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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「在緊急篩選抗冠狀病毒的藥物中...以尼古丁殺毒效果最佳」？

Publisher’s rating: 錯誤

The claim under review attributed to a WHO official an announcement that drugs were being urgently screened against coronavirus and that nicotine had shown the best virus-killing effect. The Taiwan FactCheck Center checked whether WHO had made such an announcement and whether nicotine could treat coronavirus. Its review says it searched WHO’s website and found no information that nicotine could counter coronavirus; the report does not describe finding a WHO announcement elsewhere. The review also reports interviews with medical and veterinary experts. Far Eastern Memorial Hospital infectious-disease director Yang Chia-jui said the claim had no basis, that the medical field had no such treatment, and that nicotine was harmful to people. Hung-Yi Wu of National Chung Hsing University said he had not encountered such a report in his coronavirus research, while Hui-Wen Chen of National Taiwan University said she had not heard that nicotine could treat coronavirus. Together, the reported WHO-site search and expert interviews do not support the purported announcement or nicotine treatment. The review further states that there was no specific drug for coronavirus at the time. Its conclusion addresses the nicotine claim as presented; the excerpt does not provide laboratory data or describe an independent clinical trial.

Deutsche Presse-AgenturHealth & medicine

In Beiträgen in sozialen Netzwerken wird behauptet, eine führende Wissenschaftlerin der Weltgesundheitsorganisation (WHO) habe in einer Rede gesagt, dass einige Impfstoffe gefährlich seien und Menschen töteten. Außerdem heißt es, das Video sei eine geleakte Aufnahme von einer Diskussion "hinter verschlossenen Türen".

Publisher’s rating: Die Forscherin der WHO bezog sich auf Probleme in einigen Ländern, auf Todesfälle nach Impfungen angemessen zu reagieren und die Ursachen klar zu benennen. Sie sagte nicht, dass einige Impfstoffe gefährlich seien. Das Video wurde nicht geleakt, sondern live gestreamt, und es steht als Aufzeichnung bis heute (6.2.) auf der offiziellen Webseite der WHO.

The claims concern remarks by Soumya Swaminathan, the WHO’s Chief Scientist, during a panel at the Global Vaccine Safety Summit in Geneva. The review places her remarks at the panel on 3 December 2019. It says the social-media posts presented her as declaring that some vaccines were dangerous and killed people, and described the footage as a leak from a closed-door discussion. The review reports that Swaminathan was discussing inadequate vaccine-safety monitoring systems in some countries. She said that when people ask about deaths following a particular vaccination, authorities may be unable to give clear answers; she called for fact-based explanations of what happened and why. The review also reports that she clarified to dpa that she did not mean vaccinations were unsafe, and that her concern was poor or absent monitoring and the resulting lack of reliable data. The review says the summit was an international WHO-organized event and that the entire event was live-streamed and remained available on the WHO website as a recording. It identifies the panel video and points to Swaminathan’s remarks at about 29:08. That event provenance contradicts the characterization of the footage as a leak from a discussion held behind closed doors.