This year one of India’s prestigious national newspaper The Hindu Businessline came up with a piece of a shocking news report that CSIR (Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, Ministry of Science & Technology, Govt. Of India) has conducted a survey and found “Smokers and Vegetarians are Less Vulnerable to Covid-19 Infection”.
Clearly opposing this, CSIR has published a clarification notice on their website, stating ‘they have not issued any such press note as on 24th April 2021’.
PIB Fact Check has also condemned this on their Twitter handle on 26th April.
TimesNow has also published an article declaring it to be a piece of fake news on 26th April.
How can such a reputed newspaper publish such a sensitive report without verifying the facts, that too when people are dying in millions due to COVID-19?
The fake article is still live on the website of TheHinduBusinessline.com. How can they still keep the article live even after 5 days of the government declaring it to be fake?
The website attracts an astonishing 6 million visitors every month. So just imagine once what impact it may have already put in shaping people’s perception towards the deadly Coronavirus? And how much impact it is still putting up daily and will keep doing so as long as the fake news is live on their website?
I request the editor of The Hindu Businessline newspaper to take the fake article down immediately and publish an apology against it on their website.
I urge you too to write to the editor of the newspaper (email id – bleditor@thehindu.co.in) to take the misleading article from their website.