&Quot;Spanish Flu&Quot;

Did vaccines kill millions during the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918? No, that's not true: According to medical research and medical experts, the pandemic, which killed at least 50 million people worldwide, was caused by an influenza A (H1N1) virus. A social media post offered no evidence to support its claim, which is contradicted by the body of medical research…

Do pandemics happen every 100 years? No, that's not true: A post making the claim cherry-picks disease outbreaks, excluding obvious examples. It also misrepresents basic facts about the pandemics it does list, including the years in which the outbreaks began. The claim appeared in an Instagram post (archived here) published January 20, 2023. It included a short slideshow of images…

Is this meme correct in saying COVID-19 is less deadly than what was known as Spanish flu a century ago, or current variants of seasonal flu? No, that is misleading: COVID-19 is killing more people annually than the seasonal flu did in the years prior to COVID and the CDC has declared COVID more deadly. A meme from mid-2020 going…

Does a list of claims about diseases and more rely only on factual and proven statements? No, that's not true: Most of the claims are common conspiracy theories repeatedly disproven. Medical experts, for example, agree that the Spanish flu was caused by a virus, not radio waves. Similarly, generations of scientists have established polio is caused by a virus, not…

Is this an accurate list of deadliest days in American history? No, that's not true: While the design of the infographic is clearly well-intentioned, this chart lacks some critical parameters for comparisons. This chart of lethal events separate from each day's unrelated mortality includes natural disasters, acts of war and terrorism, and the coronavirus pandemic, but neglects to include the…

Does Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data "reveal" that COVID-19 death totals have been exaggerated by hospitals counting heart attacks as COVID deaths? No, that's not true: Hospitals don't fill out death certificates, doctors and/or medical examiners do. The claim relies on misinterpretation of death certificates. Death certificates record the sequence of events by which humans succumb to a…

Did Dr. Anthony Fauci -- a leader of the U.S. government's response to the COVID-19 pandemic -- write a research study in 2008 that proves the unmasked buried the masked during the 1918 Spanish Flu pandemic and that masks were the reason so many died of bacterial pneumonia? No, that's not true: Fauci's research report describes a lethal interaction of…

Does the seasonal flu kill more than 100,000 U.S. residents some years and is it more lethal than COVID-19, as President Trump claimed in a tweet? No on both counts: The CDC estimates that over the past decade yearly totals for U.S. flu deaths have ranged from a low of 12,000 people to a high of 61,000. And, although much…

Is it true that President Trump is the only U.S. president to simultaneiously hold records for the biggest stock market drop, the highest national debt, the most members of his team convicted of crimes, and the most pandemic-related infections globally? No, that's not true: Trump does not hold "records" for all of these things, as other presidents have racked up…

Are a series of images circulating on social media accurately depicting what life looked and felt like during the 1918 flu pandemic? No, that's not true: While some of the photographs are, in fact, from the time when what was known as the Spanish flu ravaged the globe, infecting about 500 million people and killing at least 50 million, to…