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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

Deutsche Presse-AgenturHealth & medicine

Das Video eines weinenden kleinwüchsigen Jungen, der wegen seiner Wachstumsstörung gemobbt wurde, löste eine vielunterstützte Spendenaktion aus. Daraufhin wurde in diversen Beiträgen in sozialen Medien am Alter des Jungen gezweifelt: Er sei nicht neun Jahre alt, sondern bereits erwachsen

Publisher’s rating: Der Junge aus dem Video ist nicht erwachsen.

The review addresses claims that Quaden Bayles, the boy in a widely shared video crying after being bullied over his growth condition, was not nine but already an adult. It says the video prompted a heavily supported fundraiser and that social-media posts then questioned his age. The review’s conclusion is supported by several age references from different points in Bayles’s childhood, rather than by the video alone. A 27 May 2016 article in Australian outlet news.com.au reportedly identified Bayles, said he lived in Brisbane, and described him as five at the time. The review also points to a Studio 10 television interview from the previous year: the broadcaster reportedly said he was four then, and the review notes that he visibly was not a teenager in the footage. Those dates and ages are inconsistent with the allegation that he was already an adult when the video circulated. The review adds a family social-media post dated 13 December 2014, when Bayles’s sister shared photos with him and wished him a happy birthday. It describes the images as showing a preschool-aged child. Taken together, the cited news report, interview and family post support the review’s conclusion that the adult-age claim was false. The supplied text does not provide independent verification of those underlying items; it reports them as evidence examined by the fact-check.

NewtralHealth & medicine

El hospital Juan Ramón Jiménez de Huelva ha sido cerrado a cal y canto por el coronavirus

Publisher’s rating: Falso

The claim concerned messages circulating on Facebook and WhatsApp that said the Juan Ramón Jiménez Hospital in Huelva had two confirmed coronavirus cases, ten people in isolation, and had been closed “a cal y canto.” Newtral’s review reports that the Andalusian health department denied there were any coronavirus cases in Huelva at that time, and that the national health ministry had not reported new cases in Andalusia. The review also says the hospital’s two cases under investigation had tested negative. The review addressed the closure claim directly: the hospital’s management told Newtral that the centre remained operational. It also examined an image shared alongside some Facebook messages. Although the circulating text did not name the hospital explicitly, Newtral says it used Google Maps to identify the pictured entrance as the hospital’s emergency department. The review separately reports that voice messages were claiming the hospital had been shut because of the alleged infections. Taken together, the reported evidence contradicts both the alleged confirmed infections and the claimed closure: the two investigated cases were negative, and hospital management said the facility was still operating. The review also rejects the claim that ten people were isolated.

NewtralHealth & medicine

En el hospital Juan Ramón Jiménez de Huelva hay dos casos confirmados de coronavirus y diez en aislamiento

Publisher’s rating: Falso

The claim concerned messages circulating on Facebook and WhatsApp that said the Juan Ramón Jiménez Hospital in Huelva had two confirmed coronavirus cases and ten people in isolation. The messages also said the hospital had been shut. Newtral’s review reports that Andalusia’s health department denied that there were any coronavirus cases in Huelva at the time, and that the national health ministry had not reported new cases in Andalusia. The key distinction in the review is between confirmed cases and cases under investigation. Hospital management told Newtral that two suspected cases had been investigated, but both had tested negative. It also said the hospital remained operational, contradicting the circulating claim that it had been closed. The review separately states that ten people were not in isolation. The review describes checking the image shared alongside some Facebook posts: although the text did not explicitly name the hospital, Newtral used Google Maps to check the pictured entrance and identified it as the hospital’s emergency entrance. That supports the link between the image and the Huelva hospital, but does not substantiate the claims about infections or a shutdown.

台灣事實查核中心Health & medicine

【錯誤】網傳「我爸爸是民進黨議員，上次和王世堅聊天提到肺炎，說現在台灣已經超過500例了，死亡200了...」？

Publisher’s rating: 錯誤

The claim concerned a Facebook message that attributed to the writer’s father, described as a Democratic Progressive Party legislator, a private conversation with Taipei City Councilor Wang Shijian. It alleged that Taiwan had more than 500 COVID-19 cases and 200 deaths, that Hualien and Taipei were especially affected, and that the authorities were concealing the figures. The investigation addressed both whether Wang had discussed the alleged information and whether the figures and concealment narrative matched the evidence it checked. The review describes the circulating text as: 「我爸爸是民進黨議員，上次和王世堅聊天提到肺炎，說現在台灣已經超過500例了，死亡200了，特別是花蓮和台北重災區，但 是蔡當局不敢公佈」. (S1) On the alleged conversation, the review says it checked Wang’s Facebook page and contacted him by telephone. It reports that Wang posted on February 25 that he had never discussed the pandemic information cited by the rumor, and that he told the fact-checking center the account was false and he had not discussed those claims with anyone. These checks directly address the message’s attribution to him, rather than merely assessing pandemic figures in general. (S1) For the numerical claims, the review says it checked a February 25 disease-control authority news release and the authority’s infectious-disease statistics system. Its reported figures for Taiwan through February 25 were 31 confirmed cases, one death, and five recoveries; it also found no confirmed cases in Hualien. Those records contradict the message’s claims of more than 500 cases, 200 deaths, and a Hualien outbreak. (S1) The review also describes its examination of the concealment allegation. It reports consulting medical experts and Taipei’s funeral-management authority, and checking cremation-use records for Taipei and New Taipei from January 21 through February 26. The authority said cremation required an original death certificate or prosecutor’s examination certificate; the review further reports that recent daily cremation volume was about 70–110 cases, without a notable increase. This evidence, alongside the reported case records and Wang’s denial, is the basis for the review’s conclusion. (S1)

Deutsche Presse-AgenturHealth & medicine

Das neue Coronavirus Sars-CoV-2 stammt wahrscheinlich von Fledermäusen. Viele der ersten Fälle der Infektionen wurden im Dezember auf den Huanan-Markt in der heute schwer betroffenen Metropole Wuhan in Zentralchina zurückgeführt. Nun wird ein Video in den sozialen Medien verbreitet, das angeblich diesen Markt zeigen soll. Dazu der Kommentar: "Die Seuche musste ja ausbrechen. Ob China seine Marktgewohnheiten mal ändern sollte?"

Publisher’s rating: Die Bilder stammen nicht aus Wuhan. Das Video wurde aus Filmaufnahmen von Märkten in Indonesien zusammengeschnitten.

The claim concerns a social-media video presented as showing Wuhan’s Huanan market, accompanied by a comment linking the outbreak to Chinese market practices. The investigation says the footage instead combines scenes filmed at markets in Indonesia. It identifies the opening scenes as footage from a market in Langowan, on Sulawesi, about 3,500 km in a straight line from Wuhan.

NewtralHealth & medicine

El doctor Dovakin ha descubierto una vacuna contra el coronavirus

Publisher’s rating: Falso

Newtral examined a circulating post claiming that an Argentine doctor called Dovakin had discovered a coronavirus vaccine and that it was being administered in Spain as a precaution. The review says the image in the post showed an actor, not the doctor described in the claim; it identifies him as Ramiro Blas, who played Dr. Carlos Sandoval Castro in the series *Vis a Vis*.

NewtralHealth & medicine

El vídeo de un tejado con una plaga de murciélagos que se relaciona con el Coronavirus

Publisher’s rating: Falso

The claim linked footage of workers removing bats from a roof to a supposed coronavirus source in Wuhan. Newtral reports that the video was not filmed in Wuhan or elsewhere in China: it traced the images to a 2011 video about a bat infestation under a tile roof in Miami, Florida. That provenance contradicts the post’s description of the footage as showing bats in Wuhan.