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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

台灣事實查核中心Health & medicine

【錯誤】網傳「蘇聯護理醫師布林加索夫院士很早以前就提出過一種預防流感和急性呼吸道感染的方法。...用沾滿肥皂的手指從內到外仔細清洗鼻孔...肥皂就能殺死病毒」？

Publisher’s rating: 錯誤

The claim describes washing inside the nostrils with soapy fingers as a way to prevent influenza and acute respiratory infections, asserting that soap can kill viruses before they cause infection. The fact-check center consulted two health officials about whether this practice could prevent viral transmission. It did not report testing the method or verifying the attributed Soviet advice; its assessment focused on the proposed prevention method and its effects. [S1: “網傳「從俄國傳來的一個簡單可行預防病毒感染的方法” and “查核中心採訪亞東醫院感染科主任楊家瑞”] Infectious-disease physician Yang Chia-jui said washing hands with soap is appropriate, but washing the nostrils is not an effective substitute: it reaches only the front of the nasal cavity, while inhaled droplets may reach the nasopharynx farther back. Public-health physician Huang Shih-tse likewise said nasal cleaning does not prevent viral infection because respiratory exposure can involve the nose, throat, and bronchi, and cleaning only the nasal cavity does not protect the other respiratory mucous membranes. [S1: “楊家瑞解釋，洗鼻孔大約只能洗到前鼻腔” and “清洗鼻孔沒有預防病毒的效果”] The review also reports Huang’s caution that washing with soap could irritate the nose and cause allergic discomfort. It distinguishes handwashing—which Yang affirmed—from the claimed nasal-washing precaution, and concludes that the claim is false. [S1: “用肥皂洗手是對的，但洗鼻孔是錯的” and “用肥皂清洗反而會刺激鼻子，引起過敏不適”]

NewtralHealth & medicine

Los alemanes en cuarentena en La Gomera han «abandonado sin permiso» el aislamiento domiciliario

Publisher’s rating: Falso

The claim concerned Germans under precautionary quarantine in Hermigua, La Gomera, who were said to have left their isolation apartments without permission or the authorities’ knowledge. Newtral describes the allegation as originating in a Facebook post by a user who was also a radio presenter, and says the claim had been circulating since February 6. The review reports that both the Canary Islands’ Health Department and Casimiro Curbelo, president of the La Gomera island council, denied the allegation. Curbelo explained that the people involved in a separate movement were two Germans identified among possible contacts who were in Tenerife; he said their transfer to their country had been arranged by agreement. Newtral also says the Health Department denied the claim by telephone and referred the publication to a statement issued the day after the rumor spread. These details distinguish the reported, agreed departure of two people from the claim that the quarantined group in Hermigua left without authorization.

NewtralHealth & medicine

El montaje de una supuesta noticia sobre un caso de coronavirus en Andorra

Publisher’s rating: Falso

The claim concerns a purported news item saying that Andorra had confirmed its first coronavirus case on 29 January. Newtral reports that the item was presented as a La Vanguardia story, but says the newspaper had not published it. The fact-check also states that, as of 10 February at 13:30, no case had been detected in Andorra.

FACTLYHealth & medicine

Chicken infected with Coronavirus was found in Bangalore.

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The post claimed that chicken infected with coronavirus had been found in Bangalore and urged people to avoid eating chicken. FACTLY’s review says it found no evidence for coronavirus in chicken and concludes that the claim was false. Its investigation addressed both the image circulated with the post and reports about diseased birds being presented as coronavirus cases. To check the image, the review reports that it used Google reverse image search. The same photograph was online before the coronavirus outbreak in December 2019, so the image did not document a chicken infected during that outbreak. The review further reports that a Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation press statement addressed a similar message circulating in Telugu about Hyderabad. The statement said no bird had tested positive for coronavirus in India and identified the shared images as birds with Ranikhet disease. The review also notes that WHO guidance said meat products could be safely consumed if thoroughly cooked. That guidance is relevant to the post’s warning about eating chicken, but the central evidence about the Bangalore claim is the lack of evidence for infected chicken and the earlier provenance of the image. The review characterizes the shared photograph as showing Ranikhet disease, not coronavirus.

NewtralHealth & medicine

El “bicho” extraído de un labio en un vídeo viral que vive en «las latas de refrescos» y es efecto del coronavirus

Publisher’s rating: Falso

The review examines a viral video showing a small creature being removed from a person’s lip. Messages accompanying the video claimed that the creature lived on soda cans, could attach to someone who drank directly from an uncleaned can, and was connected to coronavirus. The review rejects those claims and identifies the creature as a parasitic fly larva, Dermatobia hominis, associated with myiasis.

NewtralHealth & medicine

La cadena de WhatsApp que habla de 24.589 muertos como “la estadística oficial” sobre el coronavirus

Publisher’s rating: Falso

The claim concerns a WhatsApp message presenting 154,023 infections, 24,589 deaths and 79,808 suspected cases as an “official statistic” about coronavirus. The review identifies this as the message circulating on WhatsApp and Facebook and says that the figures do not make up an official statistic. It also reports that the message’s figures are not similar to the data published by either the World Health Organization (WHO) or Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering, which collected and mapped data from sources including the WHO and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The review traces the numbers in the message to a screenshot of QQ, a Chinese instant-messaging service owned by Tencent that also has a news page. It says the screenshot showed a real-time coronavirus statistic, but that the image circulating in the message differed from the current data shown by QQ. Thus, the review’s evidence addresses both the asserted official status of the figures and the screenshot offered as their apparent source: it says the figures were not an official statistic and that the viral image did not match the current QQ data. The excerpt does not provide the specific WHO, Johns Hopkins or QQ figures, so no exact comparison can be made from the available text.