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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

FACTLYHealth & medicine

ఐదు గంటలకు చప్పట్లు కొట్టమని మోడీ చెప్పడానికి వెనుక ఆసక్తికరమైన శాస్త్రీయ కారణం ఉంది. చప్పట్ల వైబ్రేషన్ల ద్వారా కొరోనా వైరస్ తన శక్తిని కోల్పోతుంది. మార్చి 22 న ఆమావాస్య కూడా

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

Aiswarya SriramHealth & medicine

Video show Coronavirus leaving the world.

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerned a social-media video said to show a creature rising into the sky in China, with viewers interpreting it as a sign that coronavirus was leaving the world. The review examined that specific video and its online provenance, rather than treating the claim as evidence of a real-world event. It reports that the footage carried a “U Video” logo and the ID 137448991524; searching that ID in the app led to an account named “bry1722791.” The review says the account holder had posted the video twice and asked people to re-edit it. It also describes other animated or edited videos on the account, including a dragon going into a hole and the account holder walking on a suspension bridge, and says the creator appeared to teach how the videos were shot and edited. These details support the review’s conclusion that the footage was constructed, not documentation of coronavirus departing the world. The decisive finding reported by the review is that the video was animated. The account history and editing examples provide provenance supporting that finding, while the footage itself does not establish that the creature was real or that it had any connection to the pandemic. The review therefore rejects the viral interpretation of this particular video.

NewtralHealth & medicine

Aspirar vapor de agua hirviendo durante cinco minutos desactiva el coronavirus

Publisher’s rating: Falso

Newtral examined a viral video in which a doctor, identifying himself as Mario Pesaresi, claimed that inhaling steam from boiling water for five minutes, three or four times a day, could disable the coronavirus. The review reports that the video was more than six minutes long and circulated on WhatsApp. Its conclusion addresses this specific claim about the virus causing COVID-19, rather than a general claim that heat affects all coronaviruses. The review challenges the video’s reasoning about temperature. Pesaresi reportedly based his advice on the assertion that the World Health Organization had said coronavirus becomes inactive at 56°C. Newtral checked the organization’s official website and reported that it contained no information specifying when the current virus becomes inactive. It also noted that the WHO’s statement about that temperature concerned the coronavirus responsible for SARS in 2003, a different strain. The review further reports that the CDC said it was not yet known whether climate and temperature affect the current virus’s spread. Newtral also consulted Fernando Fariñas Guerrero, director of Málaga’s Institute of Clinical Immunology and Infectious Diseases. He said high-temperature steam could denature viral proteins, but could also damage human tissue; he explained that the temperature would not reach the respiratory tract and that a deep inhalation would not carry air to the alveoli, where the review says the virus settles. The article separately cites physician Jaime Barrios, who said COVID-19 treatment involved medication and intubation, and reports that no vaccine or treatment curing the disease was then available. These points explain why the video’s proposed inhalation was not supported as a way to disable the virus.

YouturnHealth & medicine

வரும் மார்ச் 22, இந்தியா முழுவதும் ஊரடங்கு உத்தரவின் பின்னணி என்னவாக இருக்கும்? ஒரு இடத்தில் கொரோனா வைரஸின் ஆயுள் சுமார் 12 மணிநேரம் தான், ஊரடங்கு உத்தரவு 14 மணிநேரம் இருப்பதால், கொரோனா வைரஸ் இதுவரையில் பரவி இருக்கும் பொதுப் பகுதிகளின் இடங்கள் அல்லது புள்ளிகள் 14 மணிநேரம் தொடப்படாததால், அதன் தொடர்சங்கிலி உடைக்கப்படக்கூடும். 14 மணிநேரத்திற்குப் பிறகு நமக்கு கிடைப்பது மிகவும் பாதுகாப்பான நாடாக இருக்கும்!

Publisher’s rating: Fake

FACTLYHealth & medicine

Coronavirus can live only up to 12 hours on any surface

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The review examines a social-media message linking the proposed 14-hour Janata curfew to a claim that coronavirus survives in one place for just 12 hours. The claim under review was that coronavirus could live only up to 12 hours on any surface. The review reports that the scientific evidence it examined did not support that limit: viable SARS-CoV-2 was detected for up to 72 hours on plastic and stainless steel. To assess surface survival, the review describes a study by scientists from the National Institutes of Health, CDC, UCLA and Princeton University, published in the New England Journal of Medicine. The study tested SARS-CoV-2 and SARS-CoV-1 in aerosols and on copper, cardboard, steel and plastic; the surfaces were kept at 21–23°C and 40% relative humidity. The review’s account says the newer virus was more stable on plastic and stainless steel than on copper and cardboard, with viable virus detected on the former surfaces up to 72 hours after application. The review also cites WHO guidance, which says the duration is uncertain and that coronaviruses may persist on surfaces for a few hours or several days. That qualification matters: the evidence presented does not establish a single survival time for every surface. Rather, the reported 72-hour finding on some materials contradicts the message’s universal 12-hour maximum. The review further reports that India’s Press Information Bureau said there was no evidence proving the virus’s life was 12 hours.

YouturnHealth & medicine

ஹாய் பிரதர்ஸ், நான் லதா மேடம் பேசுறேன், சன்டே 22-ம் தேதி இந்தியாவில் கொரோனா வைரசின் ஃபோர்த் வேவ்ஸ் நேரடியாக சூரிய ஒளி மூலம் வருகிறது. 144 சட்டம், வெளியே வராதீங்க அப்படித்தானே சொல்கிறார்களே தவிர, அது உண்மையான நிலவரத்தை சொல்லவில்லை. சன்டே மட்டும் சூரிய ஒளி உங்கள் உடலில் படாமல் பாத்துக் கொள்ளவும். காலை 6 மணி முதல் இரவு 7 மணி வரை யாரும் வெளியே செல்ல வேண்டாம். இது இத்தாலியிலும், சீனாவிலும் வந்து விட்டது.

Publisher’s rating: Fake

Deutsche Presse-AgenturHealth & medicine

Deutschland debattiert vor dem Hintergrund des sich ausbreitenden Coronavirus auch über Ausgangssperren, einige Städte haben diese schon verhängt. Nun wurde eine Sprachnachricht über Messengerdienste verbreitet, auch in Chemnitz habe der Stadtrat eine solche Maßnahme für die sächsische Großstadt ab 23. März beschlossen. Die Aufnahme stammt allem Anschein nach vom 19. März.

Publisher’s rating: Es gab gar keine Stadtratssitzung. Die Stadt und auch die angebliche Quelle - die AfD-Stadtratsfraktion - bezeichnen die Aussage als Falschbehauptung.

FACTLYHealth & medicine

PM Modi is providing free masks to people under ‘Swachh Bharat Mission’ to keep them protected from Coronavirus outbreak

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The post linked free masks for coronavirus protection to the Swachh Bharat Mission and presented a website through which people were apparently meant to obtain them. FACTLY reports that it examined the link and found that the site did not resemble an official government domain: its address differed from government sites ending in “gov.in” or “nic.in,” and “Narendra Modi” was misspelled as “Narendr Modi.” The review also describes testing the site’s “Order Now” option. It says the result was the same regardless of whether details were filled in: the link led to a blog displaying “Blog has been removed.” The article adds that the Swachh Bharat website made no mention of providing masks through the mission. As further evidence, FACTLY reports that the Press Information Bureau had clarified there was no central government scheme providing free masks to protect people from coronavirus. The review therefore concludes that the linked website was dubious and that the claimed government scheme did not exist. These checks address the specific offer in the post; the excerpt does not report an investigation into mask distribution more broadly.

台灣事實查核中心Health & medicine

【錯誤】網傳影片宣稱「还中国一个公道！霉国终于承认新冠性病毒就是美国流感！真相终于大白天下了」？

Publisher’s rating: 錯誤

The claim attached to the video was that the United States had finally admitted COVID-19 was “American flu.” The review identifies the clip as an exchange at a March 11 U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Reform hearing about coronavirus preparedness and response. It says the speakers were Democratic Representative Harley Rouda and CDC Director Robert Redfield—not officials discussing where the virus originated. To check the clip, the review says it located the committee’s livestream on the committee’s official YouTube channel and compared the circulating video with the exchange at 1:57:13–1:58:05. In the cited exchange, Rouda asked whether, without test kits, some people thought to have influenza might actually have had COVID-19. Redfield replied that some U.S. cases had been diagnosed that way. The review describes the discussion as concerning possible misclassification when testing was unavailable, not an admission that the coronavirus was influenza or originated in the United States. The distinction is central to the claim: the reported exchange concerns how some illnesses may have been identified, while the claim presents it as a statement about the virus’s identity or origin. The review concludes that the video does not support that interpretation.