The Dettol disinfectant label says COVID-19 was tested.
The post features an image of the back label of a bottle of Dettol, a widely-available disinfectant brand sold by consumer goods firm Reckitt Benkiser.\xa0The label, which is dated October\xa027, 2019,\xa0claims the product “Kills E.Coli, Sammonella sic, MRSA, Rotavirus, Flu virus, Cold viruses (Human Coronavirus and RSV).", The post’s caption reads: “This kills coronavirus how did they know about it in 2019?”, Below is a screenshot of the misleading post:, The novel coronavirus, also known by its interim name 2019-nCoV, is a new strain of the virus that\xa0emerged in the Chinese city of Wuhan\xa0in December 2019., The virus, which\xa0had not been previously identified in humans,\xa0has killed at least 563\xa0people\xa0and infected more than 28,000 people in China as of February 5, 2020, AFP reported.\xa0The virus\xa0has spread to more than 24 nations, including Australia., The Dettol image also appeared on Facebook here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here with a similar claim., The claim is false. "Coronavirus" is a general term for\xa0a family of viruses that\xa0includes the common cold and more serious viruses like MERS, SARS\xa0and the novel coronavirus., Reckitt Benkiser also refuted the claim, saying in a statement on Facebook\xa0that\xa0it had not yet tested its products on the\xa0novel coronavirus and could not yet confirm whether Dettol is an effective disinfectant., , “As this is an emerging outbreak RB, like all manufacturers, doesn\t yet have access to the new virus (2019-nCoV) for testing and, as a result, are not yet in a position to confirm levels of effectiveness against the new strain," the statement reads.\xa0“We continue to work with our partners to ensure that we have the latest understanding of the virus, route of transmission and will test our product range once health authorities make the strain available.”, , "The first detection of the illness\xa0was on December 31, 2019, when the World Health Organizations China Country office was\xa0informed of cases of pneumonia from an unknown cause in Wuhan, according to the organisations situation report.", According to WHO, Chinese authorities idenitified the new type\xa0of coronavirus when they isolated the strain on\xa0January 7, 2020., As of February 5, 2020, the WHO said it was working to "accelerate the development of diagnostics, therapeutics and vaccines" for the novel coronavirus., , 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.
Dettol’s manufacturer denied it tested its products on the novel strain of coronavirus | AFP Fact Check