Claim reviews
COVID-19 vaccines are critical for controlling the pandemic; vaccines still offer partial protection against new variants of the virus
CLAIM
COVID-19 mass vaccination will select for more virulent variants of the virus that causes COVID-19, which will escape vaccine-induced immunity and cause more severe disease
SOURCE: Geert Vanden Bossche, Children’s Health Defense, The HighWire
Published: 23 Mar 2021
VERDICT
Jamaica already recorded tens of thousands of COVID-19 cases as of March 2021, contrary to viral meme suggesting that smoking cannabis prevents infections
CLAIM
“Jamaica has not recorded any cases of the coronavirus”
SOURCE: Facebook Users, Facebook
Published: 23 Mar 2021
VERDICT
Tinnitus isn’t a sign of brain death, even though it arises in the brain; no cure for tinnitus currently exists
CLAIM
Tinnitus is your first real warning signal that your brain could be dying
SOURCE: Anonymous, Tinnitus Battle
Published: 23 Mar 2021
VERDICT
Messenger RNA is essential for life and a normal component of cells; study by researchers at Memorial Sloan Kettering is unrelated to RNA vaccines
CLAIM
“Scientists at Sloan Kettering discover mRNA inactivates tumor-suppressing proteins, meaning it can promote cancer”
SOURCE: S.D. Wells, Natural News
Published: 23 Mar 2021
VERDICT
Ivermectin isn’t a highly effective drug for treating COVID-19
CLAIM
Ivermectin reduces the risk of death from COVID-19
SOURCE: Tess Lawrie, YouTube
Published: 22 Mar 2021
VERDICT
No evidence that the milk protein casein causes cancer; claim is based on animal studies involving other well-known risk factors for liver cancer like hepatitis B virus infection
CLAIM
“Milk from cows 'has the most relevant carcinogen ever identified’ and ‘turns on cancer'“
SOURCE: Arjun Walia, Collective Evolution
Published: 21 Mar 2021
VERDICT
No aborted fetal tissue or cells in the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine
CLAIM
“The Johnson & Johnson vaccine has aborted fetal tissue from aborted babies from the retina as well as from kidney cells”
SOURCE: Rizza Islam, Instagram
Published: 18 Mar 2021
VERDICT
COVID-19 RNA vaccines are safe, cannot modify human DNA; death rate in vaccinated people isn’t higher than in unvaccinated people
CLAIM
“The protein then can bind to your DNA and irreversibly change it”; “[It] has several different type of lipids on it that have never been injected into human beings before”; “We could be looking at right now as many as 12,000 deaths”
SOURCE: Sherri Tenpenny, Daystar
Published: 17 Mar 2021
VERDICT
Oxygen in the air doesn’t prevent people from getting tetanus through cuts with dirty or rusty objects; the vaccine is important to prevent infection
CLAIM
“The tetanus bacteria is an anaerobic bacteria. That means that it cannot live in the presence of oxygen. You cannot get tetanus by stepping on a rusty nail.“
SOURCE: Steven Baker, Facebook
Published: 15 Mar 2021
VERDICT
Mask mandates are associated with reductions in the spread of COVID-19 cases and deaths; contrary to One America News article
CLAIM
“CDC: Face Masks Don’t Prevent COVID-19, Study Finds Masks Have Negligible Impact on Coronavirus Numbers”; CDC “admitted such mandates do not make any statistical difference.”
SOURCE: OANN editors, One America News Network
Published: 12 Mar 2021
VERDICT