Do nasopharyngeal swabs, like those used in PCR (polymerase chain reaction) testing for COVID-19, affect your longevity and aging? No, that's not true: Most research about the effectiveness and safety of such swabs suggests that they pose no significant threat to most patients. The claim appeared in a video (archived here) posted on TikTok on April 28, 2023. The video…
Does a social media video prove that the advent of radio wave and mobile phone technology ushered in flu, COVID and other viral outbreaks from the 1900s on? No, that's not true: The emergence of these viruses is a natural process and not caused by technology itself. In addition, the timeline provided in the social media video doesn't establish cause…
Do PCR tests contain magnetic beacons that can be used for tagging, tracking or patenting humans? No, that's not true: No known magnetic substances, including beacons, are used in PCR tests or the swabs used to collect the samples. The tests are not new to medicine. They've been used for decades to detect viruses and bacteria. The claims appeared in…
Does a line graph in a peer-reviewed medical study published by The Lancet show that the oral anti-COVID-19 medication Paxlovid starts working before the patient ingests it? No, that's not true: The lead author of the study told Lead Stories that blue and orange lines on the graph start at zero, which is the origin of the graph's X-axis (horizontal…
Are COVID-19 PCR tests "linked to human cloning"? No, that's not true. There is no evidence confirming that human cloning ever occurred. A study cited in a video making the claim never discussed PCR tests used during the pandemic because the study was published years before the world learned about COVID-19. The story originated from an episode of the Stew…
Do COVID-19 vaccines or PCR tests make people "magnetic"? No, that's not true. There is no evidence that either of them can increase what is perceived as "magnetism." But theatrical glue, oily skin or body cream can do the trick of making objects stick to skin without fundamentally altering the properties of the human body, which is not known for…
Do Pfizer documents prove the COVID-19 vaccine claim of 95% efficacy is "completely false"? No, that's not true. It's also not true that the vaccine hurts fetuses: While the 95% efficacy claim cited in memes on social media is a small exaggeration of actual study results, Pfizer documents submitted for emergency use authorization (EUA) and licensure of the vaccine showed…
Did Public Health Scotland (PHS) stop publishing weekly COVID-19 data to hide that fully vaccinated people are developing AIDS? No, that's not true: The agency said it's because of an "increasing risk of misinterpretation." COVID skeptics and anti-vaccine activists have used PHS numbers out of context to mislead. COVID vaccines boost the ability of our bodies to fight coronavirus. AIDS…
Is the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention collecting DNA through COVID-19 test samples? No, that's not true: The CDC published a tweet on February 16, 2022, that stated that if a person took a COVID nose swab test there was "a 10% chance that it ended up in a lab for genomic sequencing analysis." The following day, February 17,…
Did Johns Hopkins University confirm you can be vaccinated with a COVID-19 PCR test, even without knowing it? No, that's not true: Johns Hopkins Medicine says details about one of its devices have been "inaccurately used for disinformation purposes," the device "has not been approved for use in humans" and has neither been "tested nor used for vaccine delivery." The…
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