Abortion can be medically necessary to save the life of a pregnant woman

CLAIM
“Abortion is never medically necessary”

SOURCE: Kendra Kolb, Live Action

Published: 09 Jul 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: 07 Jul 2022

VERDICT

Studies show that the benefits of COVID-19 vaccines outweigh their risks; preprint claiming to show otherwise is flawed

CLAIM
“Covid Vaccines More Likely to Put You in Hospital Than Keep You Out”

SOURCE: Will Jones, The Daily Sceptic

Published: 01 Jul 2022

VERDICT

The claim that medical doctors are more likely to kill than firearms isn’t supported by evidence

CLAIM
“In America, you’re 6x more likely to be killed by a Doctor than a gun”

SOURCE: Facebook Users, Facebook

Published: 26 Jun 2022

VERDICT

No scientific evidence supports claims that plant-based food supplements reduce blood sugar to normal levels and cure type 2 diabetes

CLAIM
Food supplements get “perfect sugar levels restored” and “help with type 2 [diabetes]”

SOURCE: Facebook Users, Facebook

Published: 10 Jun 2022

VERDICT

Warming of Earth’s surface and oceans continues apace, contrary to claims in blog

CLAIM
”Global warming started to run out of steam over two decades ago… Half of the apparent global temperature increase from January 1910 to January 2000 is due to administrative adjustments.”

SOURCE: Chris Morrison, Daily Sceptic

Published: 09 Jun 2022

VERDICT

Published research from the Wuhan Institute of Virology didn’t describe artificially created monkeypox strains; the research is unrelated to the 2022 monkeypox outbreak

CLAIM
Researchers from the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) “assembled monkeypox strains”

SOURCE: Natalie Winters, The National Pulse

Published: 03 Jun 2022

VERDICT

Sperm washing to help HIV-discordant couples conceive biological children safely was reported in the 90s; not “huge medical breakthrough” in 2022

CLAIM
A South African scientist made a “huge medical breakthrough” by successfully removing HIV from a sperm cell in a lab

SOURCE: Facebook users, Facebook

Published: 31 May 2022

VERDICT

No scientific data support the existence of orgone and its ability to cure cancer

CLAIM
“Wilhelm Reich invented a way to cure cancer”

SOURCE: Facebook Users, Facebook

Published: 27 May 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