Skip to main content

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

Pedro Duque ha sido ingresado en un hospital de Dénia

Publisher’s rating: Falso

The claim concerned a social-media message saying that Spain’s science minister, Pedro Duque, had been admitted to a hospital in Dénia after travelling to Jávea for the weekend. Newtral reports that the message spread on Twitter and directly rejects that account. The article’s key evidence is Duque’s live appearance on the television programme El Objetivo the previous Sunday. Newtral says he used the appearance to deny the information and said he was in Madrid and in good health. The excerpt does not describe further checks, such as contacting the hospital or examining travel records, so the account’s conclusion rests on the reported on-air denial.

FACTLYHealth & medicine

There is science behind PM Modi’s 5 PM clapping initiative: Clapping generates vibration which can kill Coronavirus. Also, 22 March 2020 is Amavasya

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim combined two assertions about the 5 PM clapping associated with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Janata Curfew: that clapping would produce vibrations capable of killing coronavirus, and that 22 March 2020 was Amavasya. The review distinguishes the stated purpose of the clapping from the alleged scientific effect: it says Modi asked people to clap as a sign of gratitude to groups working to eradicate COVID-19, while the viral message attributed a virus-killing effect to the vibrations. For the calendar assertion, the review reports checking dates found online and gives Amavasya as running from 23 March 2020 at 12:30 PM to 24 March 2020 at 02:58 PM, rather than falling on 22 March. It also says similar dates—Amavasya on 24 March and Revathi Nakshatra on 25 March—could be found on the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams website. On the evidence described, the date premise of the viral message does not hold. For the alleged health effect, the review says it found no concrete evidence that vibrations from hand-clapping kill coronavirus. It contrasts that absence of evidence with the fact that ultrasound and laser pulses were being tested for possible effects on pathogens and cancer cells; those examples are not evidence that ordinary clapping works. The review further reports that the World Health Organization’s website did not provide such preventive guidance and quotes a clarification from India’s Press Information Bureau stating that clapping vibrations would not destroy coronavirus infection. Together, the review’s stated evidence rejects the claimed effect and the claimed date.

NewtralHealth & medicine

El limón y el bicarbonato matan el coronavirus

Publisher’s rating: Falso

Newtral examined a message circulating through its WhatsApp verification service that prescribed mixing lemon and bicarbonate into hot tea and drinking it each evening. The message claimed the hot mixture immediately killed the virus and removed it from the body. The review identifies that remedy claim as false; it does not report a test of the drink itself. The message also asserted that people in Israel were protected because they drank the mixture. To challenge the remedy claim, the article cites Joan Carles March, co-director of the Andalusian School of Public Health, who addressed the idea on Salud sin Bulos. As reported by Newtral, March noted that vitamin C has nutritional functions but that research finds vitamin C supplements do not reduce most people’s risk of catching the common cold, making the message’s claimed protection against coronavirus unsupported. The excerpt does not describe clinical research specifically testing lemon and bicarbonate against coronavirus. The review also gives context for the message’s Israel assertion: it reports 883 coronavirus cases there and says that, on March 6, Israel introduced measures including 14-day voluntary confinement for travelers from affected countries, among other measures based on scientific evidence. That account supplies an alternative public-health context; it does not establish that the drink had any protective effect. Newtral additionally says similar lemon-remedy misinformation had circulated before, including a message attributed to a supposed Chinese expert named Laila Ahmadi.

NewtralHealth & medicine

Pedro Duque ha sido ingresado en un hospital de Dénia

Publisher’s rating: Falso

The claim concerned viral posts, tweets and videos saying that Spain’s science minister, Pedro Duque, had been admitted to a hospital in Dénia after supposedly going to Jávea for the weekend. Newtral says Duque appeared live on the television programme ‘El Objetivo’ and stated that he was in good health and in Madrid. He also said he had not travelled outside Madrid that weekend. That direct account contradicts the central details of the claim: Duque said he was well, located in Madrid, and had not made the trip to Jávea on which the rumour’s account depended. The excerpt does not identify or describe any hospital records or independently document the viral material; the stated evidence is Duque’s live remarks. Newtral adds that Duque owned a home in Jávea, a fact that had become public when he took office and declared his assets. That background could explain why Jávea appeared in the rumour, but it does not establish that he travelled there or was hospitalized in Dénia.