacts.com, and has been republished on ABP Live as part of a special arrangement. Apart from the headline, no changes have been made in the report by ABP Live.