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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.

13,675 published reviews in this topic

Deutsche Presse-AgenturHealth & medicine

Im Oktober 2020 steigen in Deutschland die Zahlen der Corona-Infizierten wieder stark an. Die Regierungen von Bund und Ländern reagieren darauf unter anderem mit der Pflicht für Bürger, an immer mehr öffentlichen Orten eine Maske zu tragen. In sozialen Netzwerken wird gleichzeitig immer wieder die Behauptung verbreitet, der Mund-Nasen-Schutz gefährde die Gesundheit von Kindern. So heißt es in einem Facebook-Post: «Erstes totes Kind wegen Maskenpflicht obwohl sie ein Attest hatte.» (sic)(hier archiviert). Bezug genommen wird auf den Fall einer 13-jährigen Schülerin in Rheinland-Pfalz.

Publisher’s rating: Zum Zeitpunkt der Veröffentlichung des Posts war die Todesursache unklar. Mitte Oktober teilte die zuständige Staatsanwaltschaft mit, dass laut rechtsmedizinischem Gutachten das Tragen des Mund-Nasen-Schutzes in keinem ursächlichen Zusammenhang mit dem Todeseintritt der 13-Jährigen gestanden haben könnte.

The post claimed that a child had died because of a mask requirement, despite having a medical exemption. It referred to a real case: on 7 September 2020, a 13-year-old girl collapsed on a school bus near Wörth am Rhein, in the Germersheim district, and later died in hospital. The cause of her death was still unknown when the post appeared on 17 September. The review reports that the Landau prosecutor’s office said on 20 October that an initial forensic medical assessment had found no indication that wearing a face covering could have been a causal factor in the girl’s death. The office also said that a normally worn mask would not cause an excessive buildup of carbon dioxide: it is open at the sides and its fabric is partly air-permeable. This evidence addresses the post’s claim of a causal link; it does not establish what did cause the death. The distinction matters because, in an update to the agency on 22 October, the prosecutor’s office said the specific cause of death had still not been determined. Thus the review’s account supports that the claim of a mask-caused death was not borne out by the initial forensic findings, while preserving the uncertainty about the underlying cause.

Deutsche Presse-AgenturHealth & medicine

Auf Facebook wird behauptet, dass in einer Volksschule in Kufstein angeblich dieses Corona-Gedicht hänge (hier archiviert): «Lirum larum Löffelstiel, Coronaviren infizieren viel. Den Impfstoff gibt es leider nicht, darum herrscht die Maskenpflicht. Trag immer Schutz für Nas und Mund, sonst bist du tot nach dieser Stund!».

Publisher’s rating: Nach Angaben der Stadtgemeinde Kufstein hängt in keiner Kufsteiner Volksschule ein solches Gedicht.

The claim concerned a specific Facebook post alleging that the quoted Corona poem was displayed in a primary school in Kufstein, Austria. The review reports that Birgit Berger of the Kufstein municipal administration told dpa by telephone on October 20, 2020, that the post was false. It also says school directors had checked the claim and confirmed to the municipality that no such notice was displayed in Kufstein’s primary schools. (S1: “Birgit Berger von der Stadtgemeinde Kufstein in Tirol teilte der Deutschen Presse-Agentur (dpa) am 20. Oktober 2020 telefonisch mit, dass es sich bei diesem Posting um eine Falschmeldung handle. Die Schuldirektoren hätten der Stadtgemeinde bestätigt, dass «so was natürlich nicht in den Volksschulen hängt».”) The review gives a second, publicly visible account of the check: Berger had commented beneath a Facebook post that was later deleted, saying the directors had verified that there was no such notice in any Kufstein school. This supports the review’s conclusion with the reported response from both the municipality and the school directors, though the excerpt does not identify individual schools or provide copies of their confirmations. (S1: “Auch unter einem inzwischen gelöschten Facebook-Posting schrieb Birgit Berger bereits in einem Kommentar: «Die Direktoren haben dies überprüft und es gibt in keiner Kufsteiner Schule so eine Art Aushang!!»”) The poem had also circulated in German Facebook posts before the Kufstein allegation. The review says the oldest post it could find dated to September 29, 2020, and did not name a location. That history indicates the poem was already circulating independently of the Kufstein claim; it does not establish that the poem was posted at a school there. (S1: “Das Corona-Gedicht wurde bereits zuvor in deutschen Beiträgen auf Facebook verbreitet - das älteste auffindbare Posting stammt vom 29. September 2020. Ein Ort wurde damals nicht genannt.”)

Pagella PoliticaHealth & medicine

«L’influenza, che è un coronavirus, che è un coronavirus, che andamento ha? Sparisce durante l’estate»

Publisher’s rating: Pinocchio andante

Pagella Politica examined a statement by Veneto president Luca Zaia at a daily press conference on October 22. Zaia said twice that influenza “is a coronavirus” and that it “disappears during summer.” The review assessed both the virus classification and the seasonal claim, including Zaia’s comparison with Covid-19. It concluded that the statement contained scientific errors, while distinguishing the relatively well-established winter pattern of influenza from the less certain question of Covid-19 seasonality. (The quoted phrases here paraphrase the review’s Italian wording.) For the classification, the review cited the Italian National Institute of Health (ISS): influenza is a respiratory disease caused by influenza viruses, which belong to the Orthomixoviridae family. It contrasted those viruses with coronaviruses, which belong to the Orthocoronavirinae subfamily. The review also noted that calling influenza itself a coronavirus confuses a disease with the virus that causes it. Although both types of virus have single-stranded RNA, the review says influenza viruses have negative polarity and coronaviruses positive polarity. Its conclusion was that they belong to very different viral families, not that influenza is a coronavirus. On seasonality, the review says influenza is a seasonal disease that occurs in winter in the Western Hemisphere; in Italy, recent peaks had occurred between January and February, though sometimes earlier. It notes that the reason for this pattern was not fully understood and describes increased time spent in poorly ventilated indoor spaces as one of several hypotheses. The review treated any similar pattern for SARS-CoV-2 cautiously: it said evidence for seasonality was possible but not conclusive enough to support confident claims, particularly for communication or policy decisions.

Deutsche Presse-AgenturHealth & medicine

Viele Menschen wollen sich dieses Jahr gegen Grippe impfen lassen. Auch die Regierung fördert die Grippeimpfung und bietet sie etwa im kostenlosen Kinderimpfprogramm an. In sozialen Medien kursiert indes die Behauptung, die Impfung mache eine Corona-Infektion wahrscheinlicher. «Wusstest du...? ... dass die Grippeimpfung (Influenza-Impfung) die Wahrscheinlichkeit um 36 Prozent erhöht, an Corona zu erkranken?», heißt es auf einem bei Facebook verbreiteten Flyer (hier archiviert).

Publisher’s rating: Eine Grippeimpfung erhöht nicht die Wahrscheinlichkeit, sich mit dem Coronavirus Sars-CoV-2 zu infizieren. In der zitierten Studie geht es um seit Jahrzehnten bekannte Coronaviren. Zudem haben andere Forscher in der Untersuchung methodische Fehler entdeckt.

The review traces the flyer’s “36 percent” claim to a webpage discussing a US study by Greg G. Wolff. That study concerned seasonal respiratory infections caused by coronaviruses already known since the 1960s, not SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. The review notes that SARS-CoV-2 was not yet known when the study was being prepared. The study’s reported finding was that some influenza-vaccinated participants had more respiratory infections caused by those other coronaviruses; it did not establish that flu vaccination raises the risk of COVID-19. The review also reports that Wolff himself cautioned against applying his findings to SARS-CoV-2. In a June 2020 statement, he said he had studied coronaviruses from the 2017–2018 flu season and that COVID-19 did not exist when the study was written or first published electronically. This distinction matters because the flyer presents the study as evidence about infection with the new coronavirus, although the review says the study examined different viruses. The review describes a separate analysis by Canadian scientists, who re-evaluated data across seven flu seasons rather than one. They concluded that flu vaccination did not make infection with the other coronaviruses more likely, and identified a methodological problem in Wolff’s article as a possible explanation for its unexpected result. Thus, the review’s account challenges both the flyer’s application of the study to SARS-CoV-2 and the original study result’s reliability.