Cocaine kills the coronavirus.
The preposterous and typo-filled claim recently appeared in an Instagram post (archived here) which was published by "joselito dapuppet" on January 31, 2020. It opened:, This is how that post appeared on social media:, Esperate 🧐so my papi 👴🏼 @litos_papi was right all along a lil ping ping ❄️ will fix anything 😳😂😂😂 #coronavirus . . Come see ur fav puppet live on tour. Click link in bio 👉🏼 https://linktr.ee/Joselitodapuppet for tickets 🎫 or message me: Feb.22nd-Rochester,NY March 7th-Philadelphia,PA April 9th-Worcester,MA April 10th-Chicago,IL April 11th-Chicago,IL April 16th-Orlando,Fl April 17th-Miami,Fl April 19th-Tampa,Fl April 22nd-Naples,Fl April 24th-Poughkeepsie,NY May 3rd-Springfield,MA May 7th-Boston,MA, A post shared by  joselito dapuppet (@dpuppetjoselito) on Jan 31, 2020 at 10:31am PST, , Someone using the name "niknikateen" also shared this "breaking news" on Instagram the same day. And James Neal got in on the fake fun on Facebook, when he shared the same headline - and then some - on Facebook on February 19, 2020. This is what his followers saw:, , "Lead Stories isnt the only site calling out this made-up claim. PolitiFact posted about this on February 11, 2020, and pointed to a Facebook post that was posted by BALD COW Productions on January 30, 2020. The PolitiFact story included this about the genesis of this fake story:", The breaking news format of this social media claim came from a website that allows you to create your own breaking news stories by uploading your own image and headline into a generator. The waterstamp "breakyourownnews.com" in the top right corner is blurred out in the Facebook post. In the original image of the bag of cocaine, which can be found on multiple stock image sites, there was no blurry white spot in the corner., Breakyourownnews.com, which made the Facebook, Instagram and other posts like this possible, is transparent about what it offers. The site describes itself this way: "The Breaking News Generator - Today\s top story... you! Or, whatever you want. Add your pic, write the headline and we\ll go live to the scene. Sort of.", We wrote about instagram.com before. Here are our most recent articles that mention the site:, See who is sharing it (it might even be your friends...) and leave the link in the comments.:, Lead Stories is working with the CoronaVirusFacts/DatosCoronaVirus Alliance, a coalition of more than 100 fact-checkers who are fighting misinformation related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Learn more about the alliance here., Jessica Ravitz, a staff writer and fact-checker for Lead Stories, is a former senior writer at CNN Digital. For more than a decade, she wrote longform narratives and profiles on topics ranging from gun violence, sexual assault and suicide to women’s health, spirituality and race., , Lead Stories is a fact checking website that is always looking for the latest false, deceptive or\n      inaccurate stories (or media) making the rounds on the internet.\n      \n      Spotted something? Let us know!., Lead Stories is a fact checking website that is always looking for the latest false, deceptive or\n        inaccurate stories (or media) making the rounds on the internet.\n        \n        Spotted something? Let us know!.
Fact Check: Scientists Did NOT Discover That Cocaine Kills Coronavirus | Lead Stories