Social networks began to spread information that the Office of the Federal Service for Surveillance on Consumer Rights Protection and Human Welfare in several regions introduced additional sanitary and anti-epidemic measures at transport facilities due to the threat of plague. For plausibility, screenshots of supposedly relevant resolutions are also published.
One of these publications was made in the comments to a publication in the “Udmurt Republic” group on VKontakte. The page of the author of the publication indicates that it is fake - the user does not have a photo or any personal information. The account is completely empty.
However, there is no such information on the official website of the Department. Moreover, the regional Rospotrebnadzor Office has already refuted the spread of fake news.
“The fake Resolution states the need to take measures “in connection with the registration of a focus of community-acquired pneumonia of unknown etiology.” The document was allegedly signed by the head of the Department, N.S. Matyushina. against the backdrop of recent rumors about alleged plague infection in the Irkutsk region. This information is completely false! We urge everyone to turn only to official sources of information to obtain reliable data,” the department said.
They also emphasized that in Udmurtia the sanitary and epidemiological situation regarding the incidence of acute respiratory viral infections, influenza, and community-acquired pneumonia is currently calm.
Multiple errors indicate that the document is a fake. In particular, it alternates Russian words with English ones. Also, the word “sanitary” is written either with a capital or with a lowercase letter, and almost at the very beginning of the document the phrase “prevention of skidding” is used, which in its meaning cannot possibly be there.
In addition, similar data is distributed throughout the public pages of the Samara region, and also in discussions. The resolution on the introduction of measures in the region was allegedly signed by the chief sanitary doctor Svetlana Arkhipova. However, this information is not available on the official website of the Department. Rospotrebnadzor for the region also did not publish anything similar, although the department’s website is indicated in the header of the “resolution”.
In this case, the document differs from the one distributed in Udmurtia. It's written differently. At the same time, the articles of the Federal Law referred to in the document are also different for some reason. In addition, there is no date for signing the resolution.
This is not the first fake about the alleged spread of the plague in the country. Various resources on social networks are trying to sow panic by spreading false information, for example, about the closure of medical institutions due to the worsening epidemiological situation, about the causes of death of an employee of the anti-plague institute in the Irkutsk region, about the appearance of checklists about suspected plague in maternity hospitals in Irkutsk, and so on. None of this was confirmed.
Information that additional sanitary and anti-epidemic measures have been introduced at transport facilities in Russian regions due to the threat of plague has not been disseminated in the Russian media.
