Claim reviews
Article claiming that “masks don’t work” misleads readers by inaccurately interpreting a withdrawn study and a published study conducted on U.S. Marine Corps recruits
CLAIM
“Pro-mask study withdrawn after virus spread in counties analyzed by researchers”; “masks don’t work”
SOURCE: Daniel Horowitz, The Blaze
Published: 18 Nov 2020
VERDICT
Although fetal-derived cells are used to grow viruses for some COVID-19 vaccines, the cells are not part of the vaccines
CLAIM
“CONFIRMED - aborted male fetus in [COVID-19] vaccine”
SOURCE: Anonymous, Facebook
Published: 16 Nov 2020
VERDICT
The U.S. sees record numbers of daily new COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations in November 2020
CLAIM
“There were 144,305 newly reported COVID-19 cases in the United States today. This beats the previous record of 133,819 cases reported on Monday, November 9. This is the 8th day in a row with over 100,000 cases reported.”
SOURCE: Ali Velshi, Twitter, NBC News
Published: 13 Nov 2020
VERDICT
Pfizer is part of Operation Warp Speed, a partnership to produce and distribute a SARS-CoV-2 vaccine, but it developed a vaccine without direct funding from the partnership
CLAIM
Pfizer is part of Operation Warp Speed; “Thanks to the public-private partnership forged by President, [Pfizer] announced its Coronavirus Vaccine trial is EFFECTIVE, preventing infection in 90% of its volunteers”
SOURCE: David Marcus, Mike Pence, The Federalist
Published: 12 Nov 2020
VERDICT
Claim that high PCR test sensitivity inflates COVID-19 cases wrongly conflates the issue of contagiousness with the presence of infection
CLAIM
“Dr. Anthony Fauci appeared to acknowledge that large numbers of positive COVID-19 cases may arise from oversensitive tests that pick up mere fragments of the virus rather than active, viable infections. If true, many patients may have been receiving false-positive test results”
SOURCE: Daniel Payne, Just the News
Published: 12 Nov 2020
VERDICT
Wearing face masks helps reduce the spread of COVID-19, but it only confers partial protection and should be combined with additional public health measures
CLAIM
“Mask mandates do nothing to stop [the spread of] COVID[-19]”; There is “overwhelming scientific evidence” that masks do not work
SOURCE: Yinon Weiss, The Federalist
Published: 11 Nov 2020
VERDICT
A rise in the number of COVID-19 cases and deaths starting in September 2020 contradicts the claim by Michael Yeadon that “the pandemic is fundamentally over in the U.K.”
CLAIM
“the pandemic is fundamentally over in the U.K.”; “We now know that loads of people had prior immunity [...] I believe we are now firmly at community immunity.”; “Viruses don’t do waves.”
SOURCE: Julia Hartley-Brewer, Michael Yeadon, talkRADIO
Published: 10 Nov 2020
VERDICT
There is no evidence supporting the claim that preexisting T cell immunity reduces COVID-19 mortality and infection rate; such cross-reactive T cells predate the pandemic
CLAIM
“the reason why the death rate is so low is because our body has another way to create immunity that goes beyond just the antibodies, it’s called the memory T cells”
SOURCE: Eric Berg, YouTube
Published: 06 Nov 2020
VERDICT
A 2008 study co-authored by Anthony Fauci did not find that masks caused bacterial pneumonia, contrary to viral social media claim
CLAIM
“Most of the victims of the Spanish flu didn’t die from the Spanish flu. They died from bacterial pneumonia. And the bacterial pneumonia was caused by [...] wearing masks”
SOURCE: Anonymous, Facebook
Published: 06 Nov 2020
VERDICT
The number of COVID-19 deaths over the entire pandemic is higher in the U.S. than Europe, even when controlling for population size
CLAIM
The U.S. has “a better handle on [COVID-19] than Europe”; “the disease is less deadly here than it is in most of Europe, based on case fatality data”
SOURCE: I&I Editorial Board, Issues & Insights
Published: 04 Nov 2020
VERDICT
