Masks offer only partial protection from the virus that causes COVID-19, but their effectiveness can be enhanced with other measures like physical distancing

CLAIM
“Either masks work or they don’t”; “I don’t understand the safety concern with voting in person. Your mask works, right?”

SOURCE: Facebook users, Facebook

Published: 04 Sep 2020

VERDICT

A person’s response to vaccination is not associated with birthmarks or the presence of mutations in a gene involved with vitamin B9 production

CLAIM
Birthmarks are indicators of the MTHFR gene; “When people have MTHFR their chances of vaccine reactions increase because they cannot detox the toxins from the vaccines”

SOURCE: Facebook users, Facebook

Published: 03 Sep 2020

VERDICT

False claim shared by President Trump that only 6% of CDC-reported deaths are from COVID-19 is based on flawed reasoning

CLAIM
only 6% of all the 153,504 deaths recorded actually died from Covid, the rest had other serious illnesses

SOURCE: Facebook users, Facebook

Published: 31 Aug 2020

VERDICT

Human DNA does not produce a positive result on the RT-PCR test for SARS-CoV-2

CLAIM
“WHO coronavirus PCR test primer sequence is found in all human DNA”; “this means that the WHO test kits should find a positive result in all humans”

SOURCE: Anonymous, Piece of Mindful

Published: 31 Aug 2020

VERDICT

A vaccine against SARS-CoV-2 would be useful even if the survival rate from COVID-19 is high

CLAIM
With the survival rate of COVID-19 close to 100% without a vaccine, what exactly will the purpose of the new vaccine be?

SOURCE: Facebook User, Facebook

Published: 28 Aug 2020

VERDICT

People infected with SARS-CoV-2 can transmit the virus to others, even if they do not show symptoms of the disease and are not considered sick

CLAIM
“The greatest trick the CDC ever pulled was convincing the world you can be sick without having symptoms”

SOURCE: Facebook users, Facebook

Published: 27 Aug 2020

VERDICT

Altered image falsely suggests that restaurant staff in Maine are required to wear dog cone-style face visors to protect against COVID-19

CLAIM
“Governor of Maine orders restaurant staff to wear COVID visors like dog cones”

SOURCE: Sherri Tenpenny, Paul Joseph Watson, Twitter, Summit News

Published: 27 Aug 2020

VERDICT

Listicle of “facts” about COVID-19 contains numerous inaccurate and misleading claims

CLAIM
“The overall lethality of [COVID-19] (IFR) is about 0.1% to 0.3% and thus in the range of a severe influenza”

SOURCE: Anonymous, Swiss Policy Research

Published: 26 Aug 2020

VERDICT

Current COVID-19 mortality rate does not predict the future probability of dying from the disease

CLAIM
“Chance of NOT dying from Covid-19: 99.96%”

SOURCE: Facebook User, Facebook

Published: 21 Aug 2020

VERDICT

Flawed “study” incorrectly claims that countries adopting hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for COVID-19 experienced reduced mortality rates

CLAIM
Large country-randomized controlled trial in 2.7 billion people shows 79.1% lower death rate in COVID-19 patients treated with hydroxychloroquine

SOURCE: Anonymous, CovidAnalysis

Published: 17 Aug 2020

VERDICT