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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

Emmanuel Macron a menti en disant qu'il s'était fait vacciner contre le Covid-19.

Publisher’s rating: Contrairement à ce que cet internaute affirme, le président français est bien vacciné à l'heure actuelle contre le Covid-19. La vidéo dans laquelle Emmanuel Macron déclare qu'il n'est toujours pas vacciné a en réalité été tournée le 6 mai 2021, soit avant que celui-ci annonce avoir reçu le vaccin le 31 mai 2021. Il n'est donc pas juste de présenter cette vidéo comme quelque chose qui est encore d'actualité.

Pagella PoliticaHealth & medicine

«Siamo stati il primo Paese europeo a introdurre l'obbligo di vaccinazione contro la Covid-19 per il personale sanitario. Altri ci stanno seguendo»

Publisher’s rating: Vero

The statement concerned Italy’s position in Europe after French President Emmanuel Macron announced a vaccination requirement for healthcare personnel. The review reports that Speranza said France had followed Italy’s approach. It examined the timing and scope of Italy’s rule against measures or proposals elsewhere in Europe, rather than treating every country’s policy as identical. [S1: “Secondo Speranza la Francia ha seguito l’approccio dell’Italia, che è stato «il primo Paese europeo a introdurre questo obbligo».”] The key date was 1 April 2021: Italy’s decree-law 44 required healthcare professionals and other specified health-sector workers to be vaccinated. The requirement applied in various public and private healthcare settings and was time-limited, lasting until the vaccination plan was completed or, at the latest, 31 December 2021. The review also describes the consequences for noncompliance: suspension from duties involving interpersonal contact or risk of spreading infection, reassignment where possible, and unpaid absence where reassignment was not possible. [S1: “Il decreto-legge n.44 del 1° aprile 2021 stabilisce, all’articolo 4, che fino al completamento del piano vaccinale – o comunque al massimo fino al 31 dicembre 2021”] For comparison, the review cites a Reuters overview dated 13 July. It says Greece announced requirements on 12 July, with different start dates for care-home and health-service staff; England’s lawmakers approved a care-home requirement on 13 July, while Poland was discussing a possible requirement. The review therefore distinguishes measures already introduced from proposals still under consideration. It concludes that the countries cited moved after Italy’s April decree, supporting the claim that Italy was first and others were following. [S1: “Tutti questi Paesi si sono mossi dopo l’Italia, che ha introdotto tale obbligo già a inizio aprile.”]

dpaHealth & medicine

Drie landen weigerden coronavaccins en nu zijn al hun presidenten onverwacht overleden.

Publisher’s rating: De gelegde link tussen het overlijden van de drie oud-leiders en standpunten ten opzichte van coronavaccinaties is ongegrond. Er is geen enkel bewijs dat bij ook maar één van de overlijdens hun beleid ten opzichte van de vaccins een rol speelde. Haïti was daarnaast niet tegen coronavaccins op zich, maar weigerde alleen in eerste instantie het AstraZenecavaccin. Ook was Didier Ratsiraka al 19 jaar niet meer de president van Madagascar toen hij overleed.

The claim links three countries’ vaccine policies to the unexpected deaths of their presidents. The review identifies the people involved as Madagascar’s former president Didier Ratsiraka, Haiti’s president Jovenel Moïse and Tanzania’s president John Magufuli. It reports that all three died, but says their deaths had different causes and finds no evidence connecting any of them to a position on COVID-19 vaccination. Ratsiraka, in particular, had not been Madagascar’s president since 2002 when he died on 28 March 2021, aged 84. The country-by-country evidence complicates the claim that all three countries rejected COVID-19 vaccines. Madagascar did delay vaccination under then-president Andry Rajoelina, who promoted a local product as an alternative and opposed existing vaccines. But the government joined the WHO’s Covax programme in April 2021, and the first 250,000 doses arrived the following month. Haiti initially declined a Covax shipment of AstraZeneca, citing concerns about side effects and the public’s anxiety, but the review says the government later agreed to accept it. The country’s public-health director also said Haiti was asking for another vaccine, not rejecting Covax’s offer outright. The review reports that Moïse was murdered at his home on 7 July 2021, but says no evidence linked the killing to his vaccine position and that the motive remained unclear. Magufuli died in office on 17 March 2021; his government attributed his death to a heart condition, while political opponents alleged COVID-19, an account the review says was never confirmed. Although Magufuli opposed vaccination and denied that COVID-19 remained a problem in Tanzania, the review found no evidence he was killed because of that stance. The deaths and vaccine-policy disputes therefore do not establish the causal link asserted in the claim.

dpaHealth & medicine

Le sida, l'Ebola ou encore le virus Zika font chaque année plus de victimes que le Covid-19.

Publisher’s rating: C’est faux. Le Covid-19 est jusqu’ici beaucoup plus meurtrier que les virus Ebola ou Zika réunis, que ce soit par an ou depuis leur apparition. L’Ebola a fait quelque 15 300 morts en 45 ans, contre plus de 4 millions pour le Covid-19 depuis le début de la pandémie. Les décès dus au virus Zika sont quant à eux extrêmement rares. Le sida a lui été plus meurtrier que le Covid-19 dans son ensemble, mais est présent depuis plusieurs décennies. Le nombre de victimes du sida a d’ailleurs baissé ces dernières années : en 2020, 690 000 morts ont été attribuées à la maladie, contre plus d’1,8 million pour le Covid-19.