Comment 8 for bug 133050

E:Malformed 3rd word in the Status line, E:Error occurred while processing distro-info-data (UsePackage2), E:Problem with MergeList /var/lib/dpkg/status, E:The package lists or status file could not be parsed or opened.

... same thing happened on my new ubuntu 16.04 installation. Just a couple of days after fresh installation, this error came out from nowwhere, Now, it's impossible to update. Anybody found a permanent fix yet? Thanks.