Autism

Are social media posts about a missing boy named Grayson Costain diagnosed with autism real? No, that's not true: Lead Stories has debunked many similar stories about a missing child in various locations before. These bait-and-switch posts use an emotional tale about a child supposedly lost in various locations across the U.S. to draw an audience, then flip to display…

Did President Joe Biden turn and smile when a reporter asked if his son, Hunter Biden, should receive a presidential pardon? No, that's not true: The audio track of this video was altered. Audio from a press briefing held on September 15, 2023, was added to video footage filmed on May 31, 2024, to suggest that Biden had smiled after…

Did a police department report that an autistic teen named "Ivan Moore" is missing? No, that's not true: The teen shown in social-media images captioned with this name is not urgently sought by any police department. This attention-grabbing narrative is a classic trick to get people to share the missing-child post, which will later be edited to become a scam…

Did a mother's daily use of an air fryer result in high levels of antimony in her child's bloodwork? No, that's not known to be true: The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission has issued several recalls on air fryers in the past, but fire and burn hazards were the reason -- not the release of antimony. The woman provided no…

Does an image on social media show the helicopter crash that killed several government officials including Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi? No, that's not true: This image was created using digital editing tools and does not depict a real scene. A 2012 Alamy stock photo shows this helicopter fully operational, conducting aerial inspections of a high voltage grid in Italy. According…

Is Canada killing autistic people without their consent? No, that's not true: The implication in a social media post, with a screenshot of a news article, that a man's perfectly healthy daughter who is on the autism spectrum could be killed with Canada's MAID program is false. MAID -- an acronym for "medical assistance in dying" -- does not kill…

Does dairy intake cause asthma? No, that's not true: Although someone with both a dairy allergy and asthma may experience heightened asthma symptoms if they consume dairy, dairy is not a root cause of asthma. Asthma may be caused by a variety of other factors, including environment, having a family history of asthma and previous respiratory infections. The claim appeared…

Does the Apeel produce coating Organipeel contain an "unidentified coating" that is falsely labeled as organic and that could be harmful to human health? No, that's not true: Though it may be applied to organic produce, it is neither considered an organic product by regulatory agencies nor does the company claim it to be. Orangipeel is a coating used to…

Did the Swedish environmental activist Greta Thunberg post a photo of herself holding a placard that reads "6 Million wasn't enough"? No, that's not true: She never posted the photo in question. Thunberg did express her pro-Palestinian stand on social media but used different words, and condemned antisemitism in subsequent tweets. The authentic photo showed her holding a sign saying,…

Did a July 2023 report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention conclude that children are being harmed by masks, resulting in a 17 percent rise in developmental disabilities in children 3-17? No, that's not true: A misleading headline on a paywalled Substack blog post mentions a "New CDC Report" as if it offers evidence supporting the claim that…