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PeakMetrics / Fact Checks

Health & medicine fact checks

Explore claims publishers have checked about health & medicine. Read their original ratings and follow the evidence.

13,667 published reviews in this topic

LupaHealth & medicine

ALERTA Pessoas vestidas de branco vão passar de casa em casa para medir a taxa Glicêmica dos moradores.. Não deixem! É um grupo de aidéticos para transmitir o vírus. A mando da baleia azul. Compartilhem! O Alerta foi feito hoje pela Polícia Militar. Segue a mensagem: 'Amigos e populares, a Vigilância Sanitária e a PM acabam de informar que um grupo de aidéticos está em várias cidades abordando as pessoas para que elas façam a medição da glicose. Se você for abordado, DENUNCIE Ligue 190! Este suposto teste está passando o vírus HIV... Obs: Eles estão se passando por um grupo de enfermeiros estudantes. CUIDADO! É muito sério! Vamos espalhar para outros grupos'.

Publisher’s rating: Falso

FACTLYHealth & medicine

Consuming food items containing the label of Apeel will cause sickness as they have toxic mono and diglycerides

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The review examines a social-media post warning people not to eat food with an Apeel label. The post alleges that Apeel uses “toxic mono & diglycerides” to make people sick. The review identifies Edipeel as Apeel Sciences’ post-harvest coating and says its primary ingredients are mono- and diglycerides. It describes the coating as an edible barrier applied to certain fruits and vegetables to limit moisture loss and oxidation and extend shelf life. The review’s central evidence is that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration classifies mono- and diglycerides as generally recognised as safe (GRAS). It also cites a World Health Organization report stating that no harmful effects have been specifically associated with these compounds, and reports that the Center for Science in the Public Interest rated them “safe.” On this evidence, the review rejects the post’s claim that the ingredients cause sickness. The article further says Apeel notified the FDA about its use of mono- and diglycerides and that the agency responded it had no question that the compounds came under the GRAS classification. The supplied excerpt does not reproduce the underlying FDA correspondence or describe independent testing of consumers or particular food products; its conclusion is based on the cited safety classifications and statements. The review also distinguishes the separate ownership allegation in the post: it reports that a Gates Foundation spokesperson refuted the claim that Bill Gates owns Apeel, and that Apeel founder and CEO James Rogers leads the company.

Fact Crescendo Sri LankaHealth & medicine

ෆයිසර් කොවිඩ්-19 එන්නත්තුළ, උග්‍ර විෂ සහිත ග්‍රැෆීන් ඔක්සයිඩ් අන්තර්ගත බවට අසත්‍ය සටහන් පෙළක්!

Publisher’s rating: False

The review investigates social-media claims that Pfizer itself had disclosed graphene oxide, described in the posts as highly toxic, as an ingredient in its COVID-19 vaccine. It focuses in particular on an FDA-related document circulated as evidence for the claim. The review says the document was misread: its mention of graphene oxide concerned research to examine the structure of the coronavirus, not the manufacture of the vaccine. It also reports that the document did not say graphene oxide was used in vaccine production. To assess what the document’s mention meant, the review describes it as a 14-page record titled “Structural and Biophysical Characterization of SARS-CoV-2 Spike Glycoprotein (P2 S) as a Vaccine Antigen.” It quotes the US FDA’s response that graphene oxide is not an ingredient in the vaccine and that the Pfizer record was submitted to the FDA. The review also reports that Pfizer told Full Fact that graphene oxide was not used in manufacturing and was not present in either the manufacturing ingredients or the finished vaccine. The review further says it checked ingredient lists for WHO-approved COVID-19 vaccines and found no graphene or graphene oxide listed, including for Pfizer’s vaccine. It reports that Professor Niluja Malavige characterized the claim as baseless. Taken together, the review’s cited document explanation, reported statements from the FDA and Pfizer, and ingredient-list check contradict the claim that graphene oxide is in the Pfizer vaccine. The review also notes a potentially misleading distinction: graphene oxide was mentioned in a research document, but that mention was not evidence that it was a vaccine ingredient.

dpaHealth & medicine

L'OMS admet que des mères entièrement piquées donnent naissance à des bébés atteints de graves malformations cardiaques.

Publisher’s rating: Non, ces affirmations sont infondées. L'OMS n'a jamais mentionné de lien entre les cas de myocardite chez les nourrissons et la vaccination contre le Covid-19. De plus, seule une minorité de mères des bébés concernés avaient été vaccinées pendant la grossesse, a assuré le service de santé publique du Pays de Galles à la dpa.

Folha de S.PauloHealth & medicine

Texto publicado em um site e compartilhado nas redes sociais afirma que a Organização Mundial da Saúde “admite que mães totalmente vacinadas estão dando à luz bebês com graves defeitos cardíacos”. De acordo com o conteúdo, a UK Health Security Agency abordou o assunto e sua possível relação com a vacina contra a Covid-19.

Publisher’s rating: Falso

The claim combines a real report of severe myocarditis in newborns with an unsupported assertion that the WHO connected the cases to vaccination of their mothers. The investigation says the WHO had been notified of an increase in severe myocarditis cases among newborns, but the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), the WHO’s regional office, said the cases were associated with enterovirus infection in Wales between June 2022 and April 2023—not with vaccines or pregnant women. The WHO document cited by the viral post made no mention of vaccines. The fact-check also examined the post’s link to an English-language article about an unusual increase in severe myocarditis among newborns and babies in the United Kingdom. It found that the underlying information about the reported increase could be checked against a WHO page, but that this did not support the post’s vaccine claim. The investigation further reports that the post did not initially identify which vaccines it meant, and only later discussed Covid-19 vaccines. To check the claim, the team searched Google using terms for the WHO, vaccines, babies and myocardium, and searched UK government publications. It found no WHO studies or research linking vaccines to effects in babies; the UK materials it found concerned monitoring myocarditis and pericarditis after Covid-19 vaccination. The publication’s author did not provide substantiation: the site that posted the claim sent links that, according to the investigation, did not prove it and did not answer whether it had the cited WHO document.

dpaHealth & medicine

Het sterftecijfer bij de niet-gevaccineerde Amish gemeenschap ligt 90 keer lager dan bij de gemiddelde bevolking in de VS.

Publisher’s rating: Er is geen bewijs om deze bewering te staven. Accurate cijfers verkrijgen is moeilijk, maar het lijkt er op dat de amish, net als andere Amerikanen, COVID-19 kregen en oversterfte kenden tijdens de coronapandemie.

The claim is that the Amish had a death rate 90 times lower than the U.S. population during the COVID-19 pandemic, supposedly because of low vaccination. The review traces the figure to an article on Slay News, which attributed it to a study by the Vaccine Safety Research Foundation. The fact-check reports that the cited study could not be found on the foundation’s website, and that there was no solid basis for the figure. Mark Louden, a University of Wisconsin professor and Amish expert, likewise told dpa there was “no factual basis” for the claim. The review explains why precise comparisons are difficult: official infection, vaccination and death statistics do not identify people’s religion, leaving indirect or anecdotal evidence. It describes a 2021 study that examined Amish mortality and found a pattern following the broader U.S. mortality trend, including three waves of excess deaths during 2020. That study concerned overall excess mortality, not deaths specifically attributed to COVID-19. A follow-up study examined vaccination and mortality; the review says U.S. excess mortality declined after vaccines were introduced in 2021, but Amish excess mortality did not. The review also notes that low vaccination was not the same as no vaccination: in Holmes County, Ohio, where Amish population density was highest, the fully vaccinated share was 18.65% at the end of 2022. Louden said Amish people were generally healthier than the wider population, but attributed that to lifestyle and genetics—not resistance to vaccination. The evidence presented therefore does not support the 90-times-lower figure or the implication that low vaccination produced lower excess mortality.