Bollywood actor Amitabh Bachchan who is extremely active on Twitter has been posting a lot of information on his handle about the novel coronavirus. In his recent tweet, he shared a video in which he cites Chinese experts to claim that coronavirus spreads through flies.
In the tweet which is now deleted, Bachchan wrote, “A study in @TheLancet shows that coronavirus lingers on human excreta much longer than in respiratory samples. Come India, we are going to fight this! Use your toilet.”
In a video along with the tweet, the 77-year-old actor said, “Today, I want to discuss something really important with you. Our country is fighting coronavirus and you have to play an important role in this fight. Do you know that in a recent study, experts in China have found that coronavirus can survive in human excreta for many weeks?”
“Even if somebody recovers from the disease, the virus can survive in his excreta. If a fly sits on that excreta and then sits on vegetables and fruits or eatables, this disease can spread further,”
However, Lav Agarwal, Joint Secretary Ministry of Health, dismissed the notion and said,” have not seen the tweet but this is an infectious disease and does not spread through flies.
This is the second time Bachchan has been criticised for sharing unverified information. Earlier, during the Janata curfew announcement by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on last Sunday, Bachchan had Tweeted an opinion that vibrations from clapping, blowing conch shells would reduce or destroy coronavirus potency as it was ‘amavasya’, the darkest day of the month. The actor had to delete the tweet after facing a lot of criticism from social media users.
