Posts on social media claim that a “Spanish biological researcher” called on international soccer stars Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi to find a cure for COVID-19 since they earn much more money than scientists.
One million euros is about $1.1 million and 1,800 euros is about $2,000., Posts making the claim have been shared thousands of times on social media since at least March 17, 2020, including on Facebook here, here and here, on Instagram here\xa0and\xa0on Twitter here., By conducting a Google reverse image search, AFP found\xa0a press release with the same photograph, published on a\xa0Moroccan government website in April 2018, well before the emergence of the novel coronavirus in December 2019 in the Chinese city of Wuhan., The woman in the photograph is identified as Isabel Garcia Tejerina, Spain’s then-minister of agriculture and fisheries, food and environment, who had visited the country for a meeting with her Moroccan counterpart., One of the microphones in the photo is from the MAP, Agence Marocaine de Presse (Moroccan Press Agency) and the other is from broadcaster Al Maghribiya’s Channel 1, based on the logos of the news agencies., On MAP’s YouTube channel, a video of the interview that corresponds with the image is available, published April 24, 2018. It identifies the interviewee as Garcia Tejerina., In the interview, the minister speaks in French about the collaboration between Spain and Morocco in the agriculture sector and points out that the results presented by her counterpart “are the reflection of the success of this plan for modernization of the sector: an increase in production, an increase in exports, an increase in agriculture’s contribution to the wealth of Morocco.”, She does not say anything about Argentine soccer player Lionel Messi, who plays for the Spanish club Barcelona, or Portuguese player Cristiano Ronaldo, who plays for the Italian club Juventus., Garcia Tejerina, an agricultural engineer and lawyer, left her position as minister in June 2018 after the government change in Spain, a few months after her visit to Morocco. Since 2019, she has been the Spanish parliament deputy for Madrid and a deputy secretary for the Popular Party (PP)., AFP Fact Check reached out to Garcia Tejerina via Twitter for comment but has not received an official response as of the publication date., , Copyright © AFP 2017-2020.  All rights reserved.  Users can access and consult this website and use the share features available for personal, private, and non-commercial purposes.  Any other use, in particular any reproduction, communication to the public or distribution of the content of this website, in whole or in part, for any other purpose and/or by any other means, without a specific licence agreement signed with AFP, is strictly prohibited.  The subject matter depicted or included via links within the Fact Checking content is provided to the extent necessary for correct understanding of the verification of the information concerned.  AFP has not obtained any rights from the authors or copyright owners of this third party content and shall incur no liability in this regard.  AFP and its logo are registered trademarks.
Spanish politician misidentified in posts saying soccer players should find novel coronavirus cure | AFP Fact Check