Health

Does a viral video actually capture a father punching a person who followed his daughter home? No, that's not true: The clip originated from a channel on YouTube that warned viewers not to take its contents too seriously. Reverse image searches did not show credible media organizations distributing the video of the supposed incident. The claim appeared in a post…

Do studies show an 81% or 82% miscarriage rate in pregnant women vaccinated against COVID-19 in the first trimester? No, that's not true: The numbers are a long-running misrepresentation of early safety data on how mRNA COVID-19 vaccines affected pregnant people. The 81% and 82% figures come from miscalculating percentages from early, incomplete data -- no study actually found those…

Was the sound of a fart part of a White House event with President Donald Trump? No, that's not true: The original recordings of the May 11, 2026, Oval Office meeting didn't feature it. The sound was digitally added in the version of the video shared on social media in early August 2026. The claim appeared in a post on…

Did an Aug. 3, 2026, procession in Louisville bring the corpse of Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky to the coroner's office there? No, that's not true: The Louisville Metro Police Department told Lead Stories that reports involving McConnell were "completely false" and said authorities were escorting the body of an officer who had died. As of Aug. 5, 2026, there…

Was a man named "François Faivre", the supposed surgeon who "announced Brigitte Macron's transgender transformation," found dead in Paris in June 2026? No, that's not true: Lead Stories searched the French national registry of the deceased but found no exact matches. The claim came from a video showing AI-generated people that has resurfaced on the internet multiple times since 2025.…

Did Inter Miami player Germán Berterame die as a result of a collision seen in a video of a match against Montréal on July 25, 2026? No, that's not true: Berterame collapsed on the field after being struck in the head by Efraín Morales' elbow in the 70th minute of the match. He spent the night at Montréal General Hospital…

Does a viral image of actor Elliot Page actually show him on the August 2026 Men's Health magazine cover? No, that's not true: The magazine told Lead Stories it didn't publish such a cover. The picture shared on social media originated from a self-described satire account, but later variations removed the watermark linking the image with that account. The claim…

Did U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. say, "Infertility is genetic. If your parents couldn't have kids, then you won't either"? No, that's not true: There is no evidence that Kennedy ever made this statement, either seriously or as a joke. Variations of this phrase circulated as a joke online for nearly four years before…

Have you seen viral images of an "activist" talking to a middle-aged farmer, paired with the caption claiming to describe their dialogue? Lead Stories has spotted a number of such pictures recently and has found that many of them were created using artificial intelligence. They do not show real people or situations. This article is part of a series of…

Did President Donald Trump make a post on Truth Social asking Markwayne Mullin if ICE detention centers could be used to lock up communists? No, that's not true: Viral images that appear to show such a post are fake; there is no such message on Trump's actual account. It likely originated as satire because the message also attacked people for…