Mosquito

Did White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt announce on Fox News that tech billionaire Elon Musk left the U.S. after revealing "a secret at-home method that can reverse diabetes for good"? No, none of that is true: Paid ads circulating on Facebook used voice-cloning technology to mimic the speech of public persons. No credible sources reported the purported "news," and…

Does a video on Instagram show helicopters in El Salvador spraying communities with something harmful to humans in the guise of treating for mosquitoes? No, that's not true: El Salvador's National Defense Ministry said the clip shows the Salvadoran Air Force carrying out fumigation for mosquito control. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says aerial spraying does "not pose…

Does a photo taken less than two weeks after Donald Trump's right ear was grazed in an assassination attempt show it undamaged? No, that's not true: The photo on social media predates the shooting by more than seven years. There's no evidence to suggest that the former president's ear has fully healed in less than two weeks since the July…

Did a social media video document an aircraft releasing a swarm of mosquitoes over Los Angeles in October 2023? No, that's not true: Los Angeles' vector control districts, responsible for pest eradication, said there have been no known airborne releases of mosquitoes over the city in October 2023. Both the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the California Department of Food…

Did a Gates Foundation "insider" say that depopulation drugs had been injected into U.S. fast food to sterilize most of the world? No, that's not true: The People's Voice, the website that made this claim, provided no proof that someone associated with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation had made any comments about depopulation drugs or fast food. The site,…

Does a photo of barrels inside the fuselage of a plane show anything strange or is it legitimately unclear what they are for? Nope, these are just water ballast tanks that allow a test plane to be loaded with weight which can be distributed in specific areas. The photo seen on social media is actually a screengrab from a video…

Did a helicopter release a swarm of deadly mosquitoes over the crowd at Baltimore's African American Festival (AFRAM) on June 18, 2023? No, that's not true: An urban entomologist told Lead Stories that day-active mosquitoes in that region do not swarm the way videos showed. The Baltimore Health Department has not had any reports of mosquito-borne illness from the festival.…

Did Bill Gates hatch a convoluted plan to create a demand for anti-malaria drugs he funded by also funding malaria-fighting programs while developing a means to introduce malaria to the United States through genetically modified mosquitoes? No, that's not true: Genetically modified male mosquitoes being tested in the U.S. - the type that don't spread malaria and also don't bite…

Do "chemtrails" contain the chemicals aluminum, barium, strontium and ethylene to cause a number of negative health impacts, including migraines, runny noses, depression, lethargy and anxiety? No, that's not true: Experts largely agree that "chemtrails" are a conspiracy theory not proven by science. Contrails, white lines of condensation released by aircraft primarily made of water vapor, are commonly confused for…

Does a video on social media show a genetically modified (GM) mosquito with a number stamped on it? No, that's not true: An insect expert at the University of Wisconsin-Madison said the bug shown in the video "does not appear to be a mosquito." He added that the markings on the insect are "almost certainly natural," not manmade. The claim…