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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.

13,674 published reviews in this topic

dpaHealth & medicine

De Franse viroloog Luc Montagnier heeft gezegd dat gevaccineerden maximaal 2 jaar overleven.

Publisher’s rating: Hoewel Luc Montagnier in het verleden al in opspraak kwam door ongefundeerde beweringen, heeft hij deze uitspraak nooit gedaan. De uitspraak werd aan hem toegeschreven op basis van een interview, waarin hij vaccins en de pandemie bespreekt, al laat hij zich nooit uit op een manier zoals beschreven in de berichten op sociale media.

The claim concerned a specific assertion attributed to French virologist Luc Montagnier: that people who received COVID-19 vaccines would die within two years, with no chance of survival. The review traces the attribution to a Telegram video dated May 22, which the blog “Herstel de Republiek” relied on. It distinguishes Montagnier’s documented criticism of vaccination during a pandemic—including his description of it as a “serious medical error”—from the much stronger prediction circulated online. The decisive point in the review is what the cited video does not contain. It reports that Montagnier nowhere says in that clip that vaccinated people would die within two years. The review also says the allegation is absent from both the short interview fragment and the full video available on BitChute, and that dpa found no similar statement in his other recent interviews. It notes that fact-checkers in other countries reached the same conclusion. Thus, the material examined does not support attributing the two-year-death prediction to Montagnier; the online claim presents a statement not found in the cited interview material as his words.

dpaHealth & medicine

Het coronavaccin van Moderna bevat de stof SM-102, dat giftig is en niet geschikt voor menselijk of veterinair gebruik

Publisher’s rating: SM-102 is inderdaad één van de ingrediënten in het coronavaccin van farmaceut Moderna. Het dient als een beschermende laag rond het mRNA en is in die vorm niet giftig of schadelijk, maar juist essentieel voor de werkzaamheid van het vaccin. Wanneer het wordt opgelost met chloroform is het daarentegen niet geschikt voor menselijk gebruik, maar dat komt door de aanwezigheid van chloroform en niet door de SM-102. Het is net in die hoedanigheid dat het online wordt gedeeld en voorgesteld als giftig.

dpaHealth & medicine

Ab sofort dürfen Impfstoffe verwendet werden, die Mikroorganismen enthalten, welche von den Geimpften ausgeschieden und von anderen Personen aufgenommen werden können.

Publisher’s rating: Die Behauptung ist falsch. Da viele Impfstoffe auf der Verwendung von Mikroorganismen beruhen, ist deren Verwendung auch schon seit vielen Jahren erlaubt.

The claim circulated in social-media posts alongside a video from Austrian regional broadcaster RTV dated May 28, 2021. The video described a supposedly new and controversial change in Germany and read aloud a provision of the German Infection Protection Act concerning vaccines containing microorganisms that could be shed by vaccinated people and taken up by others. The review checked whether that provision had just been introduced and whether the law had changed in the way the posts suggested. The review reports that Section 21 was already part of the Infection Protection Act adopted on July 20, 2000. It says the section had not been substantively changed, apart from an amendment on August 9, 2019, that was not significant in content. The law therefore did not acquire this provision as a recent change in 2021. The review also notes that the Bundestag passed the so-called Population Protection Act on April 21, 2021, and that it was promulgated on April 23. Although this law amended the Infection Protection Act, the review says it did not amend Section 21. The review adds that microorganisms have long been important in vaccine production, while distinguishing live vaccines from inactivated vaccines. It gives measles, mumps, rubella and chickenpox vaccines as examples of live vaccines, and diphtheria, hepatitis B, polio, pertussis and tetanus vaccines as examples of inactivated vaccines. That background does not make the alleged new legal change real; the decisive point is that the provision cited in the video was already in the law.

dpaHealth & medicine

Het aantal vrouwen met miskramen ten gevolge van het Covid vaccin, stijgt met 2000% in slechts veertien weken tijd in het VK.

Publisher’s rating: De beweringen zijn onjuist. De conclusie over de miskramen wordt getrokken op basis van een verkeerde interpretatie van cijfers uit de Britse database voor vermeende bijwerkingen. Er wordt geen rekening gehouden met het feit dat er steeds meer vruchtbare vrouwen onder de gevaccineerden zijn en dat miskramen helaas een veelvoorkomende gebeurtenis zijn, ook buiten een pandemie of vaccinatiecampagne. De meldingen van miskramen betekenen tevens niet gelijk dat deze werden veroorzaakt door coronavaccins.

dpaHealth & medicine

Bill Gates werd "gepakt" in openbare ruimte zonder mondmasker.

Publisher’s rating: De foto werd uit context getrokken. Bij aankomst aan het restaurant droeg Gates inderdaad geen mondmasker, maar dat is toegestaan in New York voor mensen die volledig gevaccineerd zijn. Bij het verlaten van het restaurant droeg hij wel een mondmasker.

The image showed Bill Gates without a mask, but the review says the accompanying “caught” framing left out when and where the photograph was taken. Gates was photographed arriving at Nobu, a Japanese restaurant in New York, on 22 May, during his first public appearance after his divorce announcement. The review identifies the circulating image as one of the photographs from an outing with one of his children; it says he was maskless in most of the pictures, though he had a mask in his hand. The distinction between arriving and being inside the restaurant matters. The review says New York guidance allowed fully vaccinated people to go without a mask in most situations, and that Gates was fully vaccinated when the photographs were taken. It also notes exceptions, including restaurants, and reports that Nobu said all customers had to wear masks inside. Its account is that Gates was not required to wear one at the moment he entered, but wore one when leaving. Thus the image documents him without a mask on arrival; it does not, by itself, establish that he went maskless inside the restaurant or that he disregarded the restaurant’s stated rule. The review traces the images to photographs published by the Daily Mail and the New York Post, and says one of those images was then circulated on social media. That provenance and the distinction between the restaurant entrance and its interior are central to understanding why the still photograph could create a misleading impression.

dpaHealth & medicine

Tests des vaccins covid sur les animaux arrêtés après leurs décès.

Publisher’s rating: Les deux affirmations sont fausses. Des expérimentations animales concluantes ont bien été menées sur les vaccins contre le Covid-19. Les chiffres sur les prétendus décès proviennent quant à eux d’une base de données européenne recensant des effets secondaires suspectés, et ne correspondent pas à un nombre avéré de morts à cause des vaccins.

The post combined two claims: that COVID-19 vaccine animal tests had been stopped because the animals died, and that 12,274 people in Europe had died following vaccination. The review traces the animal-testing claim to remarks by Texas senator Bob Hall and pediatrician Angelina Farella at a Texas Senate State Affairs Committee hearing on May 6, 2021. Hall said animal tests had been stopped because animals died, and Farella agreed. The review says preclinical animal studies were in fact conducted for the vaccines before they were made available. It describes studies of Moderna’s vaccine in monkeys and mice, and preclinical tests of Pfizer/BioNTech and Johnson & Johnson vaccines in animals including monkeys, mice, hamsters and rabbits. It also points to FDA documents and European Medicines Agency assessment reports describing preclinical studies. The review explains that some animal studies and human trials could proceed in parallel under specified conditions; this did not mean animal testing had been abandoned. The review separately traces the 12,274 figure to a table presented as European adverse-event data. It says the figures refer to fatal outcomes recorded in reports of suspected adverse reactions, not a confirmed count of deaths caused by vaccination. The European Medicines Agency’s explanation, as quoted in the review, is that suspected adverse effects are not necessarily linked to or caused by a medicine.

Vishvas NewsHealth & medicine

ഓക്സിജൻ വിതാനം താഴ്ന്നുപോകുകയും എവിടെനിന്നും ഓക്സിജൻ ലഭിക്കാൻ വഴിയില്ലാതാകുകയും ആണെങ്കിൽ 4-5അരയാൽ ഇല ഒരു ഗ്ളാസ് ജാറിൽ ഇട്ട് അഞ്ചുമുതൽ ഏഴ് മിനിറ്റുവരെ അതി റെ മുടി അടച്ചുവെക്കുക. അതിനുശേഷം മുടി തുറന്ന് മൂക്കിലൂടെയും വായിലൂടെയും അതിന്റെ ഗന്ധം ശ്വസിക്കുക. ഉടനടി തന്നെ ഓക്സിജൻ അളവ് 4-5 പോയന്റ് ഉയരും. ഇതേരീതിയിൽ വീണ്ടും വീണ്ടും ശ്വസിക്കാവുന്നതാണ്. ഒരു കർപ്പൂരകട്ട കൂടി ആ ജാറിൽ ഇടുന്നത് കൂടുതൽ നല്ല ഫലം ഉളവാക്കും. ഇത് നിങ്ങൾ സ്വയം ചെയ്യുകയും വിവരം മറ്റുള്ളവരോട് പറയുകയും ചെയ്യുക. സൗജന്യവും ധർമപരവുമായ ഒരു പ്രവൃത്തിയാണിത്.

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

FACTLYHealth & medicine

Chhattisgarh CM Bhupesh Baghel faked receiving his COVID-19 vaccine jab

Publisher’s rating: MISLEADING

The viral photo showed a nurse holding a syringe with its needle cap on beside Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel. It was shared as evidence that he had pretended to receive a COVID-19 vaccine. The review examined the photo and reporting about the event it depicted: Baghel’s second vaccine dose at Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru Smriti Medical College in Raipur on 27 May 2021. The review reports that Baghel had already received the dose when some photojournalists asked him to pose again because they had missed photographing the vaccination. In the posed image, the nurse held a different syringe, this one with its cap on. That explains why the syringe in the viral photo did not show an uncapped needle being used for an injection; the image was a staged follow-up pose, not evidence that the vaccination itself was faked. The review also cites two corroborating forms of evidence. It says Baghel shared an official Facebook photo showing the nurse administering a syringe without a cap, and that Chhattisgarh Congress leader Idris Gandhi shared video of Baghel receiving the second dose at the same medical college. It further reports that Raipur Chief Medical and Health Officer Dr. Meera Baghel told BOOM that the dose had already been given before the requested pose. Taken together, the account distinguishes the real vaccination from the later photograph that circulated without that context.

Fact CrescendoHealth & medicine

Claim: misinformation that Pragya Thakur was admitted due to covid 19

Publisher’s rating: Explainer

The review investigates a social-media post claiming that BJP MP Pragya Singh Thakur had contracted COVID-19 and was hospitalized with breathing difficulty. The post linked reports about her saying she drank cow urine and about her hospitalization, and described the hospitalization as having happened the day before the post. The review says the post was shared on Facebook on May 23, 2021, and identifies its central claim as a COVID-related hospitalization. The publisher’s conclusion is that this claim was false. To check the hospital story, the review says it searched India Today’s website by the report’s headline and found that the report was published on March 6, 2021—not the day before the May post. As the review recounts that report, Thakur had been admitted to Kokilaben Hospital in Mumbai because of breathing difficulty, and tests showed she did not have COVID-19. Thus, the hospital report concerned a real admission, but it did not support the post’s claim that she was admitted with COVID-19 in May. The review also places the cow-urine story in the timeline: it says the Mint report about her saying she drank cow urine and had not contracted COVID-19 appeared on May 17, 2021. The review notes that this was nearly two and a half months after the March hospitalization. Its explanation is that the post combined reports about different events and presented the March admission as a recent COVID-related hospitalization. The evidence described in the review therefore contradicts the post’s timing and its assertion that COVID-19 caused the admission.