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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

FACTLYHealth & medicine

Health Ministry's emergency notification asks people to keep their throat moist to prevent the Coronavirus attack.

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerned a social-media message presented as an emergency notification from India’s Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. The message advised people to keep their throats moist to prevent coronavirus. The review says it checked whether the message was authentic and compared it with the ministry’s published precautions and travel advisories. The review reports that India’s Press Information Bureau had already addressed the circulating advisory. According to the review, PIB “has categorically mentioned that such an advisory has not been issued by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.” This directly contradicts the message’s claimed government origin. The review also says the ministry’s own published guidance did not support the specific advice: “in the preventive measures and travel advisories released by the Health Ministry, there is nothing related to keeping the throat moist.” It distinguishes that material from a separate list of Homeopathic and Unani measures released by the Ministry of AYUSH. On the evidence described, the circulated message was not issued by the Health Ministry, and its throat-moistening advice was not among the ministry’s cited precautions.

FACTLYHealth & medicine

A girl dying of Coronavirus.

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

FACTLY examined a social-media video showing a girl collapsing in a store, which was being shared with the claim that she had died of Coronavirus. Its review identifies the girl as Nur Izzah Izzati and says the incident happened in Malaysia. The review reports that the girl’s family and Malaysia’s Health Ministry rejected the death rumour, and concludes that she did not die of Coronavirus. To investigate, FACTLY says it ran screenshots from the video through Google Reverse Image Search. It found news coverage of the incident and cites a Harian Metro article, which it says identified the girl and reported that her father denied the rumours. According to FACTLY, her father also asked people not to share the video in connection with the Coronavirus outbreak. The review further says the Health Ministry’s official Twitter account shared the Harian Metro article and urged people not to spread the false news. The review also describes a post by the girl’s friend, Nazirul, which referred to reports related to her death and included an appeal to stop sharing the video. That detail sits uneasily alongside the review’s statements that death rumours were false and that she had not died of Coronavirus. The excerpt does not resolve whether the girl died from another cause; its stated conclusion is specifically that the video does not show a death from Coronavirus.

NewtralHealth & medicine

Coronavirus: vídeo del mercado de Wuhan

Publisher’s rating: Falso

The claim attached the circulating footage to a market in Wuhan, China, where the coronavirus outbreak had emerged. Newtral examined a video circulating on Facebook that showed a crowded market selling snakes and other animals. It reports that the footage was not filmed in Wuhan: the market shown is in Indonesia. The review also distinguishes this footage from the early hypotheses about the outbreak’s origin, which pointed to a seafood and fish market in Wuhan. To investigate the footage’s provenance, Newtral used InVid to conduct a reverse search of video frames. The results led to the same images uploaded to YouTube in June 2019, before the video was being presented as showing Wuhan. The YouTube description identified the location as Langowan Market, and Newtral reports that a location search placed Langowan in Indonesia. The review describes an additional visual clue: at about 18 seconds in the YouTube upload, a sign reads “Kantor pasar Langowan,” which the article translates as “Langowan Market Office.” Together, the earlier upload, the location named in its description, and the sign support the review’s conclusion that the footage shows a market in Indonesia rather than the market in Wuhan claimed in the accompanying posts.

NewtralHealth & medicine

Vídeo del medicamento calcitriol en Venezuela

Publisher’s rating: Falso

The fact-check examined a video circulated with the message that it showed empty generic calcitriol capsules in Venezuela. It concluded that the video was not from Venezuela: the footage and controversy originated in Ecuador, where the video alleged a fraud involving the medicine. The article says the controversy dates to 2016 and that the clip was later recirculated with a Venezuela-related caption.

NewtralHealth & medicine

Alerta de coronavirus en Madrid, Valencia o Barcelona

Publisher’s rating: Falso

The review examined a purported breaking-news message claiming that three coronavirus cases had been confirmed in Barcelona, Valencia and Madrid, and that the patients had contact with other people at the buffet of the hotel where they were staying. It traced the message to a Twitter account impersonating El País, rather than to the newspaper’s official account. The review identifies the account that circulated the message as @SoyFede_ and gives the official El País account as @el_pais. It reports that the message was posted at 11:56 and that there was no similar or coronavirus-related tweet on the official account’s timeline at that time. It also says Spain’s Health Ministry had not announced any confirmed coronavirus case in the country. Together, the account comparison, timeline check and ministry status contradict the message’s presentation as an El País alert about confirmed cases.

台灣事實查核中心Health & medicine

網傳圖文「北投消防隊光明分隊載到吐血OHCA病人，確認是武漢肺炎」？

Publisher’s rating: 錯誤

The claim concerned a message circulating on social media that Guangming unit of the Beitou fire department had transported a patient who was “吐血” (vomiting blood) and had OHCA, and that the patient was confirmed to have Wuhan pneumonia. The review identifies the incident as a January 26, 2020, ambulance call by that unit in Taipei. It reports that the patient had cardiac and respiratory failure before reaching hospital, and that the patient’s test did not confirm the disease. To check the claim, the review cites statements from Guangming unit captain Chen Ziqiao and Taiwan’s Centers for Disease Control. Chen said the patient had travelled to Henan, so a rapid test for the novel coronavirus was conducted; the result was confirmed negative the following day. Chen also said the patient’s family members, who had signs of pneumonia, were confirmed not to have the disease. The CDC official said that, as of January 28, Taiwan had seven confirmed cases and that all were being cared for in hospitals. The report also addresses the message’s description of the patient’s condition: Chen said “吐血” was inaccurate. The review explains that some secretions or blood appeared during emergency treatment involving intubation and CPR, rather than the patient vomiting blood. Taken together, the reported test result and the clarification about the blood directly contradict the message’s central assertions.

Satya Priya BNHealth & medicine

Coronavirus can spread through frozen food

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The review examines a social-media warning telling people not to eat or drink frozen items, including ice cream, kulfi and cold drinks, as a way to avoid coronavirus. It identifies the warning as one of two circulating messages; the other gave purported Ministry of Health advice about keeping the throat moist and drinking warm water. The review treats these as separate claims, not as one advisory. For the frozen-food claim, the review says that WHO experts attributed coronavirus spread to bats and snakes, then concludes that frozen foods should not be avoided on that basis and that coronavirus does not spread through frozen food. The excerpt does not name the experts, provide a study or give details of how the food-transmission question was investigated, so it offers a conclusion but limited supporting evidence for that particular point. The review separately calls the purported Ministry advisory false, stating that the Ministry had issued travel advice for China and guidance for healthcare providers, rather than the quoted throat-moisture instructions. It also says the virus was new and that treatment measures were still evolving. Those points concern the second message and the broader state of knowledge described in the review; they are not additional evidence about transmission through frozen food.

FACTLYHealth & medicine

Video related to the recent Coronavirus outbreak.

Publisher’s rating: FALSE

The claim concerned a circulating video said to be related to the recent outbreak of the novel coronavirus, then referred to as 2019-nCoV. FACTLY’s review reports that reverse-image searching screenshots from the video led to the same video on YouTube, where it had been uploaded on 1 November 2019 under the title “Guy Has Huge Botfly Larvae Removed from His Lip.” That upload date predates the outbreak’s reported start in the last week of December 2019. The review therefore concludes that the video was not footage related to the 2019-nCoV outbreak. Its central evidence is the earlier online appearance of the same video, rather than a medical analysis of what the video depicts. The review also addresses a separate claim in the social-media post about preserved dairy products: it says prominent health agencies had not issued the claimed precautions and notes WHO recommendations for the public. This is distinct from the video’s provenance and does not supply the basis for identifying the video as old.