SciCheck Digest COVID-19 has killed more than 805,000 people in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Yet a viral video on social media suggests the disease is the same as a “common cold.” COVID-19 is in the
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Lead Stories→ Fact Check: Canada’s Data Do NOT Prove COVID-19 Vaccine Is Either A Failure Or That Omicron ‘Preferentially Infects’ The Vaccinated
Do data from Ontario, Canada prove COVID-19 vaccines are either a failure or that omicron "preferentially infects vaccinated people"? No, neither of those choices is true: Using only raw data, the claim-maker draws a misleading conclusion
Health Feedback→ The benefits of mRNA COVID-19 vaccines for children outweigh the low risks, unlike what Robert Malone claimed
REVIEW A 12 December 2021 filmed statement on the topic of vaccinating children with the COVID-19 vaccines by Robert Malone, a medical doctor and researcher, was widely shared on a number of social media platforms (see here and here); as of 20 Decem
Health Feedback→ Ivermectin study in the city of Itajaí contains several methodological weaknesses, resulting in questionable conclusions
REVIEW The drug ivermectin has become a breeding ground for conflict during the COVID-19 pandemic. Ivermectin is a derivative of avermectin, a naturally-occurring compound discovered by William Campbell and Satoshi Omura, which won them the Nobel Pr
Truth or Fiction?→ Did Jimmy Carter Help Stop a Nuclear Reactor from Melting Down?
Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter’s first-hand encounter with nuclear power received newfound attention in December 2021 — thanks, as usual, to social media. When he was 28 years old, Carter — at that point a scientist in the U.S. Na
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: NO Evidence That Mixing Grapefruit And Antidepressants Can Cause Fatal Overdose — Combo MAY Cause Other Adverse Effects
Can eating grapefruit while on antidepressants cause a fatal overdose? Probably not: Grapefruit can increase, or in some cases decrease, the effect of dozens of prescription and over-the-counter drugs. However, only a few antidepressants
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: Video Game ‘Omikron: The Nomad Soul’ Was NOT Created By Bill Gates
Was a video game named "Omikron: The Nomad Soul" created by Bill Gates, and does it have any ties to the emergence of the omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2, the novel coronavirus? No, that's not true: Although the game was originally made to
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: COVID-19 DID Kill Only 68 Children In 2020, But Chart Omits Context: Infected Children Host And Spread The Virus
Did 67 children ages 5-14 die from COVID-19 in 2020? Yes (68, to be precise), but this chart comparing that to the much higher death tolls from traffic accidents, fires and other causes obscures the risk posed by children's infections, wh
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: George W. Bush STILL Did NOT Appear Before A Military Tribunal
Did former President George W. Bush undergo a second day of appearing before a military tribunal? No, that's not true: The Department of Defense told Lead Stories that Bush has not appeared before a tribunal. This claim is one in a series
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: UNICEF, NHS, Others Did NOT Endorse Flyer With False Mask Information
Did UNICEF and several agencies and organizations based in the United Kingdom endorse a graphic that includes misinformation about masks? No, that's not true: Six of the eight agencies and organizations included in the graphic told Lead S
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: 91-Year-Old Woman Did NOT Give Birth, But Carried A Calcified Fetus For 60 Years
Did a 91-year-old woman find out that she had been pregnant for 60 years when she visited the doctor? Yes and no: the story of the rare health condition of an elderly woman from La Boca, Chile is true, but it is presented in a misleading
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: Eating 200 Apple Seeds May NOT Cause Fatal Reaction — There’s No Exact Number
Will eating 200 apple seeds cause a fatal reaction? Not necessarily: Apple seeds contain a chemical compound that decomposes into cyanide but the compound must be released by finely crushing or chewing the seeds. The number of apple seeds
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: NO Evidence That 5G Millimeter Waves Cause Health Problems In Humans
Is there evidence that millimeter waves from 5G, the fifth generation of wireless networks, cause health problems in humans? No, that's not true: Although some researchers have expressed reservations regarding the rollout of 5G, many heal
Truth or Fiction?→ ‘Dolly Turned Down a Medal of Freedom from Trump, Twice’
On December 7 2021, Imgur user AustinKocher shared what appeared to be a screenshot of his own tweet, claiming that music icon Dolly Parton “turned down” a Medal of Freedom offered by former United States President Donald Trump — and
FactCheck.org→ Analyzing Republican Attacks on Biden for Increase in Fentanyl Seized
U.S. border officials reported seizing 10,856 pounds of fentanyl being smuggled across the southwest border in fiscal year 2021, a 132% increase from fiscal year 2020. Some Republicans have misleadingly suggested that the amount of drugs seized is a ne
Full Fact→ Hand gel safety alerts only apply to certain brands
A Facebook post claims that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), says that hand gel “causes cancer”. The post uses what appears to be a code for the FDA, by writing F/D/apple symbol. The post also says that this has followed “da
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: Vaccines Are NOT The Reason Vaccinated English Under 60 Are ‘Dying At Twice The Rate of Unvaccinated People The Same Age’
Are COVID-19 vaccines the reason vaccinated people ages 10 to 59 in England are dying at twice the rate of the unvaccinated? No, that's not true: Age 10-59 is, statistically, a huge age group, so the claim uses a misleading "same age" com
Health Feedback→ Contrary to claim in Becker News article, not all cases of infection lead to immunity; falsely claims that most COVID-19 deaths weren’t caused by COVID-19 but by comorbidities
REVIEW An article published by Becker News in mid-November 2021, written by former Fox News writer Kyle Becker, claimed in its headline that “The CDC Finally Admits a Massive Number of Americans Have ‘Natural Immunity’: 146.6 Million People”
Full Fact→ Study doesn’t show tea and coffee cause lower dementia and stroke risk
“Keeping the cuppas coming reduces risk of stroke and dementia” The Daily Telegraph, 17 November 2021. “Stroke risk: The drink to make at home that slashes your risk of the condition by 32%” The Daily Express, 17 November 2021
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: Taking A Bath In Borax Does NOT ‘Detox’ Vaccine From Your Body
Is bathing in a mixture of borax, baking soda, "Indian healing clay" and Epsom salt a good way to "detox" the COVID-19 vaccine from your body? No, that's not true: There is no scientific evidence that bathing in a borax mixture will remov
Health Feedback→ Claim that French study showed long COVID doesn’t exist misinterprets the study and fails to account for its limitations
REVIEW An article published on Substack in early November 2021, a platform that supports subscription newsletters, claimed that a French study[1] demonstrated that long COVID is “mostly a mental disease”. Long COVID is a condition in which COVID
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: Doctor Does NOT Show Marburg, Ebola In Vaccines To Induce AIDS
Does an 11-minute video featuring a Finnish naturopathic doctor talking about Johnson & Johnson vaccines show people are being intentionally infected with the Ebola and Marburg viruses to induce AIDS? No, that's not true: The video in
Health Feedback→ Tromethamine in the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for children acts to improve the stability of the vaccine; it isn’t in the vaccine as a heart medication
REVIEW On 29 October 2021, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorized the emergency use of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine in children aged 5 to 11. This vaccine for children has a slightly different formulation from the one approve
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: Mayo Clinic-Trained Pathologist Does NOT Explain How COVID Vax ‘Spike Proteins’ Are ‘Killing You’
Does a Mayo Clinic-trained pathologist explain how COVID-19 vaccine "spike proteins" are "killing you"? No, that's not true: mRNA COVID vaccines teach the body to make the distinctive spike proteins, which the immune system quickly identi
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: The British Medical Journal Did NOT Reveal Disqualifying And Ignored Reports Of Flaws In Pfizer COVID-19 Vaccine Trials
Did the British Medical Association's news blog reveal flaws that disqualify the results of a contractor's field testing of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine, and were the problems ignored by the Food & Drug Administration and by Pfizer? No,
Full Fact→ Italy hasn’t changed its Covid-19 death toll from 130,000 to under 4,000
A number of Facebook posts and some websites have claimed that Italy has adjusted its Covid-19 death toll from over 130,000 to 3,783. This is wrong. It seems to be based on an article in Italian newspaper Il Tempo, dated 21 October 2021. A blogpost pub
FactCheck.org→ Aaron Rodgers’ Inaccurate COVID-19 Claims
Aaron Rodgers, the star quarterback of the Green Bay Packers, made headlines when he contracted COVID-19 and then defended his decision not to get vaccinated with a string of false and misleading claims that fact-checkers have frequently debunked. The
Full Fact→ Study linking sleep time and heart disease risk shows correlation not causation
“Going to bed between 10 and 11pm every night cuts your risk of getting heart disease by up to 25%, study claims” Daily Mail, 9 November 2021. The Daily Mail has reported on a new study and in the headline claimed it shows going to bed bet
Logically→ COVID-19 vaccines are driving the excess deaths in Scotland.
COVID-19 Vaccines did not cause the excess deaths. The excess deaths were caused by various ailments such as COVID-19, dementia, and cancer.
Health Feedback→ Social media post claiming that fully vaccinated people are “filling up” morgues and hospitals is based on flawed reasoning; unvaccinated people are actually over ten times more likely to die
REVIEW The number of COVID-19 deaths rose again in the U.S. from July 2021 to mid-September 2021, amid concerns of the Delta variant spreading and vaccine-induced immunity waning over time. While data show that vaccines are safe and effective agains
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: CDC HAS Recommended Exercise, Healthy Eating During Pandemic — But Not Just To Prevent COVID-19
Has the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) failed to recommend exercise and healthy eating as health measures during the COVID-19 pandemic? No, that's not true: Although the agency has not directly recommended those lifestyl
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: Patent Documents Do NOT ‘Expose Medical Devices’ In COVID Vaccines, Including Injectable Tracking And Computing System
Do patent documents "expose" the existence of microscopic computing, tracking and medical devices in the COVID vaccines made by Moderna and Pfizer? No, that's not true: The patents described are for the lipids used to send mRNA instructio
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: There Is NO Such ‘Aluminum Parasite’ As Franc Zalewski Claims Are In COVID Vaccines, Nor Are There Nanotech ‘Organisms’
Are there aluminum parasites in COVID vaccines and self-assembling nanorobots or superconductors? No, that's not true: The consensus of professional peer-reviewed biology operates on the premise that life on Earth is carbon-based, not alu
Snopes→ James Michael Tyler, Who Played Gunther on ‘Friends,’ Dies
Tyler died at home in Los Angeles from prostate cancer.
Health Feedback→ Claims that a Harvard study showed COVID-19 vaccines are ineffective misrepresent the conclusions from the authors; fail to account for the study’s limitations
REVIEW This video published by The Jimmy Dore Show on 17 October 2021 claimed in its title that a Harvard study showed that COVID-19 surged among most vaccinated communities. The cited study, which was published in the European Journal of Epidemiolo
Snopes→ Peter Scolari of ‘Newhart,’ ‘Bosom Buddies,’ Dies at 66
Scolari died in New York after fighting cancer for two years.
FactCheck.org→ Already Had COVID-19? Vaccines Boost Immunity, Not ‘Wipe Out’ Antibodies
SciCheck Digest Studies show the COVID-19 vaccines boost the antibody levels and improve the immune response of those who previously had COVID-19. The vaccines do not “wipe out” the antibodies developed by a person who had recovered from th
Health Feedback→ Prenatal ultrasound is generally safe when performed by trained personnel and used only when medically necessary; its benefits outweigh the risks
REVIEW Ultrasound (also called ultrasonography) is widely used in medicine for imaging. It uses high-frequency sound waves to produce internal images of the body. One of its advantages is that it doesn’t use X-rays, meaning that patients aren’t
Snopes→ Did Trump Release Statement Bashing Colin Powell After His Death?
Powell died of COVID-19 complications while battling cancer on Oct. 18, 2021.
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: Colin Powell Did NOT Commit Suicide
Did Colin Powell, the first Black secretary of state and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, commit suicide? No, that's not true: That claim is not supported by any news coverage of his death, by any statements from his family or offic