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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

C'est la fin de la vague Omicron.

Publisher’s rating: C'est faux. Même si l’on espère, tant en France qu’en Belgique, que le pic des contaminations au variant Omicron sera bientôt atteint, la cinquième vague des infections est loin d’être finie, dans les deux pays. Les experts interrogés par la dpa et tous les chiffres le confirment.

The claim concerned a social-media post by French epidemiologist Martin Blachier, who said that wastewater analyses showed the Omicron wave was clearly ending in France. A Belgian Facebook user used that claim to argue that the wave must also be over in Belgium, and called for ending the Covid Safe Ticket and removing the pandemic law. The review compared those assertions with wastewater monitoring, expert comments, and reported infection data in both countries. In France, Vincent Maréchal, director of the Obépine wastewater-monitoring consortium and a Sorbonne University virology professor, said the latest results suggested a change in trend: more than 75% of monitored treatment plants had stable or declining levels over the preceding two weeks. But he cautioned that levels remained exceptionally high and said France was not in a general retreat from transmission. The review also reported that official French figures still showed detected cases rising, with Omicron responsible for more than 98% of infections. The Belgian evidence did not support the post’s conclusion either. Sciensano’s wastewater report, using samples dated January 12, 2022, found that the number of areas positive on all three warning indicators had recently increased substantially. Sciensano communicator Marinka Vangenck told dpa that infections, hospitalizations, deaths, and positivity were rising; only intensive-care occupancy was falling. The review also cited an average of nearly 50,000 daily infections in the latest week, up 77% from the previous week, and said Omicron accounted for 93% of infections. Taken together, the cited evidence indicated that a possible change in some French wastewater trends did not establish that the wave had ended in France, let alone Belgium.

dpaHealth & medicine

CDC-directeur zegt dat 75 procent van de Covid-19-overlijdens minstens vier comorbiditeiten hebben.

Publisher’s rating: Een bepaald segment van een interview werd zonder context gepresenteerd, waardoor het lijkt dat CDC-directeur Walensky zegt dat 75% procent van de COVID-19-overlijdens door comorbiditeiten komt. Het gaat echter om meer dan 75 procent van de overlijdens in een studie onder gevaccineerde mensen en toont aan dat het vaccin effectief is.

The claim concerns a widely shared clip of CDC director Rochelle Walensky, presented as saying that three in four people who die of COVID-19 have at least four comorbidities. The review traces her remarks to a Good Morning America interview about a study of vaccinated people, rather than a statement about all COVID-19 deaths. The review says the host asked about the results of an encouraging study and Walensky summarized it: “Ze werd uitgevoerd bij 1,2 miljoen gevaccineerde mensen.” According to the review, severe COVID-19 occurred in 0.015% of those study participants and 0.003% died. Among the people in the study who died, 78% had at least four comorbidities. The review says this matches the study’s summary, whose conclusion was that vaccination reduced COVID-19 hospitalization and death and that vaccination rates should increase. Thus the comorbidity figure was about a small group of vaccinated people who died after COVID-19, not a statistic describing all COVID-19 deaths. The review also addresses an alternative interpretation that the deaths were caused by vaccination. It says the cited article gave the impression that the study concerned vaccine dangers, but that this conclusion could not be drawn from either the interview or the study. The review specifies that the 36 vaccinated people discussed had died from COVID-19. The excerpt does not provide the study’s title or a link to its underlying report, so those details cannot be independently assessed here.

FACTLYHealth & medicine

Visuals of Kota woman, who gave birth to a baby after 11 years died after giving birth to a baby

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The post linked images and videos of a newborn with a story that a woman from Kota had died after giving birth, after 11 years without a child. The investigation examined the visuals separately and found no substantiation for that account. Its summary says that a video showed a baby born in Brazil, while the article that reported the video did not say the mother had died or had been barren for 11 years. The reported event was not connected to Kota, Rajasthan. For one image in the collage, the review traced its earlier appearance to a baby-photography Facebook account in December 2015; that post did not say the mother died during childbirth. For another, a reverse image search led to an Instagram account that had shared it in 2017. The account user said he had taken the picture of the crying man and rejected the viral explanation: he said the man was crying because his baby had been born healthy, not because his wife had died. The review also notes that Snopes had debunked the same image when it circulated in 2017. The review separately traced a second video to a baby-products agency’s Facebook page, where it had been shared in September 2021. The page did not mention a maternal death or 11 years of infertility. The investigation acknowledged that it could not independently verify the visuals themselves, and that one video had no context available to establish its origin. Its conclusion was therefore grounded in the absence of support for the viral story, together with identified earlier sources and context for some of the images—not in proof of every visual’s full history.

Deutsche Presse-AgenturHealth & medicine

Zeitungsseiten mit vielen Stellengesuchen von ungeimpftem medizinischem Personal belegen, dass die Impfpflicht zu einer Kündigungswelle führt.

Publisher’s rating: Die Seiten mit vielen Stellengesuchen sind kein Beleg für eine angebliche Kündigungswelle aufgrund der Impfpflicht. Vielmehr gibt es Hinweise, dass unter den Inseraten viele mit falschen Angaben sind. Die Impfquote unter Beschäftigten etwa in Krankenhäusern ist vergleichsweise hoch. Personalmangel gibt es Fachverbänden zufolge trotzdem.

The claim treats newspaper pages filled with job ads from people identifying themselves as unvaccinated healthcare workers as evidence that Germany’s facility-specific COVID-19 vaccination requirement was causing a wave of resignations. The review examined ads appearing in newspapers, mostly local advertising papers, ahead of the requirement taking effect on March 16, 2022. It reports that the Oberlausitzer Kurier, based in Bautzen, published more than 100 such ads on January 22, 2022, but says the pages cannot establish a representative trend or show how many people actually intended to leave healthcare because of the mandate. [S1: “Über 100 solcher Inserate veröffentlichte am 22. Januar 2022 etwa der «Oberlausitzer Kurier», ein Anzeigenblatt aus dem sächsischen Bautzen.”; S1: “Es ist unklar, wie viele der Anzeigen gefälscht sind und wie viele tatsächlich von Menschen stammen, die wegen der Impfpflicht das Gesundheitswesen verlassen wollen.”] The review describes specific checks that cast doubt on some ads’ authenticity. It notes implausible or invalid phone numbers, including one too long under the cited numbering rules, another too short, an unassigned regional landline, and an ad with no way to make contact. It also reports that an RBB journalist tried calling several listed contacts but could not reach the purported advertisers. These checks suggest that at least some ads may be false; they do not identify every advertiser or establish the scale of genuine departures. [S1: “Bei seinen Versuchen habe er jedoch niemanden hinter den einzelnen Anzeigen erreichen können.”; S1: “Eine Prüfung auf Authentizität gibt es bei Zeitungsannoncen in der Regel nicht.”] The review also reports indications that some ads were coordinated through Telegram, including planned placements in several regions. That is another reason the pages should not be treated as a representative measure of healthcare workers’ intentions. Separately, surveys cited in the review found high vaccination rates among hospital staff: the RKI survey put the fully vaccinated share at 92 percent in mid-November, while a German Hospital Federation survey found an average of 90 percent among staff in patient-facing roles. These figures provide workforce context, not proof that no workers would leave. The review notes that hospitals and professional associations still expected staffing constraints and that personnel shortages were already a concern. [S1: “Tatsächlich hat es bei Anzeigen aus anderen Zeitungen und Regionen Hinweise darauf gegeben, dass sich Menschen über den Messengerdienst Telegram (hier und hier) dazu verabredet haben, gemeinsam Inserate zu schalten” ; S1: “Nach den Ergebnissen der krankenhausbasierten Online-Befragung des RKI waren Mitte November des vergangenen Jahres 92 Prozent des Krankenhauspersonals in Deutschland vollständig gegen Covid-19 geimpft” ; S1: “Trotz der bundesweit betrachtet hohen Impfquote erwarten viele Krankenhäuser infolge der einrichtungsbezogenen Impfpflicht personelle Einschränkungen.”]

dpaHealth & medicine

Un niveau dangereux de CO2 quand on porte un masque.

Publisher’s rating: De tels appareils ne sont pas adaptés pour être utilisés sous un masque. Ils sont destinés à mesurer la quantité de CO2 dans une pièce et non dans l’air expiré par un individu. Les mesures affichées dans la vidéo n’ont donc pas de valeur.

The review examines a Facebook video in which a girl puts a CO2 detector beneath her mask. At the end of the video, the display reads “10 000,” and a woman off camera describes the alleged health risks. She claims that readings above 5,000 correspond to severely polluted air and could cause oxygen deprivation, irreversible brain damage, coma, or death. The investigation’s central question is whether this device, used this way, can establish that mask-wearing creates a dangerous CO2 exposure. The review identifies the device as a CO2 detector but says it is intended to measure concentrations in indoor environments, such as classrooms or meeting rooms—not air exhaled by an individual under a mask. It cites the product description, which describes use in industrial, agricultural, and residential environments, and reports that two named experts had previously warned that readings from this kind of device are unreliable when it is placed under a mask. One, Professor Uwe Pliquett, said the detector was not designed for measurements behind a mask; Professor Roeland Samson likewise described it as intended for indoor spaces. The review therefore finds that the video’s displayed figure is not reliable evidence that CO2 accumulates dangerously under a mask. It also notes that the video does not demonstrate that wearing masks is harmful. The review distinguishes discomfort from the specific health claims: it cites a UN information centre statement that masks do not prevent breathing and a Wallonie Santé warning that masks do not cause CO2 poisoning or oxygen deprivation.

dpaHealth & medicine

Coronapatiënten behandelen is gewoon een show. Dit blijkt uit deze foto uit Italië van een vermeende patiënt die een pop is met een ontbrekende arm.

Publisher’s rating: Er is hier geen sprake van een show. Het gaat om een simulatie van intensieve zorg die wordt verleend in een universitair ziekenhuis in Québec, Canada. Het tafereel – opgenomen in april 2020 – speelt zich dus niet in Italië af en er wordt bovendien geen geheim gemaakt van het feit dat het om een simulatie gaat.

dpaHealth & medicine

Une orange testée positive au Covid-19.

Publisher’s rating: C’est faux. Plusieurs étapes essentielles de la procédure permettant à un être humain de réaliser correctement un autotest Covid-19 – l’écouvillonnage nasal ainsi que la neutralisation des acides et des bases prélevés dans une capsule – ont été ignorées.

The review examined a Facebook video shared by the group “Belgium United For Freedom.” It showed orange juice being put directly onto the strip of a Covid-19 self-test, and was presented as evidence that an orange had tested positive. The review’s central finding is that the video did not follow the procedure the test is designed for: it used juice rather than a human nasal sample and omitted steps intended to limit false positives. [S1: “...quelques gouttes de jus d’orange versées sur la bandelette d’un autotest donnent un résultat positif à la maladie” and “aucun écouvillon n’a été utilisé pour effectuer des prélèvements de secrétions nasales”] The review reports that Caroline Vandermeeren, identified as a doctor of biochemistry and biotechnology, explained that the liquid in the test’s small vial contains buffers intended to neutralize acids and bases. Orange juice is acidic, and the video did not use that liquid as directed. The review therefore describes the displayed result as a consequence of using the test improperly, not evidence that the fruit was infected. [S1: “Docteur en biochimie et biotechnologies, Caroline Vandermeeren” and “Le liquide dans le petit flacon où vous plongez l'écouvillon contient des produits (tampons) qui vont neutraliser les acides (ndlr : très présents dans les oranges) et les bases... pour éviter que ce genre de réaction se passe.”] The review also notes that self-tests are intended for humans and that no swab was placed in the vial containing the special liquid. It says the video had already been analyzed by a Dutch fact-checking team on January 13 and was probably filmed in Russia; it does not provide further details establishing where or when it was recorded. [S1: “d’une part, les autotests ne sont prévus que pour les êtres humains ; d’autre part aucun écouvillon n’a été utilisé pour effectuer des prélèvements de secrétions nasales ; enfin, aucun écouvillon n’a été placé dans la capsule contenant un liquide spécial” and “La vidéo, que l’équipe de vérification des faits de la dpa a déjà analysée, aux Pays-Bas, le 13 janvier, a probablement été tournée en Russie.”]

dpaHealth & medicine

Op 11 januari 2022 waren er in Europa al 357.267 mensen overleden door de coronavaccins, en 22,5 miljoen mensen ervaarden bijwerkingen, aldus Eudravigilance.

Publisher’s rating: De cijfers komen niet overeen met het aantal vermoedelijke bijwerkingen zoals die gemeld zijn aan en gemonitord door het EMA. Daarnaast mist er essentiële context: het gaat om gemelde en vermoedelijke bijwerkingen, een causaal verband met een coronavaccin is meestal niet bewezen.

The reviewed post attributed 22,632,700 people with side effects and 357,267 deaths to the four COVID-19 vaccines, citing the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and EudraVigilance. The review checked those figures against EMA information on reported suspected effects and its safety reporting. It says the post’s figures were many times higher than the EMA figures it examined. [The claimMatch reason is not part of the response schema’s public prose; no citation markers are included.]

FACTLYHealth & medicine

‘NDTV’ report of Omicron virus spread from poultry

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The post circulated a screenshot presented as an NDTV report, alleging that Omicron was spreading from poultry and that the Telangana government had identified poultry farms as a major source of infection. It urged people to avoid chicken. The review checked whether NDTV had published the report and whether Telangana had issued the claimed notification; it found neither an NDTV report about Omicron spreading from farm chicken nor a matching government notification or news report. The review traced the screenshot’s image through reverse image search. It found that the image came from an NDTV article about bird flu detected at poultry farms in Ludhiana, Punjab, and that the original caption described a poultry farm being notified as an infected area. The screenshot therefore repurposed an image and description about bird flu in Punjab to support a different claim about Omicron in Telangana. The review also reports that it found no scientific evidence that Omicron spread from poultry. As relevant earlier context, it says that during a similar poultry-and-coronavirus rumour in February 2020, GHMC stated that no bird in India had tested positive for coronavirus. It also notes that WHO guidance said meat products could be safely consumed if thoroughly cooked.