REVIEW The claim that autopsies in Italy prove that COVID-19 is not pneumonia but disseminated intravascular coagulation began circulating from mid-April 2020 onwards on various platforms such as Whatsapp, YouTube and Facebook in several languages s
Search Results (589) for: excess
Health Feedback→ Mortality in the U.S. noticeably increased during the first months of 2020 compared to previous years
SUMMARY A post shared on Facebook on 13 May 2020 compared the number of deaths in the U.S. during the first 17 weeks of 2019 (30 December 2018 to 27 April 2019) to those during the same period in 2020 (29 December 2019 to 25 April 2020)@. The post sta
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: BLM Did NOT Release A Plan To Annihilate America’s Wild Horse And Burro Herds
Did the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) release a plan to annihilate America's wild horse and burro herds? No, that's not true: The plan calls for management of the wild horse and burro population over the coming 15 years through "population g
Truth or Fiction?→ Did Woodstock Occur ‘in the Middle of a Pandemic’?
On May 1 2020, the American Institute for Economic Research reported that Woodstock was held during a pandemic — information which, in a vacuum, could pass for a charming piece of late 1960s nostalgia. But this information does not exist in a
FactCheck.org→ The Falsehoods of the ‘Plandemic’ Video
The first installment of a documentary called “Plandemic” stormed through social media this week, promising viewers on its website that the film will “expose the scientific and political elite who run the scam that is our global healt
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: There Is NO Evidence Cream Of Tartar Mixed With Orange Juice Can Help You Stop Smoking
Does mixing cream of tartar with orange juice and drinking the concoction help you stop smoking? No, that's not true: A claim has gone viral that suggests the simple concoction of cream of tartar and orange juice can help a person stop smoking
Truth or Fiction?→ Are COVID-19 Doctors Reporting Bizarre Blood Clotting and Strokes in Otherwise Healthy Young Patients?
On May 3 2020, Twitter user Bess Kalb tweeted that her father, an intensive care unit doctor, claimed that COVID-19 damaged blood and vascular systems of victims like “sticking your finger in an electric socket”: My dad is an ICU doctor
Truth or Fiction?→ Did Elon Musk Tweet ‘If One Day, My Words are Against Science, Choose Science’ Before a COVID-19 Controversy?
As the COVID-19 pandemic progressed in the United States, dueling opinions were politicized and bluntly split between opinions based on hard science versus economics. This ended up leading to the recirculation of a purported tweet from Elon Musk about
Truth or Fiction?→ Did the CDC Order All Deaths Be Recorded as a Result of COVID-19 — Even Heart Attacks and Accidents?
In April 2020, a conspiracy theory spread on Facebook and Twitter which maintained that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) explicitly ordered that all deaths in the United States, regardless of their true cause, be attributed to t
FactCheck.org→ Trump Hypes Potential COVID-19 Drugs, But Evidence So Far Is Slim
President Donald Trump has enthusiastically pushed the use of two malaria drugs — one in combination with an antibiotic — to treat COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. But there is currently only limited evidence to sugges
Truth or Fiction?→ The ‘Fundamental Problem’ of the ‘2.5% of the Population Which is Generally Expensive to Maintain and Not Productive’ Tweet Controversy
Viral comments and debates in mid-March 2020 included direct arguments in favor of leveraging COVID-19 deaths as an economic bulwark, often punctuated by screenshots of a purported tweet by San Diego, California lawyer Scott McMillan in which he propo
Truth or Fiction?→ ‘100 Million Masks’ — Are Homemade Masks Sufficient for COVID-19 First Responders?
On March 20 2020, KOMO anchor Mary Nam shared a photograph of a person wearing a surgical mask (a form of personal protective equipment, or PPE, known to be in short supply due the coronavirus pandemic), and put out a call for anyone who knows how to
FactCheck.org→ Q&A on the Coronavirus Pandemic
Editor’s Note: This is an updated version of a Q&A we published Jan. 30. Much has changed since then. An outbreak of viral pneumonia that began in the central Chinese city of Wuhan at the end of 2019 has sickened more than 200,000 people and
FactCheck.org→ FactChecking the March Democratic Debate
Summary The first head-to-head debate of the Democratic presidential primary between former Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Bernie Sanders focused on the government’s response to the novel coronavirus outbreak. We sorted through competing claims th
Lead Stories→ ‘Invoice Barr’ and the ‘Second Modification’: How Article Spinning Works
Facebook users have been seeing some strange headlines lately, thanks largely to a clickbaiter from Pakistan. "It's Official: Fox Information Terminates Decide Pirro's Contract" There is a large network of websites using political content to
Truth or Fiction?→ ‘Seattle Coronavirus Testing’ Twitter Thread
On March 2 2020, as six patients in Washington state were reported to have died of a novel coronavirus, a Twitter user going by @into_the_brush shared a thread about their purported attempts to be tested for the virus in Seattle. In the first tweet,
FactCheck.org→ Bloomberg’s 2016 Remarks on Farmers, in Context
The supporters of President Donald Trump and Sen. Bernie Sanders claim Democratic presidential candidate Mike Bloomberg insulted farmers in a 2016 video. The Bloomberg campaign says the video has been “taken completely out of context.” Ther
FactCheck.org→ Competing Claims on Trump’s Budget and Seniors
In what has become an annual Washington exercise, Democrats and Republicans are waging a war of words over the president’s proposed budget and how it would affect programs for seniors. President Donald Trump tweeted that he “will not be touchin
Truth or Fiction?→ Angelika Greg-Delany #WalkAway Campaign: ‘I Came From the Soviet Socialist Part of the Ukraine, I Barely Survived’
Late on February 6 or early February 7 2020, Facebook user “Angelika Greg-Delany” shared a purportedly true account to the group #WalkAway Campaign — purportedly first about her encounter with a Russia-bashing “Bernie Sanders s
Truth or Fiction?→ Did a Study Find U.S. Healthcare Costs More Than Four Times as Much as Canadian Single-Payer?
On January 8 2020, MSN.com aggregated a Los Angeles Times article, which reported that Americans pay four times as much per capita for health care than Canadians did under their country’s single-payer healthcare program: In the United States, a
Truth or Fiction?→ Were an Army Veteran’s Prosthetic Legs ‘Repossessed’ After a VA and Medicare Dispute?
On January 9 2020, an article about Army veteran Jerry Holliman and the repossession of his prosthetic legs after a payment dispute between the VA and Medicare was shared to Reddit’s r/nottheonion, a subreddit for news stories odd enough to soun
Truth or Fiction?→ ‘Say NO to Piercing Guns’ Viral Facebook Post
On December 29 2019, Facebook user Stephanie Lipscy shared the following post beginning with “say NO to piercing guns,” alongside an illustration of an ear being pierced: Lipscy said that the use of ear piercing guns caused “a blun
Lead Stories→ Fake News: Study Does NOT Say Chocolate And Red Wine Help Fight Wrinkles And Keep The Skin Young
Does a new study say chocolate and red wine could help fight wrinkles and keep the skin young? No, that's not true: Recent research being shared online does not point to a link between consuming the popular food and drink and reducing the agin
Truth or Fiction?→ Unsolicited Card Reader Warning
In October 2016, a Facebook user shared the following image of a purported “unsolicited card reader,” along with a nebulous warning to fellow users about the purported receipt of a an unexpected banking device in the mail: An image shows
Truth or Fiction?→ Was Donald Trump Fined $2 Million for Misappropriating Funds Donated for Veterans but Used for His Campaign?
In November 2019, a constellation of Facebook posts appeared, collectively making one claim: that United States President Donald Trump was fined $2 million after a judge ruled that funds he had raised were improperly diverted to finance his campaign.
Truth or Fiction?→ Did Old Farmer’s Almanac Predict an Alarming Number of Snowstorms This Winter?
A November 1 2019 ReturnToNow.net post headlined “Old Farmer’s Almanac Predicts An Alarming Number of Snowstorms This Winter” was shared tens of thousands of times on Facebook. and was likely to continue spreading. ReturnToNow.net is cl
FactCheck.org→ What Does Science Say About the Need for Nuclear?
While Sen. Bernie Sanders has said “scientists tell us” that it’s possible to go carbon neutral without relying on nuclear power, fellow Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Cory Booker, who backs the use of some nuclear energy, has said the da
FactCheck.org→ Misleading Posts Target GOP Rep. Matt Gaetz
Quick Take Social media posts distort the facts around an 11-year-old, dismissed DUI charge against Rep. Matt Gaetz. They also leave the false impression that he “stole from dying people.” Full Story Posts about Rep. Matt Gaetz circula
Truth or Fiction?→ Cream of Tartar and Orange Juice to Quit Smoking?
In October 2019, a post circulated on Facebook advising smokers to use potassium bitartrate — commonly known as cream of tartar — along with orange juice as an effective and inexpensive way to quit smoking successfully. Alongside a blurry image
Truth or Fiction?→ Can Consuming Too Much Coffee Under Stress Cause Schizophrenia Symptoms?
On October 15 2019, the Facebook page “Weird Facts” shared the following “fact meme,” which claimed that the combination of a lot of coffee and a lot of stress could cause symptoms of schizophrenia — presumably in people no
PolitiFact→ Fact-checking the Ohio Democratic presidential debate
On a crowded debate stage, a dozen Democratic presidential candidates sparred over health care, talked about reining in the excesses of capitalism and debated how to protect workers in an age of technological upheaval. The evening opened with a v
FactCheck.org→ Trump’s Claims About Hunter Biden in China
President Donald Trump has repeatedly accused Hunter Biden, without evidence, of making millions of dollars in a “payoff” from China, after accompanying his father, then-Vice President Joe Biden, on a 2013 diplomatic trip to Beijing. The cl
Truth or Fiction?→ Was a Toddler Subjected to Months of Abuse Because of a ‘Cookie’ Analogy?
In September 2019, a Facebook user shared an image and a harrowing story about the purported sexual abuse of a toddler that went unreported for months because the young girl supposedly was not taught anatomically correct words: Alongside a photograph
Truth or Fiction?→ Tim Allen Meme: ‘Obamacare Website Costs More Than Trump’s Wall’
On September 14 2019, the Facebook page “ChairmanSizer” shared the following meme (archived here), claiming that actor and comedian Tim Allen was quoted as claiming that maintaining the official Affordable Care Act’s website costs mo
Lead Stories→ Fake News: ADHD Is NOT A FAKE Disease Invented By Big Pharma To Drug Children For Profit
Is ADHD is a fake disease invented by Big Pharma to drug children for profit? No, that's not true: While there may be examples of misdiagnoses of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, scientific evidence shows it is real and that many pati
FactCheck.org→ Amazon Doesn’t Produce 20% of Earth’s Oxygen
Q: Does the Amazon produce 20% of the world’s oxygen? A: No. Scientists estimate the percentage is closer to 6 to 9%, and the Amazon ultimately consumes nearly all of that oxygen itself. FULL QUESTION Does the Amazon Rainforest truly produce 20%
Lead Stories→ Fake News: NASA Does NOT Admit Climate Change Occurs Because Of Changes In Earth’s Solar Orbit, Not Because Of SUVs And Fossil Fuels
Did NASA admit that global climate change occurs because of changes in Earth's solar orbit, and not because of emissions from SUVs burning fossil fuels? No, that's not true: NASA scientists studying climate change have not changed their opinio
FactCheck.org→ Trump’s Steel Industry Claims
Summary To hear President Donald Trump tell the story of the U.S. steel industry, it went from “dead” or “going out of business” to “thriving” all because of the 25% tariffs on imported steel he instituted in March 2
Truth or Fiction?→ Do Asylum Seekers Get $2,100 Per Month Starting Their First Day in the United States?
On July 16 2019, the following text-based status update (archived here) appeared on Facebook with the uncited claim that asylum seekers admitted to the United States receive a $2,100 monthly payment — whereas by comparison, Americans who had paid i
Truth or Fiction?→ Is Menthol Shaving Cream (or Foam) a Remedy for Sunburned Skin?
A June 2018 Facebook post recommending menthol shaving cream (or shaving foam, as it is called in the UK) to alleviate the pain of sunburns has accrued more than 230,000 shares. A repost by another person with the same photographs was also shared tho