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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

Fotos von einer Desinfektionsmittel-Flasche werden bei Facebook geteilt. Auf dem Etikett wird behauptet, das Spray wirke unter anderem gegen das Coronavirus. Dies wird in einem Post vom 9. März 2020 kommentiert: "Produktionsjahr 2014!!!". Und weiter: "Ich denke diesen Virus gibt es noch nicht so lange."

Publisher’s rating: Coronaviren sind schon seit Jahrzehnten bekannt - die aktuell grassierende Coronavirus-Art dagegen ist neu.

The post used the bottle’s stated production year, 2014, to suggest that the coronavirus named on the disinfectant’s label could not be a real target because the virus did not yet exist. The review identifies the pictured product as Vibasept and says its manufacturer’s product information listed effectiveness against “Coronavirus (SARS).” It therefore distinguishes the label’s reference to coronaviruses from the specific newly identified coronavirus spreading in 2020; the product label alone does not establish that the spray was tested against that new virus. The review explains that coronaviruses are a family of viruses, and that the virus spreading at the time was a newly discovered member of that family. It reports that the first infections were traced by many accounts to December 2019 and the Huanan market in Wuhan, China. It also says the first coronaviruses had been identified in the mid-1960s, citing the RKI. Thus, the 2014 date does not contradict the existence of coronaviruses, though it does not by itself prove efficacy against the newly identified virus. The review also distinguishes the virus from the disease it causes: it says WHO initially called the new virus nCov, later named it SARS-CoV-2 on February 11, and called the resulting lung disease Covid-19. Its central distinction is between the longstanding coronavirus family and the particular new virus—not between a virus that existed in 2014 and one that did not.