Different variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes COVID-19, have emerged since the beginning of the pandemic in 2020. Each variant has specific mutations that make it genetically distinct from other variants and from the precursor (wild-type) vi
Publication: coronavirus
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: New Stimulus Checks Are NOT Planned In The U.S. As Of July 15, 2021
Are a new round of stimulus checks being issued in the U.S. on July 30, 2021? No, that's not true: This is a prank post intended to lure people in and play a crude joke. There were, as of July 15, 2021, no bills working their way through
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: VAERS Numbers Are NOT Proof 895 Veterans Were Killed Or Injured By COVID Vaccine — VAERS Tallies Unverified Reports
Do these numbers from the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) document 895 deaths or serious injuries of military veterans from COVID-19 vaccines? No, that's not true: Anyone with internet access can add a report to the VAERS l
Health Feedback→ COVID-19 vaccines are highly effective but don’t prevent the disease completely; unvaccinated people place themselves and others at risk as a reservoir for virus spread
REVIEW In early July 2021, this meme claiming that “a vaccinated person might get sick from the virus they got vaccinated against because you’re not vaccinated” went viral on social media platforms. The meme received more than 65,000 interacti
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: Meme Does NOT Correctly Describe Reasons For Vaccination Against COVID
Do people need to "remember to get vaccinated or a vaccinated person might get sick from the virus they got vaccinated against because you're not vaccinated"? No, that's not true. Mocking public health advice, this meme leaves out the pri
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: The Biden Administration Is NOT Monitoring Private Text Messages To Combat Vaccine Misinformation
Did a Politico article suggest the Biden administration monitoring private text messages of Americans to combat vaccine "misinformation"? No, that's misleading. The Politico article stated that "Biden allied groups" are working with SMS c
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: COVID-19 Vaccines Will NOT Lose Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) When ‘Everything Opens Back Up’
Will COVID-19 vaccines lose emergency use authorization (EUA) when "there is no longer an emergency and everything opens back up"? No, that's not true: That's not how the process works. Whether or not a drug has an EUA is not dependent on
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: Public Health England Data Does NOT Support Claim That Delta Variant Fatality Rate Is 0.08 percent — Report Says It’s 2.5x That
Does a Public Health England report on COVID variants show the case fatality rate for the SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant is .08 percent and that, compared to the virus that started the pandemic, Delta is not as lethal? No, that's not true: The
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: Video Does NOT Show ‘Joe Biden’s Green Shirt Vaccine Pushing Shock Troops’ Confronted
Does a video show "Joe Biden's green shirt vaccine pushing shock troops" being confronted on camera? No, that's not true. The video has nothing to do with the COVID-19 vaccine. The video shows workers from a construction company and is la
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: NO Evidence People Are Going Door-To-Door To ‘See Your Papers’ On COVID-19 Vaccination
Are people going door-to-door to "see your papers" on COVID-19 vaccination? No, there's no evidence that's true: The claim riffs off a comment that President Joe Biden made on vaccine outreach. As his administration has made clear, the do
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: Lisbon Court Did NOT ‘Rule’ Only 0.9% Of Portugal’s ‘Verified Cases’ Died Of COVID
Did a court in Lisbon rule that the COVID-19 death toll in Portugal was 152 and not the 17,000 reported by public health officials? No, that's not true: The claim is based on misidentification of court documents and on excerpting that cha
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: Australian Legislation That Classifies The COVID-19 Vaccine As A ‘Poison’ Does NOT Mean The Shot Is Toxic Or Harmful
Does Australian legislation that classifies the COVID-19 vaccine as a "poison" mean that the shot is toxic or harmful? No, that's not true: It's a matter of semantics. Medicines and vaccines are normally classified as poisons under the "P
Poynter→ Social media post misrepresents preliminary data on miscarriages and COVID-19 vaccines
The findings of a preliminary paper that evaluated how pregnant women were faring months after receiving an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine are being misrepresented online. Alarming posts, like one shared on Instagram on July 6, state that 82% of women who got
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: New England Journal of Medicine Did NOT Find 82% Miscarriage Rate Among Pregnant Women Vaccinated Against COVID-19
Did the New England Journal of Medicine find that women who received the COVID-19 vaccine -- within 30 days of becoming pregnant and up to 20 weeks pregnant -- had a miscarriage rate of 82%? No, that's not true: A spokesperson for the Cen
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: The Delta Variant Of The Novel Coronavirus Is NOT ‘Fake News’
Is the emergence of the Delta variant of the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 "fake news"? No, that's not true: The variant, which has been identified in at least 96 countries, is diagnosed by doctors and public health experts as the cause of
Health Feedback→ There is no evidence that the Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2 has a lower fatality rate than the wild-type virus
Different variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes COVID-19, have emerged throughout 2020 and 2021. Certain kinds of mutations make each variant genetically distinct from the precursor (wild-type) virus and from each other. These genetic differen
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: Dr. Sherri Tenpenny Interview Is Full Of False, Misleading Claims About COVID-19
Does an interview with Dr. Sherri Tenpenny contain only accurate and factual statements about COVID-19 and vaccines? No, that's not true: The interview, which appeared on the "Stew Peters Show," is full of false and misleading claims. For
Health Feedback→ There is no conclusive evidence that the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine contains graphene oxide
REVIEW Claims that a study from the University of Almería in Spain found graphene oxide in the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine have been circulating in Spanish-language Telegram channels for weeks. These claims gained force in late June 2021 when
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: COVID-19 Vaccines Do NOT Contain 99% Graphene Oxide To Conduct ‘Mass Poisoning’
Is the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine composed of 99.99% graphene oxide, does it have the effect of making vaccinated people magnetic and was this ingredient added to the vaccine to murder people? No, none of these claims are true: Host Stew Pet
Poynter→ What you need to know about the coronavirus variants
If you’ve been paying attention to recent news reports about the coronavirus pandemic, you’ve probably heard public health officials say they’re pleased about the dropping rates of cases and deaths due to vaccination in the United States — but
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: Scientists Have NOT Confirmed That Most Of Those Vaccinated Against COVID-19 Will Die Soon
Have scientists confirmed that most of those vaccinated against COVID-19 will die soon? No, that's not true: There's no evidence the vaccines will cause widespread deaths. In fact, scientists almost universally agree that the shots will d
Health Feedback→ Retracted study misused statistics and adverse event reports to claim that COVID-19 vaccines don’t offer “clear benefit” and caused deaths
REVIEW A study published in the journal Vaccines in late June 2021 claimed that there were two deaths caused by COVID-19 vaccines for every three lives saved by the vaccines, and concluded that COVID-19 vaccination showed a “lack of clear benefit
Health Feedback→ Unvaccinated individuals now account for the vast majority of COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths in the U.S., according to available data
REVIEW Global COVID-19 vaccination received unprecedented public attention for being the largest vaccination campaign ever. COVID-19 vaccines authorized by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) demonstrated high efficacy in large clinical tria
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: Study Retracted July 2021 Did NOT Prove That Face Masks Are Dangerous For Children
Does a "research letter" published by JAMA Pediatrics prove that face masks are dangerous for children? No, that's not true: The medical journal that published the lab report on July 16, 2021 announced editors have retracted it, after pee
Poynter→ The Make-A-Wish Foundation isn’t granting wishes only to vaccinated children
Since its founding in 1980, the Make-A-Wish Foundation has granted over 315,000 wishes for children with critical illnesses. Amid lockdown orders and travel restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic, thousands of those wishes had to be delayed. Now, as
Health Feedback→ Video didn’t show villagers in India attacking a COVID-19 vaccine crew, as claimed by Charlie Kirk, but a police van instead
REVIEW On 1 July 2021, Charlie Kirk, an American radio talk show host, shared a video on Facebook, claiming that it showed residents in an Indian village attacking a COVID-19 vaccine crew. The video carried the title “Vaccine Crew Shows up to an I
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: COVID-19 Deaths Are NOT A Major Cause Of Staff Shortages
Are COVID-19 deaths a major cause of staff shortages in the United States? No, that's not true: Although economists can debate the relative importance of different factors contributing to the staff shortage -- and even whether there is a
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: It’s NOT True That There Has ‘Never EVER’ Been Mutation That Resulted In More Lethal Virus
Is it true that there has "never EVER" been a virus mutation that resulted in a virus that was more lethal? No, that is a misleading claim. Two experts told Lead Stories that while the delta variant of the COVID-19 virus may be less letha
Poynter→ A Facebook post showing a photo of Mike Tyson with an anti-vaccine T-shirt is fake
A Facebook post showing a photo of former heavyweight boxing champ Mike Tyson apparently sending an anti-jab message is actually a feint. In the photo, Tyson’s T-shirt has an image of a syringe crossed out. The text around it says, “Trust In G
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: Announcement By Reiner Fuellmich Does NOT Prove COVID-19 PCR Tests Do Not Detect The Virus
Does Reiner Fuellmich prove in a new video that COVID-19 PCR tests do not detect the virus? No, that's not true: This is one of several debunked conspiracy theories he recycles in a new video that have been refuted by published peer-revie
Poynter→ The CDC did not say more young people are hospitalized from the vaccine than COVID-19 itself
An Instagram post wrongly claimed that the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said more young people are hospitalized as a result of receiving a COVID-19 vaccine than from the disease itself. The post features a screenshot of a headline
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: Public Health Experts Do NOT Say Natural Immunity To COVID Is Stronger Than Vaccine-Based Immunity
Does medical research show natural immunity to COVID-19 is stronger than that gained from vaccines, and that those vaccines are ineffective against emerging variants of the virus? No, that's not true: The person making these claims, altho
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: Video Does NOT Prove A Microchip Reader Used For Pets Found A Chip In A Vaccinated Woman’s Arm
Does a video show a microchip reader used for pets presumably registering a chip in a person's arm where she was vaccinated? No, that's not true: The company that makes the reader couldn't find any information linked to the number that fl
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: ‘The Great Reset’ Is NOT A Secret Plan Masterminded By Global Elites To Limit Freedoms And Push Radical Policies
Is "The Great Reset" a secret plan masterminded by global elites to limit freedoms and push radical policies? No, that's not true: It's the name of a public policy initiative the World Economic Forum (WEF) launched in response to the COVI
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: NO Evidence To Back Claim That ‘Thousands Of Flights Canceled As Vaccinated Pilots Fall Ill Or Die’
Are thousands of flights being canceled as vaccinated pilots fall ill or die? No, there's no evidence that's happening. The claim is made without offering proof pilots who have been vaccinated are either getting sick or dying, forcing can
Health Feedback→ The World Health Organization states that COVID-19 vaccination for children is less urgent, but doesn’t recommend against it
REVIEW The development and authorization of COVID-19 vaccines initiated a large worldwide campaign of mass vaccination. As of 25 June 2021, there were 2.79 billion doses administered in the world. In the U.S., 150 million people are already fully va
Poynter→ Scientists developing mRNA vaccines before the outbreak isn’t evidence the COVID-19 pandemic was created
Alarmist articles are circulating online claiming that newly revealed “secret documents” show that the U.S. government had coronavirus vaccine candidates from Moderna in development weeks before the COVID-19 outbreak, and thus proves that t
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: Doctors Are NOT Giving Men Estrogen Patches To Treat COVID-19 Because Women Fight The Virus Better
Are doctors giving men estrogen patches to treat COVID-19 since women are better at fighting the virus? No, that's misleading. An article published by the New York Times with the online headline "Women are better at fighting COVID-19, so
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: Like VAERS, European Union’s Online List Of Suspected Vaccine Reactions Does NOT Establish Proof Vaccine Caused Deaths
Does material plucked from the European Union's list of reports of possible drug reactions justify the claim that vaccine side effects have killed two people for every three who were saved from dying of COVID-19? No, that's not true: The
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: Video Is NOT Correct That VAERS List Of Adverse Reaction Reports Is Data That Proves COVID Vaccine Caused Deaths
Is this video correct in its claim that the federal Vaccine Adverse Events Report System (VAERS) delivers data proving 6,000 people were killed by COVID vaccines? No, that's not true: The VAERS website repeatedly warns users against makin