A video has been viewed thousands of times in Facebook posts alongside a claim it shows a Sri Lankan doctor who invented a rapid test kit for the novel coronavirus, which causes the disease COVID-19.
Sinhala language text superimposed on the video translates to English as:\xa0 “The Lankan doctor who created a test kit that can perform COVID-19 tests that take over four hours in just 15 minutes.”, The post’s caption translates as:\xa0 “Lankans are fulfilling their responsibilities. You too, act responsibly.”, Below is a screenshot of the misleading Facebook post:, A similar claim\xa0about the video was also made on Facebook\xa0 here, here and here., The claim is false. The video has been misrepresented and manipulated to include the\xa0misleading Sinhala-language caption., It was originally produced by Australian television channel\xa07News., The interview with Sanjaya Senanayake, an infectious diseases professor at the Australian National University, was published on 7News’ official Twitter account here on March 26, 2020., The tweet reads:\xa0 “Two new types of rapid testing kits will be rolled out in Australia in the coming weeks providing results in just 15 minutes and they only require a single drop of blood or a nasal swab. Infectious Diseases Prof @sanj971 explains. https://7news.link/2UzGg8R #TheLatest #7NEWS”, Two new types of rapid testing kits will be rolled out in Australia in the coming weeks providing results in just 15 minutes and they only require a single drop of blood or a nasal swab. Infectious Diseases Prof @sanj971 explains. https://t.co/z1mrvx4X25 #TheLatest #7NEWS pic.twitter.com/hPZvAazika, At no point in the interview did Senanayake say he was involved in the development of the COVID-19 testing kit. The news anchor accurately introduces him as an expert to comment on the significance of the new test., Senanayake\xa0told AFP that he did not invent the testing kit., “I am somewhat alarmed to hear that I have been hailed as an inventor of these tests! I definitely did not invent any of them. I simply commented on the significance of their appearance and arrival during the outbreak,” Senanayake told AFP in an email on April 2, 2020., , , 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.
The doctor interviewed in this report did not say he was involved in the development of COVID-19 test kits | AFP Fact Check