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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

NewtralHealth & medicine

Donald Trump anuncia la comercialización en los próximos días de millones de dosis de una vacuna contra el coronavirus

Publisher’s rating: Falso

The claim concerned a circulating Facebook and WhatsApp message saying Donald Trump had announced that millions of coronavirus-vaccine doses were ready and would be launched “el próximo domingo.” Newtral traced the message to Trump’s March 13 press conference with Matt Sause, a Roche spokesperson, and checked what was said there. The review reports that Sause thanked the US government for its cooperation and the rapid approval of a coronavirus test; it says no vaccine was announced during the conference. The review points to the end of the press-conference transcript, at 1:11:58 in the video. There, Trump said a vaccine would take “un poco más de tiempo” because of testing periods and other reasons, while adding that they would have it quickly. That statement does not support the message’s claim that doses were ready for release in the next few days. The review also reports that Roche’s March 24 research update did not announce the development of a vaccine. Other details in the message did not establish that a vaccine was about to be released. Newtral says the message mentioned French doctor Didier Raoult and preliminary studies of hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin, but notes that those studies were not conclusive. It also identifies the image of a box labelled “COVID-19 lgM/lgG” as a coronavirus detection test developed by South Korean company Sugentech, rather than evidence of a vaccine. The review cites the World Health Organization’s statement that researchers were still trying to develop a coronavirus vaccine.

NewtralHealth & medicine

El ministro de Sanidad de Cuba, Dr. Hala, ha entregado la vacuna contra el coronavirus

Publisher’s rating: Falso

The claim combines two false assertions: that Cuba’s health minister is “Dr. Hala” and that he delivered a coronavirus vaccine. Newtral says the rumor had previously claimed that Egypt’s health minister delivered a vaccine to China; in this version, the minister is described as Cuban. The review identifies Cuba’s health minister as José Ángel Portal Miranda and states that Cuba had not developed a coronavirus vaccine. The review also distinguishes the rumor from a real Cuban medicine, interferon alfa 2B. It says that Luis Herrera, who created the medicine, explained in a television interview on March 17 that it did not cure COVID-19 because it did not act directly on the virus. The article describes it as a medicine, not a vaccine, used to treat chronic hepatitis B and C. It adds that the World Health Organization and Spain’s Ministry of Health recognized that there was no coronavirus vaccine.