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Articles tagged with: Coronavirus
ARTICLE REVIEWS
Misleading Wall Street Journal opinion piece makes the unsubstantiated claim that the U.S. will have herd immunity by April 2021
in Wall Street Journal, by Marty Makary
— 26 Feb 2021
"The article’s claim that the U.S. is near herd immunity rests on two numbers: 1) the detection of infections by testing (claimed to be 10 – 25 percent) and 2) the infection fa..
New York Post article makes speculative, unsupported claim that mutation could enable the virus causing COVID-19 to evade handwashing and mask-wearing
in New York Post, by Jackie Salo
— 08 Oct 2020
"The preprint that the article focuses on actually says nothing about the most egregious claim made in the article: that the virus is evolving to get around hand-washing, masks, et..
Telegraph article describing the hypothesis that face masks can variolate a population receives mixed reviews on its scientific accuracy
in The Telegraph, by Georgina Hayes
— 24 Sep 2020
"The Telegraph headline is obviously misleading but the subheading is accurate. Masks don’t give immunity; rather, the argument is that infections are milder or asymptomatic and ..
Potential role for T cells in COVID-19 immunity accurately reported in National Geographic article
in National Geographic, by Carrie Arnold
— 19 Aug 2020
"The article accurately discusses the recent findings about the presence/relevance of T cell response against COVID-19. Indeed, both arms of adaptive immunity, humoral and cellular..
People who do not show symptoms can contribute to significant COVID-19 transmission, contrary to CNBC report
in CNBC, by William Feuer, Noah Higgins-Dunn
— 10 Jun 2020
there is already “abundant data” showing that people who are not showing symptoms—which could include asymptomatic, presymptomatic, and paucisymptomatic individuals—compris...
COVID-19 vaccine candidate by Pittsburgh scientists show promising results in animal studies, but clinical trials still needed before efficacy in humans is known
in Pittsburgh Magazine, by Garret Roberts
— 11 Apr 2020
Scientists who reviewed this article’s scientific credibility found that the reporting was generally accurate. However, they also highlighted a missed opportunity to provide read...
CLAIM REVIEWS
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
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
Pregnant women can decide whether to receive the COVID-19 vaccine; safety monitoring suggests that COVID-19 vaccines don’t pose any specific risk for pregnant women
CLAIM
“Health officials push pregnant women to get covid shots, despite known risks”
SOURCE: Anonymous, Children’s Health Defense
Published: 01 Mar 2021
VERDICT
More evidence needed for the claim that vitamin D supplements reduce risk of COVID-19 infection
CLAIM
“Habitual use of vitamin D supplements was associated with a 34% lower risk of COVID-19 infection”; “This is an observational study so causation cannot be established”
SOURCE: Rhonda Patrick, Instagram
Published: 22 Feb 2021
VERDICT
The number of new COVID-19 cases fell and daily vaccination increased in early 2021, but no indication that it was due to U.S. president Biden taking office
CLAIM
COVID-19 cases are “down by 50%” and “daily vaccinations have increased by 85%” since “Biden took office”
SOURCE: Anonymous, Occupy Democrats
Published: 22 Feb 2021
VERDICT
COVID-19 vaccines don’t increase the incidence of poor outcomes during pregnancy, according to current safety data on COVID-19 vaccines
CLAIM
COVID-19 vaccines caused miscarriages
SOURCE: Facebook users, Twitter, Facebook
Published: 19 Feb 2021
VERDICT
Misleading to compare the safety of COVID-19 and flu vaccines based solely on VAERS reports; VAERS reports alone cannot demonstrate that a vaccine caused an adverse event
CLAIM
One person is 300 to 900 times “more likely to die” after getting the COVID-19 vaccine than the flu vaccine; “Adverse events are widely underreported”
SOURCE: Alex Berenson, Twitter, Facebook
Published: 17 Feb 2021
VERDICT
The CDC didn’t introduce a “major rule change” to inflate COVID-19 deaths; there have been more than 490,000 excess deaths in the U.S. to date
CLAIM
“CDC illegally inflated the COVID fatality number by at least 1,600 percent”; “the NVSS COVID-19 Alert No. 2 [deemphasized] underlying causes of death [...] by recording them in Part II rather than Part I of death certificates [...] This was a major rule change [...] from the 2003 guidance on certification of death
SOURCE: Patty McMurray, Gateway Pundit
Published: 14 Feb 2021
VERDICT
COVID-19 vaccines approved for emergency use prevent the disease and are generally safe based on rigorous clinical trials and ongoing monitoring
CLAIM
“No one can possibly know if the [COVID-19] vaccine is safe and effective because the trial is still underway; “Thousands of people who had the vaccine have died or been seriously injured by it”
SOURCE: Vernon Coleman, Charlie Ward
Published: 11 Feb 2021
VERDICT
Article claiming that masks contribute to cancer development misrepresents a study about lung cancer that didn’t involve masks
CLAIM
“Long-term Mask Use May Contribute to Advanced Stage Lung Cancer, Study Finds”
SOURCE: Philip Schneider, Blacklisted News, GlobalResearch.ca
Published: 10 Feb 2021
VERDICT
INSIGHTS
“Plandemic: Indoctornation” video rehashes debunked claims and conspiracy theories about the COVID-19 pandemic and vaccines
— 20 Aug 2020
Plandemic is a pseudo-documentary produced by American filmmaker Mikki Willis, whose first instalment was published in May 2020. Featuring an interview with anti-vaccination activi...
Computing Forever interview with Dolores Cahill contains numerous inaccuracies about COVID-19 and vaccines
— 22 May 2020
This video, first published on 11 May 2020, features an interview between Dave Cullen, also known as Computing Forever on YouTube, and Dolores Cahill, a professor at University Col...
“Plandemic” vignette featuring anti-vaccination activist Judy Mikovits contains numerous false and unsupported claims about COVID-19
— 08 May 2020
This video is the first in a series of vignettes preceding a movie titled “Plandemic”. First published on 5 May 2020, it quickly went viral on Facebook, with more than 2.2 mill...
Did the COVID-19 virus originate from a lab or nature? Examining the evidence for different hypotheses of the novel coronavirus’ origins
— 24 Apr 2020
Since the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak in December 2019, many hypotheses have been advanced to explain where the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) actually came from. Initial re...