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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

FACTLYHealth & medicine

Video of Pakistan supplying oxygen cylinders to India for treating COVID-19 infected patients

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerns a video circulated as showing Pakistan sending oxygen cylinders to India for COVID-19 patients during the pandemic. FACTLY reports that the footage was not from that crisis: it was an older video recorded at the Wagah border, and the source identified it as showing an ambulance exchanging a body across the border. To trace the footage, the review says a Google search for “ambulance wagah border” led to a matching screenshot and then to a YouTube upload by the channel “hammad ali.” The upload was dated 30 December 2018, and its description said it had been recorded on 27 December 2018. Those dates place the footage years before COVID-19, contradicting its presentation as a pandemic-era oxygen delivery. The review acknowledges that India faced an oxygen shortage and that countries, including Pakistan, offered help during the crisis. But it distinguishes that broader context from what this particular video depicts: its stated 2018 origin means the footage does not document Pakistan supplying oxygen to India during the COVID-19 emergency.

FACTLYHealth & medicine

Time magazine calls PM Modi, a ‘Super Spreader’, amidst the rise of COVID-19 cases in India

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerned a social-media image that appeared to show Time calling Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi a “Super Spreader.” FACTLY examined the image’s visible date and compared the cover it purported to depict with Time’s cover archive. The date shown at the top left of the image was July 17, 2006, rather than a recent issue connected to the COVID-19 surge. FACTLY reports that it searched Time’s online cover archive for the issue dated July 17, 2006. The archived cover was titled “The end of cowboy diplomacy,” not the cover shown in the circulating image. The review therefore concluded that the image had been altered to put Modi’s picture on an older Time cover, rather than showing a genuine cover that called him a “Super Spreader.” The review also notes that it found no recently released Time issue with Modi on its cover. Its conclusion rests on the mismatch between the image’s 2006 date and the actual cover in the archive, as well as its finding that the circulating image was edited. The evidence addresses the specific alleged Time cover; it does not establish that the magazine used the phrase about Modi in some other context.

dpaHealth & medicine

Een tweejarig Amerikaans meisje is overleden nadat ze werd ingeënt met het coronavaccin van Pfizer, aldus een rapport van VAERS.

Publisher’s rating: Er is geen sluitend bewijs dat het meisje overleed ten gevolge van het coronavaccin van Pfizer. Op het beweerde moment van overlijden waren er geen lopende klinische studies van Pfizer bij kinderen van die leeftijd. Daarnaast kan iedereen een melding van een neveneffect maken bij VAERS zonder causaal bewijs aan te leveren.

dpaHealth & medicine

Een coronavaccinatie verstoort de menstruatiecyclus van vrouwen. Ook niet-gevaccineerde vrouwen hebben een verstoorde cyclus na contact met gevaccineerde mensen.

Publisher’s rating: Het bericht is fout. Het is onmogelijk dat de menstruatie verstoort wordt louter en alleen door in contact te komen met een gevaccineerd persoon. Vaccins of menstruatie zijn niet besmettelijk. Er is ook geen aangetoond verband tussen een verstoorde menstruatie en ingeënt worden met een coronavaccin. Studies naar een mogelijke impact van de coronavaccins op de menstruele cyclus zijn lopende, maar die impact is hoogstwaarschijnlijk kortstondig en onschadelijk.

dpaHealth & medicine

mRNA-Impfstoffe verändern das menschliche Erbgut.

Publisher’s rating: Die mRNA-Impfung gegen das Coronavirus kann Experten zufolge die menschliche DNA nicht verändern.

The dpa review examined claims that coronavirus mRNA vaccines use a “gene scissors” mechanism to insert new sequences into human DNA and thereby change a person’s genetic material. It describes the vaccine’s mRNA as instructions for making a component of the virus, which prompts an immune response; it states that the mRNA is not incorporated into human genetic material. The review supports that explanation with comments attributed to Thomas Mertens, then head of Germany’s Standing Committee on Vaccination, and Sara Riordan, president of the US National Society of Genetic Counselors. Mertens said the injected messenger RNA has no connection to DNA in the cell nucleus. Riordan’s account describes the vaccine mRNA as entering the cell’s cytoplasm, where it is read and then quickly broken down, rather than reaching the nucleus where DNA is located. The review also distinguishes mRNA vaccination from CRISPR/Cas9 gene editing. It says the gene-editing method exists but is not used in coronavirus mRNA vaccines, and that an ordinary mRNA vaccine does not have the properties needed to remove or replace a sequence in human DNA. It additionally cites Germany’s Paul-Ehrlich-Institut, which stated that integrating RNA into DNA is not possible, among other reasons, because the molecules have different chemical structures.

Deutsche Presse-AgenturHealth & medicine

Corona-Nasentests ähneln altägyptischen Strafpraxen - und sind lebensgefährlich

Publisher’s rating: Das ägyptische Papyrus dokumentiert eine Augenbehandlung, keine Strafpraxis. Die beschriebene «Hämatoenzephalitisdrüse» ist in der Medizin unbekannt. Dass Teststäbchen die knöcherne Barriere zum Hirn durchstoßen können, gilt - bei fachgerechter Anwendung - als unmöglich. Corona-Tests führen nicht zu lebensgefährlichen Verletzungen und Infektionen des Hirns.

The claim combines two allegations: that an ancient Egyptian image depicts a punishment resembling a nasal swab, and that COVID-19 tests can pierce the barrier between the nose and brain, causing fatal or otherwise life-threatening harm. The review examined the image and the medical claims. It concludes that the image depicts treatment of an eye, not a punishment, and that properly performed tests cannot cause the claimed injuries. To assess the image, the review reports using a reverse-image search, which led to Getty Images’ description of the scene as an eye doctor treating a patient. The image is a reconstructed detail from a larger painting showing stages in the construction of Ipuy’s tomb, including workers being treated after accidents. In the circulated crop, the rod is directed toward the worker’s eye, not into the nose or throat. The review says nothing in the scene indicates a punishment intended to damage the brain. On the medical claim, the review quotes Wolfgang Wagner, a head-and-neck specialist, explaining that the brain is separated from the nasal cavity by bone. Reaching it with a test swab would require navigating anatomical bends and constrictions, and would require much more force and a harder swab than usual. Wagner said that, as of April 23, 2021, the German specialist society knew of no case in Germany of brain fluid leakage or other life-threatening brain injury connected with a COVID-19 test. The review also discusses a published case involving a 40-year-old US woman who developed symptoms after a swab. Imaging showed a 1.8-centimeter skull defect, but the doctors had also documented a pre-existing defect in her throat. They considered that the swab might have adversely affected that prior injury, not that it had caused it. The case therefore does not establish the broad claim that COVID-19 tests cause such injuries; the review notes that the doctors recommended alternative tests for people with relevant pre-existing conditions or unusual nasal anatomy, rather than issuing a general warning against swabs.

Deutsche Presse-AgenturHealth & medicine

Vom 01.01.2000-31.12.2020 (21 Jahre) starben in Deutschland 206 Menschen im Zusammenhang mit einer Impfung. Vom 01.01.2021-28.02.2021 (8 Wochen) starben in Deutschland 330 Menschen im Zusammenhang mit einer Impfung.

Publisher’s rating: Der Vergleich der Zahlen ist irreführend. Die an das PEI gemeldeten Todesfälle stehen zwar in einem zeitlichen Zusammenhang mit einer Impfung, haben aber fast immer andere Ursachen. Das PEI weist ausdrücklich auf die begrenzte Aussagekraft der Meldungen hin. So starben mindestens 78 der Verdachtsfälle im Zusammenhang mit einer Covid-19-Impfung an den Folgen einer Corona-Infektion. Zwischen Anfang 2000 und Ende 2020 wurden zudem 456 Verdachtsfälle registriert.

The post compared two figures attributed to the Paul-Ehrlich-Institut (PEI): 206 deaths associated with vaccination over 2000–2020 and 330 during the first weeks of Germany’s Covid-19 vaccination campaign. The DPA review traced the 330 figure to the PEI’s 4 March safety report, which recorded deaths occurring in temporal association with Covid-19 vaccination. The review says the report cautioned that, in most cases, the cause of death was certainly something else; a temporal association in these reports does not establish that vaccination caused the death. [S1: “In seinem Sicherheitsbericht zu den neuen Corona-Impfstoffen vom 4. März führt das PEI 330 gemeldete Todesfälle auf” / “die Sterbefälle zwar im zeitlichen Zusammenhang mit einer Covid-19-Impfung aufgetreten sind, die Todesursache war aber in den meisten Fällen mit Sicherheit eine andere.”] The review gives examples from the reported cases: at least 78 people died from Covid-19 infection, apparently after becoming infected shortly before or after their first dose, before full protection had developed. Another 95 had a different serious illness. Half of those who died in temporal association with Covid-19 vaccination were 85 or older, a group that included many people with pre-existing illness and elevated risk of death. These details show why the raw count cannot by itself be read as a count of deaths caused by vaccines. [S1: “Von 78 der Betroffenen weiß man beispielsweise, dass sie an den Folgen einer Corona-Infektion gestorben sind.” / “Weitere 95 litten an einer anderen schweren Erkrankung.” / “Die Hälfte der im Zusammenhang mit einer Covid-19-Impfung gestorbenen Personen war laut dem aktuellen Sicherheitsbericht 85 Jahre oder älter.”] The 206 figure also omits a key qualification. The PEI database listed 456 deaths reported in association with vaccination between 1 January 2000 and 31 December 2020; 206 of those were among adults. The review says these were suspected cases, and the PEI cautioned that they did not establish a causal link. The two numbers therefore do not represent comparable counts of deaths proven to have been caused by vaccination. The review additionally notes that the much larger volume of vaccination in a short period, and heightened reporting attention around new vaccines, affected the number of reports. [S1: “Davon waren 206 im Erwachsenenalter.” / “allerdings ohne den Hinweis, dass es sich lediglich um Verdachtsfälle handelt, die keine Rückschlüsse auf einen ursächlichen Zusammenhang zulassen, wie das PEI betont.” / “Je mehr Impfungen, desto mehr Meldungen, das ist normal und sogar zu erwarten.”]

FACTLYHealth & medicine

Image of Kangana Ranaut’s tweet suggesting people with low levels of oxygen to try mouth-to-mouth resuscitation with the cow

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerns an image of a purported Kangana Ranaut tweet advising people with low oxygen levels to try mouth-to-mouth resuscitation with a cow. FACTLY says it checked whether Ranaut had actually posted that message, rather than treating the image itself as proof of authorship. Its review reports that a search of her official Twitter handle found no such tweet, and that tweets on her timeline addressed the viral image and called it fake. The review also cites news reports of Ranaut’s response to the alleged tweet. It says those responses, together with the absence of the purported post from her official handle, support the conclusion that the image was digitally created by someone impersonating her. The article does not provide the underlying tweets or linked news reports in the supplied excerpt, so their contents cannot be independently assessed here. A separate, potentially confusing post came earlier: on 21 April 2021, Ranaut shared a video of a woman demonstrating a breathing exercise for people feeling low on oxygen and suggested trying the exercise. FACTLY distinguishes that real post from the cow-resuscitation image. It also reports that reverse-image searches found the man-and-cow photograph in older news articles, which identified the man as Vijay Prasanna from Gujarat. This provenance supports the review’s distinction between the recycled photograph and the alleged tweet, but does not by itself establish who created the tweet image.

dpaHealth & medicine

Un repas de l'OMS organisé le 18 mars 2021, sans masque, en pleine pandémie de coronavirus.

Publisher’s rating: Ce post est faux puisque ni le lieu ni la date ne sont corrects. Cette photo ne date pas du tout du 18 mars 2021. Elle n'a pas non plus été prise lors d'un dîner de l'Organisation Mondiale de la Santé (OMS), mais pendant un dîner qui a suivi la cérémonie de remise des Prix Nobel. Cette cérémonie s'est déroulée en Suède le 10 décembre 2014.

The post linked a photograph of a crowded, mask-free dinner to an OMS meal on 18 March 2021, during the coronavirus health crisis. The investigation says that attribution was wrong: the photograph was not taken on that date or at an OMS dinner, but at a dinner following the Nobel Prize ceremony in Sweden on 10 December 2014. To establish the photograph’s earlier setting, the review describes using a reverse-image search to trace its origin. It reports that this led to the image being identified as a photograph from the Nobel ceremony in Stockholm on 10 December 2014. The review also points to a contemporaneous report saying about 1,250 guests attended the evening, and notes that the Nobel banquet did not take place in 2020 because of the health crisis. The date and event change the meaning of the mask-free scene: according to the review, it predates the pandemic and was not evidence of an OMS gathering in March 2021. The post presented an older photograph in a false context.