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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

dpaHealth & medicine

De Britse regering bevestigde in een rapport dat 9 op 10 coronadoden in Engeland gevaccineerd zijn.

Publisher’s rating: In absolute cijfers klopt deze claim inderdaad maar die geven slechts een deel van het verhaal mee omdat de vaccinatiegraad in het Verenigd Koninkrijk hoog is. De relatieve cijfers schetsen een ander beeld. Ongevaccineerden hebben een veel grotere kans dan gevacineerden om te overlijden door COVID-19.

The claim concerns deaths in England, not the whole United Kingdom, and is based on tables in a UK Health Security Agency report. The review says those tables cover COVID-19 cases, hospitalisations and deaths from 24 January to 20 February. On raw counts, more vaccinated than unvaccinated people in England became ill and died during that period, so the claim’s absolute-count premise is supported by the figures examined. But raw totals do not show an individual’s likelihood of dying. The review notes that vaccinated people made up a large share of the population: 71.9% had received two doses. It also explains that older and other vulnerable groups were prioritised for vaccination, affecting who was represented among cases and deaths. The review says the source material’s table included a caution about this population context, which the claim’s promoters omitted. To compare risk rather than totals, the review points to the report’s per-100,000 figures in table 13. It says those age-specific figures show that, depending on age, the risk of death for unvaccinated people was between one and five times higher than for vaccinated people. Thus the totals do not establish that vaccination increased an individual’s risk; the review’s comparison accounts for population size and age.

dpaHealth & medicine

Das Paul-Ehrlich-Institut erfasst deutlich zu wenige Nebenwirkungen nach einer Corona-Impfung.

Publisher’s rating: Die BKK-Provita-Daten lassen diesen Vorwurf nicht zu. Die Analyse der Krankenkasse ist nicht aussagekräftig, weil nicht unterschieden wird zwischen vorübergehenden Symptomen nach einer Impfung wie Kopfschmerzen, Müdigkeit oder Schmerzen an der Einstichstelle und tatsächlich schweren, anhaltenden Gesundheitsproblemen. Nur letztere fließen in die PEI-Daten ein.

MediaWiseHealth & medicine

Actors Betty White and Bob Saget's deaths were caused by the COVID-19 vaccine.

Publisher’s rating: Not Legit

The review investigates social-media claims that COVID-19 vaccination caused the deaths of actors Betty White and Bob Saget. One TikTok used a short clip in which Saget said he had received a third vaccine dose and suggested the booster was to blame. The review points out that the clip’s timing and location were unspecified and that its caption offered no evidence connecting the shot to his death. It also warns that a brief interview excerpt may omit context. For Saget, the review reports that his family’s statement, cited by CNN and The New York Times, said authorities determined he died from head trauma after accidentally hitting the back of his head. The statement said he went to sleep after thinking nothing of the injury and that no drugs or alcohol were involved. This account directly contradicts the claim that his booster caused his death. For White, the review examines a viral post claiming she was vaccinated three days before her death and attributing a vaccination endorsement to her. It says searches for the exact quote found that Snopes, PolitiFact and USA Today had debunked it. The review instead reports that multiple outlets said White died in her sleep after suffering a stroke six days earlier, and quotes her friend and agent Jeff Witjas saying she passed peacefully in her sleep. The review concludes that the posts do not establish a vaccine cause for either death.

APA - Austrian Presse AgenturHealth & medicine

Gesundheitsminister Wolfgang Mückstein hat aufgrund eines fehlenden 3G-Nachweises nicht in ein Hotel in Bad Waltersdorf einchecken dürfen.

Publisher’s rating: Die Geschichte ist frei erfunden und ähnelt einer viralen Behauptung von vergangenem Jahr. Mückstein ist geimpft. Das genannte Hotel gibt es gar nicht mehr.

The claim was that Health Minister Wolfgang Mückstein could not check into a hotel in Bad Waltersdorf because he could not provide proof of 3G status. The review says the allegation circulated in social-media posts and messaging channels, and identifies the hotel named in the story as Hotel Paierl. The review checked the hotel’s status and sought responses from both the current business at the location and the Health Ministry. It reports that Hotel Paierl had been sold in 2019 and that the site was then occupied by Ayurveda Resort Mandira. The resort told APA the story was fake news, said Mückstein had definitely not been there that weekend, and denied that he had been sent away. The ministry also denied that the alleged incident occurred. The review adds that Mückstein was vaccinated and boosted, and that the ministry said he had previously shown 3G proof during hotel stays. It therefore presents both direct denials about the alleged visit and information contradicting the premise that he lacked proof. The review also notes that the claim’s supposed origin could not be verified: an early post and its purported author could not be found.

dpaHealth & medicine

En Europe, 408 mineurs décédés des suites de la vaccination contre le Covid-19.

Publisher’s rating: Ces chiffres sont faux. Ils ne correspondent en rien à la source citée. De plus, la base de données ne donne aucune information sur la causalité des effets secondaires avérés ou des décès.

The claim came from a 10 February 2022 Facebook post by the European Forum for Vaccine Vigilance. It asserted that 408 people aged 0–17 in Europe had died as a result of Covid-19 vaccination, and attributed 186 deaths to Janssen, 160 to Pfizer, 32 to Moderna and 30 to AstraZeneca. The post cited the European Medicines Agency’s database of reports of suspected adverse drug reactions. The review explains that this database records suspected effects, not verified vaccine-caused harms. Its warning says that reported medical events occurred after vaccination but “are not necessarily related or caused by the vaccine”; the database also says it does not provide the total number of reported cases with a fatal outcome. The review therefore checks the post’s figures against database entries, while emphasizing that those entries alone cannot establish what caused a death. The comparisons do not support the post’s specific totals. For 2021 and 2022 through 19 February, the review reports one database entry for a death under age 18 associated with Janssen, 168 entries for Pfizer-BioNTech, 14 for Moderna and eight for AstraZeneca. It also notes that the Janssen vaccine was authorized only for people over 18 at the time, and that the single under-18 entry described a patient in the wrong age group. The review cautions that the entries include reports involving other serious or pre-existing conditions, so they cannot be treated as confirmed deaths caused by vaccination.