REVIEW A review published by the Cochrane Library on 30 January 2023 triggered renewed claims that face masks are ineffective at reducing the spread of SARS-CoV-2 and other respiratory infections. This review, which analyzed mask effectiveness data
Publication: covid-19
Health Feedback→ Stéphane Bancel, CEO of Moderna, didn’t say that Moderna was already producing COVID-19 mRNA vaccines in 2019
REVIEW Since its beginning in early 2020, some people developed the narrative that the COVID-19 pandemic was planned. Related claims usually revolve around the alleged existence of COVID-19-related patents or products ahead of the pandemic onset. He
Health Feedback→ PCR-based COVID-19 tests aren’t cloning devices and don’t modify the human genome
REVIEW The COVID-19 pandemic brought new scientific concepts to the public’s attention, such as mRNA or the polymerase chain reaction (PCR). While it’s a good opportunity to popularize science, misunderstanding of these concepts can help spread
Health Feedback→ Scientific evidence shows that COVID-19 mRNA vaccines are effective; their benefits outweigh their risks, contrary to claim by Retsef Levi
REVIEW In early February 2023, claims that an MIT professor and “top expert” found evidence of serious harm from the COVID-19 mRNA vaccines and called for a halt to their use went viral on social media. These claims are based on a tweet by Retse
Health Feedback→ COVID-19 vaccines don’t cause immunodeficiency and aren’t associated with excess mortality
REVIEW Inaccurate claims that COVID-19 vaccines weaken the immune system instead of boosting our immune defenses against SARS-CoV-2 have repeatedly surfaced on the internet. Health Feedback reviewed several of them and found them to be baseless, com
Health Feedback→ Data doesn’t show that vaccines are responsible for 2022 excess mortality, contrary to Alex Berenson’s claim
REVIEW Many countries experienced some level of excess mortality throughout 2022. Excess mortality is determined by comparing how many people were expected to have died based on the previous years’ mortality with how many people actually died. For
Health Feedback→ Baseless claim that COVID-19 vaccines killed more than 200,000 comes from flawed BMC Infectious Diseases study
REVIEW Claims that a “peer-reviewed study” found that the COVID-19 vaccines killed hundreds of thousands of people went viral at the end of January 2023. The claim is based on a study published in the journal BMC Infectious Diseases, authored by
Poynter→ Videos of people ‘dropping suddenly’ aren’t related to COVID-19 vaccines
“Died suddenly” has become shorthand for unfounded claims that COVID-19 vaccines were responsible for someone’s death. The words “dropped suddenly” elicits similar reactions on social media. “Why are people ‘dropping
Health Feedback→ Studies indicate that COVID-19 vaccination doesn’t increase risk of death, despite misleading video on Europe excess death by John Campbell
REVIEW On 23 January 2023, retired nurse educator John Campbell published a YouTube video commenting on excess mortality data from EuroMOMO, a project monitoring mortality in 29 European countries or subregions, led by scientists at the Statens Seru
Health Feedback→ Sweetgum balls don’t contain Tamiflu’s active ingredient and there’s no evidence of an antiviral effect against COVID-19
REVIEW A TikTok video, which was also shared on Facebook over 17,000 times, wrongly claimed that pods from sweetgum trees can be used as an antiviral treatment as it contains the same ingredient as Tamiflu and suggested that it could treat COVID-19.
Poynter→ Sudden arrhythmic death syndrome and seasonal stroke risk concerns long predate the COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic ushered in an era of significant change, medical and social, for people worldwide. But not everything is new — despite what some social media posts claims. “None of […] The post Sudden arrhythmic death syndrome and
Health Feedback→ CDC data shows that COVID-19 is a major cause of excess deaths in the U.S., contrary to Exposé article ascribing deaths to COVID-19 vaccines
REVIEW On 17 January 2023, the website The Exposé published an article, proclaiming in the headline that “Secret CDC Report confirms nearly 120k Youngsters ‘Died Suddenly’ in the USA by Oct. 2022 following roll-out of COVID Vaccines”. Citin
Health Feedback→ Misrepresented 2018 clip of Bill Gates trigger inaccurate claims that mRNA COVID-19 vaccines for livestock could transfer to people through diet
REVIEW A video published on Rumble on 10 January 2023 claimed that “Bill Gates Vows To Pump mRNA Into Food Supply To ‘Force-Jab’ the Unvaccinated”. As a thumbnail image, the video showed a photo of Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and what se
Health Feedback→ The Pfizer bivalent vaccines are very unlikely to increase the risk of ischemic stroke, contrary to claims on social media
REVIEW Vaccines are always subjected to monitoring, even after authorization or approval. This is to ensure that rare side effects that didn’t appear during clinical trials can be detected. This will allow public health authorities to take appropr
Health Feedback→ Tweet by NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene misinterpreted; no evidence that XBB.1.5 preferentially infects vaccinated people
REVIEW A tweet by the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (@nychealthy), posted on 13 January 2023, generated confusion over its statement that “Omicron subvariant XBB.1.5 now accounts for 73% of all sequenced COVID-19 cases in N
Health Feedback→ Possible increases in cancer rates and lower life expectancy in 2021 are primarily driven by effects of COVID-19, not vaccination
REVIEW On 6 January 2023, Children’s Health Defense published an article by Joseph Mercola claiming that “Cancer rates have increased since the introduction of the COVID-19 shots” and that “COVID-19 boosters may be causing aggressive metasta
Health Feedback→ Excess deaths in the U.K. remain below the pandemic peak and aren’t linked to COVID-19 vaccines
REVIEW In 2022, the U.K. had a high number of deaths compared to recent years before the COVID-19 pandemic. These excess deaths have been scrutinized by the media due to concerns about the ability of the health system to deliver sufficient care. A F
Health Feedback→ Evidence shows that COVID-19 vaccines don’t increase the risk of death, contrary to claim by financier Edward Dowd
REVIEW In a video published on 4 January 2023, businessman and podcaster Aubrey Marcus interviewed Edward Dowd, a former investment portfolio manager at BlackRock, regarding his book “Cause Unknown: The Epidemic of Sudden Deaths in 2021 and 2022
Poynter→ Anti-vaccine activists are using faulty data to claim cardiac arrests are increasing in athletes. They’re not.
It’s become a familiar pattern. A notable figure experiences a tragic event — an injury or even death — and within minutes, online anti-vaccination activists and conservative personalities attribute it […] The post Anti-vaccine activists ar
Health Feedback→ Video by John Campbell comparing historical and COVID-19 vaccines misleads on vaccine safety
REVIEW In a YouTube video uploaded on 31 December 2022, retired nurse practitioner John Campbell discussed vaccine adverse events following COVID-19 vaccination. Citing the manner in which previous vaccine safety concerns—namely the swine flu vacc
Health Feedback→ Ivermectin hasn’t proven effective in COVID-19 patients so far, despite persistent online claims
REVIEW On 25 December 2022, the Epoch Times reposted an article by naturopath Colleen Huber titled “Ivermectin is Safe and Effective: The Evidence”. At the time of this review’s publication, the article had received more than 4,500 interaction
Health Feedback→ Study led by FDA researchers didn’t find that the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine caused blood clots, contrary to viral claims on social media
REVIEW An article published by the Epoch Times on 17 December 2022 claimed that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) discovered the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine is “linked to blood clots”. This claim is based on a study led by researc
Health Feedback→ Medical exemptions to COVID-19 vaccines are granted for contraindications, not including history of blood clots or adverse reaction to prior vaccine
REVIEW On 11 December 2022, radio host Dan Bongino posted a
Truth or Fiction?→ White House COVID-19 Chief Downplays Mask Use in ‘Confusing’ Interview
The head of the White House’s response to COVID-19, Dr. Ashish K. Jha, downplayed the importance of local mask mandates in December 2022 — going into the third year of the global pandemic — even as he claimed it was not an “eith
Health Feedback→ No, a German “autopsy report” didn’t show COVID-19 vaccines as “likely” cause of sudden deaths
REVIEW Social media posts claiming that there has been a spike in people who “died suddenly” due to COVID-19 vaccination made the rounds in late November 2022, thanks to a popular film that rehashed debunked claims about COVID-19 vaccines and co
Truth or Fiction?→ Michigan Republican Leaves State Senate Regurgitating ‘Great Replacement’ Smears
A normally sedate occasion gave outgoing Michigan Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey the opportunity to instead peddle highly weaponized conspiracy theories and disinformation campaigns. “I can see things that are about to happen or are going to
Health Feedback→ Contrary to viral Instagram videos, COVID-19 vaccines remain highly effective against severe disease
REVIEW In December 2022, social media users on Instagram began sharing a video that showed a rapid series of headlines referring to the COVID-19 vaccines, suggesting that their effectiveness has fallen significantly. Some users posted variations of
Health Feedback→ Mask-wearing helps to reduce the spread of COVID-19; social media posts misinterpreted Annals of Internal Medicine study on N95 respirators
REVIEW A study in the peer-reviewed journal Annals of Internal Medicine, published at the end of November 2022, generated renewed discussion over the effectiveness of mask-wearing against COVID-19[1]. According to the social media analytics tool Buz
Health Feedback→ Results from a Swiss team didn’t show an 800-fold increase in myocarditis in vaccinated people compared to unvaccinated individuals
REVIEW After the onset of mass COVID-19 vaccination campaigns against COVID-19, public health agencies worldwide began to detect rare cases of myocarditis, a type of heart inflammation, among people who had received one of the authorized COVID-19 mR
Health Feedback→ The film “Died Suddenly” rehashes debunked claims and conspiracy theories about the COVID-19 vaccines
REVIEW On 21 November 2022, a pseudo-documentary titled “Died Suddenly”, co-produced by radio host Stew Peters, premiered on Twitter and the video sharing platform Rumble. Through a series of interviews, the film, which is approximately one hour
Truth or Fiction?→ Twitter No Longer Enforcing COVID Misinformation Policy
On November 29 2022, a post to Reddit’s r/news claimed that Twitter had stopped enforcing its policy on disinformation and misinformation around COVID-19: Twitter is no longer enforcing its Covid misinformation policy from news
Health Feedback→ People can sue manufacturers for injury following routine childhood vaccines, contrary to a claim by Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
REVIEW In December 2021, lawyer and founder of the anti-vaccine organization Children’s Health Defense, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., was interviewed on The Mikhaila Peterson Podcast on the subject of legal immunity for COVID-19 vaccine manufacturers. Cl
Health Feedback→ Death of a four-year-old boy in Argentina was due to lung infection, contrary to social media posts implying vaccination was the cause
REVIEW On 13 November 2022, the website the Western Journal published an article with the headline “Poster Boy for Vaccination Campaign Dies Suddenly at Just 4 Years Old”. Posts sharing screenshots of this headline and the photo of a chi
Health Feedback→ Multiple studies showed that COVID-19 increases the risk of heart inflammation more than vaccines do; study in Israel misleadingly used to claim otherwise
REVIEW Social media posts began circulating in September and November 2022, claiming that COVID-19 doesn’t increase the risk of myocarditis and pericarditis, despite evidence showing otherwise. These are conditions in which the heart becomes infla
Health Feedback→ Scientific evidence shows that unvaccinated people are more likely to develop severe COVID-19 and die, contrary to claim in viral social media posts about Germany data
REVIEW Despite scientific evidence demonstrating that COVID-19 vaccination effectively reduces the risk of severe disease[1-5], claims that COVID-19 vaccines don’t work or even make things worse persist in online spaces and social media. Such clai
Health Feedback→ 2014 study by Dyall et al. is an in vitro study; clinical trials showed hydroxychloroquine is ineffective against COVID-19 in people
REVIEW On 31 October 2022, The Epoch Times released a preview video of an interview with Meryl Nass, an internal medicine physician, as part of its program American Thought Leaders. The full interview was released the following day; the full transcr
Health Feedback→ Clinical trial by Moderna found no safety concerns with the COVID-19 vaccine in toddlers, contrary to claim by Joseph Ladapo
REVIEW As of 12 June 2022, SARS-CoV-2 had caused around two million cases, 20,000 hospitalizations, and 200 deaths among U.S. children aged six months to four years, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). T
Health Feedback→ Evidence suggests that political partisanship is associated with higher COVID-19 mortality rates among Republicans compared to Democrats
REVIEW Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, researchers and journalists have noted partisan differences in adherence to physical distancing and mask wearing, and intention to receive the COVID-19 vaccine between Democrats and Republicans in the U.S[1].
Health Feedback→ COVID-19 and influenza are different diseases caused by different viruses
REVIEW Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in February 2020, the unfounded narrative that COVID-19 is a hoax or that its severity was exaggerated has persisted on social media, as previous reviews by Health Feedback can attest to. One iteration
Health Feedback→ COVID-19 vaccines have enhanced reporting requirements for vaccine safety database, so death reports cannot be simply compared to other vaccines
REVIEW Even after vaccines have completed clinical trials, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) continues to monitor vaccine safety in the general public. One of the tools the CDC uses is called the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporti