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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

Alle bedden op intensieve zorgen in het Sint-Jan ziekenhuis moeten voorbehouden blijven voor COVID-patiënten, ondanks het feit dat de COVID-afdeling niet vol ligt. Verplegers moeten vaak van dienst veranderen omdat er geen werk is op hun normale dienst.

Publisher’s rating: Het bericht mist context en is deels fout. Niet alle IZ-bedden zijn voorbehouden voor COVID-patiënten: het is net de 'gewone' IZ die constant volledig bezet is en voor verhoogde werkdruk zorgt. Zowel het ziekenhuisbestuur als de socialistische vakbond nuanceren ook het feit dat verpleegkundigen 'constant' van dienst moeten veranderen.

FACTLYHealth & medicine

Testing of 5G towers has caused the second wave of the coronavirus in India

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The review investigated a newspaper clipping circulating on social media that attributed India’s second COVID-19 wave to 5G tower testing. It says the clipping also claimed that tower radiation made the air poisonous and caused breathing problems, deaths, increased thirst and a sensation of slight electric current. The review reports that it found no scientific evidence linking 5G testing or its radiation to COVID-19 cases or deaths. A central point in the review is the chronology: it says India was at the beginning of the second wave in February 2021, while the Department of Telecommunications issued permission for 5G trials on 4 May 2021. On that basis, the review says the trials could not have been taking place in India during the period it identifies as the start of the wave. The supplied excerpt does not identify the newspaper or provide independent records of trial locations; the chronology is reported as the review’s finding. The review also cites the World Health Organization’s statement that viruses cannot travel on radio waves or mobile networks, and notes that COVID-19 spread in countries without 5G networks. These points address the proposed transmission mechanism as well as the claim’s timing. The conclusion in the review is that 5G tower testing did not cause the second wave in India.

dpaHealth & medicine

La solution pour retirer le vaccin qu'on nous impose: le cataplasme d'argile avec du charbon actif à ingérer.

Publisher’s rating: C’est faux. Le cataplasme d’argile ne peut pas traverser les « différentes couches de cellules » pour absorber le vaccin injecté par voie intramusculaire, notent les experts.

The claim recommends applying a thick clay poultice over the injection site immediately after vaccination and taking activated-charcoal capsules, asserting that the clay and charcoal will absorb the vaccine. The review describes the suggested poultice as being kept in place for at least two hours, with charcoal to be taken every 30 minutes for a day. It examined whether either step could remove a vaccine administered by intramuscular injection. The experts quoted in the review distinguish clay’s general ability to absorb some substances from the conditions needed for it to absorb a vaccine. Marie-Laure Fauconnier, a professor at the University of Liège’s Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech, says clay would need direct contact with the vaccine. Since the injection is in shoulder tissue, the vaccine cannot cross the intervening cell layers to reach clay on the skin. Pierre Coulie, an immunotherapy and vaccine specialist at UCLouvain, likewise says he knows of no way to draw the injected product back out through unbroken skin. The review also reports that taking charcoal does not solve this problem. Coulie says the vaccine acts locally and in lymph nodes near the injection site, not in the digestive tract; Fauconnier says ingested charcoal acts on stomach contents, not the injected vaccine. These explanations address the proposed methods’ route and location of action, rather than disputing that clay can absorb substances under other conditions. The review does not present experimental testing of the specific poultice-and-charcoal regimen; its assessment relies on the cited specialists’ explanations.

dpaHealth & medicine

Afgebeelde reeks partijen is voor vaccinatiebewijs als toegangspaspoort. Verplichte vaccinatie.

Publisher’s rating: De post is gedeeltelijk onjuist. Een deel van de genoemde partijen zegt expliciet tegen verplichte vaccinatie en een vaccinatiepaspoort te zijn. Dit zijn bijvoorbeeld de SP en de ChristenUnie. Het merendeel van de genoemde partijen is voor een ‘geen-coronabewijs’ met verschillende opties, zoals een vaccinatie- of een testbewijs. Hierbij hoeft een persoon dus niet per se gevaccineerd te zijn. De VVD laat de deur inderdaad nog wel op een kier voor een indirecte vaccinatieplicht. D66 pleit voor een vaccinatiebewijs, maar zegt ook geen verplichte vaccinatie te willen.

FACTLYHealth & medicine

Aspidosperma-Q immediately increases and maintains the oxygen saturation levels of a COVID-19 patient.

Publisher’s rating: MISLEADING

The review examines a social-media video in which a person claims that Aspidosperma-Q can immediately raise oxygen saturation in a COVID-19 patient, including when saturation is falling. It finds that the medicine is not established as a treatment for abnormal oxygen levels or as a replacement for medical oxygen: the review says research on its benefits is limited, with few studies, and that most have not been followed up. The review also checks whether the medicine appears in official guidance. It reports that the Central Council for Research in Homoeopathy had issued guidance for practitioners treating COVID-19 patients in home isolation, but that Aspidosperma-Q was not included in Ministry of AYUSH guidelines. It further cites a news article reporting that an Indian Institute of Homoeopathic Physicians scientific committee chair said there was no clinically verified COVID-19 data to support the medicine’s efficacy. The review concludes that the evidence presented does not support using Aspidosperma-Q to raise or maintain oxygen levels, or as a substitute for medical oxygen. It also relays a warning from the Ministry of AYUSH that cases requiring oxygen rehabilitation or medical support should be assessed by the treating physician, and cautions against self-medication in critical conditions.

FACTLYHealth & medicine

CT Scan reports representing the lungs of a COVID-19 vaccinated person and others

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The post presented a side-by-side CT-scan image as a comparison between a vaccinated person with clear lungs and an unvaccinated person with COVID-19. The review identifies the image’s subject differently: it says the comparison came from research into using CT scans to detect the extent of COVID-19 infection, not from a comparison of vaccinated and unvaccinated people. The review reports that researchers and radiologists from Vancouver General Hospital, the University of British Columbia, and the Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute conducted that study. [S1: “This CT scan reports comparison image is related to a research study that aims to detect the extent of COVID-19 infection using the CT scans.”; “Researchers and Radiologists from Vancouver General Hospital, the University of British Columbia, and the Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute published this research study in April 2020.”] To check the image’s provenance, the review describes conducting a reverse-image search. It says that search found a similar CT-scan comparison in an article published in April 2020, which associated the image with the research study. The review also says it found a similar image on the University of British Columbia website and the same image on the Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute website, both in connection with CT-scan research on COVID-19. These matches support the review’s conclusion that the image was misrepresented as showing vaccination status. [S1: “On reverse image search of the photo shared in the post, a similar photo comparison of two CT scan reports is found in an article published in April 2020.”; “When we searched for more details of this research on ‘The University of British Columbia’ website, a similar CT scan reports comparison image was found to be published in the research study on detecting the COVID-19 virus using CT scans. Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute also published the same image on their website while explaining their research study on diagnosing the COVID-19 virus using CT scans.”] The review notes that the research and the matching article dated to April 2020, when, it says, COVID-19 vaccination was not available. That chronology, alongside the image matches, contradicts the post’s attribution of the scans to a vaccinated person. The supplied excerpt does not provide patient-level details or the scans’ clinical findings, so it supports a conclusion about the image’s provenance and its lack of connection to vaccination—not a broader conclusion about what vaccinated or unvaccinated people’s lungs look like. [S1: “In April 2020, vaccination for the COVID-19 virus was not available.”; “the image does not represent the lungs of a COVID-19 vaccinated person.”]

FACTLYHealth & medicine

Video of oxygen tankers being sent to India from Saudi Arabia

Publisher’s rating: MISLEADING

The claim concerned a social-media video presented as showing oxygen tankers being sent to India from Saudi Arabia, amid India’s need for medical oxygen to treat COVID-19 patients. FACTLY’s investigation identifies the footage instead as showing empty tankers travelling from Mumbai to Visakhapatnam so they could be filled with liquid medical oxygen. Thus, the video did not document the Saudi shipment described in the claim. [S1]