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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.

13,677 published reviews in this topic

Fact CrescendoHealth & medicine

Claim: Girl speaks with her father who is in covid 19 quarantine camp

Publisher’s rating: False Headline

The viral post presented a girl speaking to her father by video call as an emotional scene involving a father isolated because of COVID-19. The review investigated whether that description matched the circumstances behind the image and story. It reports that the underlying news story concerned prison authorities arranging phone calls between inmates and their families after visits were restricted—not a father placed in isolation because he had COVID-19. The review says the underlying report described restrictions on family visits to Tamil Nadu’s eight central prisons and branch prisons, and said the prison department had provided 58 smartphones so inmates could speak with relatives. In the image’s actual context, a prisoner was speaking with his daughter. The review therefore distinguishes the reported video-call arrangement from the claim attached to it: the call was associated with prison visitation restrictions, not a COVID-19 quarantine camp. The misleading element was the headline and accompanying description, which made it appear that the father had been quarantined for COVID-19. The review concludes that this implication was false, while noting that the underlying story about inmates speaking with family was accurate. Its finding addresses the claim’s central point—the reason the father was apart from his daughter—rather than denying that the video call took place.

Deutsche Presse-AgenturHealth & medicine

Over Bill Gates, de oprichter van Microsoft, wordt steeds weer verkeerde informatie verspreid in verband met zijn inzet voor vaccinaties. Hij zou via vaccinatieprogramma’s de wereldbevolking willen decimeren, wordt er beweerd. Ter ondersteuning ervan wordt vaak een vermeend citaat van de Amerikaanse miljardair aangehaald. Hij zou gezegd hebben dat vaccins de wereldbevolking «moeten uitdunnen.» Deze uitspraak circuleert in verschillende versies, soms zonder bronvermelding.

Publisher’s rating: Er is geen bewijs dat Bill Gates dit ooit heeft gezegd.

The review examines the allegation that Bill Gates said vaccines should be used to reduce the world’s population. It reports that online videos use clips from a 2010 TED Talk, sometimes paired with a title claiming Gates wants a billion people dead. To check what the speech said, the review compares those clips with the original talk and transcript. In the original, Gates is discussing ways to reduce carbon-dioxide emissions. He identifies population size as one factor affecting emissions and cites a projection that the global population would rise from 6.8 billion in 2009 to 9 billion. The review says he then discusses how vaccination and healthcare could affect that projection—not by advocating population reduction, but by limiting population growth. The claim that vaccines are meant to decimate the population therefore misrepresents the point being made in the talk. The review also gives the rationale Gates had set out in a 2009 open letter: when more children survive, parents may have fewer children because they are more likely to have support in old age. It says he explained this approach again in a Forbes article and a 2011 CNN interview. These passages describe a proposed link between lower child mortality and slower population growth; they do not support the alleged quotation that vaccines should “thin out” the world’s population.

ComprovaHealth & medicine

Covid-19 não atingiu Pequim, a capital chinesa, e nem Xangai

Publisher’s rating: FALSO: Segundo a OMS, ao contrário do que afirma uma corrente que circula nas redes sociais e aplicativos de mensagem, foram registrados 583 casos de coronavírus em Pequim e 526 em Xangai até o dia 3 de abril. Levantamento da universidade Johns Hopkins dá conta de 14 mortes nas duas cidades até a mesma data

Radio-Canada - DécrypteursHealth & medicine

La viande de marque Olymel serait contaminée au coronavirus

Publisher’s rating: Faux

The investigation concerns a viral voice message urging people to throw away Olymel products because they might be infected with coronavirus. The speaker claimed that Olymel plants in Saint-Esprit and Saint-Hyacinthe had closed after 59 COVID-19 cases, and that meat already on supermarket shelves could therefore be unsafe. The article reports that Olymel disputed the message and that the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) said there was no evidence food was a source or likely route of COVID-19 transmission. The article checks the message’s specific claims against statements from the company and the CFIA. Olymel spokesperson Richard Vigneault said the message’s assertions were false; the article also reports that the two plants named in the message were still open. It distinguishes those facilities from the Yamachiche plant, which had closed for two weeks as of March 29 because of COVID-19 cases among its staff. That distinction contradicts the message’s account of which plants had closed. The article’s evidence addresses both the asserted contamination risk and the alleged plant closures. It does not report laboratory testing of Olymel products; instead, it cites the CFIA’s assessment of foodborne transmission and Olymel’s response, alongside the reported operating status of the named plants. The CFIA also recommended preventive food-handling hygiene, including handwashing, proper cooking, and avoiding cross-contamination.

BR24 FaktenfuchsHealth & medicine

Die offiziellen Todesfallzahlen überschätzen die Gefährlichkeit von Corona, weil nicht erfasst wird, wer wirklich an Covid-19 gestorben ist - also weil nicht unterschieden wird zwischen "gestorben an" und "gestorben mit" Sars-CoV-2.

Publisher’s rating: Größtenteils falsch. Inzwischen weisen einige Studien darauf hin, dass in mehreren Ländern der Welt die offiziellen Todeszahlen eher zu niedrig liegen. Laut einer Untersuchung von Wissenschaftlern der Universität Palermo in Jama Internal Medicine zum Beispiel starben in Italien deutlich mehr Menschen durch Corona gestorben, als es die offiziellen Todeszahlen vermuten lassen. Eine weitere Untersuchung – erstellt von der obersten italienischen Gesundheitsbehörde und des italienischen Statistikamts - kommt ergänzend zum Schluss, dass bei 89 Prozent der offiziellen Covid-19-Opfer das Virus die direkte Todesursache gewesen sei. Aber eines stimmt: Das RKI zählt als Corona-Todesfall erstens Menschen, die direkt an der Erkrankung gestorben sind ("gestorben an"). Und zweitens Patienten mit Grundkrankheiten, die mit COVID-19 infiziert waren und bei denen sich nicht klar nachweisen lässt, was letzten Endes die Todesursache war ("gestorben mit").

Deutsche Presse-AgenturHealth & medicine

Es sind Jahreszahlen, die sich scheinbar auf beängstigende Weise gleichen: Im Jahr 1720 die Pest, 1820 die Cholera, 1920 folgt die Spanische Grippe - und nun 2020 das neuartige Coronavirus. Wird die Welt tatsächlich alle 100 Jahre von einer Pandemie heimgesucht? Das wird zumindest aktuell in sozialen Medien vorgerechnet

Publisher’s rating: Zwar entspricht der Abstand der genannten Infektionen tatsächlich ungefähr 100 Jahren, doch ist die Auswahl vollkommen willkürlich. Andere verheerende Epidemien wurden weggelassen, um den Anschein eines 100-Jahre-Rhythmus zu erwecken.

The social-media argument paired the plague, cholera, Spanish flu and the novel coronavirus with the years 1720, 1820, 1920 and 2020 to suggest that the world experiences a pandemic every 100 years. The dpa review consulted medical historian Karl-Heinz Leven, who cautioned that the dates were rarely exactly a century apart and that many other epidemics occurred between the selected examples. The chronology itself does not support the neat sequence. The review says the World Health Organization dates the first cholera pandemic to 1817, not 1820; the Spanish flu spread from 1918; and the coronavirus outbreak began in 2019, when reports of the new illness emerged in China. It also notes that Marseille experienced a major plague in 1720, but says this was not the start of the third plague pandemic, which scientists date to the late 19th century. The review further identifies major omissions: the Asian flu, described as the second-worst influenza wave of the previous century, as well as smallpox, tuberculosis, and earlier major plague outbreaks. Its reasoning is that selecting four approximate dates while leaving out other epidemics creates an apparent pattern rather than evidence of a reliable 100-year cycle.

APA - Austria Presse AgenturHealth & medicine

Österreich ist das erste westeuropäische Land, das als Maßnahme gegen das Coronavirus eine Maskenpflicht bei gewissen Aktivitäten im öffentlichen Leben einführt.

Publisher’s rating: Diese Behauptung kann man als richtig einschätzen, wenn man ehemalige Ostblock-Länder heutzutage nicht zu „Westeuropa” zählt. Denn Tschechien, Slowakei und Bosnien haben bereits vor Österreich auf Masken als Maßnahmen gegen das Coronavirus gesetzt.

FACTLYHealth & medicine

Video of Muslims being trained to sneeze purposefully to spread Coronavirus

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerns a video circulated as showing Muslims being trained to sneeze deliberately to spread coronavirus. FACTLY says it investigated that video and found that it was old, rather than footage of people being trained to spread the virus. The review places its circulation in the context of Pakistan before the video was shared in India in connection with the Tablighi Jamaat incident. [S1]