FALSE: ‘Photo’ of Japanese medical team sent to Wuhan, China

Claim: Japan sent a medical team composed of 1,000 personnel to Wuhan, China, the epicenter the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) outbreak.

A user named Drexell Sanchez Zuñiga‎ posted a graphic that has a photo of what appeared to be a medical team wearing vests with the Japanese flag on them. He posted it in the Facebook group Protect the President Duterte last Saturday, February 1.

At the top of the photo, there was text that read: “1,000 medical team (sic) from Japan, come to Wuhan for help. Great, bravo Japan.”

Zuñiga then captioned his post: “Japan hindi takot sa nCoV virus nagpadala ng 1,000 medical team sa Wuhan China. Dilawan ubo sipon pa lang over acting na sa mainstream media (sic).”

(Japan is not afraid of 2019-nCoV, and sent a 1,000-member medical team to Wuhan, China. Meanwhile, opposition supporters are overreacting over simple cough and colds as seen in mainstream media.)

Rappler spotted the post via social media monitoring tool CrowdTangle. As of writing, it has already been shared more than 2,800 times on Facebook. It has also gotten over 3,400 comments and 553 reactions.

Rating: FALSE

The facts: The photo was taken way back in May 2008. The medical team came from Japan to help China after the devastating Sichuan earthquake that year. 

A reverse image search shows a copy of the photo uploaded to the official website of China Central Television (CCTV), the main public television network in China. It credited Xinhua News Agency, China’s state-run press agency, for the photo.

CCTV captioned the photo: “Members of Japanese medical team walk to board at the Narita airport in Chiba Prefecture, May 20, 2008. A 22-member Japanese medical team flew to Chengdu, capital of the quake-hit southwest China’s Sichuan Province on Tuesday.”

More than 87,000 people were left dead or missing after a magnitude 7.9 earthquake hit the south-central region in China. This number includes 5,335 students. (READ: Zhu Jinqiang, China’s celebrity earthquake pig, exposes sensitivities)

Meanwhile, as of writing, Japan has not declared that it is sending a medical team to China to help combat the 2019-nCoV outbreak. However, it announced on January 28 that it was sending emergency relief goods to China. – Pauline Macaraeg/Rappler.com

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