Coda Story previously reported on the decision of the Church to keep places of worship open and the adherence of some branches to the traditional Holy Communion rite, in which worshippers drink wine from a shared cup and spoon. Some recently modified the ritual by allowing single-use cups, but others drew the line when it came to plastic spoons. On Monday the Greek government ordered the suspension of services in all places of worship until March 30 and in Russia, home to the world’s largest Orthodox congregation, the Church introduced a wide-range of new hygiene recommendations.

“No genuinely believing Christian can for one moment accept that the Holy Mysteries might bring or be the source of sickness or ill-health,” wrote the Bishop of London and Western Europe on Instagram last week. “The Mysteries of Christ are the true medicines of our souls.”

In Georgia, Orthodox priests blessed the streets of Tbilisi with holy water earlier this week, standing on the back of black Ford pick-up trucks driven in procession through the city.

The post Eastern Orthodox Church leader orders suspension of services in response to coronavirus appeared first on Coda Story.

On the outskirts of Tbilisi, staff at the U.S.-funded Lugar Research Center are helping to limit the spread of COVID-19 in Georgia by testing hundreds of samples and turning results around in under 24 hours. 

The lab, funded by $350 million in American taxpayer dollars, has been at the center of Georgian media coverage for weeks. But for years prior to this pandemic, it’s been the subject of media attention for a different reason – as a key target for Russian disinformation campaigns.

In January, the lab activated its emergency response unit, and quickly focused its resources on testing for COVID-19. When Russian and Chinese state media began claiming the coronavirus is the product of a U.S. military bioweapons operation, one Russian outlet, Kremlin-backed RenTV, went further: it attempted to pin the pandemic to the Tbilisi Lugar Lab. 

“This is propaganda. What can we do?” said Paata Imnadze, director of the lab in an interview with Coda Story. He added that the coronavirus outbreak may now play a part in shifting Georgian attitudes towards the center. “For me it's  more important that the majority of our population will now see why we need it.”

Russian military expert Igor Nigulkin was one of the first Kremlin figures to push conspiracy theories linking the disease to the US military. “We will soon see who coronavirus is directed against,” said Nigulkin on Ren-TV in January. “It can be beneficial for American corporations that are developing these kinds of new diseases just for profit. Or maybe for the Americans themselves, because America is the only country that has 400 military biological laboratories around the world.” 

A reporter on Ren-TV, which reaches 115 million viewers, then singled out Tbilisi’s Lugar lab as a potential source of the virus.

When Coda Story visited the lab, technicians were busy testing samples of COVID-19. “It’s not the first time journalists have visited the center – one time, all of Russian TV was here,” Imnadze told me as we watched technicians testing samples through a thick glass window. “Of course the majority of them showed nothing – and if they showed something it was just the opposite of what we told them.”

Asked how he felt about the constant onslaught of disinformation targeting the lab, Director Paata Imnadze shrugged. “It doesn't affect me. But it does affect people who still believe propaganda. We’re waiting for the next propaganda activity from our neighbor.”

Conspiracy theories about the work done at the Lugar Lab have persisted for years. Coda Story previously wrote about the lab in 2018 when the Russian Defense Ministry claimed the facility was a secret U.S. bioweapons project, posing a threat to neighboring Russia’s security. Kremlin-backed media also floated conspiracies that the lab is a “nest of viruses,” illegally testing on Georgian citizens and responsible for events as diverse as flu outbreaks, Ebola, and the Skripal poisonings. 

It’s been a source of frustration for the lab’s directors and Georgia’s disease control officials. 

“I do not like this question. The source of this disinformation is one country – you know which country it is, yes?” said Amiran Gamrekildze, Head of the National Center for Disease Control. “If you can nominate another country except this one, our big neighbor, then I will answer this question. Everybody agrees that the Lugar lab is for public health research, and nothing to do what our big neighbors are manipulating.” 

The U.S. government built the $350 million lab in 2011, with the aim of limiting the spread of disease in the region, and dealing with deadly pathogens left over from the Soviet Union’s biowarfare program. 

The lab’s high levels of biosafety and advanced technology are part of what makes it a target for Russian disinformation. 

In recent months, the lab has been crucial in quickly testing for the coronavirus in Georgia. “For tracking the virus, it’s very important to have results as quickly as possible,” said Imnadze. “The technology we have here is very unique for this region,” he said, adding that the lab was starting to carry out sequencing work, contributing to broader international research on the virus’s behavior.

While the lab’s employees are fighting on two fronts, in Georgia at least, attitudes towards their work is changing. 

“There’s always been a big question mark about the Lugar Lab,” said Sandro Bregadze, the leader of the extreme-right Georgian March party, previously one of the loudest Georgian voices calling for the lab’s closure. “When something is secret there are always doubts – are they working in the Lab on some kind of biological or chemical weapon?” But, Bregadze added, seeing the work the lab had been doing to combat coronavirus in recent months, he was grateful. “I think that the Lugar laboratory plays a very important role in the fight against the virus,” he said. “I want to thank the lab for doing such a good job.”

At the time of writing, there are 34 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Georgia. Just a few hundred miles away from coronavirus-hit Iran, Georgia’s outbreak is currently under control. “We’re in response and containment mode,” the lab’s head of emergency response, Ana Kasradze, said. “We hope we’ll keep the rate very low.”

The World Health Organization is clear on how to mitigate the spread. “We have a simple message for all nations: test, test, test,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Monday.

The post A US-funded lab in Tbilisi, Georgia fights COVID-19 — and Russian disinformation appeared first on Coda Story.

Zeyi Yang grew up in Wuhan. As the coronavirus crisis escalates, he’s been following news about Wuhan from thousands of miles away in New York, where he’s a student. 

Yang says, “I used to consider it a victory if people I met in the US knew where Wuhan was.” Now, Wuhan’s identity has been forever linked with a virus, and conflicting narratives about the city have dominated the online world.

Yang has been documenting his experiences as he tries to make sense of the truth, lies and disinformation swirling around his home city. In the weeks to come, he will regularly update this page with new insights into what he’s found on the Wuhan social media space and other news he’s received from home.

—Isobel Cockerell 

March 10, 2020

Columbia University, where I’m studying now, canceled Monday and Tuesday classes due to a student’s exposure to the virus and switched future classes to online. The email from the university president Lee Bollinger was posted dozens of times by my WeChat friends. 

In just a week, the number of confirmed cases in New York state jumped to 142, and the state declared emergency. 

The undergrads are celebrating the school closure, combined with a genuinely nice weather, by gathering in hundreds, sunbathing, on the lawn. “I don’t know if Americans are panicking or not,” a friend also at Columbia messaged to our group chat, “lots of people are stocking up, but they are also flocking to the lawn.”

My Chinese friends, on the other end of the spectrum, canceled their spring break plans and are determined to stay in. We are constantly talking about how we freak out seeing someone sneeze or are debating whether to wear a face mask. I guess seeing our home being wrecked by the coronavirus has traumatized us and made us more cautious. 

Much of the development in Italy, which is now in lockdown, and the U.S. looks painfully similar to what happened in Wuhan. Not enough testing kits, hospitals being overwhelmed, governments not paying enough attention. My parents, hearing about how the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention didn’t allow states to test its own residents — now possible in New York, but not in many other states — are really concerned about my situation. “If you don’t test the patients and let them out in the public,” my mom said on a phone call, “Wuhan’s tragedy is your lesson.”

March 4, 2020

A second patient has tested positive for coronavirus in New York, and it appears to be a case of community spread. 

As the danger comes closer, weirdly enough, I start to feel more solidarity with my Wuhan people: two months into their lockdown, I am finally experiencing some of their daily concerns. Should I stock up the food? Should I wear face masks for prevention? Where can I even get face masks?

In the beginning, it was me nagging my parents on the phone not to go out and keep safe. Yesterday, it was their turn to tell me to stay indoors. “Nowhere in the world is safe now,” my mom said.

March 2, 2020

Amid a tide of coronavirus misinformation in Iran, videos are circulating claiming that Iranians are collapsing suddenly on the street because of COVID-19. It seems all so familiar: weeks ago, I was watching the same thing happen on the streets of Wuhan.

I’ve long been suspicious of these videos. Fainting, according to WHO, is “atypical” in the situation of COVID-19. As I’m not a medical expert or a Farsi speaker, I don’t get to decide whether these videos are eventually linked to coronavirus, but I do see their potential in spreading fear and panic, and they make for unsettling viewing.

February 27, 2020

I don’t know how I should read the numbers.

“There are 9 confirmed cases in our neighborhood,” my mother told me on the phone, referring to our residential compound with 1,000 households. She didn’t sound worried. 

There are more than 40,000 confirmed infected people in Wuhan, which sounds a lot – but it’s also a massive city with 9 million people trapped within it. 

But what do these numbers mean to one family, like mine? How much should I believe in the official numbers when there’s no way to fact-check it? How freaked out should I be when the death toll keeps growing and there are gruesome stories told all over the social media? How worried should I be if my parents sound carefree in our phone calls? I try to catch up with the news about the local situation through Weibo and WeChat, but I can’t be there. I hate that I’m not in Wuhan and I can never fully understand what it feels like to be there. 

February 23, 2020

Another doctor died in Wuhan today. According to state broadcaster CCTV news, 29-year-old Xia Sisi had “treated a patient on January 14 who was confirmed positive that afternoon.”

Social media users in China were quick to notice an oddity: in the press releases from Wuhan’s local government, there had been a weird period between January 11 and 17 when no new cases were declared. At the time, many suspected this was an attempt to divert attention towards a high-profile political meeting. Now, people have proof – patients were indeed falling ill during that time.

“You forgot to cover up for the lie you told a month ago,” one of the commenters said. 

CCTV News responded swiftly, but without explanation. They edited the original post. Now, the doctor died because she “treated a patient on January 14 who was confirmed positive later on.”

February 9, 2020

I took the train down to Central Park, where, in front of the classic view of Manhattan skylines and a large patch of meadow, a vigil was being held for Dr Li Wenliang, one of the doctors who first raised the alarm about coronavirus . 

A week before he died, responding to his being silenced by the police, Li told reporters from Caixin, “I think there should be more than one voice in a healthy society.”

Here at the vigil, the crowd, dressed in black, shouted out this line in unison three times. In front of them, dozens of messages left by people around the world were printed out and hung on the metal fences, along with flowers and posters. 

“All I want is the truth. Just gimme some truth. Rest in Peace,” one of the posters said, quoting a song by John Lennon. 

February 8, 2020 

Dr Li Wenliang, one of the doctors who first raised the alarm about coronavirus and was admonished for “making false comments on the Internet,” died yesterday.

I spoke to my friend Leticia, who has been trapped in Wuhan for more than a month. When she heard of Dr Li ’s death, she broke down. “I reposted a letter asking for help, allegedly written by Li Wenliang’s wife,” said Leticia. The letter has been doing the rounds on Chinese social media,  detailing the widow’s health issues and financial struggles. Leticia tried to verify the widow’s personal details in the letter, and they seemed to check out. The same day, a statement by the widow herself refuted the letter’s credibility. This development made Leticia question her ability to tell disinformation from truth. Leticia told me she felt she’d lost her judgement in the wake of Li’s death. “When I was in that mood, I wasn’t able to verify the letter rationally,” she said. 

In the wake of Dr. Li’s death I felt the same anger and sadness as hers, maybe as well as the whole country. In a time when it’s so hard to look for truth among oceans of misinformation, speaking the truth had cost him his life. 

February 3, 2020 

I called my mom to check up on her. She told me her close friend, who I know as “auntie,” has just tested positive. 

I knew it was just a matter of time before the disease hit close to home. But I still wasn’t prepared. Whenever I met my auntie, she was always laughing. She’s the kind of older family friend who cares a lot –– maybe too much sometimes. She’s always nagging me to come back to China. On the phone, my mom told me that after she got sick, my auntie said maybe I should stay in the States after all.

From this moment on, every single piece of news started to feel personal. Rather than finding out if the news is “true” or “fake,” what matters more to me becomes “whether I want it to be true or not.” Because it represents whether there’s hope for my auntie, and the tens of thousands of other patients that are connected to me in one way or another.

January 31, 2020

I took a trip to visit the only Wuhan eatery in New York. The hour-long train ride felt almost like a pilgrimage. 

To my surprise, pedestrians in Flushing, New York’s largest Chinatown, weren’t wearing many face masks amid the panic. 

I ordered hot dry noodles from the familiar cashier at the counter, who is also from Hubei. She’s wearing a mask.

The noodles are as good as they always are. 

Later that night, I tweeted about my trip to the restaurant, and received a comment from a stranger. “Which Wuhan food establishment in NYC?!? Has it been licensed by NYC’s health regulators? I’d like to know if you don’t mind, so as to report this to the NYC city officials to conduct an inspection for virus or sale of prohibited wild animals.”

I realized my city’s name will forever be linked with the coronavirus.

January 25, 2020 

Chinese social media is rife with fake stories, rumors and trolling. I don’t know how rumors spread during the 2003 SARS outbreak, but now that millions of Chinese people are connected on social media, everything flies around much faster. We’re all struggling to tame its power.  

On Weibo, I watched a woman post about how she and her parents were infected. Her father was in critical condition, and she was asking for help getting him admitted to one of the overwhelmed hospitals.

Her post was widely shared. However, instead of the help she needed, I watched as she was inundated with thousands of abusive comments questioning her situation and insulting her for making up the story.  The audience, so firmly committed to their judgement that this was another example of misinformation, ended up pushing those in need away, unable to distinguish truth from lies. 

Two hours after she asked for help, on the first night of the Chinese new year, her father died.

I’m not sure if being from Wuhan, and watching this all unfold from the outside, makes me more or less capable of identifying disinformation. I can understand the local dialect and know all the places in those trending videos, but the emotional shock of being so close to the tragedy has blinded my judgement.

The post The diary of a former Wuhan resident appeared first on Coda Story.