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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

MediaWiseHealth & medicine

PSA from 1956 warns of a future plague that will break out in the year 2020

Publisher’s rating: Not Legit

The claim concerns a video presented as a 1956 public-service announcement that supposedly warned of a virus breaking out by 2020. The review traced the video’s description to its YouTube source, where the creator said, “I only threw this together because I wanted to have a video uploaded on February 29th.” The description also identified Archive.org as the source of the footage. Those details point to a video assembled for a specific upload date, not a warning made in the 1950s. To check the video’s history and content, the review describes searching for reporting on whether a 1950s public-service announcement had predicted the COVID-19 pandemic, then consulting fact checks by Snopes, USA Today and Reuters. It reports that Snopes found the video mixed modern narration with archival footage, including material from the 1956 film “Tornado” and the 1940s film “Leave It To Roll-Oh.” The age of some footage, therefore, does not establish that the video itself is from 1956. The review also reports that USA Today identified the video as satire made in 2020 and that its creator, Max Patrick Schlienger, recorded the voiceover. A conspicuous edit reinforces that account: after the narrator promises answers for avoiding the virus, the video cuts to a screen reading “footage missing.” The review notes that a Facebook caption claimed the video “was made on Feb. 29, 1956, 65 years ago,” while leaving out the YouTube description’s indication that it was a joke. Taken together, the creator’s stated upload purpose, the modern narration and the reported production history contradict the claim that this was a genuine 1956 prediction.

dpaHealth & medicine

Vogel- en varkensgriep zijn door de WHO geënsceneerd.

Publisher’s rating: De bladzijde bevat foutieve informatie en beweringen die niet zijn gebaseerd op wetenschappelijk bewezen feiten. Vogel- en varkensgriep zijn natuurlijke fenomenen en niet bedacht door de Wereldgezondheidsorganisatie (WHO). Tamiflu en Relenza zijn daarnaast geen chemotherapie zoals die bij het grote publiek bekend staat: als kankerbehandeling. Het zijn virusremmers die in uitzonderlijke gevallen gebruikt worden bij griep.

The claim came from a passage in the book *Zieloorzaken van Ziekte*, shared on Facebook under the heading “Verkoudheid, griep.” The review says the passage described bird, swine and “new” flu as WHO “campaigns” staged by the organization. The image was identified as page 145 of the Dutch translation of Björn Eybl’s book, which the review says draws on the ideas of Ryke Geerd Hamer. To assess the claim about bird and swine flu, the review compared the historical record with the date the WHO was established. It reports that descriptions of possible bird flu go back to at least 1878 and that documents describing swine flu date from the early twentieth century, while the WHO was founded in 1948. That chronology contradicts the assertion that the organization staged the origins of these diseases. The review also reports an expert explanation of bird flu’s natural occurrence: Nancy Beerens, identified as a bird-flu expert at Wageningen University, said the virus naturally occurs in wild birds and that influenza viruses have evolved over time. The review notes that what the book means by “new flu” is unclear, and that new flu variants are discovered regularly; it does not treat that less-specific phrase as proof of the claim about bird and swine flu.

dpaHealth & medicine

Hersenschade door mondkapjes is een ding.

Publisher’s rating: Hersenschade door mondkapjes is géén ding. Dat blijkt uit verschillende onderzoeken en wordt bevestigd door tal van experts. Het artikel haalt enkele betwistbare stellingen aan, citeert een controversiële neurologe en interpreteert een onafhankelijke enquête op een verkeerde manier. Het bericht is daarom fout.

The reviewed article claimed that masks could cause brain damage through oxygen deprivation, citing neurologists and a German survey as support. The dpa review says that the survey was presented as recording mask side effects, and that the article claimed both adults and children were being studied. The review’s account of the survey differs on two important points: its methodology and description do not mention brain damage, and it focuses specifically on children, not adults. The researchers wanted to examine possible side effects for children, while acknowledging that there might be no complaints to report. The review also addresses the proposed oxygen-deprivation mechanism. It reports that pulmonologist Eric Derom of Ghent University and Sciensano virologist Steven Van Gucht described possible breathlessness or discomfort, but said a healthy person faces no problem; Van Gucht characterized the sensation as mental rather than physical. The review distinguishes that discomfort from physical harm and says that headaches or dizziness can pass after briefly removing a mask. It identifies German neurologist Margareta Griesz-Brisson as a source cited by the article and notes that her mask-related health claims had been challenged by AFP and Correctiv fact-checks. As further context for the article’s case, the review says it invoked reports of children collapsing from oxygen deprivation in Germany. It describes that story as having circulated since October 2020 and having been debunked repeatedly, including by dpa. It also quotes study researcher David Martin, a pediatric oncologist at the University of Witten-Herdecke, saying most children he sees tolerate masks well and that masks are not harmful to children, while some individual children may not tolerate them well.