Claim reviews
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
Vaccines are safe and aren’t associated with autoimmune disease, contrary to claim in viral video by chiropractor Steven Baker
CLAIM
“Vaccines cause autoimmune disease”; COVID-19 vaccine will “change your genes”; aborted fetal tissue is in vaccines
SOURCE: Steven Baker, Facebook
Published: 11 Mar 2021
VERDICT
Data from Israel showed that the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine reduces the likelihood of dying from COVID-19; analysis in a forum post claiming the opposite is flawed
CLAIM
“the Pfizer vaccines, for the elderly, killed during the 5-week vaccination period about 40 times more people than the disease itself would have killed”
SOURCE: Haim Yativ, Children’s Health Defense, GreenMedInfo
Published: 09 Mar 2021
VERDICT
COVID-19 vaccines start to provide protection within two weeks of the first dose, with no evidence they increase the risk of infection before then
CLAIM
“Now a Public Health England report confirms that infections increase during the fortnight after vaccination”
SOURCE: Niall McCrae, Gateway Pundit
Published: 09 Mar 2021
VERDICT
Six residents in a German nursing home died from COVID-19, not from vaccines
CLAIM
“25% of residents in German nursing home died after Pfizer vaccine”; a team including a soldier in uniform used force to vaccinate residents
SOURCE: Anonymous, Children’s Health Defense
Published: 06 Mar 2021
VERDICT
The U.S. leads the world in number of COVID-19 vaccine doses administered, but not in the proportion of the population vaccinated
CLAIM
“In five weeks, America has administered the most COVID vaccine shots than any other country in the world.”
SOURCE: Facebook Users, Facebook
Published: 04 Mar 2021
VERDICT
Yes, COVID-19 vaccines will help us safely resume normal activities like going to restaurants and meeting people, once enough people are vaccinated for herd immunity
CLAIM
The COVID-19 vaccines won’t let us stop mask-wearing, physical distancing and restaurants, pubs, and cinemas still remain closed, so why vaccinate?
SOURCE: Facebook users, Telegram, Facebook
Published: 04 Mar 2021
VERDICT
The CDC licences vaccine technology, but isn’t a vaccine company; the CDC doesn’t sell vaccines, it buys and distributes vaccines free of charge
CLAIM
“The CDC is not an independent agency. It is a vaccine company […] The CDC owns over 20 vaccine patents. It sells about $4.6 billion of vaccines every year”.
SOURCE: Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Children's Health Defense
Published: 04 Mar 2021
VERDICT
Scientific evidence demonstrates that wearing face masks and implementing lockdowns reduce the spread of COVID-19
CLAIM
“It’s been a year & there is still no evidence masks or lockdowns slow the spread of #COVID19”
SOURCE: Kimberly Klacik, Facebook
Published: 03 Mar 2021
VERDICT