No evidence that COVID-19 vaccines cause more severe disease; antibody-dependent enhancement has not been observed in clinical trials

CLAIM
COVID-19 vaccines will cause more severe disease through antibody-dependent enhancement

SOURCE: Facebook users, Facebook

Published: 27 Nov 2020

VERDICT

The Earth is a sphere that rotates on its axis and revolves around the Sun, contrary to Flat Earth video

CLAIM
“The Earth is not a globe. The Earth is stationary.”

SOURCE: Amber Plaster, Flat Earth

Published: 27 Nov 2020

VERDICT

Face masks, handwashing, and vaccination do not weaken the immune system, and are effective measures to reduce the spread of infectious diseases

CLAIM
Public health measures aimed at reducing the spread of COVID-19 including face masks, vaccines, and frequent handwashing “suppress our immune systems”

SOURCE: Anonymous, Instagram

Published: 26 Nov 2020

VERDICT

Danish face mask study did not show that masks were ineffective at reducing spread of COVID-19; study was underpowered and results were inconclusive

CLAIM
“Masks make no significant difference”; “Masks have no significant effect”

SOURCE: Sharyl Attkisson, Alex Berenson, Buck Sexton, Anthony Sabatini, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram

Published: 20 Nov 2020

VERDICT

Non-pharmaceutical interventions, such as lockdowns and wearing face masks, are effective measures to reduce COVID-19 transmission, contrary to claims in viral video

CLAIM
Lockdowns and face masks do not work to control the COVID-19 pandemic

SOURCE: Tom Woods, Young Americans for Liberty

Published: 19 Nov 2020

VERDICT

Article claiming that “masks don’t work” misleads readers by inaccurately interpreting a withdrawn study and a published study conducted on U.S. Marine Corps recruits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“Pro-mask study withdrawn after virus spread in counties analyzed by researchers”; “masks don’t work”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