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.

13,676 published reviews in this topic

Deutsche Presse-AgenturHealth & medicine

Für immer mit Maske? In einem Facebook-Post wird ein angebliches Zitat des SPD-Gesundheitsexperten Karl Lauterbach verbreitet: «Wir müssen Kinder frühzeitig an das Tragen einer Maske gewöhnen, denn in naher Zukunft wird das Tragen einer Maske gesetzlich für immer verankert sein.» Wann und in welchem Zusammenhang er dies gesagt haben soll, wird nicht benannt.

Publisher’s rating: Karl Lauterbach hat diese Aussage nicht getroffen. Er hat sich wiederholt dafür ausgesprochen, Kinder und Arbeitnehmer vor dem ständigen Tragen von Masken zu bewahren.

The claim concerns a Facebook post attributing to Karl Lauterbach a statement that children should be accustomed to wearing masks because mask-wearing would soon be permanently enshrined in law. The post did not identify when or in what setting he supposedly said it. The review addresses this exact quotation and attribution, rather than a separate claim about mask policy. The review reports that the German Press Agency asked Lauterbach’s office about the quote. His office said that he had never said it. The agency also checked his Twitter account and reported finding no identical or similar statement there. These checks address both the attributed quotation and the possibility that a comparable formulation appeared in his public posts. The article describes Lauterbach’s documented public comments as pointing in a different direction: it says he had repeatedly opposed imposing a blanket mask requirement, let alone making one permanent in law. It gives an example from August 24, 2020, when he wrote that masks at work and in class should be required only after other options had been fully used, and questioned why children and workers should wear masks for hours while parties increased infections. He also said ventilation helped most in workplaces and classrooms.

Vishvas NewsHealth & medicine

WHO Said Coronavirus Is Losing Potency

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerned a WhatsApp post bearing a WHO logo. It said a study by the WHO and “world majer hospitals” found that COVID-19 was becoming weaker and less harmful. Vishvas News investigated whether that message was genuinely attributable to the WHO, rather than whether the virus’s potency had changed as a general scientific question.

Deutsche Presse-AgenturHealth & medicine

Worden er acteurs ingezet als 'zogenaamde coronapatiënten' om een vertekend beeld te schetsen? Een aantal berichten op Facebook insinueren van wel. Als bewijs wordt telkens een Instagramverhaal gedeeld, waarin enkele jonge vrouwen in ziekenhuisbedden te zien zijn. "Zoals je kan zien, liggen we hier en doen we een simulatie", zegt één van de vrouwen. "Dit is het nieuwe corona-testcentrum en daar wordt nu een testrun uitgevoerd." Op het einde van de video zegt ze nog "we kregen bepaalde taken" en "ik krijg er geld voor", maar wat is daar precies van aan?

Publisher’s rating: Het Instagramverhaal wordt uit zijn context gehaald om een misleidend beeld te vormen. De filmpjes tonen een oefening in het Corona-Behandlungszentrum Jafféstraße (CBZJ) in Berlijn, die plaatsvond op 10 september. Tijdens die oefening voerden artsen en verpleegkundigen een simulatie uit die regelmatig zal plaatsvinden in het reserveziekenhuis. De oefening werd op voorhand aangekondigd in een persbericht van de Berlijnse gezondheidsorganisatie Vivantes.

The posts raised the possibility that young women shown in hospital beds were actors presented as coronavirus patients to create a distorted picture. The original review traces the footage to an Instagram story in which a woman says they are doing a simulation at a new coronavirus centre, and later refers to assigned tasks and payment. It identifies the location as the Corona-Behandlungszentrum Jafféstraße (CBZJ), a reserve hospital in Berlin, and dates the exercise shown in the clips to 10 September. The review reports that the exercise was planned to test the reserve hospital’s facilities and was announced in advance by the Berlin health organization Vivantes. It says the simulation involved doctors and nurses, alongside people acting as patients. The review identifies the Instagram account “@officialmelisa” as belonging to one of those participants and notes that the videos show Vivantes’ logo and the CBZJ’s name. Those details connect the social-media clip to the hospital exercise, rather than to a staged portrayal of real patients. The omitted context was that the footage documented an announced training exercise. According to the review, Vivantes said the people filming were its staff documenting the exercise, not journalists. It also said all the participants acting as patients received the same €50 expense payment, irrespective of their role. Thus, the video does show people simulating patients and being paid, but the evidence presented in the review places both facts within the reserve hospital’s exercise.

Deutsche Presse-AgenturHealth & medicine

Die Übertragung des Coronavirus an der Luft wird in sozialen Netzwerken diskutiert. In einem Posting bei Facebook heißt es, laut US-Seuchenbehörde «Centers for Disease Control and Prevention» (CDC) gebe es keinen Beweis dafür, dass «COVID-19 ein Virus in der Luft» sei.

Publisher’s rating: Im Posting werden Begriffe verwechselt: Covid-19 ist der Name der Atemwegserkrankung, Sars-CoV-2 ist der Name des Virus. Die US-Behörde CDC hat zwar Empfehlungen geändert, aber nicht die Luft-Übertragung des Coronavirus in Frage gestellt.

USA TODAYHealth & medicine

Jill Biden said that former Vice President Joe Biden has had three strokes.

Publisher’s rating: False

USA TODAY investigated a viral social-media quote attributed to Jill Biden claiming that her husband had “3 STROKES.” The review says the quote was fake: it found no reports of Jill Biden making that statement or saying Joe Biden had experienced strokes. The Facebook poster did not respond to USA TODAY’s request for comment, so the review does not identify an origin for the quotation. For comparison, USA TODAY pointed to Jill Biden’s public comments about Joe Biden’s cognitive abilities in August. On NBC’s Today Show, she called attacks on those abilities “ridiculous”; on ABC’s Good Morning America, she described him as “totally engaged” and discussed his work activities. These remarks provide context from her public statements, but they are not the alleged three-stroke statement. The review’s conclusion rests on the absence of reports supporting the viral quotation, alongside the public comments it identified.