Jon Snow has not contracted COVID-19 after returning from Iran in February
Jonathan George Snow popularly known as Jon Snow is a British journalist and a famous TV anchor for Channel 4 News. He has done stints at various conflict-torn zones around the world. His documentary revisiting the battlefields of Northern Sri Lanka, and alleged war crimes by Sri Lankan military came under much scrutiny among Sri […]
Jonathan George Snow popularly known as Jon Snow is a British journalist and a famous TV anchor for Channel 4 News. He has done stints at various conflict-torn zones around the world. His documentary revisiting the battlefields of Northern Sri Lanka, and alleged war crimes by Sri Lankan military came under much scrutiny among Sri Lankans. Jon Snow had visited Iran for election coverage in February and with number of Iranian officials testing positive for coronavirus there were fears that whoever came in contact with them could have also contracted the virus.
In this context, we noticed number of social media posts reappearing with the claim that Jon Snow had contracted COVID19 virus. Facebook user Shiran Kulaseker posted the below image with the text “ශ්රීලංකාරණවිරුවන්ටචෝදනාකළචැනල්ෆෝජෝන්ස්නොටකොරෝනාවැළඳෙයි” which translated to English as “Channel 4’s Jon Snow who accused Sri Lankan’s war hero’s, is contracted with Coronavirus”
| FB Link | Archived |
We noticed this message had first appeared on 27th February by a Facebook user of Gayal Kithsiri Ranasinghe carrying a post with the caption “ස්තුතියි කොරෝනා.” which meant “Thank you Corona”, with a picture of Jon Snow along with superimposed text which claimed that “Channel4’s Jon Snow who accused Sri Lankan forces of war crimes is infected with Coronavirus”. Below is a screen grab of the post.
| Link | Archived Link |
Below is another version of a similar claim that mentioned 72-year-old Jon Snow had been diagnosed with Coronavirus after an assignment in Iran.
| Link | Archived Link |
If a person of caliber of Jon Snow was diagnosed with Corvid-19 infection, it would not have slipped through the attention of world media. However, we could not find any news report confirming this off lately. Hence we decided to carry out fact check on this claim.
Fact Check
We carried out a google search for any news related to Jon Snow and Coronavirus and came across number of news reports.
All reports in late February had indicated how Jon Snow had moved into self-isolation after his last assignment in Iran, covering the recently concluded elections.
The Guardian had reported that two British journalists, Radio 4’s Nick Robinson and the Channel 4 News presenter Jon Snow, had decided to self-isolate, the former after a holiday in Vietnam and Cambodia and the later after an assignment from Iran.
Since the self-isolation of Jon Snow had been initiated in late February we checked his official Twitter account for his latest updates.
On 4th of March Jon Snow had published a video from his self-isolation revealing that he was feeling fine and finishing up on his book and was hoping to join Channe4 News in a weeks’ time.
Later on March 9th he had tweeted “After a week in Iran reporting, two weeks self-isolation to prove I hadn't got the virus: Normal service has been restored: See you at 7.00pm Channel 4 News!”
There were number of news reports of Jon Snow returning to work, such as this, after self-isolation. In a tweet on March 20th by Hayley Barlow, Director of Communications for Channel 4 News, it was mentioned that “Today Channel 4 News is practicing social distancing to combat the spread of the Coronavirus – with Matt Frei presenting the programme in the studio and Jon Snow presenting from home. Earlier the Government urged the public not to be complacent about social distancing.”
However we checked the latest social media and came across the below Tweet by Channel News 4 featuring Jon Snow with the message “"From us here at Channel 4 News, we love you." For the fourth week straight, the UK claps for the NHS staff and key workers who are putting their life on the line every single day.
Conclusion
Our fact checked reveals that Jon Snow was on a self-isolation after finishing an assignment in Iran in late February and has reported to work after 14day period. He continues to be part of the Channel4 News and to this day, he has not contracted COVID-19. Hence the posts indicating Channel4’s news anchor Jon Snow had been infected with coronavirus in late February are totally false and misleading.
Title:Jon Snow has not contracted COVID-19 after returning from Iran in February
Fact Check By: Sathyajith SubasingheResult: False
