Has actor Michael J. Fox passed away? No, as of December 20, 2022, that's not true: His publicist told Lead Stories on December 20 that Fox is alive. Additionally, Fox's social media accounts, as well as his foundation, have not reported
Publication: Fact Check
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: HIV DOES Cause AIDS
Was the statement that HIV causes AIDS "made Up"? No, that's not true: It's an established fact, proven by numerous scientific studies. However, posts on social media continue to claim otherwise. A recent example appeared on Facebook on D
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: Colloidal Silver In Nebulizers And Humidifiers Is NOT A Proven Treatment For Viral Infections Such As RSV, COVID-19
Is colloidal silver in humidifiers and nebulizers a safe and effective method to treat viral infections like COVID-19 and RSV in children? No, that's not true: A medical toxicologist and pediatrician told Lead Stories that silver has "no
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: Image Does NOT Show Elon Musk Flew To ‘Epstein Island’; Map Is Fake And There’s No Place To Land
Does an image of a flight log shared on social media show that a private jet owned by Elon Musk traveled to Little St. James Island -- also known as "Epstein Island" -- a dozen times since 2010? No, that's not true: The map has been ackno
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: ‘Yellowstone Officials’ Did NOT ‘Close Down The Park’ Or Say ‘Volcanic Uplift Is Rising’ On December 18, 2022
Is it true that "Yellowstone officials just closed down the park & said the volcanic uplift is rising" on December 18, 2022? No, that's not true: A video that made this claim reused shots from a fictional movie that has been available
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: Elon Musk Did NOT Tweet That Banning Reporters From Twitter Was ‘Innocuous Alternative’ To Murder
Did Elon Musk tweet, "You know, in some parts of the world, journalists get murdered for crossing the wrong people. Banning the reporters I don't like from my own platform feels like a pretty innocuous alternative to me" on December 16, 2
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: Elon Musk Did NOT Just Launch ‘Terrifying Hypersonic T-Jet To Beat Russia’
Did Elon Musk just launch the "terrifying hypersonic T-Jet to beat Russia"? No, that's not true: There is zero evidence to support the claim. Musk's private rocket company made no such announcement, and the video making the allegation is
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: 80,000 Polish Troops Did NOT Besiege Kaliningrad, Russia
Did 80,000 Polish troops besiege Kaliningrad, Russia? No, that's not true: The video making this claim in its headline does not mention 80,000 Polish troops besieging Kaliningrad, Russia, in its recorded content. There have also been no n
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: Family Photo Of Meghan and Harry Does NOT Show Evidence That Lilibet Is Fake
Did the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, commonly known as Harry and Meghan, accidentally release a professional photo that was so badly edited that it revealed that their "invisible" daughter Lilibet is not a real child? No, that's not true:
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: COVID Shots Have NOT Increased ‘Sudden Deaths’ By 4 Times In Germany
Have COVID-19 vaccine rollouts increased "sudden deaths" in Germany by four times? No, that's not true: The claim misuses billing data to make medical claims, according to the chairman of the board of the doctors who provide health under
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: Military Did NOT Convict U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona
Did the U.S. Navy Judge Advocate General's Corps find U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona guilty of child endangerment? No, that's not true: A Pentagon duty officer told Lead Stories that this claim is false. Also, Lead Stories rec
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: New Er Blood Group Is NOT From COVID Shots Or Vaccine Injury
Is the new Er blood group due to a genetic variation caused by COVID-19 mRNA vaccines or vaccine injury? No, that's not true: An expert from the United Kingdom's National Institute for Health and Care Research told Lead Stories that the b
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: This Video Does NOT Show Man Who ‘Gives His Own Heart To Sick Son’
Does a trending video show a man addressing his son before giving the child "his own heart"? No, that's not true: The video is a piece of acting that recreates a monologue from the 2002 American drama "John Q." The claim appeared in a vid
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: Elon Musk Did NOT Reveal That Joe Biden Is Sick
Did a Facebook video reveal that Elon Musk leaked information that proves President Joe Biden is "mortally sick"? No, that's not true: This video has a clickbait title and does not say Musk has inside information that Biden is ill. There
The Dispatch→ Fact Checking Claims About Arizona Voter Registration Numbers
(Photo by Mark Felix/AFP/Getty Images.) A claim that the total number of registered voters in Arizona as published by Facebook exceeds the population of the state by more than 2.5 million is circulating on social media in the wake of the 2022 midterm e
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: GO2Bank Is NOT Giving New Customers $1,000 As Sign-Up Bonus
Is the digital bank GO2Bank giving new customers a sign-up bonus of $1,000? No, that's not true: A representative of the owner of the GO2Bank brand, Green Dot Corporation, told Lead Stories that this alleged sign-up bonus is not a GO2Bank
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: Mel Gibson Did NOT Say He Wants To ‘Expose The Truth About The Corrupted Elites’ On Telegram
Did Mel Gibson say he wants to "expose the truth about the corrupted elites" on his official Telegram account? No, that's not true: "It's fake," Gibson's representative told Lead Stories about a purported quote from the actor. Gibson does
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: 2021 Was NOT A Year With No Flu Cases Worldwide
Were there zero influenza cases worldwide in 2021 because flu cases were fraudulently recorded as COVID-19 cases? No, that's not true: Since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic in March 2020, flu cases have been categorized separately f
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: Cut Potato In Sock Does NOT Combat Cold And Flu
Does wearing socks that contain cut pieces of potato help children combat flu and cold symptoms by absorbing toxins from their bodies? No, that's not true: The American Academy of Pediatrics has rejected this claim as groundless. It's not
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: There Is NO ‘New Program’ That Pairs 4th Round Of ‘Stimulus’ Payments With Free Health Care, $500 Monthly ‘Credits’
Was a "new stimulus program" providing "millions of Americans" with "free health care" and $500 monthly "credits ... just announced"? No, that's not true: U.S. government resources don't mention a new round of stimulus payments for health
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: Country Singer Jake Flint Did NOT Die From COVID-19 Complications Or Vaccine
Did country singer Jake Flint die from COVID-19 or complications related to the COVID-19 vaccine, as a social media post implies? No, that's not true: Flint's publicist told Lead Stories that Flint's death was not related to the vaccine o
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: CDC Did NOT ‘Quietly’ Confirm 118,000 Children, Young Adults ‘Died Suddenly’ From COVID-19 Vaccine Rollout
Did the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) "quietly" confirm in late 2022 that at least 118,000 children and young adults have "died suddenly" in the U.S. since rollout of COVID-19 vaccines? No, that's not true: Experts told
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: Video Of EctoLife Facility Is NOT Reality — It’s Conceptual Presentation Of What Future Could Hold
Is there a facility that can produce 30,000 lab-grown human babies per year from embryos incubated in artificial wombs? No, that's not true: A video that depicts "the world's first Artificial Womb Facility" is a promotional advertisement
Lead Stories→ 2022 At Lead Stories: Debunking Claims About War, Vaccines and Elections; Debunking In Three New Languages & Defeating Lawsuits
The year is almost over, so it is good to look back. First, the numbers, as of December 15, 2022. This year we have published 1,555 fact checks in English (so far ...) 283 fact checks about COVID misinformation; 244 debunks of Russian
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: This Video Does NOT Show Soccer Fans Throwing Projectiles At Brazilian Soccer Team — They Are Protesters Angry At Brazilian Ex-President
Did Brazilian soccer fans throw projectiles at the Brazilian soccer team coming home from the 2022 World Cup in Qatar? No, that's not true: The video on which this claim is based dates from 2018, and shows protesters throwing projectiles
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: Iran Has NOT Officially Abolished Morality Police, Has NOT Officially Acceded To Protesters’ Demands
Did the government of Iran "abolish" its morality police in response to country-wide protests that erupted after the death of Mahsa Amini during detention by the morality police for wearing a loose headscarf in September 2022? No, that's
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: NO Evidence That Brazil’s Military Killed Red Command Cartel Leaders Or ‘Prepares Take Over’ As Of December 14, 2022
Did the Brazilian military kill the leaders of the Red Command cartel in early December 2022, and prepare to "take over" the country? No, that's not true: The article circulating on social media that makes these claims contains multiple f
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: Twenty-Year-Old Woman Did NOT Die After Receiving COVID Vaccine
Did a 20-year-old woman from Kansas die shortly after receiving a COVID-19 vaccine? No, that's not true: Although Regan Lewis did experience cardiac arrest and die shortly after receiving a vaccine, Regan's mother Connie Lewis clarified t
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: California Did NOT Legalize Pedophilia With Senate Bill 145
Did California approve a Senate bill "this week" in December 2022 that "legalizes pedophilia"? No, that's not true: Senate Bill 145 passed in California in 2020, not 2022, and it's intended to protect LGBTQ minors from discriminatory laws
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: Actor Pauley Perrette Did NOT Die On October 20, 2022, Or December 11, 2022
Did Pauley Perrette, the actor who formerly starred in the television series "NCIS," die on December 11, 2022? No, that's not true: Perrette is, at the time of writing, active on social media and in recent weeks shifted her posting from T
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: Celine Dion’s Stiff Person Syndrome NOT Listed As Pfizer COVID-19 Vaccine Adverse Reaction As Of December 14, 2022
Is stiff person syndrome, the disease Celine Dion announced in December 2022 that she was diagnosed with, included in a list of adverse reactions reported after vaccination with the Comirnaty (Pfizer-BioNTech) mRNA COVID-19 vaccine? No, t
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: The Human Meat Project Is NOT Real — It’s An Art Project
Is "The Human Meat Project" an organization that harvests food from donated human bodies "to solve overpopulation" and the problem of climate change? No, that's not true: The unnamed creators of the Human Meat Project website clarify in t
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: Duane ‘Dog’ Chapman Has NOT Passed Away As Of December 13, 2022
Has television personality and bounty hunter Duane Lee Chapman, also known as "Dog the Bounty Hunter," passed away as of December 13, 2022? No, that's not true: Chapman's publicist told Lead Stories on December 13, 2022, that he is "alive
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: Hillary Clinton Did NOT Tweet About ‘Elon Musk’s Suicide’ On December 2, 2022
Did Hillary Clinton, the former U.S. secretary of state and 2016 Democratic presidential nominee, tweet about "Elon Musk's suicide" in response to the Twitter CEO releasing corporate discussions, now known as "The Twitter Files," about Tw
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: COVID Response Coordinator Was NOT Arrested By Military On December 12, 2022
Was Jeff Zients, a former White House coordinator for COVID-19 response under President Joe Biden, arrested by the military on December 12, 2022? No, that's not true: The Department of Defense told Lead Stories that the claim, which was p
The Dispatch→ Has President Biden Visited the Southern Border Since Taking Office?
(Photo by Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images.) White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre appeared to claim during a press briefing last Wednesday that President Joe Biden has visited the United States’ southern border since taking office. No re
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: Antwerp Handjes Sweets Are NOT A Tribute To The Congo Atrocities Of King Leopold II of Belgium
Do people in Belgium honor King Leopold II by making chocolates and cookies in the form of human hands, representing the severed limbs of Congolese people and children who were brutally punished or killed in the colonial era for not meeti
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: Video Does NOT Show Voter Fraud When Herschel Walker’s Numbers Go Down On Fox News
Does a sudden decrease in the displayed vote tally for U.S. Senate candidate Herschel Walker during Fox News coverage of Georgia's December 6, 2022, runoff election prove that voter fraud occurred? No, that's not true: Human error by the
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: NO Evidence Toxin-Laced Tissue Was Placed In Georgia Gas Pump Handle By Human Traffickers
Did police in Kennesaw, Georgia, investigate a toxin-laced tissue that was reportedly placed on a gas pump handle by human traffickers to incapacitate their victims? No, that's not true: Lead Stories contacted two law enforcement agencies
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: Elon Musk Did NOT Say Ex-Twitter CEO Took Millions In Censorship Kickbacks From Democrats
Did Elon Musk tweet that Democrats paid former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey millions of dollars to block or delete the pages of people who posted about Hunter Biden's laptop during the 2020 election? No, that's not true: Lead Stories could fin