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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.

13,669 published reviews in this topic

dpa Deutsche Presse-AgenturHealth & medicine

Die Corona-Impfung bietet weder Fremd- noch Eigenschutz. Stattdessen steigen Todesfälle, Fehlgeburten und Krebsraten an, die Geburtenzahlen brechen ein.

Publisher’s rating: Für die aufgestellten Behauptungen gibt es keine Belege. Wirksamkeit und mögliche Nebenwirkungen der Corona-Impfstoffe werden genau beobachtet. Es gibt keine Nachweise dafür, dass Sterblichkeit, Krebsfälle, Fehlgeburten oder Unfruchtbarkeit erhöht seien.

The claims came from a midwife’s letter circulated online. It alleged that vaccination no longer offered protection to others or oneself, and that vaccination was accompanied by unexpected deaths, miscarriages, rising cancer rates and falling birth numbers. The review examined those allegations separately, drawing on public-health monitoring, research and available population statistics. It notes that the letter itself supplied no evidence for its claims about cancer rates. On protection, the review says vaccination does not prevent every infection, but that preventing severe Covid-19 was a central aim and that vaccines do so. It also describes evidence on transmission as qualified: available data were not sufficient for a firm conclusion, though a US study was said to support earlier findings that transmission appeared reduced, including with Omicron. The review therefore distinguishes incomplete protection from no protective effect. For alleged harms, the review reports that the Paul Ehrlich Institute’s December 2022 safety bulletin found no overall excess mortality attributable to vaccination, including among older people. It says official cancer figures for 2022 were not yet available and cites an alternative explanation for more diagnoses at advanced stages: pandemic-era delays in screening. On pregnancy and births, it notes that exact German miscarriage figures are unavailable; a slight rise in recorded stillbirths in 2021 occurred alongside more live births. It also reports that birth numbers initially fell but rose from May 2022, and that regional patterns did not fit a direct link between vaccination and fertility.

El Detector / Univision NoticiasHealth & medicine

El paracetamol p-500 contiene el virus machupo.

Publisher’s rating: Falso

The review examines a warning that paracetamol tablets identified as P-500 contain Machupo virus. It reports that the claim had circulated at least since 2017 and says health authorities and fact-checkers had previously addressed it. The investigation considers how Machupo is transmitted and whether a tablet could plausibly carry the virus, rather than treating the warning itself as evidence that the tablets were contaminated. For transmission, the review cites the Pan American Health Organization’s description of infection through direct contact with rodents or inhalation of infected rodents’ excretions, as well as person-to-person transmission. It notes that the health organizations’ materials do not identify these tablets as a means of transmission. CDC communications director Christine Pearson also told the review that no U.S. cases were reported from 2016 through 2019, or in 2020, 2021, or through mid-December 2022; the article describes later figures as provisional. Those reported surveillance details are additional context, not direct testing of a specific tablet. The review also recounts expert explanations reported by AFP Factual: Anderson Brito said tablet manufacturing involves heat, dehydration, and pressure that would deactivate the virus; Brito and virologist Vivian Luchsinger said the dry tablet environment would not support its survival, and Luchsinger noted that the virus needs a cell to replicate. The review further reports that Singapore’s Health Sciences Authority had called the claim false in a 2017 notice and that Malaysia’s health ministry had also rejected it that year. The evidence presented therefore addresses the claimed route of transmission through manufacturing conditions, virus survival, and the cited transmission information; the article does not report laboratory testing of a particular P-500 tablet.

FACTLYHealth & medicine

Recent video of doctors getting into a heated argument during surgery at a hospital in Chandigarh

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerns a video presented as recent footage of doctors arguing during surgery at a hospital in Chandigarh. FACTLY’s review identifies the footage as an older incident in Rajasthan, not Chandigarh. It reports that the video shows two doctors arguing while operating on a pregnant woman at Umaid Hospital in Jodhpur in 2017. To trace the footage, the review says it searched the internet using relevant keywords and found a video with similar visuals published by ANI on 30 August 2017. ANI described it as showing two doctors arguing during surgery at Jodhpur’s Umaid Hospital. The review adds that ANI reported the incident took place on 29 August 2017. This provenance and chronology contradict the post’s presentation of the footage as recent and from Chandigarh. The review also cites an Indian Express report published on 30 August 2017, which identified the doctors as Dr Ashok Nanival and M L Tank and described the operation as an emergency C-section. The review says reports stated that the newborn died, but the supplied excerpt does not give further details establishing the cause. Its conclusion is that the shared video is from Jodhpur in 2017 and is unrelated to Chandigarh; the excerpt also says it is unrelated to Pakistan.