A picture of a rusty hand sanitiser dispenser with the caption: “A picture says a million words. POISON” has been shared hundreds of times on Facebook. The image seems to imply that because dripping hand sanitiser has damaged the stand, it
Search Results (3602) for: risk
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: Link Between Milk Casein And Cancer Is NOT Proven
Does casein -- the main protein in milk -- cause cancer? No, that's not true: casein is not listed as a carcinogen by the International Agency for Research on Cancer or the U.S. National Toxicology Program. The claim originated from a vid
Truth or Fiction?→ Politicians Claim That Deaths By Suicide Increased During Lockdowns; Mortality Report Says Otherwise
On April 4 2021, Twitter user Elizabeth Jacobs PhD (@TheAngryEpi) tweeted about political claims involving quarantine-related suicides in 2020, contrasted with March 2021 data about mortality rates for the year before: Politicians told us repeatedly
The Dispatch→ Biden’s Infrastructure Proposal Is a Giant Boondoggle
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Health Feedback→ Not all coronaviruses are seasonal, contrary to pathologist Ryan Cole’s claim; COVID-19 vaccines are effective at preventing illness
REVIEW On 4 March 2021, pathologist Ryan Cole gave a speech to lawmakers at the Idaho State Capitol Building. Cole made several claims about the COVID-19 pandemic and vaccines, several of which were previously debunked by fact-checkers. His speech w
The Dispatch→ Our Best Stuff From a Week Georgia Was on Our Minds. Again.
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FactCheck.org→ TV Ad Distorts Facts on Federal Voting Rights Bill
A TV ad from a conservative group distorts the facts about the “For the People Act,” a voting rights bill approved by the Democratic-controlled House and now in the Senate. The ad, paid for by Restoration Action, says: “No more voter ID.
FactCheck.org→ Flawed Report Fuels Erroneous Claims About COVID-19 Death Toll
SciCheck Digest Viral social media posts cite a flawed paper in falsely claiming the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention changed death certificate procedures and violated federal law, resulting in wildly inflated COVID-19 deaths. The CDC hasn
The Dispatch→ WaterGaetz
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Health Feedback→ COVID-19 vaccines don’t hamper the function of the immune system and are likely to limit the generation of variants; no evidence that they produce more lethal variants
REVIEW On 13 March 2021, Vernon Coleman posted a video on the platform BrandNewTube, in which he claimed that the COVID-19 vaccines are “dangerous” and caused numerous health problems like strokes. Within two weeks, the video reached 240,000 views
FactCheck.org→ Viral Posts Misuse VAERS Data to Make False Claims About COVID-19 Vaccines
SciCheck Digest Social media posts repeatedly misuse unverified data from the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System to falsely claim that COVID-19 vaccines are dangerous, and even lethal. But the government database is not designed to determine if vac
AFP Fact Check→ Mass Covid-19 vaccination will not lead to ‘out of control’ variants
A scientist’s open letter to the World Health Organization claims that the large-scale Covid-19 vaccination drives currently underway around the world should cease before they produce the catastrophic appearance of more deadly variants of the coronav
Full Fact→ Lateral flow tests are not unsafe
In England, secondary school and college students and staff, and their households, are being asked to regularly take a lateral flow test to check for Covid-19. We’ve seen a large number of posts on social media warning people not to use Covid-19
Full Fact→ Government communications should serve the public
Today's news agenda is being driven by government led discussion of a carefully selected preview of a 258 page report and then 24 unknown recommendations. By the time the actual report was released, media lines had been taken, and much of what the publ
Health Feedback→ COVID-19 vaccines received Emergency Use Authorization from the FDA after clinical trials demonstrated that they are safe and effective; COVID-19 vaccines aren’t experimenta
REVIEW The rapid development of COVID-19 vaccines allowed the U.S. to initiate a nationwide campaign of vaccination against the disease in December 2020. More than 138 million vaccine doses were administered as of 24 March 2021. U.S. president Joe B
Health Feedback→ Heart attack victims shouldn’t use “cough CPR” on themselves, contrary to chain email dating back to 1999
REVIEW A Facebook post published in 2013 that went viral on Facebook in March 2021, titled “How to survive a heart attack alone”, claimed that heart attack victims “can help themselves by coughing repeatedly and very vigorously. A deep breath
AFP Fact Check→ False claim circulates online in Thailand about coronavirus vaccine eligibility
As Thailand launched its coronavirus vaccination drive, a claim circulated on Facebook and messaging app Line in late March 2021 that all adults aged over 19 could receive the jab in the Thai capital Bangkok. The claim is false: as of March 30, 2021
The Dispatch→ The EU Is Missing a Chance to Address Its Problems With Turkey
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Snopes→ Canada Pauses AstraZeneca Vaccine for Under 55
Updated recommendations come amid new data from Europe that suggests the risk of blood clots is now potentially as high as one in 100,000.
The Dispatch→ The First Amendment: Rarely Popular, Always Necessary
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The Dispatch→ ‘They Aren’t Who You Think They Are’
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FactCheck.org→ Bogus Claims About Biden’s Treatment of Homeless Veterans
Quick Take After the Biden administration said it would spend $86 million to temporarily house immigrants at the southern border in hotels, viral posts — including a tweet by Rep. Madison Cawthorn — falsely claimed the White House has direc
FactCheck.org→ Pfizer CEO Got Vaccinated, Contrary to Claim in Video
SciCheck Digest A video making the false claim that the Pfizer CEO “refuses” to get a COVID-19 vaccine has been circulating on Facebook. But the pharmaceutical company’s chief executive has said that he’s gotten his first shot.
Full Fact→ Is there a precedent for mandatory vaccines for care home workers?
On Monday the Telegraph reported that care home workers would be required “by law” to have the Covid-19 vaccination in “a historic legal change” that had been requested by the Prime Minister and health secretary Matt Hancock. Mr
FactCheck.org→ Texas Doctor Spreads False Claims About COVID-19 Vaccines
SciCheck Digest Federal officials authorized two mRNA vaccines for COVID-19 after they were determined to be safe and effective against symptomatic illness in clinical trials. But a Texas doctor, in a widely shared video, falsely claims the vaccines do
Full Fact→ Covid-19: Behind the death toll
We see the scale of this pandemic in another way if we look at the death toll alongside how many years of life are being lost—including among people who don’t die. Readers have been asking us different versions of the same question for man
The Dispatch→ How the House’s Election Reform Bill Would Exacerbate Our Polarization
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Health Feedback→ Bill Gates quoted out of context about injecting kids with genetically modified organisms in discussion on GM crops
REVIEW A video posted on YouTube showed a clip of Bill Gates speaking about injecting children with genetically modified organisms. The video has been viewed more than 15,000 times and shared more than 3,000 times on Facebook, according to the social
Snopes→ Did a Baseball Player Protest His Fine by Paying in Pennies?
You can attempt to tender your fine payment in pennies, but you run the risk of being held in contempt.
Truth or Fiction?→ ‘Nose Only Mask for Eating’ Purportedly Developed by Mexican Researchers
On March 25 2021 a Rumble.com post went viral, titled “ABSURD: Researchers Design New Mask to Wear While EATING.” What followed was not a news item, nor a video. After a lengthy advertisement played, the “content” of the post wa
Full Fact→ Inaccurate Covid vaccine ‘Q&A’: fact checked
A Covid-19 vaccine “Q&A” sheet has been circulating on social media. It presents a checklist of claims about the vaccine, alongside ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ answers. Some of the claims are inaccurate and suggest the mRNA va
Full Fact→ Travel to Spain requires negative Covid test
On Instagram, businessman Wayne Lineker has claimed that, once international travel resumes, people will not need to have been vaccinated in order to travel to Spain and will only require proof they have tested negative with a PCR test in the 72 hours
Full Fact→ Oranges don’t test positive for Covid-19
A post shared widely on Facebook claims that an orange has tested positive for Covid-19 using a lateral flow test. It’s unclear whether the post is implying that the tests are inaccurate or unreliable. In reality, the test cannot work properly wi
Full Fact→ Sky News video does not say ‘UK jab causes clots’
A video of a Sky News segment has been shared on social media by a group called ‘Mysteries, Truths, and Conspiracies’, with the caption: “UK jabs causing blood clots, but denied as you would expect”. This caption is false, and a
Lead Stories→ Fact Check: Disneyland Did NOT Announce A ‘No Screaming On Theme Park Rides’ Policy
Did Disneyland announce that there will be a new "no scream" policy on theme park rides and that the park would be enforcing this policy? No, that's not true: While there were recommendations that were published by the California Attracti
Climate Feedback→ Destruction of the Amazon forest very likely contributes to global warming, as accurately described in The National Geographic article
SUMMARY The National Geographic article discusses findings from a study published in March 2021 by Covey et al. and partly funded by the National Geographic Society[1]. This study assessed the role of the Amazon rainforest in global climate change,
Health Feedback→ COVID-19 vaccines are critical for controlling the pandemic; vaccines still offer partial protection against new variants of the virus
REVIEW On 6 March 2021, the independent consultant Geert Vanden Bossche published an open letter to the World Health Organization on Twitter. In it, Vanden Bossche claimed that COVID-19 vaccines “should not be used amid an epidemic” and
Health Feedback→ Tinnitus isn’t a sign of brain death, even though it arises in the brain; no cure for tinnitus currently exists
REVIEW A website named Tinnitus Battle which sells the supplement Tinnitus 911, claimed that the supplement can cure tinnitus. About 1 in 10 adults in the U.S. is affected by tinnitus, a phantom sensation in which people perceive sounds that aren’
Health Feedback→ Messenger RNA is essential for life and a normal component of cells; study by researchers at Memorial Sloan Kettering is unrelated to RNA vaccines
REVIEW An article published by Natural News on 2 March 2021 claimed that COVID-19 RNA vaccines will cause cancer, as mRNA “can instruct human cells ultimately in the same way as cancer drivers”. The article cited a study published by researchers
Health Feedback→ Ivermectin isn’t a highly effective drug for treating COVID-19
REVIEW A YouTube video published on 6 March 2021 featured physician Tess Lawrie, who claimed that ivermectin reduces the risk of death from COVID-19. This claim was based on a meta-analysis and review that Lawrie conducted using 27 scientific studie