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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

台灣事實查核中心Health & medicine

【錯誤】網傳「翁啟惠轉史丹佛醫院董事會成員對新冠病毒的建議」?

Publisher’s rating: 錯誤

The claim concerns a circulating message attributed to Weng Chi-hui that presented a list of advice about COVID-19 as coming from Stanford hospital board members. The Taiwan FactCheck Center reported that Stanford Health Care’s public-relations contact, Julie Greicius, said the list was false and that the hospital’s board had not issued it. The review’s conclusion was that the purported list was fabricated and contained multiple false claims. The review also checked particular medical assertions against named clinicians and earlier fact-checks. For example, Taipei City Hospital physician Yen Mu-yung said COVID-19 cases can include a runny nose, so the message’s symptom distinction was not absolute. A temperature of 26–27°C is room temperature, at which the virus could still survive, according to an infectious-disease specialist previously consulted by the Center. On the message’s claim that a 10-second breath-hold could rule out lung fibrosis, the review cited an earlier report finding no basis for that test and advised medical assessment for concerns. Other advice in the message was likewise qualified or rejected by the experts cited. The review said there was no evidence that salt-water gargling prevents or treats COVID-19, and Yen said there was no research evidence that stomach acid kills all viruses. It also described the proposed fixed day-by-day progression of symptoms as inaccurate: symptoms and their timing vary, rather than following the schedule asserted in the message. These findings address the message’s contents as well as its false attribution to Stanford’s board.

NewtralHealth & medicine

En el hospital Puerta de Hierro hay una planta cerrada para familiares de Sánchez

Publisher’s rating: Falso

The claim concerned a message circulating on Facebook and WhatsApp that said Madrid’s Puerta de Hierro hospital had set aside a floor to care for relatives of Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, who had coronavirus. Newtral reports that the hospital rejected that specific assertion: when contacted by the outlet, hospital representatives said no floor was closed and reserved for any patient.

台灣事實查核中心Health & medicine

【錯誤】網傳照片宣稱「這對意大利醫生夫妇抢救了134名武肺病人，看到很多病人慘死，他們知道自己時日無多，干脆摘下口罩，在醫院休息大廳深情對望」？

Publisher’s rating: 錯誤

The claim attached a dramatic story to a photograph of a couple kissing: they were said to be Italian doctors who had saved 134 COVID-19 patients, witnessed patients die, and then removed their masks to share a final moment in a hospital. The review investigated both the photograph’s location and the accompanying account of the couple’s identities and fate. It found that the story’s setting was wrong: the image showed a couple at Barcelona airport in Spain, not doctors in an Italian hospital. To trace the image, the review says it used reverse-image search and found the same photograph in a Washington Post report. Its caption identified the couple as kissing at Barcelona airport on March 12, 2020, and named photographer Emilio Morenatti. The review also located the image in an Associated Press Spanish-language report, with the same caption, and in a Weather Channel report. These accounts identify the scene as an airport photograph, rather than the hospital-rest-lounge scene in the viral story. The review further reports finding Morenatti’s March 12 post of the photograph, which likewise described the couple as kissing at Barcelona airport. It also notes that India Today’s Anti Fake News War Room asked Morenatti about the claim that a doctor couple had died after infection; he replied that he thought it was fake news. The review says its searches of the BBC, Reuters, Associated Press, and Agence France-Presse found no reports of the alleged Italian couple’s deaths. Taken together, the image’s documented provenance contradicts the claimed setting, while the review provides no substantiation for the story attached to it.

FACTLYHealth & medicine

Image of dead bodies of Coronavirus victims in Italy

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerned a Facebook-shared photograph said to show Coronavirus victims’ bodies lined up in Italy. FACTLY reports that its reverse-image search found the photograph in a Guardian article, where the caption identified the scene as rows of coffins containing victims of the Lampedusa shipwreck—not deaths from COVID-19. The review therefore found the image was being presented with the wrong event and cause of death. [S1] FACTLY traces the image to the 2013 shipwreck near the Italian island of Lampedusa. Its account says a boat carrying around 500 African migrants caught fire and sank about half a mile from the island, killing more than 300 people. The Guardian caption quoted in the review likewise identifies the coffins as those of Lampedusa shipwreck victims. [S1] The key evidence is the photograph’s earlier identification and the event it depicts: a 2013 shipwreck, rather than Coronavirus deaths in Italy. FACTLY concludes that the image is six years old and unrelated to the country’s later COVID-19 outbreak. [S1]

Deutsche Presse-AgenturHealth & medicine

Das Foto eines schwarzen Güterwaggons für den Transport von Flüssigkeiten oder Gasen wird über soziale Netzwerke verbreitet. Auf dem Kesselwagen ist die Aufschrift "COVID-19" zu erkennen - als würde er eine große Menge des Coronavirus transportieren. Der Schriftzug wird mit einem roten, in das Foto gemalten Kreis besonders hervorgehoben. Neben der Abbildung finden sich oft Beschriftungen und Kommentare, die andeuten, die Corona-Pandemie sei eine mit dunkler Absicht von einer höheren Instanz wie dem Staat oder "den Mächtigen" verbreitete Krankheit

Publisher’s rating: Das Foto ist manipuliert. Das für die Pandemie verantwortliche Virus heißt Sars-CoV-2. Die Bezeichnung Covid-19 steht für die von dem Virus ausgelöste Lungenkrankheit.

FACTLYHealth & medicine

Mustard oil prevents a person from getting infected with COVID-19

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The review examined a social-media message recommending that people put mustard oil inside both nostrils before bathing in the morning. The message asserted that this would protect someone for at least eight hours, and that the oil would trap and kill the virus before it reached the lungs. Those are the specific claims at issue; the excerpt does not describe a clinical test of applying oil to people or measuring infections.

Aliza NoorHealth & medicine

Married couple and Italian doctors who saved many lives have been infected with coronavirus

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim attached a photograph of a couple to a story that they were Italian doctors, had saved 134 patients, and then became ill with coronavirus. The review rated the claim false and traced the photograph to an Associated Press image rather than to evidence of the couple’s medical work or illness. It reported finding the image on AP’s website and identified its caption as showing a couple kissing at Barcelona Airport, Spain—not a hospital or a scene involving doctors treating patients. The review said the image was taken by AP photographer Emilio Morenatti on 12 March 2020. Its quoted AP caption places the photograph at Barcelona Airport as airlines and travelers dealt with a new travel ban. The review also said it found the same image in articles from the Chicago Tribune, Fox News and The News Tribune, each attributing it to AP. This evidence establishes that the viral post used an airport photograph with a fabricated narrative. The excerpt does not independently identify the couple or establish their health status; the decisive finding is that the photograph does not depict the claimed hospital story.