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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

台灣事實查核中心Health & medicine

南非牧師稱喝消毒水可防新冠，自己也喝，59名信徒口服滴露身亡

Publisher’s rating: 錯誤

The claim combines two assertions: that South African pastor Rufus Phala promoted drinking Dettol to prevent COVID-19 and that 59 followers died after drinking it. The review identifies the images and underlying incident as dating to 2016, before the COVID-19 outbreak: Phala had encouraged followers to drink Dettol, but this was not a COVID-19 prevention event. It therefore concludes that the circulating post misrepresented an older incident as a pandemic-related one. (S1: “網傳圖片的原始事件，與近期新冠病毒疫情無關，是2016年南非牧師Rufus Phala以神蹟為名，餵食信眾滴露消毒藥水的舊事件。”) To trace the images, the review reports reverse-image searching them and finding the same picture in a 10 December 2016 Eyewitness News report. It also compared the circulating images with photographs posted to a Facebook page associated with Phala, finding that some matched. The 2016 report described Phala telling followers that Dettol could cure illness and that, through a miracle, it had been transformed. These findings support the older-event provenance, not the claim that the incident concerned COVID-19. (S1: “查核中心以文章搭配的圖片反搜，找到南非媒體《EYEWITNESS NEWS（目擊者新聞）》在2016年12月10日的新聞，該新聞網頁的配圖與內容農場文章圖片是同一張。”; “查核中心比對，網傳文章部分照片與此粉專多張照片吻合，可知網傳文章的照片來自於2016年的南非牧師餵信眾滴露水事件。”) The review does not establish that 59 people died. It says South African police had not investigated whether the 2016 incident caused those deaths and that supporting information was lacking. The evidence therefore undercuts the post’s COVID-19 framing, while leaving the death toll unverified rather than confirming it. (S1: “2016年的原始事件是否造成59名信眾死亡，南非警方並未進一步調查，缺乏相關資訊。”)

Deutsche Presse-AgenturHealth & medicine

In Deutschland sind seit Mitte März umfassende Kontaktsperren für die Bürger in Kraft, die die Ausbreitung des Coronavirus bremsen sollen. In einem Facebook-Post vom 9. April heißt es, ein Berliner Gericht habe ein Gottesdienstverbot bestätigt, das jedoch nicht für Moscheen gelte

Publisher’s rating: Das Oberverwaltungsgericht Berlin-Brandenburg bestätigte tatsächlich das Gottesdienstverbot. Doch sind demnach Zusammenkünfte in Kirchen wie auch in Moscheen gleichermaßen nicht erlaubt.

The post’s implication was that a Berlin court upheld a ban on worship services but that the ban did not apply to mosques. The dpa review distinguishes between the court confirming the ban and the post’s claim about its scope: it says the restrictions applied equally to gatherings in churches and mosques. The review also reports that the rules covered synagogues and other religious communities. (S1: “Das Oberverwaltungsgericht Berlin-Brandenburg bestätigte am 8. April den Beschluss und wies ebenfalls darauf hin, dass das Verbot nicht nur für christliche Gottesdienste gilt”; “Unter anderem wurden