Fake News: Vegetarians Aren't Safe From Coronavirus

No, vegetarians are not magically immune to COVID-19 - Photo by Anagoria under CC BY 3.0

FAKE NEWS ALERT: No, vegetarians are not magically immune from COVID-19.

The viral piece of fake news is making the rounds on the internet right now and especially in India, according to IndiaToday.

The memes (mostly written in Hindi) claim that COVID-19 “needs animal fat in the body to survive”. That obviously makes absolutely no sense, since animal fat turns into human fat once injested by the human body.

Furthermore, the memes attribute this to a doctor working with the World Health Organization. It’s pure fabrication.

Luc Mercer

Luc Mercer is a pseudonym, used for professional reasons. The journalist behind it spent more than thirty years in daily news at a major national news organization, with international assignments early in his career. He is now retired. News of the New World is his record of events that are documented, verifiable, and largely absent from the news cycles he spent three decades watching. He writes what happened, who was responsible, and what the primary sources say — nothing else. More in the About page and the Editorial Standards.