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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.

13,672 published reviews in this topic

THIP MediaHealth & medicine

Cyanocobalamin, which is the most common form of Vitamin B12, is toxic

Publisher’s rating: Mostly False

Research from related reporting addresses cyanocobalamin and B12 safety, but the supplied excerpts do not support the broad assertion that cyanocobalamin is toxic. One supplement guide describes cyanocobalamin as the synthetic form commonly used in supplements and says the body converts it to active B12 forms. It also says supplements often contain much more than the daily value because B12 has a “low toxicity risk.” The excerpt does not give a cyanocobalamin-specific toxicology study or define the circumstances in which risk might arise. A separate article says B12 supplements are generally well tolerated and that significant side effects are rare and generally associated with very large doses. On whether one form is more likely to cause diarrhea, it reports no definitive evidence of a difference, while noting that some people may find cyanocobalamin less tolerable than methylcobalamin. That is a limited, subjective tolerability observation—not evidence that cyanocobalamin itself is toxic. Taken together, these excerpts do not establish that cyanocobalamin is harmless in every dose or circumstance, but they do not substantiate the claim that it is toxic. They describe B12 as having low toxicity risk and distinguish possible individual digestive intolerance from toxicity. The supplied material does not include the original THIP Media review, so this summary reflects related reporting only.

THIP MediaHealth & medicine

COVID Test Swabs sterilized using Ethylene Oxide carcinogenic

Publisher’s rating: Half True

Research from related reporting describes a dispute over Geisinger’s COVID-19 vaccination policy and the nasal-swab testing imposed on some employees. The report says Geisinger required employees to be vaccinated in August 2021, with religious and medical exemptions available only if exempted employees submitted to twice-weekly nasal-swab tests. It reports that employees who received religious exemptions objected after learning that the swabs were sterilized using ethylene oxide, which the report identifies as a carcinogen. The article is about litigation over religious accommodation, not an examination of the health effects of swab use. The appeals-court majority revived only the employees’ Title VII claims, concluding at this stage that they had alleged that twice-weekly use of the swabs was circumstantially unreasonable. The report emphasizes that discovery could determine that twice-weekly exposure was not unreasonable. It therefore documents the employees’ objection and the court’s procedural decision, but does not establish that using the swabs caused cancer or assess the risk from that use. The ruling was limited: the panel affirmed dismissal of other claims by 105 employees, and the Title VII issue was the only part sent back to the district court. The article also reports that Geisinger disputed whether the objection arose from a religious belief or practice, while the dissenting judge considered nasal-swab testing compatible with the plaintiffs’ objections. This related report supports the claim’s specific description of the swabs and the carcinogenic classification it gives ethylene oxide, but it does not provide a scientific assessment of exposure risk.

dpaHealth & medicine

Tussen 1966 en 2004 overleden er 1.101 sporters; in de laatste 16 maanden al 673. De oorzaak is het Covid-19-vaccin.

Publisher’s rating: De bewering is onwaar en misleidend. De genoemde cijfers in de Facebookpost en de YouTube-video blijken onmogelijk met elkaar te vergelijken. Het getal 1.101 is afkomstig uit een wetenschappelijke studie waarin een specifieke groep atleten wordt beschreven, alle 35 jaar of jonger, alle overleden aan plotseling hartfalen. De 673 recent overleden sporters hebben uiteenlopende doodsoorzaken, zijn van alle leeftijden, zijn soms geen sporter en soms niet dood.

dpaHealth & medicine

Drei Ärzte starben plötzlich innerhalb einer Woche nachdem das Krankenhaus begann seinen Mitarbeitern die vierte Spritze zu verabreichen.

Publisher’s rating: Die drei Ärzte sind tatsächlich gestorben. Die Krankenhausgruppe dementiert aber einen Zusammenhang mit einer Corona-Impfung. Hinterbliebene nennen Krebserkrankungen als Grund.

The claim links the deaths of three Canadian doctors to a hospital’s administration of a fourth COVID-19 shot, and says they died suddenly within one week of it beginning. The review identifies the doctors as Jakub Sawicki, Stephen McKenzie and Lorne Segall, and reports that Trillium Health Partners confirmed their deaths. It does not establish that they died within a week of a vaccination rollout: the review says it was unclear whether the doctors had received a second booster at all, and notes that Ontario recommended one only for certain groups. (S1)

dpaHealth & medicine

RTL Nieuws belazert de boel door dezelfde persoon en plek te gebruiken voor een reportage over apenpokken- als over coronavaccins. Ze hebben er alleen een ander hoofd op geplakt.

Publisher’s rating: Er is hier inderdaad gefotoshopt, maar niet door RTL. De bovenste screenshot, van de kale man, is echt. Deze reportage over vaccinatie tegen apenpokken verscheen op 8 juli in het journaal van RTL Nieuws. De onderste afbeelding is getrukeerd en werd op deze manier nooit uitgezonden door RTL Nieuws. Het hoofd van columniste Asha ten Broeke is hier op het lichaam van de bovenste man geplakt.

The allegation is about two images circulating online: that RTL Nieuws used the same person and location in reports about monkeypox and COVID-19 vaccines, then changed the person’s head. The review distinguishes the genuine RTL footage from the altered image. It says the bald man in the upper screenshot appeared in RTL’s report on monkeypox vaccination, broadcast on 8 July, while the lower image was manipulated and was never broadcast by RTL in that form. The review also checks whether the two statements attributed to different people actually came from separate subjects. It reports that the man in the RTL footage, Martijn, said both that he looked forward to vaccination and that he had been among the first to receive COVID-19 vaccinations. Thus, the statements shared in the online posts were from the same person in the same report; the review does not describe RTL as making a second, matching COVID-vaccine report using him. To identify the substituted face, the review says reverse-image searches produced related results identifying it as columnist Asha ten Broeke, and notes a resemblance to a photograph of her on the television programme Debat op 2. It concludes that her face had been pasted onto the man’s body. The review’s account therefore supports the claim that the circulating lower image was edited, but contradicts the accusation that RTL made or broadcast that edit.