Skip to main content

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

L'élite dispensée du port du masque, à New York.

Publisher’s rating: L’élite n’est pas dispensée du port du masque à New York. Seules le sont, la plupart de temps, les personnes qui ont reçu les deux doses du vaccin contre le Covid-19. C’est le cas de Bill Gates, qui a toutefois dû mettre un masque, qu’il portait d’ailleurs à la main en arrivant et sur le visage en sortant, à l’intérieur du restaurant.

The claim arose from two photos of Bill Gates arriving at a New York restaurant without a mask on his face. The review identifies the restaurant as Nobu and says the photos were also published by the Daily Mail and the New York Post. It reports that Gates had a mask in his left hand in one arrival photo, and that other photos showed him wearing one when he left. The arrival images therefore do not, by themselves, show that he went without a mask inside the restaurant. (S1: “On voit très bien, sur une des deux photos, que Bill Gates détient un masque dans sa main gauche, quand il entre.”; “A sa sortie du restaurant, il le portait d’ailleurs sur le visage, d’après d’autres photos publiées par le Daily Mail.”) The review describes New York’s general rule at the time as allowing people who were fully vaccinated to do most activities without a mask or physical distancing. It also lists exceptions, including restaurants where the owner or operator required masks. The article says Gates had announced receiving his first vaccine dose in January, but does not give a date or other evidence for a second dose. (S1: “une fois que vous êtes complètement vacciné (deux semaines après avoir reçu un vaccin à dose unique ou la deuxième dose d'un vaccin à deux doses), vous pouvez faire la plupart des activités sans porter de masque ou respecter une distanciation physique.”; “Bill Gates a lui-même annoncé qu’il avait reçu sa première dose de vaccin en janvier.”) The restaurant’s stated policy is important to interpreting the images. Although Nobu’s published health-and-safety protocol did not say masks were mandatory for customers, a restaurant manager told the review that everyone, vaccinated or not, had to wear one inside. The review thus distinguishes the general city guidance and the photos of Gates outside from the reported requirement inside the restaurant; it does not support the claim that an elite status exempted him from that requirement. (S1: “Ce protocole n’indique pas que le port du masque est obligatoire pour les clients de l’établissement.”; “Contactée par la dpa, une de ses responsables a toutefois indiqué que toutes les personnes, qu’elles soient vaccinées ou non, sans exception, doivent porter un masque «dans le restaurant».”)

BR24 FaktenfuchsHealth & medicine

Damals haben die Auslandsreisen, häufig Verwandtschaftsbesuche in der Türkei und auf dem Balkan, phasenweise rund 50 Prozent der Neuinfektionen bei uns ausgelöst. Das müssen wir in diesem Jahr verhindern.

Publisher’s rating: Nicht belegbar. Es stimmt zwar, das 50 Prozent der Neuinfektionen im Sommer 2020 auf eine Ansteckung im Ausland zurückzuführen sind. Eine Unterscheidung in touristische Reisen und Verwandtschaftsbesuche, wie Spahn sie macht, ist aber aufgrund der Daten nicht möglich.

Deutsche Presse-AgenturHealth & medicine

Eine neue Studie zeigt, dass dass man trotz Vollimmunisierung am Coronavirus erkranken kann. Die Medien berichten nicht.

Publisher’s rating: Tatsächlich ist laut dem BASG bis 14. Mai 2021 bei 80 vollimmunisierten Menschen die Schutzwirkung ausgeblieben, wie mehrere Medien berichteten. Dass dies möglich ist, ist nicht neu. Gemessen an allen bis dahin vollständig gegen Corona Geimpften in Österreich ist das eine sehr niedrige Zahl, die im Bereich der Studienergebnisse der Impfstoffhersteller liegt.

dpaHealth & medicine

Vreemd beeld van arts die badkamerschrobbers als defibrillator gebruikt.

Publisher’s rating: Op de afbeelding worden inderdaad de schrobbers gebruikt in plaats van een echte defibrillator. Het is daarentegen geen echte dokter. Dit is een beeld uit een Indiase soapserie-aflevering uit augustus 2020. Het opvallende rekwisiet werd toen ook al opgemerkt, en de beelden gingen viral. De Nederlandse facebookpost mist context en leidt zo tot verkeerde conclusies.

The Facebook post showed a doctor-like figure apparently trying to defibrillate a patient with a bathroom cleaning brush. The review says the post supplied no further context or claim, while commenters treated the image as evidence that people were being deceived. Its central clarification is that the figure was not a real doctor and the scene was not a real medical incident: it came from an episode of the Indian television soap *Krishnakoli* that aired in August 2020. The brush was a prop standing in for a defibrillator. The review traces the image to *Krishnakoli*, broadcast by Zee Bangla, an Indian television channel that airs Bengali-language series. It reports that the scene drew attention on Twitter when the episode appeared online in August 2020, and that the images spread rapidly as a meme. Thus, the image does show scrubbers in place of a real defibrillator, but it does not document a medical procedure or support the post’s implication of real-world deception. The review also reports that the soap’s producer described the prop as an unintended mistake. In the producer’s explanation to entertainment outlet ETimes-TV, the production could not arrange all the necessary items for every scene; props were made to look realistic, and the scrubber was not painted as it normally would have been. The review concludes that the post omitted the fictional-production context, and that the scene had no connection to the coronavirus pandemic or evidence of wrongdoing by governments or media.

Fact CrescendoHealth & medicine

Claim: satire post was misunderstood by users that new corona hospital built up in Gujarat

Publisher’s rating: Misleading

The claim concerned a social-media image presented as showing a coronavirus hospital newly built in Gujarat. Fact Crescendo’s Tamil review says the image showed the Pentagon building and that readers had asked whether the circulating post was true. The review also found people sharing the image as genuine on Facebook and Twitter, which helped create confusion. To investigate, the review examined the screenshot’s structure: it appeared to show one person’s tweet being captured and then criticized in another tweet as if the first were factual. The authors say they searched for both posts. They could not find the tweet from the account they searched first, @AlaTwitz, though they report confirming that the account was real and regularly posted criticism of the BJP. They then found another user sharing the same claim and followed the trail to Jeevanand Rajendran’s Twitter and Facebook pages. The review’s key evidence about the post’s intent came from Rajendran’s post and its comments. It reports that commenters described the post as a joke, while other users praised or criticized it as though it were true; Rajendran also commented on supporters and opponents treating the post as factual. The review therefore concludes that a satirical post was misunderstood and recirculated amid political mockery and criticism. The supplied excerpt describes this investigation, but does not provide separate technical evidence about the building or image beyond identifying it as the Pentagon.