PeakMetrics / Fact Checks
Health & medicine fact checks
Explore claims publishers have checked about health & medicine. Read their original ratings and follow the evidence.
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Search by text or image13,677 published reviews in this topic
Headline claims Japan 'finally' produces drug vs COVID-19
Publisher’s rating: False: Drug developed in 2014 for flu
Cuba desarrolla una vacuna contra el coronavirus llamada “interferón alfa 2B”
Publisher’s rating: Falso
The claim under review was that Cuba had developed a coronavirus vaccine called interferón alfa 2B, could not commercialize it because of the U.S. blockade, and had announced a joint vaccine effort with China through Cuba’s president. The review reports that Luis Herrera, the Cuban scientist who created interferon alfa 2b, explained in a TeleSur interview on March 17 that it is a protein, not a vaccine or an antibody that directly neutralizes the virus. Rather, it mediates reactions in cells that interfere with viral multiplication. The review also distinguishes the medicine’s existing uses from the claim that it was a vaccine: it says the Spanish Association of Pediatrics lists it for conditions including chronic hepatitis B and C and chronic myeloid leukemia, and notes its use in some cancer treatments. It further reports that the World Health Organization and Spain’s Ministry of Health said no coronavirus vaccine existed at the time; the Ministry said there was no specific treatment, although some antivirals were being used after showing some efficacy in recent studies. On the alleged presidential announcement, the review says it checked Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez’s official profile and found no post announcing a vaccine being developed with China. It did find that he shared a Granma post stating that state pharmaceutical company BioCubaFarma would ensure production of 22 medicines for COVID-19 treatment, including interferón alfa 2B. The review therefore identifies a real medicine and production plan, but explains that these do not establish the claimed vaccine or the alleged announcement.
Questa foto con numerose bare è stata scattata a Bergamo a marzo 2020
Publisher’s rating: Falso
El ministro de Sanidad de Cuba, Dr. Hala, ha entregado la vacuna del coronavirus a China
Publisher’s rating: Falso
Newtral examined a circulating Facebook message asserting that China had announced the success of a Cuban serum effective against coronavirus and that “Dr. Hala, Minister of Health of Cuba,” had delivered it to China. The review identifies it as a variation of an earlier hoax, in which the same supposed doctor was described as Egypt’s health minister; in this version, only the doctor’s nationality had changed. The review gives the Cuban health minister’s name as José Ángel Portal Miranda, not Dr. Hala. It also says Cuba had not developed a coronavirus vaccine, and notes that the World Health Organization’s position at the time was that there was no specific vaccine or antiviral medicine to prevent or treat Covid-19. The review distinguishes that from ongoing research into possible vaccines and treatments. As further context, Newtral reports that the United States and China had said they would begin human trials, while describing efficacy and safety assessment as still months away. It also says at least 35 WHO-recognized teams were in the preclinical phase. Those statements describe research underway, not a vaccine delivered by Cuba to China.
Video of goats affected by Coronavirus
Publisher’s rating: FALSE
FACTLY examined a social-media video presented as showing goats affected by the recent SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus. Its review says the footage was old and therefore not connected to that outbreak. It also distinguishes the claim about goats from a separate question addressed by an official: whether eating meat could transmit coronavirus. To check the video’s history, FACTLY says it ran screenshots through Yandex Reverse Image Search and found the same video on YouTube, uploaded on 12 December 2019. The review contrasts that upload date with the reported start of the recent coronavirus epidemic in the last week of December 2019. On that chronology, the footage predates the outbreak it was claimed to depict. The review also reports that, when a similar video circulated in the UAE, that country’s government said the footage was old. Separately, it cites Animal Husbandry, Dairying and Fisheries Minister Shandilya Giriraj Singh saying that eating chicken, mutton, fish, and eggs does not transmit coronavirus. That statement concerns food transmission; the review’s central evidence against the video claim is the footage’s earlier provenance.
Cina mengakui dokter Palestina sebagai penemu vaksin virus Corona Covid-19
Publisher’s rating: Keliru
תערובת של קינמון, הל, ציפורן וזנגביל יחד עם מים חמים היא תרופה לקורונה
Publisher’s rating: לא נכון
Video yang diklaim sebagai video penumpang KRL yang kejang-kejang karena terinfeksi virus Corona Covid-19
Publisher’s rating: Sesat
AajTak graphics suggest that certain communities are immune to COVID-19
Publisher’s rating: FALSE
The claim concerned screenshots circulating as AajTak graphics that allegedly said the blood of communities such as Jats and Biharis was immune to COVID-19. The Quint’s review examined two images and reported that neither showed a genuine AajTak broadcast making that claim. For the first image, the investigators matched its ticker, lower “Breaking News” band and timestamp to a 2018 AajTak bulletin. That bulletin concerned the disqualification of Aam Aadmi Party MLAs; because the coronavirus outbreak began later, the review said this older graphic could not be a genuine 2020 bulletin. It reported that the viral image’s central claim had been changed. For the second image, the review compared the viral screenshot with an AajTak bulletin aired on 18 March. It found differences in the top band’s font and colours, as well as no match in the lower band and ticker. The review also said a search for reports about communities being immune to coronavirus returned no relevant results. These checks address the provenance and appearance of the images; the excerpt does not describe medical testing of the communities’ immunity.
Government spraying medicine to kill COVID-19
Publisher’s rating: FALSE
The review examined a message circulating in India in March 2020 that warned people not to leave home because the government would spray medicine into the air to kill COVID-19. It says the same message was attributed to different local authorities in different places, including Bangalore’s municipal body, BBMP, and health authorities in Chandigarh. The excerpt also reproduces a version shared about Mumbai, which bundled the spraying warning with a separate claim about transport stopping. To check whether the proposed spraying was an official plan, the review reports seeking and presenting clarifications from government and municipal authorities. Karnataka’s Department of Information and Public Relations said no such official information had been issued, and BBMP Mayor M Goutham Kumar said the body had passed no such orders. The review also reports that the Delhi government rejected the rumour. These statements directly address whether the authorities named in the circulating messages had announced the action. The article says it contacted the central government’s Ministry of Health and Family Welfare but had not received a reply when the excerpt was written; it says the story would be updated if a response arrived. Thus, the evidence presented here consists of clarifications attributed to state and local authorities, not a reported response from the central ministry. The excerpt supports the conclusion that the messages were not genuine announcements from the cited authorities; it does not document a separate investigation of every social-media post or of every possible spraying activity.
【錯誤】網傳「抗疫偏方，簡單神效 紅糖，生薑，大蔥白，大蒜（多放），熬水喝，疫情解除之前，每天喝，感染病毒的概率幾乎爲零」？
Publisher’s rating: 錯誤
The claim under review was that boiling brown sugar, ginger, scallion, and a large amount of garlic into a drink and consuming it daily would make the chance of contracting the virus “almost zero.” The review describes this as a message circulated on messaging apps and social platforms, and says it included an account attributed to a traditional Chinese medicine practitioner who claimed that garlic water helped relieve their symptoms after returning from Wuhan to Nanyang. That account is presented as part of the circulating message, not as independently verified evidence of treatment or prevention. (S1: “通訊軟體、社群平台流傳訊息指出：” and “感染病毒的概率幾乎爲零！”) To assess the prevention claim, the Taiwan FactCheck Center says it interviewed Huang Shize, a physician with Taiwan’s Centers for Disease Control, and Shi Xinru, director of Chang Gung University’s Research Center for Emerging Viral Infections. Huang said the claim had no basis and was unrelated to preventing the novel coronavirus. Shi noted that some research had indicated garlic may promote immunity, but that its effects vary by person; she said there was no basis for the proposed prevention method involving brown sugar and the other ingredients. The review concludes that experts found the remedy unsupported. (S1: “查核中心採訪衛生福利部疾病管制署慢性傳染病防疫醫師黃士澤，他表示，此說法沒有根據，與新冠病毒預防無關。” and “至於添加紅糖等其他食材，都是沒有根據的預防方法。”)
ארגון הבריאות העולמי מזהיר חולי קורונה מנטילת איבופרופן
Publisher’s rating: לא נכון
Video of passengers infected with Coronavirus on an Ethiopian Airlines flight from Italy that reached Addis Ababa airport
Publisher’s rating: FALSE
The claim concerns a video circulated as showing passengers infected with coronavirus being rescued after an Ethiopian Airlines flight from Italy reached Addis Ababa. FACTLY identifies the footage instead as an emergency exercise at Blaise Diagne International Airport in Senegal. The review reports that the exercise took place on 28 November 2019, before the first coronavirus case was detected in China in December 2019. To investigate the footage, FACTLY searched YouTube using the terms “Senegal airplane rescue” and found a video with similar visuals and the same logo. It says that viewing the video posted by Dakaractu Tv identified it as an emergency exercise at the Senegal airport. The review also points to visible “Senegal” text on the aircraft as evidence connecting the footage to Senegal, rather than the claimed Ethiopian Airlines flight. FACTLY reports that the exercise evaluated airport officials’ capacity to respond to crises, and that organizer Xavier Mary, the director-general of LAS (Limak-Aibd-Summa), thanked Air Senegal for providing an aircraft. These details support the review’s conclusion that the video shows a pre-pandemic airport drill, not the claimed coronavirus incident in Addis Ababa.
【錯誤】網傳「冠狀病毒在抵達肺部前會停留在喉嚨四天...如果他喝大量的水，並且以溫水加鹽巴或醋來漱口，可以消除病毒」？
Publisher’s rating: 錯誤
The review examined a social-media and messaging-app claim that coronavirus stays in the throat for four days before reaching the lungs, and that drinking plenty of water or gargling with warm salt water or vinegar can eliminate it. It also noted that the message circulated under false attributions to medical personnel. The review assessed the message’s two medical assertions separately. [S1: “社群平台、通訊軟體流傳訊息指出：「冠狀病毒在抵達肺部前會停留在喉嚨四天，這時候這個人會開始咳嗽及喉嚨痛，如果他喝大量的水，並且以溫水加鹽巴或醋來漱口，可以消除病毒。」”] [S1: “此訊息多次被假借冠名流傳，被假冠名的對象有：童綜合醫院王叔昂醫、榮總主委、榮總醫師、鹿基護士等。”] For the four-day claim, the review quoted National Taiwan University Hospital infectious-disease physician Hsieh Ssu-min. He said the assertion had no scientific basis and explained that upper-respiratory symptoms do not mean the virus first remains in the throat. The review described infection as occurring through respiratory mucous membranes, including after exposure to virus-containing droplets or secretions. [S1: “感染新型冠狀病毒會先有上呼吸道症狀，但這情況不代表病毒會先停留在喉嚨。”] [S1: “冠狀病毒是透過呼吸道黏膜感染。”] On the proposed remedy, Hsieh and Centers for Disease Control physician Huang Shih-tse said gargling with salt water or vinegar does not clear virus that has already entered respiratory cells. The review’s conclusion therefore rejected both the throat-timing assertion and the suggested gargle as a way to eliminate an established respiratory infection. [S1: “謝思民說，用鹽水或醋漱口，對已經侵入呼吸道細胞的病毒，完全沒有清除作用。”] [S1: “衛生福利部疾病管制署防疫醫師黃士澤指出，如果病毒已經侵入呼吸道細胞，用鹽水或醋漱口是沒有作用的。”]
PMO has issued an advisory restricting movement of people because of coronavirus
Publisher’s rating: FALSE
