Are COVID vaccines toxic and did mysterious "globalists" seek to kill off the weak and enslave the rest of the world's population by triggering the pandemic? No, that's not true: Both are recycled conspiracy theories, being repeated in a sales pitch to sell anti-COVID vitamins. The claims are supported not with evidence, but with far-fetched interpretation of current events. Hundreds…
Did Fox News publish a report stating "Rogue Special Operations Team Exits Afghanistan"? No, that's not true: The claim appeared on a counterfeit newsroom account using a fake name. A Fox News representative told Lead Stories, "FOX News did not make this claim." The claim appeared in a Facebook post (archived here) published by a page calling itself foxnewsmiami.flordia on…
Did the Cyber Ninjas' Arizona audit report show thousands of illegal ballots? No, that's not true: The Republican-commissioned audit of the 2020 election in Maricopa County -- Arizona's most populous county -- did not prove that more than 23,000 mail-in ballots that were submitted by voters who moved before the election were illegal. The report, which was released on September…
Did a study conducted at the University of Ottawa Heart Institute, which was posted as a preprint on medRxiv.org, show the incidence of myocarditis after a COVID-19 vaccination was one in a thousand -- a much higher incidence than other studies had found? The answer is both yes and no. That finding was erroneously reported in the original preprint --…
Was Bill Clinton found dead in his jail cell located at Guantanamo Bay? No, that's not true: No publicly available evidence supports the claim, made on Real Raw News, a satirical website that publishes articles like this one for entertainment purposes. Clinton has been active on social media and spotted in public on the days and after the days the…
Does a video prove that Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his wife Sophie Grégoire Trudeau faked the first doses of their COVID-19 vaccinations? No, that's not true: Although their vaccinations appeared to be unconventionally administered, the medical professional who administered the vaccines used an effective procedure, according to medical experts. The claim appeared in a video (archived here) posted…
Did ballots in Arizona show "VERIFIED AND APPROVED" stamps behind a black triangle, meaning that the image was fake or not a valid ballot? No, that's not true: The image shown during the presentation of the Maricopa County election audit was an inversed image made by the scanner, the Office of Maricopa County Records told Lead Stories. The claim appeared…
Are "duplicate ballots" in Maricopa County, Arizona, proof of voter fraud? No, that's not true: "Duplicate ballots" or ballot envelopes don't prove duplicate votes. If a voter sends back a mail-in ballot and the signature on the envelope is questioned, or there is no signature, election officials will work to cure that signature by contacting the voter. If the issue…
Did Hank Kunneman reveal a shocking prophecy that had to do with the Arizona audit or fraudulent votes? No, that's not true: This video's headline is an example of a clickbait tactic of a spam network that deceptively captures the attention of an American audience with headlines that bear little relation to the content of the video promoted. This video…
Are COVID-19 vaccines hidden in salad greens? No, that's not true: There's no publicly available evidence salad greens are being spiked with any sort of vaccine and the claim was made without supporting evidence. Research being done by scientists at the University of California, Riverside (UCR) and elsewhere seeks to produce vaccine components using plants. They're looking at whether they…
Are Google search result timestamps guaranteed to be the exact publication dates of web pages? No, that's not true: Google can only approximate the date that a web page was published. The claim appeared in a video (archived here) posted to Bitchute on September 24, 2021. The video was titled: TN MASS SHOOTING REPORTED DAYS AGO. THEY GOT A LITTLE…
Do the photos in this tweet show the wounds created by rubber bullets fired by police in Melbourne, Australia? No, that's not true: While rubber bullets were allegedly used on protestors in September 2021 demonstrations in Melbourne, none of these three photos are from 2021 or from Australia. The claim appeared in a tweet (archived here) on September 22, 2021.…
Did a body double for President Joe Biden blow his cover during a meeting with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson? No, that's not true: The president does not have a body double. The story was made up by a website known for their wildly farcical stories regarding political figures, which Lead Stories has debunked multiple times. A message on the…
Did the volcanic eruption on La Palma in the Spanish Canary Islands on September 19, 2021, trigger a tsunami warning in the U.S.? No, that's not true: The National Tsunami Warning Center, part of the U.S. National Weather Service, confirmed that the claim is false. The claim appeared in an Instagram post on September 22, 2021. The narrator of the…
Did the New England Journal of Medicine backtrack and admit the COVID-19 vaccine may not be safe for pregnant women? No, that's not true: An update posted by the Journal did not change the number of pregnancies a study found resulted in a spontaneous abortion after receiving the COVID vaccine; the number remained the same from the study published in…
