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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

dpaHealth & medicine

La grippe a tué beaucoup plus de monde que le Covid-19.

Publisher’s rating: Actuellement, le Covid-19 s’affiche comme plus meurtrier que la grippe saisonnière. S’il est vrai que d’autres pandémies de grippes dans notre histoire ont causé plus de décès que le Covid-19 jusqu’ici, comme la grippe « espagnole » de 1918-1919, il est hasardeux de comparer des crises sanitaires intervenues à un siècle de différence.

The Facebook post compared influenza deaths with Covid-19 and also questioned why influenza had not prompted measures such as vaccination requirements, masks, or lockdowns. The review separates seasonal flu from pandemics caused by new influenza viruses, because those are different comparisons. It reports that the WHO estimates seasonal flu causes about 290,000–650,000 deaths worldwide each year, while more than 4.4 million Covid-19 deaths had been recorded worldwide since the pandemic began in late December 2019. For 2020 alone, the WHO reported 1,813,188 deaths attributed to Covid-19 and estimated at least 3 million excess deaths. The review also gives Swiss figures to illustrate the scale of the comparison in that country: authorities estimated at least 400 seasonal-flu deaths a year, sometimes more than 1,000 in severe epidemics; the official statistics counted 321 deaths with flu identified as the main cause in 2018. From 24 February through 31 December 2020, Swiss authorities recorded 7,587 deaths among people with laboratory-confirmed Covid-19. These figures concern different periods and measures, so they do not establish a like-for-like comparison of disease risk. For historical pandemics, the review says the 1918–1919 “Spanish” flu caused an estimated 20–50 million deaths worldwide, while the 1957–1958 and 1968–1969 pandemics each caused an estimated 1–4 million; the 2009–2010 pandemic caused an estimated 100,000–400,000. Thus, the claim can fit some historical comparisons, but not the review’s comparison with seasonal flu or its reported Covid-19 toll at the time. The review cautions that comparing pandemics separated by a century is difficult because living conditions, health systems, medical knowledge, and other circumstances differed.

THIP MediaHealth & medicine

Whitening toothpastes make teeth shiny

Publisher’s rating: Half True

Research from related reporting gives limited support for the claim, but the excerpts do not show that whitening toothpastes generally make teeth shiny. One article describes whitening toothpastes as targeting stains that can make teeth look yellow and quotes a dentist on hydrated silica polishing away surface stains. That evidence concerns stain removal and brightness, rather than shine as a separately established effect. The excerpt does not provide study results establishing how often this works or how much appearance changes. (S2) A CNN podcast excerpt discusses nano-hydroxyapatite, an ingredient used in some toothpaste. The guest describes it as making teeth “shiny, and smooth, and white,” while contrasting it with bleach. This is a statement about that ingredient and the guest’s recommended oral-care approach—not evidence in the excerpt that all whitening toothpastes produce shine. (S4) Taken together, the related reporting connects stain-polishing and a particular toothpaste ingredient with brighter or shinier-looking teeth. It does not provide enough evidence to generalize the shine claim to whitening toothpastes as a whole. The supplied excerpts contain no original fact-check article or its printed rating, so this summary relies only on the related reporting.

THIP MediaHealth & medicine

baking soda help to remove pimples, skin marks

Publisher’s rating: Mostly False

Related reporting addresses part of the claim: whether baking soda and other kitchen ingredients are suitable for applying to the face, including in the context of fading dark marks. S1 describes those marks as potentially including “Brown marks left behind by pimples,” and says that rubbing baking soda or other kitchen ingredients onto the face is an approach it would avoid. It recommends gentler skincare ingredients instead. This evidence supports caution about using baking soda on facial skin, but the excerpt does not report a test of baking soda’s effects on pimples or establish what happens to marks after its use. It therefore does not provide direct evidence of a treatment outcome. The material is related reporting, not an original THIP Media review, and does not document the review’s investigation or methods.

dpaHealth & medicine

Les vaccins contre le Covid-19 seront périmés le 20 octobre 2021 et remplacés par cinq nouveaux médicaments approuvés par l'Union européenne, qui seront rendus obligatoires.

Publisher’s rating: C’est faux. L’Union européenne vise en effet le déploiement de nouveaux traitements contre le Covid-19 d’ici octobre 2021. Mais l’objectif est d’utiliser ces traitements en complément des vaccins, pas en remplacement. Par ailleurs, l’éventualité que certains lots de vaccins dépassent leur date de péremption et ne puissent donc pas être utilisés ne marque pas la fin de la campagne vaccinale en Europe.

Fact Crescendo Sri LankaHealth & medicine

Fact Check: ගුරු උද්ඝෝෂණයට සහභාගි වීමෙන් කොරෝනා ආසධනය වී මියගිය ගුරුවරයෙක්ද?

Publisher’s rating: Misleading

The review examined social-media posts that presented Nandasena Kalupahana, who died after contracting COVID-19, as a teacher associated with the teacher-principal protests. It reports that the posts used a condolence image from the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna’s Ratnapura district organization, and that some viewers inferred from the emphasis on a teaching profession that the deceased was a teacher. The investigation identified Kalupahana as the father of Anushka Dilhara, a Ratnapura district councillor. To check his occupation, the publisher says it contacted Dilhara and Ratnapura District Court. Dilhara described his father as a licensed surveyor and a Ratnapura District Court commissioner, and said he had never been a teacher or joined a teachers’ protest. The court reportedly confirmed that Kalupahana had worked in those roles and had stopped working earlier that year because of illness. The review also reports contacting the Ratnapura district health inspector and the family doctor about the circumstances of his death. According to the health inspector, Kalupahana tested positive on an antigen test, isolated at home, and was admitted to Ratnapura Hospital after breathing difficulties; he died there after a heart attack. The family doctor reportedly said Kalupahana had a heart condition and that a further heart attack followed his COVID-19 infection. The review’s conclusion is that the posts were misleading: the man was a surveyor, not a teacher. It does not claim to have independently established whether he attended a protest; it explicitly says that verifying whether he or any other individual participated was difficult because the protests took place island-wide.