Right here’s the poop on the most recent rumors about Russian President Vladimir Putin’s well being. The hashtag #PutinPoopedHimself started trending on Twitter after Basic SVR’s Telegram channel asserted that Putin had fallen down 5 steps on a staircase, touchdown on his coccyx. Not Cossacks, however coccyx, which is the medical time period for tailbone. Apparently, the tailbone didn’t finish there, although. In response to Basic SVR, this fall brought on Putin to “defecate involuntarily,” versus defecate voluntarily on the steps. The picture of somebody falling down stairs after which having some fecal launch could appear somewhat totally different from the image of Putin driving shirtless on a horse that emerged over a decade in the past in 2009. Nonetheless, Putin himself hasn’t been placing forth statements about any current fall or his coccyx. So the query is whether or not the Telegram story is definitely reliable or just a pile of you-know-what.

Naturally, counting on Twitter to vet info and decide whether or not it’s correct could be a bit like counting on a trash bag to function a parachute. This has been notably the case ever since billionaire Elon Musk acquired Twitter, reportedly removed massive chunks of its fact-checking workers, has been touting a “free speech” say-anything method, and has tried to promote blue Twitter verification examine marks to anybody who would purchase them, as I reported for Forbes. Thus, you may’t assume that one thing is true just because a Twitter hashtag has been trending:

In any other case, you’d must assume that #TrumpWasRightAboutEverything, proper? So so as to decide the veracity of this newest declare about Putin’s well being, you’ve bought to look at the supply and decide not solely how dependable this supply could also be rom a medical standpoint but in addition how a lot precise, concrete proof the supply provides.

So what about this Basic SVR? Simply because the Basic says “Sure” does that imply you must say “Sure” too? Properly, this actually isn’t the primary declare that the Basic SVR Telegram channel has made about Putin’s well being. For instance, in Could 2022, the Basic SVR claimed that Putin had undergone surgical procedure for some kind of most cancers analysis, as economist and creator Anders Åslund had tweeted again then:

Wait, maintain your Putin horses, did Åslund embrace the phrases “seems credible” in his tweet above with out actually elaborating as to why and with out realizing or revealing who Basic SVR actually is? The operator of the Basic SVR channel is supposedly a former Russian International Intelligence Service official who occurs to have entry to Putin and his workers with an emphasis on the phrase “supposedly.” The operator of this channel stays nameless and unconfirmed, that means that it might nonetheless be anybody starting from somebody within the Kremlin to that barista at your native espresso store who can by no means get your latte order fairly proper to your grandmother who occurs to have some free time and an Web connection.

And simply because somebody doesn’t look properly on a video doesn’t imply which you can assume any kind of particular medical analysis. Positive there are some very apparent medical issues similar to when somebody is actively bleeding or somebody’s arm simply fell off. When the latter occurs on a video, you may in all probability say with a good quantity of certainty, “gee, it seems his arm simply fell off,” assuming that David Blaine or another magician wasn’t concerned. Nonetheless, it’s not doable to determine most different kinds of diagnoses from afar with out conducting an actual bodily examination and related checks and really speaking to the affected person.

This hasn’t prevented plenty of random would-be medical doctors and would-not-be medical doctors from attempting to diagnose Putin remotely just by analyzing pictures and movies of the Russian chief. They’ve identified markings on his hand that might doubtlessly, presumably, maybe, perhaps appear to be the insertion level for an intravenous (IV) line and conditions the place his ft and legs supposedly seemed to be shaking similar to the next proven by a video from The Solar.

Such hypothesis has fed to an ongoing bathroom bowl swirl of rumors about Putin being very ailing, with claims that he’s affected by a wide range of illnesses starting from pancreatic most cancers to Parkinson’s Illness. It’s been a bathroom bowl as a result of thus far there hasn’t been a lot when it comes to concrete medical proof. For instance, whereas a leg and foot shake might maybe, perhaps, doubtlessly, presumably be per a motion dysfunction, it might additionally symbolize plenty of different issues. For all you realize, Putin might have merely been nervous or grooving to a track in his head similar to “All About That Bass” sung by Meghan Trainor. Or maybe “YMCA” by the Village Folks.

Throughout an Aspen Institute Safety Kind a number of months in the past, U.S. Central Intelligence Company (CIA) Director William Burns did say that there’s been a variety of rumors about Putin’s well being and “so far as we will inform, he’s fully too wholesome,” as you may see on this NEWS Reporter information section:

The Kremlin has continued to disclaim any options that Putin isn’t properly. However you’ve gotta take something that the Kremlin says about Putin with an ushanka stuffed with salt as properly. The phrases “open” and “clear” might not be the primary phrases that you simply consider once you consider Putin’s management, particularly after he had ordered the brutal invasion of Ukraine earlier this yr. Though the Kremlin did admit that Russia was conducting a “particular navy operation” outdoors its border when Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022, don’t anticipate the Kremlin to carry a press convention about any defecation operations which will have occurred outdoors the borders of a bathroom.

This doesn’t essentially imply that it’s a must to mechanically poo-poo all claims about anybody falling down stairs and defecating till you’ve truly seen the poo. You don’t must all the time say, “I would like the poo and nothing however the poo.” It does imply, nevertheless, that you must in all probability wait till you get affirmation from somebody who isn’t nameless and is as a substitute a dependable—ideally medical—supply earlier than you imagine something mentioned about Putin’s well being. Anytime anybody nameless tells you one thing, you’ve bought to take it with a diaper-full of salt. Listening to an nameless social media account may be like listening to graffiti on a toilet stall. And also you by no means know who could also be placing one thing on the market about Putin.