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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

Fact CrescendoHealth & medicine

Claim: 3 people hit by Corona after eating mutton

Publisher’s rating: False

The claim concerned a purported News 7 Tamil news card saying three people in Tamil Nadu had tested positive for coronavirus after eating mutton. The review says the card was shared on social media by a user on March 16, 2020, and that the post presented the image as News 7 Tamil reporting. The investigation searched Google for reports of coronavirus spreading after people ate mutton and found none. It also found reports in which ministers and the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India’s chairperson said that eating chicken, mutton, or fish did not spread coronavirus. The review then compared the post’s timing with the announcement it describes: Tamil Nadu’s health minister said in a March 18 tweet that the state’s second coronavirus patient had been confirmed, and that the person had returned from Delhi. The post claiming three cases had been confirmed was already circulating two days earlier. The review cites this chronology as evidence that the post’s claim was false. As a further check on the image’s provenance, the publisher says it contacted News 7 Tamil’s online division administrator. According to the review, the administrator said the card was fake and that it used a design from years earlier. The review concludes that the purported news card was not genuine and that the Facebook post’s claim was false.

FACTLYHealth & medicine

Press Release on movement restriction for COVID-19 outbreak by National Security Council, PMO (India)

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerned photographs of a press release on COVID-19 movement restrictions that were circulating as a document issued by India’s National Security Council and Prime Minister’s Office. FACTLY concluded that the document was issued by Malaysia, not India. Its review points to details in the document and corroboration from Malaysian sources to establish its provenance. A key lead was the helpline number printed on the release: 03-8888 2010. FACTLY reports that The Star described this number as a Malaysian government hotline for questions and complaints about the movement control order, and that the same number appeared in a tweet from Malaysia’s Ministry of International Trade and Industry. The review also says it found the same press release on the PMO-Malaysia website. The document contained further clues inconsistent with the claim of Indian origin. FACTLY notes that it referred to PDRM, identified as the police and department volunteers in Malaysia, and BURSA, identified as the Malaysian stock exchange; the review also says the phone number was not Indian. Finally, it reports that India’s Press Information Bureau and Prasar Bharati News Services said no such press release had been issued by PMO-India. Taken together, the document’s Malaysian identifiers and its presence in Malaysian government channels support the finding that it was misattributed to India.

USA TodayHealth & medicine

Can Trump use the Stafford Act to order a national, mandatory 2-week quarantine?

Publisher’s rating: False

The review investigated a viral Facebook post claiming that President Trump would invoke the Stafford Act to order a mandatory two-week quarantine nationwide. The post’s author, Jasmine Morgan, said the information came from military sources. USA TODAY says it contacted Morgan about the post but received no response; it also describes similar claims circulating through Facebook, WhatsApp and text messages. The central finding was that the Stafford Act did not authorize the federal government to impose mandatory quarantines. Trump had already declared a national emergency under that act on March 13, 2020, before Morgan’s post, enabling federal emergency resources and certain regulatory waivers. The review explains that the law was designed to make federal assistance available in crises and did not give the federal government authority to directly take over state, local or tribal responses. The review distinguished that conclusion from the broader question of whether some other federal law might support a nationwide quarantine. It found no law explicitly granting authority to quarantine the country for two weeks and noted that experts disagreed about the scope of federal power over broad domestic restrictions. Its conclusion was therefore specific: the Stafford Act did not confer the claimed power, while the legality of a broad order under other authorities was less settled.

YouturnHealth & medicine

நாங்கள் இங்கே அமர்ந்திருக்கிறோம் .. வாட்ஸ்அப் மற்றும் பேஸ்புக்கில் .. * * கொரோனா வைரஸை * கேலி செய்கிறோம். கொரோனாவின் உண்மையான அழிவை நீங்கள் காண விரும்பினால், .. சீனாவிலிருந்து இந்த வீடியோவைப் பாருங்கள். ஒரு முறை அல்ல, இரண்டு முறை அல்ல, 3 முறை, கவனமாக பாருங்கள் this இந்த தொற்றுநோயின் பிடியில் சிக்கியுள்ளவர்களைப் பிடிக்க .. காவல்துறை நிர்வாகம் அங்கு எத்தனை பிரச்சினைகளை எதிர்கொள்ள வேண்டும் 👇👇 உங்கள் இதயமும் அதிர்ச்சியடையும் இந்த வீடியோவைப் பார்ப்பது

Publisher’s rating: Fake

Deutsche Presse-AgenturHealth & medicine

Rund um den Roman "The Eyes of Darkness" (deutscher Titel: "Die Augen der Dunkelheit") kursieren derzeit verschiedene Aussagen im Zusammenhang mit dem Coronavirus. In diesem Fall wird behauptet, das Buch beschreibe eine "katastrophale Pandemie", die durch eine virale Lungenentzündung ausgelöst wurde. Der Roman spiele im Jahr 2020.

Publisher’s rating: Im Buch geht es tatsächlich um eine Pandemie, doch sie wird nicht durch ein Virus ausgelöst, das eine Lungenentzündung verursacht. Außerdem wird nicht erwähnt, in welchem Jahr der Roman spielt.