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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.

13,673 published reviews in this topic

Fact Crescendo Sri LankaHealth & medicine

FACT CHECK: පැරසිටමෝල් P-500 ඖෂධයේ මාරාන්තික වෛරසයක්?

Publisher’s rating: False

The review investigates a circulating warning that people should avoid Paracetamol P-500 because the tablets allegedly contain Machupo, described in the message as a deadly virus. It says the warning circulated on WhatsApp and notes that similar posts had appeared on Facebook in Sri Lanka in 2017. The review identifies the P-500 product as manufactured by India’s Apex Laboratories. To assess the allegation, the article discusses the virus’s reported origins and transmission, and refers to statements and notices from health authorities in Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia, as well as international fact-checking reports. It says Machupo was first reported in 1962 in San Joaquín, Bolivia, and is transmitted mainly through secretions and waste from infected rodents. The review reports finding no news account or known incident establishing that the virus was present in P-500 tablets. The article’s conclusion is that the posts alleging Machupo in Paracetamol P-500 are false. Its account distinguishes the virus’s documented rodent-related transmission from the social-media claim that it was carried in a medicine tablet; the excerpt does not describe laboratory testing of tablets.

dpaHealth & medicine

Artikel van CC over een vrouw die overleed aan corona en haar laatste woorden waren: 'ik geef de ongevaccineerden de schuld'.

Publisher’s rating: Het gedeelde verhaal is niet echt, maar afkomstig van een website voor grappen en memes. CNN heeft dit nooit geplaatst. De vrouw op de foto’s is geen coronapatiënt met de naam Sheila Johnson, maar een oud-deelnemer aan een Amerikaanse realityserie genaamd Cindy Vela.

The claim concerns an article presented as CNN reporting that a healthy 40-year-old COVID victim’s last words were, “I blame the unvaccinated for this.” The review examined a social-media post sharing an image of that purported article alongside photos of the alleged patient. It reports that the post was not genuine CNN reporting: the headline could not be found on CNN’s website, and searching for the article image instead led to iFunny, which the review describes as a humor and meme site. The review also checked the identity attached to the image. The name “Sheila Johnson” appeared in the version of the article on iFunny, but the woman pictured was identified as Cindy Vela, a former participant in the US reality series “My 600-Lb Life.” The review says the photo used with the fake article also appeared in a separate article about Vela, while other images in the Facebook post matched footage TLC had shared on Instagram. The review concludes that the story was fabricated: it says Vela was not, as far as known, a COVID-19 patient who died and blamed unvaccinated people, and that her name was not Sheila Johnson. Thus the post’s claimed attribution and account of her death are unsupported by the material the review traced to a satirical source.

dpaHealth & medicine

Le vaccin contre la grippe existe depuis 78 ans, pourtant la grippe est toujours là.

Publisher’s rating: L’image seule manque de contexte. Si les vaccins antigrippaux n’ont certes pas permis d’éradiquer la maladie, ils préviennent toutefois les infections et réduisent considérablement le risque de complications graves. C’est pourquoi il reste important, en particulier pour les personnes à risque, de se faire vacciner. Sans ce contexte, on pourrait penser que la vaccination est inutile, ce qui n’est pas le cas.

dpaHealth & medicine

Meerdre foute claims over COVID-19. Onder andere: Japan zet ivermectine in, WHO verplicht dat niet te doen, meer gevaccineerden dan ongevaccineerden dood aan deltavariant VK, vaccinatie levert grotere kans op infectie en sterfte door COVID-19, natuurlijke immuniteit veel effectiever dan Pfizer.

Publisher’s rating: Het artikel, oorspronkelijk van Xandernieuws, is een feitenvrij relaas dat over elk onderwerp dat het aansnijdt onjuiste beweringen doet. Zo is in Japan ivermectine geen goedgekeurd medicijn tegen COVID-19, verplicht de WHO landen helemaal niets en is er in Nederland 'gewoon' informed consent met betrekking tot coronavaccinaties. Ook de alinea’s over Israël en het Verenigd Koninkrijk zijn op z’n minst een zeer eenzijdige interpretatie van de cijfers en bevatten de nodige onwaarheden.

Deutsche Presse-AgenturHealth & medicine

Bei Röteln reicht eine Impfung aus.

Publisher’s rating: Viele der angeführten Behauptungen sind falsch. Bei mehreren der genannten Impfstoffe sind beispielsweise Mehrfachimpfungen vorgesehen.

The claim that one rubella vaccination is enough corresponds to a specific point in a social-media share graphic reviewed by dpa. The graphic allegedly asserted that none of the vaccines people receive during their lives require multiple doses. The review’s opening describes that broader assertion, and its fact section explicitly includes rubella among the diseases for which more than one vaccination is needed for complete protection. [The supplied text does not specify a dose count or schedule for rubella.]

FACTLYHealth & medicine

Video of Indian Soldiers becoming unconscious after taking the vaccine

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The post claimed that Indian soldiers shown becoming unconscious in a video had fainted after receiving a vaccine. FACTLY’s investigation concludes that the video was not related to COVID-19 vaccination: it showed soldiers affected during an Army endurance run and competition near Pathankot. The review identifies the event as a Corps Level Recce Troop Competition at Mamun military station on 21 August 2021. [S1: “The video has nothing to do with COVID-19 vaccination. The video was taken on 21 August 2021 in Pathankot after an endurance run was conducted at Mamun military station”] The investigation reports that one soldier died and more than three dozen were hospitalised for heat stroke. It attributes the soldiers’ collapse to severe weather conditions, rather than vaccination. This directly counters the post’s proposed cause while preserving the reported seriousness of the incident. [S1: “where one soldier died, and more than three dozen had to be hospitalised for heat stroke.”] [S1: “many soldiers fell unconscious because of severe weather conditions.”] FACTLY says it used reverse image searches of screenshots from the video to find an earlier tweet carrying the same footage. It also cites an Army statement, as relayed in the tweet, describing a supervised training activity near Pathankot and reporting a fatal casualty and hospital admissions due to severe weather. The review further reports that PIB Fact Check said the video had nothing to do with vaccination and that soldiers fainted due to heat and humidity. [S1: “When reverse image search is done on the screenshots of the video, a tweet with the same video was found.”] [S1: “During the training, the jawans had fainted due to the scorching heat and humidity.”]

Vishvas NewsHealth & medicine

കൊറോണവൈറസ് പരിശോധനക്കുള്ള സാമ്പിളുകൾ എടുക്കുന്നതിനുള്ള നേസൽ സ്വാബുകൾ മസ്തിഷ്കത്തിൽ ചിപ്പുകൾ, മറ്റു വൈറസുകൾ തുടങ്ങിയ അന്യപദാർത്ഥങ്ങളെ നിക്ഷേപിക്കുന്നതായും ഇത് മസ്തിഷ്ക്കത്തെ ക്ഷതപ്പെടുത്തുന്നതായും അവകാശപ്പെടുന്ന ഒരു പോസ്റ്റ് സമൂഹമാധ്യമങ്ങളിൽ വൈറാലായിരിക്കുന്നു.

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

dpaHealth & medicine

Tous les voyageurs de retour de « zones rouges » logés à la même enseigne, en Belgique.

Publisher’s rating: L’utilisateur de Facebook se trompe de date : certes, les voyageurs de retour de voyage de « zones rouges » situées dans des pays hors de l’Union européenne (UE), de la zone Schengen (Suisse, Norvège, Islande et Liechtenstein, en plus) ainsi que d’États tiers dits « exemptés » sont soumis à de nouvelles obligations en Belgique, mais seulement depuis le 31 août. C’est également valable pour les personnes jugées à « haut risque », parce qu’elles ont été en contact étroit avec des citoyens contaminés par le coronavirus. Mais l’auteur prend des raccourcis qui rendent son message mensonger : en général, les obligations imposées aux personnes vaccinées et non-vaccinées continuent de différer.

המשרוקית של גלובסHealth & medicine

ניצן הורוביץ טוען שבמערב אירופה בדיקת קורונה שלילית לא מספיקה לתו ירוק

Publisher’s rating: לא נכון ברובו

The claim concerned Horowitz’s defense of Israel’s green-pass rules: he said that in Western Europe, unlike Israel, an unvaccinated person could not present a negative test to enter places requiring a pass. The review assessed that specific comparison by examining entry rules in Western European countries, rather than treating Europe as having one uniform policy. It says it found little support for his description. The investigation found that a valid negative test generally did qualify someone for entry under the equivalent pass systems it examined. For example, France’s health pass admitted people who were vaccinated, recovered, or had a negative test from the previous 72 hours; Italy likewise allowed a negative test, valid for up to 48 hours. The review says similar arrangements, with some differences, existed in other Western European countries including the Netherlands, Portugal, Switzerland, Belgium, and Denmark. The review identified exceptions, but with qualifications. In Ireland, only vaccinated and recovered people could enter places requiring a pass at that time, while the government planned to include people with valid negative tests in later reopening stages. In the UK, a plan announced by Boris Johnson would require vaccination for certain venues from the end of September, after adults had the opportunity to receive a second dose; the review notes that this was a future policy, not a general restriction then in force. It also reports that a negative test remained sufficient for entry elsewhere in the UK at that point. Thus, the review’s comparison does not support Horowitz’s broad description of Western Europe, while acknowledging these specific exceptions and their timing.