Are COVID-19 vaccines "weapons of mass destruction"? No, that's not true: There's no public evidence the vaccines put the future of mankind at risk. To the contrary, medical authorities widely agree the vaccines represent one of our best
Publication: coronavirus
Poynter→ 6 things we’ve learned from a year of misinformation about the coronavirus
One year ago, Tom Hanks and his wife, Rita Wilson, tested positive for the novel coronavirus. The NBA suspended its season. About 1,000 Americans were infected, and the World Health Organization declared a pandemic. Today, more than 500,000 Ameri
Health Feedback→ Mask mandates are associated with reductions in the spread of COVID-19 cases and deaths; contrary to One America News article
REVIEW This article published by the One America News Network (OAN) on 7 March 2021 claims that a recent study from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that masks had a “negligible impact on coronavirus numbers”. The
Logically→ Special intelligence told Donald Trump about COVID-19 spreading in the U.S.
U.S. intelligence reportedly warned Donald Trump about the existence of the virus in November 2019 and about its spread in January and February 2020.
Poynter→ You’re fully vaccinated against COVID-19. What can you do now?
Tens of millions of Americans who have received their COVID-19 vaccines can now entertain the prospect of boldly going places, seeing people and doing things again, even if a return to normal life remains a ways off. The first set of public health rec
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: Video Proves No Conspiracies — Trump Is NOT ‘Real President,’ Biden DOES Fly On Air Force One, Hydroxychloroquine Does NOT ‘Fix’ COVID-19
Is Donald Trump the "real" president, does Joe Biden not fly on Air Force One, does hydroxychloroquine "fix" COVID-19 and do masks not stop the spread of coronavirus? No, that's not true: Biden won the election and became President of the
Health Feedback→ Vaccines are safe and aren’t associated with autoimmune disease, contrary to claim in viral video by chiropractor Steven Baker
REVIEW A Facebook video published by chiropractor Steven Baker on 5 March 2021, claimed that vaccines are responsible for autoimmune diseases. The video received more than 10,000 interactions and more than 80,000 views on Facebook, according to soci
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: The COVID-19 Stimulus Bill Does NOT Give House Members A $25 Million Bonus
Did the COVID-19 stimulus bill give members of the U.S. House of Representatives a $25 million bonus? No, that's not true: The $1.9 trillion bill, known as the American Rescue Plan, does not give bonuses or raises to House members. The cl
Poynter→ A year into the pandemic, MediaWise teen fact-checkers prepare to tackle COVID-19 misinformation on YouTube
On Feb. 11, 2020, the MediaWise Teen Fact-Checking Network published its first fact-check about the coronavirus. The story, reported on by then-16-year-old Angie Li, detailed what we knew about the virus (at the time, very little), and gave tips on how
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: Actor Anthony Hopkins Did NOT Fake Receiving A COVID-19 Shot In A Video
Did Anthony Hopkins fake receiving a COVID-19 shot from a staffer at a California hospital in the video the actor posted on Instagram? No, that's not true: In a March 10, 2021, email to Lead Stories, a spokeswoman for CHA Hollywood Presby
Health Feedback→ Data from Israel showed that the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine reduces the likelihood of dying from COVID-19; analysis in a forum post claiming the opposite is flawed
REVIEW A forum post made by Haim Yativ on a Hebrew-language discussion board claimed that the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine “killed […] about 40 times more [elderly people] than the disease itself would have killed, and about 260 times mo
Health Feedback→ COVID-19 vaccines start to provide protection within two weeks of the first dose, with no evidence they increase the risk of infection before then
Review A Gateway Pundit article by Niall McCrae, a mental health researcher, claimed that a report from Public Health England showed a “48% rise in infections after the first dose of Pfizer and Astra Zeneca vaccines”. The report from Public Health
Poynter→ Facebook has an apparent double standard over COVID-19 misinformation in Brazil, researchers say
Researchers want Facebook’s Oversight Board to evaluate the platform’s exemption of politicians from fact-checking after new research from Brazillian fact-checking organization Agência Lupa pointed to 29 examples of President Jair Bolsonaro spread
Health Feedback→ Six residents in a German nursing home died from COVID-19, not from vaccines
REVIEW On 1 March 2021, Children’s Health Defense published an article claiming that 25 percent of the residents in a nursing home in Berlin, Germany died after receiving the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine. In a few days, the article receive
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: ‘Vackseenz’ Video Is NOT Correct — mRNA Vaccine Does NOT Revise Your DNA
Does the video "The One About Vackseenz," correctly describe the genetic impacts of COVID-19 vaccines? No, that's not true. The video peddles multiple COVID-19 conspiracy theories, including that messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines "alter the f
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: These Lab Results Do NOT Prove That There Are Harmful Microorganisms Growing On Your Mask
Did a laboratory analysis commissioned by a German children's charity find bacteria and mold on a mask? Yes, that is true, but it does not mean these microorganisms are harmful or abnormal. According to experts, it is likely that the bact
Health Feedback→ Yes, COVID-19 vaccines will help us safely resume normal activities like going to restaurants and meeting people, once enough people are vaccinated for herd immunity
REVIEW Facebook posts purporting to look at “facts” about the COVID-19 vaccines called into question the purpose of the vaccines (see example). Based on one version, the text may have originated from a Telegram group named “Corona Investigativ
Health Feedback→ Scientific evidence demonstrates that wearing face masks and implementing lockdowns reduce the spread of COVID-19
REVIEW On 23 February 2021, this Facebook post by Kimberly Klacik, a previous Republican nominee for Maryland’s 7th congressional district, claimed there is no evidence demonstrating that wearing face masks or implementing lockdowns reduce the
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: Evidence Does NOT Support ‘Three Big Lies’ Theory: That COVID Virus Doesn’t Exist, PCR Test Is A Failure And That 5G Towers Cause COVID
Is it true that the SARS-CoV-2 virus has not been positively identified, that the PCR test is not accurate after a certain point and that there are major ways to become ill other than through airborne transmission of the virus, such as by
Logically→ Alcohol should be completely avoided for two weeks following COVID-19 vaccination.
There is no evidence that alcohol makes the COVID-19 vaccination less effective, but medical experts have warned against excessive alcohol consumption
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: Klaus Schwab Did NOT Tweet That There Are Coming Food Shortages
Did Klaus Schwab tweet that there are coming food shortages and that his World Economic Forum is working with the Biden administration to ensure that most people survive? No, that's not true: This is a tweet from a fake Twitter account th
Health Feedback→ Pregnant women can decide whether to receive the COVID-19 vaccine; safety monitoring suggests that COVID-19 vaccines don’t pose any specific risk for pregnant women
REVIEW On 23 February 2021, Children’s Health Defense published an article claiming that “public health officials push pregnant women to get COVID-19 shots, despite known risks”. The article received more than 7,000 interactions on Facebook an
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: It Is NOT True There Is "No Evidence" Masks or Lockdowns Slow COVID-19 Spread
Is there "still no evidence masks or lockdowns slow the spread of COVID-19"? No, that's not true: The claim was posted with no citation of studies disproving the effectiveness of masks and lockdowns. On the other hand, there are now dozen
Poynter→ How does COVID-19’s toll compare with heart disease, cancer and other causes of death?
Now that the coronavirus has been in the United States for roughly a year, new numbers are revealing the scale of COVID-19’s impact on American health: COVID-19 has become the country’s third leading cause of death, and could be on its way to outpa
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: CDC Is NOT Withholding Information About Post-Vaccination Deaths, NOT Lacking A Data Category For Them
Did the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention withhold data that showed a federal vaccine reaction-reporting database -- VAERS -- was under-reporting the number of people who have died after receiving a COVID-19 vaccine? Does the CDC
Poynter→ Is it safe for pregnant women to get COVID-19 vaccines? Here’s what we know, and don’t know.
As eligibility for the coronavirus vaccines widens across the United States, more pregnant women are faced with the decision of whether to get vaccinated. Alarming social media posts warn that pregnant women who were vaccinated have experienced miscarr
Health Feedback→ More evidence needed for the claim that vitamin D supplements reduce risk of COVID-19 infection
REVIEW An Instagram post claimed that a study had shown that vitamin D supplements reduced the risk of COVID-19 infections by 34 percent. The study[1], published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, used data from the U.K. Biobank, a large
Health Feedback→ The number of new COVID-19 cases fell and daily vaccination increased in early 2021, but no indication that it was due to U.S. president Biden taking office
REVIEW The COVID-19 pandemic that swept across the U.S. since early 2020 has caused almost 28 million identified cases and 500,000 deaths in the country. In the midst of this major health crisis, the U.S. have seen an important political shift with
Logically→ Patanjali’s Coronil was recognized by the World Health Organization as the first evidence-based medicine for the coronavirus.
The World Health Organization clarified that it has not reviewed or certified any traditional medicine for the treatment of COVID-19.
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: President Biden Quote About Not Having Covid-19 Vaccine Coming Into Office Was About Supply Backlog — NOT About Vaccine Existence
Did President Biden say the US didn't have a COVID-19 vaccine before he took office? No, that's not true: he said there was no supply of the vaccine in storage awaiting distribution, not that the vaccine didn't exist. The words in quotati
Health Feedback→ COVID-19 vaccines don’t increase the incidence of poor outcomes during pregnancy, according to current safety data on COVID-19 vaccines
REVIEW Facebook posts claiming that the COVID-19 vaccine caused a healthcare worker to have a miscarriage went viral in early February 2021. These posts (see example) show a photo of a healthcare worker receiving a COVID-19 vaccine and tweets by phy
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: Video Shows NO Scientific Proof That Antibodies Produced By COVID-19 Vaccines Will Turn Deadly
Does a video by an anti-vaccine physician show conclusive scientific evidence that the antibodies produced by the Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccines will cause severe harm and even death if a vaccinated person is exposed to the
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: Facebook And American Journal Of Medicine Did NOT Admit They Were Wrong About HCQ As COVID Drug
Did Facebook and the American Journal of Medicine "admit" they were wrong about a malaria drug's effectiveness against COVID-19? No, that's not true: The claim refers to a Facebook Oversight Board ruling that contains no endorsement of th
Health Feedback→ Misleading to compare the safety of COVID-19 and flu vaccines based solely on VAERS reports; VAERS reports alone cannot demonstrate that a vaccine caused an adverse event
REVIEW With the worldwide rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, claims that the vaccines caused severe adverse events or deaths spread on social media. A meme published on 15 February 2021 claimed that a person is 300 to 900 times “more likely to die” a
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: List Of Informal COVID-19 Vaccine Reaction Reports is NOT Evidence Deaths Were Caused By Vaccines
Does this list of reports from the federal Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) prove COVID-19 vaccines are causing sudden deaths in a surprising number of young and middle-aged people? No, that's not true: The individual cases
Health Feedback→ The CDC didn’t introduce a “major rule change” to inflate COVID-19 deaths; there have been more than 490,000 excess deaths in the U.S. to date
REVIEW An article published by the Gateway Pundit in early February 2021 claimed that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) “illegally inflated the COVID fatality number by at least 1,600 percent”. The article received more t
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: mRNA Vaccines Are NOT Gene Therapy, Have NOT Killed ‘Thousands’ and Vaccinators Are NOT Violating The Nuremberg Code If They Don’t Call It Human Experimentation
Are the Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccines gene therapy that alters recipients' immune systems, a potential Nuremberg Code violation for doctors and nurses to administer them without telling patients they are part of a drug tri
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: CDC Did NOT Inflate COVID-19 Numbers And Did NOT Violate Federal Law In Providing Death Data Guide
Did the CDC inflate COVID-19 death numbers by 1,600% and did it violate federal law by enacting new data collecting rules for cause-of-death reports? No, that's not true: The nation's mortality data expert told Lead Stories The Centers fo
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: mRNA Vaccine Does NOT Increase Risk Of COVID Death, Provoke ‘Cytokine Storm,’ Turn Patients Into ‘Genetically Modified Organisms’
Do mRNA vaccines increase the risk of death for COVID-19 patients, provoke immune system over-reactions and turn patients into genetically modified organisms whose own immune systems attack them? No, that's not true: mRNA vaccines do not
Health Feedback→ COVID-19 vaccines approved for emergency use prevent the disease and are generally safe based on rigorous clinical trials and ongoing monitoring
REVIEW A video claiming that COVID-19 vaccines are dangerous and that healthcare workers who administer them are “war criminals” was published on 2 February 2021. The author of the video, titled “old man in a chair”, is Vernon Coleman, a for