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FACT BRIEF

Did Spain's high court confirm that COVID-19 does not exist?

By Alexis Tereszcuk
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NO

An article and video circulating on social media claims a Spanish court document proves that the Spanish Ministry of Health was taken to court and admitted that its laboratories were not able to provide a SARS-CoV-2 virus sample because the virus does not exist.

But there was no court hearing on the existence of COVID-19 and the Spanish Ministry of Health was not taken to court. The "proof" offered for the claim is an informational reply letter the government issued to answer a question from a COVID-denier group.

The government agency stated that it does not have laboratories where it can perform the tests but other Spanish laboratories have isolated the virus.

A Spanish website published an article titled, translated into English, "SARS-CoV-2 has been isolated by scientists in biosafety laboratories and not in the Ministry of Health itself."

See a full discussion of this at Lead Stories
This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.
Sources
Newtral (Spain) El SARS-CoV-2 ha sido aislado por científicos en laboratorios de bioseguridad y no en el propio Ministerio de Sanidad
ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTOR
Lead Stories
Lead Stories is a fact checking and debunking website at the intersection of big data and journalism that launched in 2015. It scouts for trending stories, images, videos and posts that contain false information in order to fact check them as quickly as possible. It actively monitors the fake-news ecosystem and doesn’t wait for reader tips or reports before getting started on a story.
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About fact briefs published on Gigafact
Fact briefs are short, credibly sourced summaries that offer “yes/no” answers in response to claims found online. They rely on publicly available, often primary source data and documents. Fact briefs are created by contributors to Gigafact —a nonprofit project looking to expand participation in fact-checking and protect the democratic process. See all fact briefs here.