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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

PolitiFactHealth & medicine

Dr. Anthony Fauci "has known for 15 years that chloroquine and … hydroxychloroquine will not only treat a current case of coronavirus but prevent future cases.”

Publisher’s rating: False

Related reporting traces the claim to research on chloroquine and SARS-CoV. One article quotes the researchers describing antiviral effects in primate cells when cells were treated before or after exposure, and characterizes those results as evidence of both prophylactic and therapeutic potential. Another related article quotes the study’s conclusion that chloroquine was effective at preventing SARS-CoV spread “in cell culture.” Those passages support a narrower account: the reported experiments concerned chloroquine and SARS-CoV in cells. They do not, in the excerpts provided, establish that hydroxychloroquine prevents or treats COVID-19 in people, or that Fauci had known it would do so. The articles themselves make that leap, asserting that the study meant Fauci knew the drugs would treat and prevent “coronavirus.” The quoted experimental findings do not demonstrate that broader claim. The excerpts do not include the original PolitiFact review or enough material to assess its reporting methods or full reasoning.

PolitiFactHealth & medicine

Says President Donald Trump “never downplayed the virus.”

Publisher’s rating: Pants on Fire

Research from related reporting points against the claim that Trump “never downplayed the virus.” One excerpt describes Trump as having “notably downplayed the virus” and reports that, in a private conversation with Bob Woodward, he said the coronavirus was “a big deal” but then downplayed it publicly. That account directly concerns Trump’s public statements about COVID-19, rather than a different person or event. The excerpt also distinguishes Trump’s position on lockdowns from his handling of the virus: it quotes Robert F. Kennedy Jr. saying Trump “wanted to end the lockdowns.” That statement does not establish that Trump never downplayed COVID-19; the same report separately characterizes his public handling as downplaying it. A separate supplied excerpt similarly says Trump told Woodward privately that the coronavirus was serious but downplayed it in public. These materials support a conclusion contrary to the absolute claim, but they are related reporting, not the original PolitiFact review, and the excerpts do not provide its full evidence or rating rationale.