Did Italian doctors discover COVID-19 not a virus? Fact Check

Long winded claims online assert that Italy has discovered that COVID-19 is not a virus but a bacterium that can be easily treated with aspirin and coagulant. The post then later recommends anticoagulant.

FALSE

The message we address is below.

Well! Well! Well! People are Waking up! Italy went against the WHO, saying no autopies on Covid-19, (wonder why?) Italy Did 50 autopsies and here’s something you all need to read, before the nonexpert experts from FB delete it!
Breaking Covid news! Italy has allegedly discovered covid is not a virus, but a bacterium. It clots the blood and reduces the oxygen saturation from dispersing throughout the body. They went against the World Health Organization’s that no bodies be autopsied. When Italian Ministry of Health ordered many autopsies, they found the blood was clotted in all of the patients veins. They immediately started using aspirin 100mg and a coagulant medication. And have had immense success. 14,000 people were released from the hospital as healthy and covid free. Italy is demanding Bill Gates and the World health Organization be held accountable for crimes against humanity for misleading, misdirecting, and withholding life saving information from the world, which cost the lives of thousands. Ventilators and ICU units were not necessary. A mandated vaccine is not necessary. Covid19 is a bacterium, easily
treated with aspirin and coagulant. Spread the word! Make this global. Hopefully our president will learn about this and do something about it! Before we lose all of our constitutional freedoms.
Another article regarding it:
Carlie J Gardipee 2020
Coronavirus / Health
Discovery: Autopsies Prove that COVID-19 is a Disseminated Intravascular Coagulation (Pulmonary Thrombosis)
Posted by Chinonyerem Emmanuella
It is now clear that the whole world has been attacking the so-called Coronavirus Pandemic wrongly due to a serious pathophysiological diagnosis error.
According to valuable information from Italian pathologists, ventilators and intensive care units were never needed.
Autopsies performed by the Italian pathologists has shown that it is not pneumonia but it is Disseminated Intravascular Coagulation (Thrombosis) which ought to be fought with antibiotics, antivirals, anti-inflammatories and anticoagulants.
If this is true for all cases, that means the whole world is about to resolve this novel pandemic earlier than expected.
However, protocols are currently being changed in Italy who have been adversely affected by this pandemic.
The impressive case of a Mexican family in the United States who claimed they were cured with a home remedy was documented: three 500 mg aspirins dissolved in lemon juice boiled with honey, taken hot.
The next day they woke up as if nothing had happened to them! Well, the scientific information that follows proves they are right!
Also Read: Coronavirus: Safety Health Measures Beyond the Surgical Mask and Hand Sanitizers
“THE END OF COVID-19 IS NEAR”- GAIN AFRICA DIRECTOR DECLARES, BACKED W.H.O CHIEFS
This information was released by a medical researcher from Italy:
“Thanks to 50 autopsies performed on patients who died of COVID-19, Italian pathologists have discovered that IT IS NOT PNEUMONIA, strictly speaking, because the virus does not only kill pneumocytes of this type, but uses an inflammatory storm to create an endothelial vascular thrombosis.”
In disseminated intravascular coagulation, the lung is the most affected because it is the most inflamed, but there is also a heart attack, stroke and many other thromboembolic diseases.
In fact, the protocols left antiviral therapies useless and focused on anti-inflammatory and anti-clotting therapies. These therapies should be done immediately, even at home, in which the treatment of patients responds very well.
If the Chinese had denounced it, they would have invested in home therapy, not intensive care! So, the way to fight it is with antibiotics, anti-inflammatories and anticoagulants.
An Italian pathologist reports that the hospital in Bergamo did a total of 50 autopsies and one in Milan, 20, that is, the Italian series is the highest in the world, the Chinese did only 3, which seems to fully confirm the information.
In a nutshell, the disease is determined by a disseminated intravascular coagulation triggered by the virus; therefore, it is not pneumonia but pulmonary thrombosis, a major diagnostic error.
Some world leaders doubled the number of resuscitation places in the ICU, with unnecessary exorbitant costs.
According to the Italian pathologist, treatment in ICUs is useless if thromboembolism is not resolved first. “If we ventilate a lung where blood does not circulate, it is useless, in fact, nine (9) patients out of ten (10) will die because the problem is cardiovascular, not respiratory.”
“It is venous microthrombosis, not pneumonia, that determines mortality.”
According to the literature, inflammation induces thrombosis through a complex but well-known pathophysiological mechanism.
Unfortunately, what the scientific literature said, especially Chinese, until mid-March was that anti-inflammatory drugs should not be used.
Now, the therapy being used in Italy is with anti-inflammatories and antibiotics, as in influenza, and the number of hospitalized patients has been reduced.
He also discovered that many deaths, even in their 40s, had a history of fever for 10 to 15 days, which were not treated properly.
The inflammation does a great deal of tissue damage and creates ground for thrombus formation. However, the main problem is not the virus, but the immune hyperreaction that destroys the cell where the virus is installed.
In fact, patients with rheumatoid arthritis have never needed to be admitted to the ICU because they are on corticosteroid therapy, which is a great anti-inflammatory.
With this important discovery, it is possible to return to normal life and open closed deals due to the quarantine, though not immediately, but with time.
Kindly share so that the health authorities of each country can make their respective analysis of this information, prevent further deaths and redirect investments appropriately; the vaccine may come later….. Confirmation of last week’s post where I was consistently told I was spreading false info. Thanks Marsha Reed

The message makes a number of claims, including –

– Italian doctors discovered that COVID-19 is not a disease but a bacterium.
– The World Health Organisation has not permitted autopsies, which Italy ignored.
– COVID-19 results in thrombosis and can be treated with aspirin and coagulant instead of a vaccine.
– Italy is demanding that the WHO and Bill Gates be held accountable for “crimes against humanity”.
– Italy had 14,000 people walk “COVID free” from hospital after using aspirin and anticoagulant as a treatment.

All of the claims are either false or misleading. We discuss below in more detail.

WHO has banned autopsies?

FALSE.

Firstly, the initial claim made in these messages that the WHO has not permitted autopsies on COVID-19 patients is untrue. In fact, the WHO has outlined guidance on how medical professionals can stay safe when performing such autopsies, as such contradicting any claim that they have prohibited them.

Additionally, the WHO can only make recommendations. They would not have the authority to prohibit countries from performing autopsies on their own citizens.
 

Italian doctors discover COVID-19 is not a virus?

FALSE

The message also claims that Italian scientists discovered that COVID-19 is not a virus, but a bacterium. It appears likely that the post is referencing but wholly misrepresenting a real study posted in April 2020 by several Italian doctors that examined the bodies of people who died of COVID-19.

The claim that doctors in the study found that “COVID-19 is not a virus” demonstrates a lack of understanding of COVID-19. COVID-19 is a disease, caused by a novel strain of a virus – a strain of coronavirus, which is a family of viruses. COVID-19 itself is not a virus, and no one has asserted otherwise. The Italian study correctly references (several times) the fact that COVID-19 is caused by a virus.

SARS-CoV-2 is the seventh member of the coronavirus family that causes disease in humans

COVID-19 can be treated with aspirin and anticoagulant. Vaccines are not necessary.

FALSE/MISLEADING

The circulating messages goes on to claim that COVID-19 “clots the blood”, and as such, COVID-19 can be treated with aspirin and coagulants (we assume the author meant anticoagulants.)
However, this is another misrepresentation of the Italian study. While it is true that this study (and other studies) are recognising that a portion of COVID-19 patients are developing potentially dangerous clotting of the blood, it is important to note that –

1. Not all patients develop blood clots. The percentage of blood clotting in severely infected patients varies, with some reports estimating between 3%-70% while others claim it is around a third.

2. The study does not recommend taking aspirin or anticoagulants as a blanket way of treating COVID-19. It claims that it can be “potentially beneficial” in some patients with severe symptoms, but also concedes that the “efficacy and safety” of such a treatment “have not been demonstrated”.

3. These observations are not being suppressed, and have featured widely on media outlets, as per the links in the above bulletin.

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In this instance, the study notes that anticoagulants could be beneficial in some patients where blood clotting has occurred. But again it is important to note that this is not tantamount to treating COVID-19 itself. Blood clotting is a potential complication of COVID-19, and anticoagulants could potentially be used by professionals to combat that complication. This does not mean the anticoagulant would result in the disease itself going away, and as such it could not be considered a replacement or alternative for an effective vaccination, or as a general treatment for COVID-19.

Agnes Lee, medical director of the Thrombosis Program at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, told AP News –

We do not use aspirin or anticoagulants to treat infection. That’s not the use for these medications.
…
Anticoagulants are treating a complication of the COVID.

As such, offering the blanket advice for people themselves to protect themselves from COVID-19 by taking aspirin or anticoagulants would not only be false, but potentially dangerous as well.

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Italy demands Bill Gates and the WHO be held accountable for crimes against humanity?

FALSE

It’s likely that this claim originates from Sara Cunial’s speech. Cunial is an Italian politician, and a conspiracy theorist who belongs to a political party that frequently criticizes vaccinations. She did heavily criticise Bill Gates during a speech, but this has nothing to do with the Italian government or the medical professionals that carried out the aforementioned study.

Cunial believes that Bill Gates is intentionally depopulating the world through vaccines and has also expressed support for the claim that 5G is spreading COVID-19.

Italy had 14,000 people walk COVID-free from hospital after using aspirin?

There is nothing to support this claim. Italy has not experienced a sudden surge in recovered cases, and their recovery rate continues to increase as a regular pace.

Given that most of the claims are false or a gross misrepresentation, we rank the overall message as false.