![\\"logo\\"](\\"/img/logo-dpa-factchecking.svg\\"/) *About ![\\"IFCN](\\"/img/ifcn-certificate.png\\"/) ![\\"EFCSN](\\"/img/efcsn- certificate.png\\"/) # A misleading message about Covid-19 tests 19.4.2021, 16:54 (CEST) “Very conspiratorial question: why do many countries already have 2018, ordered large (quantities) of PCR Tests? Did they know anything thing, already at the time, of what was going to happen, with this pseudo "crisis health\"? This deserves reflection. Where are the answers? Not in our news in in any case..." writes a Belgian Facebook user. In order to confirm its say, he publishes a table, taken from a video, which would appear on the website of the WITS (World Integrated Trade Solution). (Saved version) ASSESSMENT : The message is misleading because it is published out of context. The title of the real picture is different. The World Bank, at the origin of the WITS initiative, itself denounced “erroneous information” in September 2020. FACTS : Fruit of a joint initiative of the World Bank, the Conference of United Nations on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), Division of statistics from the United Nations, the World Trade Organization (WTO) and other organizations, WITS houses a trade database international trade in goods. It is trained on the basis of codes assigned to products in the Harmonized System of Description and coding of goods. In this context, there is no trace of the title of the table published on Facebook on the WITS website, for the year 2018. It says, under the heading “Diagnostic testing instruments and devices medical (902780) exports by country”: “The data presented here make it possible to monitor existing medical devices which are now classified by the World Customs Organization as essential to combat against COVID-19. » They were not before March 2020. In a press release dated September 8, 2020, the World Bank explains “that she thinks it is important to clarify erroneous information recently published on social networks regarding the labeling of data contained in the WITS database. (…) There were no tests for COVID-19 before 2020”. She specifies: “Before the COVID-19 pandemic, many health products - tracked for years in the WITS database - were labeled in specialized terms. For example, products used for medical examinations bore labels reading “Reagents; diagnostic reagents or laboratory on any support and diagnostic or laboratory reagents prepared, whether or not presented on a support, other than those of heading 30.02 or 30.06 ". When COVID-19 test kits were developed in January 2020, customs authorities have classified them according to traditional codes. In March 2020, given the growing importance of these products in the diagnosis and treatment of COVID-19, World Health Organization and the World Customs Organization have published a list of the main products used for COVID-19 to facilitate monitoring. They have, by the same occasion, adopted less technical designations or labels in related to COVID-19, such as “COVID-19 Test Kit”. The list includes a whole series of old medical products — notably respirators and hand sanitizers. For the same reason, namely to facilitate product tracking, the WITS team has created a special database from the WCO list (and labels/designations recently adopted by WHO/WCO). The objective was to gather information on the main medical products relating to to COVID-19 in one easily accessible location. The name “Test Kit COVID-19” was thus automatically applied to commercial statistics oldest relating to medical equipment used today in the framework of the fight against the coronavirus. However, in view of the erroneous interpretations noted in recent days, labeling on the WITS website has been updated to reflect the reality: there were no tests for COVID-19 before 2020. What WITS was labeled just a few days ago under the name “Test Kit of COVID-19” (as per the WCO label) now appears in the section of the WITS site dedicated to COVID under the designation “Medical examinations ". Other modifications of a similar nature have been made elsewhere on the site. However, the database largely maintains the designations or technical labels existing before the COVID-19 pandemic. » We already found erroneous statistics on these products for the year 2017, on the internet. The dpa fact-checking team had already denounced, in September 2020, this false news, then spread in the Netherlands. Reuters had it also done. \--- Links: Message : (archived: WITS: (archived: WITS 2018: (archived: World Bank press release: Press release on trade data from medical products relating to COVID-19 (banquemondiale.org) (archived: WITS Publication 2017: planned-to-usher-in-the-new-world-order/covid-19-test-kits-export- worldwide-e1601300475343/ (archived: dpa Factcheck: Reuters Factcheck: worldbank-2017-2018-idUSKBN26025U (archived: \--- Contact the dpa fact-checking team: factcheck- belgium@dpa.com powered by dpa-newslab | Imprint | Privacy | About:
Many countries have already ordered large quantities of PCR tests against Covid19 in 2018