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Health & medicine fact checks
Explore claims publishers have checked about health & medicine. Read their original ratings and follow the evidence.
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Search by text or image13,673 published reviews in this topic
Revista Exame publicou fake news sobre vacina e aids lida por Bolsonaro em live
Publisher’s rating: Falso
Italienische Stewardessen ziehen sich aus Protest gegen Impfungen aus.
Publisher’s rating: Die Demonstration der Stewardessen hat mit der Corona-Schutzimpfung nichts zu tun. Sie richtete sich gegen Arbeitsplatzverluste nach dem Ende der Fluggesellschaft Alitalia.
The claim attached a vaccination-protest message to a video of Italian flight attendants undressing in public. The original investigation identifies the footage as a protest about jobs at Alitalia and working conditions at its successor, ITA—not an objection to COVID-19 vaccination. It reports that a voice in the video itself explains the protest’s purpose in Italian: “es sich um einen Protest gegen den Verlust von Arbeitsplätzen handelt.” The event took place on 20 October 2021 at Piazza del Campidoglio, outside Rome’s city hall. About 50 flight attendants removed their clothing in a choreographed performance until they were in their underwear, then chanted “Noi siamo Alitalia.” The review says the video’s vaccination framing was added as an opening title, including the German wording “Italienische Stewardessen verweigern Todesspritze”; it distinguishes that framing from what the footage and its audio show. The investigation also cites contemporaneous coverage by La Repubblica and Corriere della Sera, which it says described the demonstration as opposition to layoffs after Alitalia’s end and to worse working conditions at ITA. Its account of the employment context says ITA began flying on 15 October 2021 and took on only part of Alitalia’s staff and aircraft. This supports the review’s conclusion that the video was recast with a misleading vaccination-related explanation.
Les membres du Parlement européen refusent la vaccination et le pass sanitaire.
Publisher’s rating: La formulation de l’article est trompeuse et contient des éléments qui sont faux. Quatre députés européens ont tenu une conférence de presse pour dénoncer ce qu’ils estiment être un usage « abusif » du certificat Covid en Europe. Il ne s’agit donc pas de l’ensemble des membres du Parlement européen. En outre, les députés concernés ne disent pas refuser la vaccination contre le Covid-19 au cours de cette conférence.
In Lübbecke ist ein 17-jähriger Junge nach der (Corona-)Impfung gelähmt. Er ist im Johannes Wesling Uni Klinikum Minden.
Publisher’s rating: Die Behauptung ist falsch. Das Johannes Wesling Klinikum in Minden teilte auf dpa-Anfrage mit, dass ihm der Fall eines 17-jährigen Patienten mit Lähmungserscheinungen nach einer Corona-Impfung nicht bekannt ist - trotz intensiver Recherche.
The claim concerned a specific alleged case: a 17-year-old from Lübbecke who was said to have developed paralysis after a Covid-19 vaccination and to be at the Johannes Wesling Klinikum in Minden. The review traced the claim to a Telegram post by a user calling himself “AktivistMann”; it also noted that the allegation was circulating on Facebook. The review identifies that alleged patient and hospital, rather than examining a general claim about vaccine side effects. [S1: “ein 17-Jähriger aus der ostwestfälischen Stadt Lübbecke habe nach einer Corona-Impfung eine Lähmung erlitten. Der Jugendliche soll sich im Mindener Johannes Wesling Klinikum befinden, so der Nutzer.”] The investigation reports two checks on whether this patient was known to local institutions. Christian Busse, spokesperson for the Mühlenkreiskliniken, said that after intensive inquiries he ruled out that a 17-year-old boy with paralysis following vaccination had been at the hospital in Minden. The crisis-management team for the Minden-Lübbecke district also said it knew of no such case. [S1: “Der Sprecher der Mühlenkreiskliniken, Christian Busse, schließt nach intensiver Nachforschung aus, dass es einen 17-jährigen Jungen nach einer Corona-Impfung mit Lähmungserscheinungen im Krankenhaus in Minden gegeben habe.”] [S1: “Die Pandemiekrisenstabsleitung des Kreis Minden-Lübbecke, die für die Städte Lübbecke und Minden verantwortlich ist, hat ebenfalls keine Kenntnis eines solchen Falls”] The review further reports that Busse provided figures for Covid-19 treatment at the Mühlenkreiskliniken and the university hospital in Minden, including the number of patients treated in intensive care. Those figures are background about the hospitals’ Covid-19 caseload; the specific evidence addressing the allegation is the hospitals’ and district crisis team’s reported lack of knowledge of the alleged patient. [S1: “seit Beginn der Pandemie seien 1 816 Covid-Patientinnen und Patienten in den Mühlenkreiskliniken und am Universitätsklinikum Minden behandelt worden, davon 252 auf der Intensivstation.”]
"[H]ere in Melbourne, very sadly, we've endured the longest lockdown in the world."
Publisher’s rating: Not clear cut
Les enfants non vaccinés sont en meilleure santé que ceux vaccinés, selon une étude.
Publisher’s rating: Ces affirmations sont fausses. L’étude concernée n’arrive absolument pas à cette conclusion. Les données contenues dans l'enquête ont été déformées.
The claim circulated in a Facebook-shared article in Switzerland, which cited an older German study to suggest that unvaccinated children were healthier than vaccinated children. The study was part of the Robert Koch Institute’s KiGGS survey of child and adolescent health. It assessed vaccination data for more than 13,000 young people up to age 17, collected between 2003 and 2006, to compare health outcomes by vaccination status. The researchers examined whether children who received recommended vaccines—for illnesses including measles, whooping cough and tetanus—differed from unvaccinated children in allergic diseases or nonspecific infections. The review reports that the study found no evidence that the prevalence of those conditions depended on vaccination status. It also reports a distinct result: vaccine-preventable diseases were considerably more common among unvaccinated participants. The study therefore does not establish that unvaccinated children were healthier overall. The review also describes how the Facebook article’s source, Angelika Müller, presented the KiGGS data as evidence that vaccination increased risks of allergies, developmental disorders and chronic illness. The Robert Koch Institute disputed her conclusions, telling German fact-checkers at Correctiv in June 2020 that basic standards for scientific data analysis had not been followed and that necessary weighting had been omitted, making the calculated frequency values incorrect. The review notes that a revised version included weighted data but remained inaccurate, in part because it retained groups whose vaccination information was unclear.
"All the talk about all these folks who were going to leave the military if they were mandated — not true. You’ve got about a 90-some percent vaccination rate."
Publisher’s rating: Depends on definition
Un décret en France autorise tous ceux qui ont accès aux hôpitaux militaires (armée française, élus) à se soigner avec l'hydroxychloroquine en cas d'infection au Covid-19.
Publisher’s rating: Il s’agit d’une fake news qui circule depuis plus d’un an sur les réseaux sociaux. Le décret sur lequel se base la publication Facebook n’est plus en vigueur depuis mai 2020.
The review traces the Facebook post to a French decree announced by Health Minister Olivier Véran on 23 March 2020. It says the decree allowed hydroxychloroquine, as an exception, for hospitalised patients with severe Covid-19, following a collective medical decision and under strict medical supervision. That provision did not establish a special entitlement for the army or politicians: the decree’s reference to military hospitals defined which facilities counted as health establishments, rather than reserving treatment for people connected to them. The review quotes the decree’s conditions for prescribing, dispensing and administering the medicine, including that it be done under a doctor’s responsibility and after a collective decision. It also quotes the separate passage listing military hospitals, the Institution nationale des Invalides and certain Defence Ministry medical facilities as health establishments. The review reports that the AFP had already addressed the resulting confusion and that the Health Ministry confirmed the interpretation to France Info; the supplied article does not provide those organisations’ underlying statements. The decree was repealed about two months after it was issued. The review attributes this to an unfavourable opinion from the High Council for Public Health, noting that available data had not established benefit against Covid-19 and raised concerns about cardiac toxicity. It reports that on 27 May 2020 the Health Ministry said the medicine should not be prescribed for Covid-19, whether in the community or hospital. Thus the post’s claimed preferential access misreads the decree’s description of facilities, and its reliance on that decree omits that it was no longer in force.
В Литве от COVID-19 умерла треть населения
Publisher’s rating: Намеренно созданный фейк
In einem offenen Brief stellt ein Mitarbeiter des Senders SWR mehrere Tatsachenbehauptungen über das Coronavirus auf.
Publisher’s rating: Mehrere überprüfte Behauptungen entsprechen nicht den Tatsachen.
Le vaccin Pfizer a tué environ 40 fois plus de personnes âgées que le Covid-19 n'en aurait tué, selon le ministère israélien de la Santé.
Publisher’s rating: C'est archi-faux. D'une part, le gouvernement israélien a formellement démenti cette information, publiée en février 2021. D'autre part, Children's Health Defense a elle-même supprimé cette publication de son site internet, en reconnaissant que ses conclusions manquent « de clarté et de soutien ».
Gefälschte Impfzertifikate fallen bei 3G-Kontrollen nicht auf.
Publisher’s rating: Größtenteils falsch. Bei digitalen Impfzertifikaten fallen Fälschungen dann auf, wenn der QR-Code mit einer geeigneten App gescannt wird. Auch wer einen gefälschten Impfpass in die Apotheke bringt, um ihn digitalisieren zu lassen, muss damit rechnen, dass Apotheker genau hinschauen. Besonders dann, wenn der Impfpass neu aussieht oder nur den Eintrag zur Covid-Impfung enthält.
![Image accompanying “People were getting the [COVID-19] vaccine in record numbers” until President Joe Biden implemented vaccine mandates.](https://cdn.factcheck.org/UploadedFiles/Getty_CovidVaccines_RoyaltyFree_thumb.jpg)
“People were getting the [COVID-19] vaccine in record numbers” until President Joe Biden implemented vaccine mandates.
Publisher’s rating: False
Aus dem Patent von Pfizer lässt sich herauslesen, dass anhand eines mit einer Spritze verabreichten Stoffes die „Fernverfolgung aller geimpften Menschen weltweit ermöglicht werden soll.
Publisher’s rating: Es handelt sich um eine Falschbehauptung. In dem Patent geht es um die Entwicklung eines Systems, mit dem Menschen während einer Pandemie anhand diverser Daten anonym für eine Impfung priorisiert werden sollen. Mit einer Verfolgung geimpfter Menschen hat es nichts zu tun. Es wurde zudem von zwei Anwälten angemeldet, die Pfizer zwar schon vertreten haben, hier aber in eigenem Namen handeln.
గోమూత్రం ఉపయోగించడం ద్వారా తన క్యాన్సర్ పూర్తిగా తగ్గిందని కాంగ్రెస్ ఎంపీ రాజ్యసభలో మాట్లాడిన దృశ్యాలు
Publisher’s rating: MISLEADING
Met foto van pop moet angst zaaien voor pandemie en Hugo de Jonge ging op bezoek in UMCG.
Publisher’s rating: De foto werd gebruikt in een artikel van RTV Noord, zonder daarbij te insinueren dat het hier gaat om een echte patiënt. De foto uit maart 2020 dient alleen als illustratie bij een interview met de arts in kwestie: Peter van der Voort. Daarnaast is demissionair minister De Jonge tot nu toe in de maand oktober niet in het UMCG geweest.
The claim concerned a photograph from the University Medical Center Groningen (UMCG) that circulated with allegations of fearmongering: that the bed held a real patient and that minister Hugo de Jonge visited the hospital the day after a widely shared tweet. The investigation traced the image to a RTV Noord article interviewing UMCG intensive-care physician Peter van der Voort. Although the original caption did not clearly identify the figure in the bed as a practice mannequin, the review found no suggestion in the article that it was a real patient; RTV Noord later made the caption clearer. The interview concerned Van der Voort’s criticism of De Jonge’s response to rising coronavirus infections. The review also checked the photograph’s provenance. It reported that photographer Corné Sparidaens took it for ANP on 18 March 2020, and that ANP’s image-bank caption identifies the figure as a training mannequin. The image was made on a designated ICU section before coronavirus patients were placed there. The review further cited UMCG’s confirmation that De Jonge had not visited the hospital during October up to the time of the review; he had been at the Medical Center Leeuwarden on 14 October. Thus, the photo did show Van der Voort beside a mannequin, but the claimed patient deception and UMCG visit were not supported by the investigation.
Altın hapların dışkıyı altın kapladığı iddiası
Publisher’s rating: ÇOĞUNLUKLA YANLIŞ