Facebook Shuts Down Russia-Based Covid ‘Disinformation Laundromat’

Paul Goble

            Staunton, August 10 – Facebook blocked what it called “a disinformation laundromat” based in Russia that was distributing misinformation about the coronavirus by putting them on the accounts of people who did not appear to have a vested interest in such positions. Such posts were clearly calculated to have more influence (themoscowtimes.com/2021/08/10/facebook-closes-russia-based-coronavirus-disinformation-laundromat-a74750).

            Today, the Russian government reported registering 21,378 new cases of infection and 792 new deaths from the coronavirus over the last 24 hours, the first being a decline and the second a continuation of recent figures, as the pandemic ebbed and flowed with St. Petersburg now having more new infections than Moscow (t.me/COVID2019_official/3426 and regnum.ru/news/society/3337040.html).

            As the school year approaches, the ministry for education and science recommended that higher educational institutions go to distance learning for those students who have not been vaccinated (nakanune.ru/articles/117397/). Moscow State, where only 30 percent of students have been vaccinated, is going to a mixed system (regnum.ru/news/3341480.html and regnum.ru/news/3341377.html).

Elsewhere, universities are making vaccinations obligatory for students rather than changing to distance learning (regnum.ru/news/3341318.html).

In many places, the pandemic is becoming so bad that whole regions are running out of hospital space for covid victims at the same time that these regions are running low or even out of vaccines. Perhaps the worst in this regard is the situation in the Jewish Autonomous Region (regnum.ru/news/3340872.html and regnum.ru/news/3341079.html).

Meanwhile, in other pandemic-related developments in Russia today,

·         Medical officials in Moscow are expressing concern about an infestation of cockroaches in hospitals and clinics there (regnum.ru/news/3341047.html).

·         Russian researchers say that many doctors in that country are discouraging their patients from getting vaccinated (russtrat.ru/analytics/30-iyulya-2021-0010-5272 and iarex.ru/news/82102.html).

·         Non-Russian diasporas in major Russian cities are increasingly focused on the defense of the members of their communities as the pandemic continues (nazaccent.ru/content/36316-kak-udmurtskoe-zemlyachestvo-v-moskve-adaptirovalos.html).