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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.

13,676 published reviews in this topic

The QuintHealth & medicine

Currency notes scattered in Indore to spread coronavirus

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The Quint examined videos showing currency notes scattered on a road and the accompanying claim that someone in Indore had deliberately thrown them to spread coronavirus. The article says the videos showed police collecting notes and locals looking at them; one video included a man alleging that the person responsible was Muslim. The fact-check’s conclusion was that the incident occurred, but was accidental rather than an intentional attempt to spread COVID-19. To check the location and circumstances, The Quint says it looked up news reports and contacted Indore police. Hira Nagar police station in-charge Rajeev Bhadoria told the outlet that the notes had fallen from an Indane Gas delivery worker’s pocket as he rode his cycle while making deliveries in Khatipura. The article reports that police confirmed this account using CCTV footage and spoke with the worker, identified as Ram Narendra Yadav. According to Bhadoria, the matter was cleared up on 17 April, the day after the incident, and the notes were returned to Yadav. The reported findings contradict the claim of deliberate spreading and the associated accusation against a minority group: police attributed the scattered notes to an accidental loss, not an intentional act.

Deutsche Presse-AgenturHealth & medicine

Dans une vidéo postée sur YouTube, et partagée ensuite sur la page Facebook du groupe « Coronavirus Belgique Info », la chaîne « BabylonDecoded » affirme que personne n’est mort du coronavirus – seules les maladies sous-jacentes seraient responsables des décès qu’on lui attribue. Ce que prouveraient, selon « BabylonDecoded », les autopsies, que l’Organisation mondiale de la santé déconseillerait par ailleurs de réaliser.

Publisher’s rating: Le coronavirus tue, surtout si les personnes souffrant de la maladie Covid-19 sont exposées à une comorbidité. Et l’OMS n’a jamais déconseillé de pratiquer des autopsies. Tout au plus a-t-elle publié des orientations sur les mesures de sécurité à prendre.

Pagella PoliticaHealth & medicine

«[La Campania] è la regione che ha fatto meno tamponi».

Publisher’s rating: C'eri quasi

The claim concerned coronavirus tests in Campania. On April 19, 2020, Naples mayor Luigi De Magistris said in an interview with Il Fatto Quotidiano that Campania was the region that had conducted the fewest tests. Pagella Politica checked official Civil Protection figures, distinguishing the total number of tests from the number of people tested: repeat tests on the same person were included in the test total, while the total number of individuals tested was not known. The review also noted that Matteo Salvini made an identical criticism that day, but its verdict addressed De Magistris’s claim. By absolute number of tests, Campania was not last: it ranked ninth, with 48,187 tests, about 3.5 percent of the national total. The review then compared tests with each region’s population. On that measure, Campania had conducted 8.4 tests per 1,000 inhabitants through April 17—the lowest regional figure—against a national average of 22.8. Thus, the statement was wrong if read as a claim about the raw total, but substantially borne out when measured per capita. The review’s qualification is important: its data show a comparatively low testing rate per resident, not that Campania had performed the fewest tests in absolute terms. It also reports that Campania had fewer reported infections and deaths than many northern regions, and that its share of positive tests was below the national average. These figures provide context for the comparison; they do not change the distinction between total tests and tests relative to population.