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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

NewtralHealth & medicine

Equipo médico de 14 personas cuida de Pedro Sánchez en Moncloa por el coronavirus

Publisher’s rating: Falso

The claim concerned a viral tweet saying that, because of Spain’s COVID-19 health emergency, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez would have 14 people available to care for him. Newtral says the claim was false: the screenshot attached to the tweet referred instead to a healthcare agreement with the Community of Madrid, signed in 2018, and the arrangement was not new or specific to the coronavirus emergency. The agreement described continuing healthcare for the president and several other groups, including former presidents, vice presidents, ministers, and visiting foreign dignitaries. Its scope therefore differed from the impression that Sánchez had just been given a dedicated team because of the pandemic. The article also clarifies the personnel figures: the agreement lists seven doctors, seven nursing graduates, and eight Civil Guard members, who also serve as ambulance drivers—not 14 people in total. Newtral’s account points to the published resolution for the agreement and says this arrangement originated in a 1997 agreement that had been renewed over the years. That history supports its central correction: the document cited in the viral post described a longstanding, broader healthcare arrangement, not a new coronavirus response for Sánchez alone.

Nausheen KhanHealth & medicine

Video shows Wuhan market in China where coronavirus originated

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerned a circulating video of an animal market, said to show a Wuhan, China market selling live animals and to depict the place where coronavirus originated. The review’s verdict was that the video was not from Wuhan: it identified the location as Langowan Market in Indonesia. The review describes the viral caption as calling it “Wuhan market, China, the origin of the Coronavirus,” while concluding that the footage had been falsely attributed to Wuhan. The review reports checking the video itself for location clues. It says the words “Pasar Extream Langowan” appear in the opening frames. Using “Langowan” as a search term, the reviewer found a YouTube upload of the same video, posted in July 2019 by Jerry Mewengkang. That earlier upload predates the coronavirus outbreak and supports the review’s conclusion that this footage was not evidence of a Wuhan market where the virus originated. The review also compared frames in the viral video with the YouTube version. At about 20 seconds, it found a matching view of a window bearing an Indonesian-language sign that translates as “Langowan Market Office.” Taken together, the market name in the opening frames, the earlier upload, and the matching sign support identifying the footage as being from Langowan, North Sulawesi—not Wuhan. The review additionally says it found the same market images on Getty, but the excerpt does not provide further details about those images.

The QuintHealth & medicine

Photo of people lying dead on a street due to coronavirus

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerns a photo shared during the coronavirus outbreak as showing multiple people who had died in the street from the virus. The Quint says the image was being circulated with a warning about coronavirus and that it received a query about the photo. Its investigation found that the image was unrelated to the outbreak: it showed people lying down as part of an art project in Frankfurt, Germany, commemorating victims of a Nazi concentration camp. To check the image’s provenance, The Quint reports running a reverse image search. It says that search led to a Voice of America photo gallery dated 25 March 2014; the gallery caption described the people as participants in the art project and said the project took place on 24 March 2014. The review also says it found the same image with a similar caption in a South China Morning Post gallery and in Reuters’ archives. These details establish that the people in the image were not dead coronavirus victims, but participants in a 2014 memorial project. The review separately assessed the warning shared alongside the photo. It says the message’s advice about avoiding items such as ice cream, cold drinks, milkshakes and preserved food was not among the protective measures it found in WHO guidance. The Quint describes that guidance as recommending hand-cleaning, avoiding close contact with people who have fever and cough, and avoiding unprotected contact with live wild or farm animals. Thus, the review finds both the image’s coronavirus framing and the accompanying advice misleading or false.

台灣事實查核中心Health & medicine

【錯誤】網傳「美國CDC確認新冠病毒首例在美國！中國不再繼續背鍋...美國媒體ABC揭露：美國乙型流感極可能就是新型冠狀病毒，美國才是第一個爆發新冠疫情的國家」？

Publisher’s rating: 錯誤

The circulated post combined two claims: that a CDC report of an unexplained U.S. case established that COVID-19 originated in the United States, and that an ABC report showed B-type influenza was probably COVID-19 and the United States had the first outbreak. The review examined CDC statements and records, a UC Davis Medical Center account of the patient’s testing, and the ABC-affiliated local report and related hospital statement.

NewtralHealth & medicine

Contener la respiración permite saber si estás infectado por coronavirus

Publisher’s rating: Falso

The claim concerned a WhatsApp message presenting a breath-holding exercise as a way to detect coronavirus infection. The message said that someone should be able to hold their breath for more than 10 seconds; the review also addressed the message’s separate claim that drinking water every 15 minutes would eliminate the virus. The review states that neither proposed method was supported. Newtral reports that the World Health Organization told it there was no evidence for these claims. It also cites an expert’s explanation that, at that time, COVID-19 could be detected only through a test. The evidence described therefore rejects breath-holding as a diagnostic method; it does not describe the review conducting a clinical test of the exercise.

NewtralHealth & medicine

La vitamina C y el limón previenen el coronavirus

Publisher’s rating: Falso

The review addresses a WhatsApp audio and text message advising people to take lemon and vitamin C to prevent coronavirus, purportedly based on statements by a Chinese expert named Laila Ahmadi. It identifies a problem with the message’s attribution: the review says the University of Zanjan is in Iran, not China, and that Ahmadi studied there. For the prevention claim, the review cites Joan Carles March, co-director of the Andalusian School of Public Health, in an article for Salud Sin Bulos. March said research had shown that vitamin C supplements do not reduce most people’s risk of catching the common cold, and the review uses that finding to argue that they are even less likely to prevent coronavirus. The excerpt does not describe a direct clinical study of lemon or vitamin C against coronavirus; its stated evidence is the mislocated university attribution and the cited finding about vitamin C and the common cold.

NewtralHealth & medicine

Beber agua cada 15 minutos acaba con el coronavirus

Publisher’s rating: Falso

The claim came from a WhatsApp chain that proposed two ways to detect or eliminate coronavirus: holding one’s breath for more than 10 seconds as a test, and drinking small sips of water every 15 minutes so stomach acid would destroy the virus. The review addressed both assertions, including the specific water-drinking claim. Newtral reported that the World Health Organization told it there was no evidence for the chain’s assertions. The review also explained that drinking water does not wash a virus away and cited an expert’s point that, at that time, COVID-19 could only be determined through a test. This evidence directly counters the chain’s proposed mechanism and its claim that frequent sips would end the infection.

The QuintHealth & medicine

Bats in a roof in Hubei, China have been discovered as the source of coronavirus

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim attached to the video was that it showed bats in Hubei, China, and that the source of the coronavirus outbreak had been found there. The Quint says it traced the footage to an earlier video by Istueta Roofing, rather than to China or an investigation of the outbreak. The review describes searching YouTube for “chrysanthemum bats roof” and finding a matching video uploaded by Istueta Roofing on 6 July 2011. It identifies the video’s location as Miami, USA, and says the roofing contractor’s description referred to bats discovered during removal of a client’s old roof. Those details place the footage years before the outbreak and in a different country, so it could not document the claimed Hubei discovery or establish the outbreak’s source.