Were Super Bowl LV attendees "packed like sardines" at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida, on February 7, 2021, creating the potential of a superspreader COVID-19 event? No, that's not true: Those weren't all people at the championship game. An NFL spokesman tweeted the day of the Super Bowl that there were 30,000 fan cutouts throughout the stadium in addition…

Did students in a school in Nigeria jump from a balcony to get away from a mandatory vaccine? No, that's not true: This is video of a May 2019 incident at the Community Secondary School in Oroworukwo, in Port Harcourt, Nigeria. The stampede was caused by the detonation of a canister of tear-gas that had been brought to school by…

Is the Canadian government putting passengers arriving on international flights into 'forced detention' in a 'COVID camp'? No, that's not true: Canada has recently required passengers arriving on international flights, who had traveled for non-essential reasons, to "reserve a room in a hotel for three nights at their own cost," while they await their COVID-19 test results. This quarantine measure…

Did Irish Health Service officials "admit" COVID-19 does not exist? No, that's not true: The claim rests on a purported Irish Health Service (HSE) letter the agency says does not exist. The person based her claim on a bit of sophistry: She declares that since she demanded and did not receive HSE documentation of lab isolation of the novel coronavirus,…

Was an elderly woman in Washington state "kidnapped" for refusing to take a COVID-19 test? No, that's not true: The woman was placed in quarantine while she received medical treatment, according to a statement from the Clark County Sheriff's Office. She reportedly told a deputy that she wanted to stay in the hospital. The woman later requested to leave and…

Have Moderna and Pfizer delivered vaccines that cannot legally be called COVID-19 "vaccines" and are these mRNA shots only designed to relieve symptoms caused by the S-1 spike protein, not by the SARS-CoV-2 virus? No, neither claim is true: The person making the claims is an exercise physiology expert without certifications in virology, epidemiology, vaccinology or public health. His claims…

Did France and Australia suspend their COVID-19 vaccination programs and say vaccine is a fraud? No, that's not true. Both France and Australia are continuing their vaccination programs to protect people from coronavirus infection. The claim originated as a post (archived here) where it was published by Alex Jones and Infowars.com on January 31, 2021, under the title "MAJOR GOVERNMENTS…

Did the World Health Organization (WHO) say you do not need to wear a mask? No, that's not true: A WHO Global COVID-19 Press Conference on January 22, 2021 emphasized that the public needs to wear masks in order to protect themselves from the spread of coronavirus. The claim appeared as an article published by Rainbow Warrior 2005 blog on…

Does a video titled "Hold The Line" present the truth about President Joe Biden, former President Donald Trump and a range of other subjects from COVID-19 to birth certificates? No, that's not true. The video pushes debunked QAnon conspiracy theories surrounding the authenticity of the 2020 presidential election, claims that Joe Biden is not the real president and that Donald…

Does the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine cause full-body convulsions? No, there is no evidence proving that convulsions are a potential side effect of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine, according to a spokesperson from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, run by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and FDA, does not show any documented…

Did California lift the state's regional stay-at-home order in January 2021 even though hospitalization numbers are much higher than when the order was put in place in 2020? Yes, but that summary leaves out context: California Gov. Gavin Newsom lifted the stay-at-home order on January 25, 2021, after the Los Angeles County Health Department reported a declining number of people…

Did Merck say it is "better" to get COVID-19 and recover than to take its vaccines? No, that's not true: The pharmaceutical company said it was halting development of its vaccines because they were not as effective in providing immunity as contracting the virus and recovering, and not as effective as other vaccines currently in use. Indeed, in a statement…

If someone becomes sick or dies after getting a COVID-19 vaccine, is the shot necessarily to blame? No, that's not true: It is statistically inevitable that some people will get sick and die after getting the shot, for reasons that are unrelated to their body's response to the vaccine. People die every day of everything from heart attacks to cancer.…

Do masks cause bacterial lung infections in children? No, that's not true: There's no evidence that masks lead to bacterial infection in children or adults, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and medical experts consulted by Lead Stories. The CDC recommends that children ages 2 and up wear masks to help slow the spread of…

Did George Soros, Bill Gates and the Rockefeller family create the COVID-19 virus, as a three-judge Peruvian court declared? No, that's not true: Although the exact location and origin of the virus has not been definitively identified, many virologists and other scientists studying the issue believe it likely spread from bats to humans in a live market in Wuhan, China.…

Is death listed as a possible adverse reaction to COVID-19 vaccines in use in the United States? No, that's not true: Neither the Pfizer-BioNTech nor the Moderna COVID-19 vaccines, both of which the Food and Drug Administration have approved, list death as an adverse reaction, according to FDA documents. The claim appeared in an Instagram post (archived here) published December…

Did Bill Gates admit he has COVID-19? No, that's not true: A headline on a 20-second video posted online claims that Gates "admits he has COVID-19." The short video is deceptively edited from a longer video of Gates speaking with the head of the TED (technology, entertainment, design) conference in mid-2020, discussing what he predicted would be the number of…

Did Pfizer halt production of the COVID-19 vaccine due to deaths? No, that's not true: The pharmaceutical company said that it's making improvements to a facility in Belgium, resulting in a "temporary reduction in the number of doses delivered." Production didn't stop. The upgrades are expected to boost deliveries starting in mid-February. The claim appeared in a post (archived here)…

Did Lin Wood have iron-clad sources for his on-camera claims that Donald Trump won the 2020 election in a landslide, that COVID-19 is a mild flu China used as a weapon against the U.S. and that the Pfizer vaccine is dangerous? No, that's not true: In his interview on the "Patriotically Correct" show, the Atlanta lawyer recycled false claims that…

Will this tonic routine treat COVID-19 in the way that is claimed, and can it prevent anyone who adheres to this regimen from dying of COVID? No, that's not true: This COVID remedy, which is intended to be used as both an inhaled steam treatment and as a drink, contains several aromatic and natural ingredients as a tonic, and those…