Articles tagged with: SARS-CoV-2

ARTICLE REVIEWS

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...

CLAIM REVIEWS

Viral memes listing COVID-19 topics about which authorities were allegedly “wrong” rehash debunked misinformation

CLAIM
We were lied about “COVID-19 numbers”, treatments, natural immunity, and the origin of the virus; COVID-19 vaccines and control measures “didn’t work”

SOURCE: Social media users, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter

Published: 07 Mar 2023

VERDICT

Unsubstantiated claims by Michael Palmer and Sucharit Bhakdi don’t demonstrate that COVID-19 vaccines harm organs

CLAIM
mRNA vaccines cause “vascular and organ damage” that can lead to death

SOURCE: Michael Palmer, Sucharit Bhakdi, Doctors for COVID Ethics

Published: 03 Sep 2022

VERDICT

Justin Bieber’s facial paralysis is caused by a viral infection; no evidence that COVID-19 vaccine played a role

CLAIM
Ramsay Hunt syndrome that caused Justin Bieber’s facial paralysis is linked to the COVID-19 vaccine

SOURCE: Social media users, Steve Kirsch, Facebook, Twitter, Substack

Published: 16 Jun 2022

VERDICT

Scientific evidence shows that mask-wearing is effective at limiting community transmission; claims that face masks increase mortality are based on flawed correlation studies

CLAIM
“Countries with high levels of mask compliance did not perform better than those with low mask usage”; “Mask Mandates [are] Associated With Increased Covid Death Rate”

SOURCE: Zacharias Foegen, Townhall Media, The National Pulse

Published: 11 Jun 2022

VERDICT

Monkeypox outbreak triggers conspiracy theories on social media claiming that it was planned or incorrectly linking it to COVID-19 vaccines

CLAIM
Monkeypox is caused by COVID-19 vaccines; a 2021 tabletop exercise portraying a monkeypox pandemic is evidence that global leaders planned the outbreak; the monkeypox vaccine was “ready” before the outbreak

SOURCE: Social media users, Facebook, TikTok, YouTube

Published: 26 May 2022

VERDICT

The benefits of COVID-19 vaccines in preventing severe disease and other complications outweigh the risk of myocarditis, which is higher after COVID-19 itself

CLAIM
“they were not able to find a single healthy child in america that died from COVID-19 […] but one in every 2700 people are getting myocarditis”; “athletes are collapsing on playing fields as for myocarditis and it's from the vaccines”; Moderna patent filed in 2019 is linked to the pandemic

SOURCE: Robert F. Kennedy Jr., This Past Weekend with Theo Von

Published: 18 May 2022

VERDICT

Multiple studies show that COVID-19 vaccines don’t cause pregnancy or fertility problems, despite widespread claims on social media

CLAIM
mRNA COVID-19 vaccines accumulate in the ovaries, change menstrual cycles, and lead the immune system to mount “an immune response to their own placental protein”

SOURCE: James Thorp, Michael Yeadon, The Epoch Times

Published: 07 May 2022

VERDICT

The CGG CGG genetic sequence and furin cleavage sites also exist in naturally-occurring viruses; these features aren’t evidence of genetic manipulation

CLAIM
“the CGG CGG coding [...] does not appear in nature”, this and the furin cleavage site from the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein gene suggests the virus wasn't transmitted from animals to humans

SOURCE: Dan Bongino, Facebook

Published: 06 May 2022

VERDICT

No evidence that SARS-CoV-2 was engineered in a laboratory, contrary to claim by Li-Meng Yan

CLAIM
The SARS-CoV-2 virus was engineered in a laboratory and deliberately released

SOURCE: Li-Meng Yan, The Joe Hoft Show, Anon HQ

Published: 05 May 2022

VERDICT

Fox News article listing alleged mistakes in COVID-19 public health response mixes accurate information with unsubstantiated claims

CLAIM
Natural immunity protects better than vaccination; “the mortality risk of an un-boosted person under age 30 was zero”; cloth face masks, school closures had zero benefits for children and some harm

SOURCE: Marty Makary, Fox News

Published: 23 Mar 2022

VERDICT

INSIGHTS

What is known about the claims that the Wuhan Institute of Virology conducted research to bioengineer bat coronaviruses?

— 15 Jun 2021

Image: Scanning electron microscope image showing SARS-CoV-2 (round gold objects) emerging from the surface of cells cultured in the lab. Credit NIAID-RML Introduction One of the q...

Could scientists use the bat coronavirus RaTG13 to engineer SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, in a lab?

— 19 Mar 2021

One of the biggest outstanding questions of the COVID-19 pandemic is the origin of SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus responsible for the disease. One idea, put forward by some news sites...

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...