Does the U.S. government own or co-own Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine, giving it an "ulterior motive" for mandating the shots? No, that's not true: There is no evidence to support this claim. The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), which collaborated with Moderna on the shot, told Lead Stories in a September 28, 2022 email that it "neither owns…

Did President Joe Biden tell Americans to get COVID vaccinations as Hurricane Ian was bearing down on Florida in late September 2022? No, that's not true: A post suggesting he did uses a video recorded in August 2021, not on the eve of Ian's landfall. Biden made no mention of vaccines when he spoke about Hurricane Ian at the White…

Is the U.S. blood supply contaminated by donors who have had the COVID-19 vaccine? No, that's not true: There is no scientific evidence that the vaccine enters the bloodstream and Lead Stories spoke to experts who refuted the claim. The claim appeared in an Instagram post on September 23, 2022. It opened: YOU TELL LIES This is what the post…

Did the United Kingdom publish reports that show individuals triple-vaccinated against the coronavirus account for 91% of the COVID-19 deaths in the country through 2022? Do these reports further show that over 24,000 "unexplained" excess deaths have occurred since April 2022? No, that's not true: While the U.K. Office of National Statistics states that the figures for triple-vaccination status and…

Are COVID-19 vaccines 98 times worse than the virus itself? No, that's not true: There's no evidence to suggest that getting sick with coronavirus is a better option for the population as a whole than the benefits of immunization. While a pre-print (non-peer-reviewed) draft of an article discusses the ethics of vaccine booster mandates for university students and their possible…

Did Ohio high school football player Kaden Clymer get the COVID-19 vaccine before he was found with a 6-foot-long clot in his leg? No, this claim lacks context. A local TV station covering the story later reported that Clymer had been diagnosed with IVC atresia, a vascular anomaly. "Kaden was never vaccinated before the blood clots were found," his sister,…

Did England publish "horrific figures on COVID Vaccine Deaths" that show 1 in 482 people died within a month of receiving their shot, 1 in 246 died within 60 days and 1 in 73 died by May 2022? No, that's not true: While the figures are correct, according to the U.K. Office of National Statistics, the statistics are missing crucial…

Did Robert F. Kennedy Jr. win a Supreme Court lawsuit against pharmaceutical companies and prove that the COVID-19 vaccine does irreparable damage? No, that's not true: No such case was found in the Supreme Court docket. Lead Stories has previously debunked the claim that the Supreme Court has ruled that the COVID-19 vaccine is harmful. The claim appeared in a…

Did the movie, "Captain America: The First Avenger" contain secret clues about the coronavirus years in advance -- proving that the COVID-19 pandemic was planned? No, that's not true: The Times Square advertisements appearing in the background of a movie scene and highlighted with red circles in this meme do not contain a hidden message about a plan for a…

Does the regular use of ivermectin to prevent COVID-19 result in up to a 92 percent reduction in the disease's mortality rate and also reduce infection and hospitalization? No, that's not true: The claims about ivermectin were part of what one expert at the University of Nebraska Medical Center called "not a well-constructed study." The claims appeared in a study…

Has the number of excess deaths in Europe gone up a "shocking 691%" in children since the European Medicines Agency (EMA) first approved the COVID vaccine for them? Yes, it's true that the number of excess deaths has gone up some sevenfold, but there's no evidence to support the implied connection between the increase and the start of COVID vaccinations…

Was ivermectin "vindicated (again)" in a peer-reviewed study that showed a 92% reduction in COVID-19 mortality? No, that's not true: The claims about ivermectin were published on an "open science" site where scientists may share findings before they have been vetted by independent experts. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has not authorized the use of the anti-parasite drug…

Is ivermectin recommended by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) or the U.S. government for the treatment of COVID-19 as of September 2022? No, that's not true: Neither the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention nor the Food and Drug Administration recommend the antiparasitic as treatment or prevention. As of this writing, the National Institutes of Health listed ivermectin as…

Is Starbucks "going cashless" regarding payment options for customers as of August 2022? No, that's not true: The article seen in this particular post that includes comments made by the Starbucks CEO fails to disclose that the cashless option was concerning the 2020 pandemic -- not a permanent change to cashless payments at all Starbucks stores. Starbucks also debunked this…

Did 44 percent of pregnant women in Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine trial have miscarriages? No, that's not true: Author/activist Naomi Wolf incorrectly analyzed public information when making the claim that "out of 50 pregnant women, 22 of them lost their babies." Wolf and two publishers have all retracted the claim, which continued to circulate nonetheless. Jeffrey Morris, professor of biostatistics at…

Are airlines banning travelers who are vaccinated against the coronavirus from flying because the shot elevates their risk for blood clotting? No, that's not true: This rumor has recently resurfaced on social media after being thoroughly debunked when it first emerged in 2021. No publicly available evidence supports the claim airlines were banning the vaccinated as of this writing. This…

Did former NBA star Earvin "Magic" Johnson donate some of his blood in August 2022 to the Red Cross to help underprivileged communities fight COVID-19? No, that's not true: The image of a doctor taking blood from Johnson's arm is from the 2012 PBS Frontline documentary "Endgame: AIDS in Black America." Johnson first learned of his HIV diagnosis after a…

Did the World Economic Forum (WEF) announce the recruitment of "information warriors" to control the narrative on social media? No, that's not true: The WEF has recruited no such people. An article making the claim misrepresents a UN initiative called "Verified," which was launched in May 2020 in an effort to fight misinformation around COVID-19. The article (archived here) was…

Did governments around the world kill 12 million people by giving them COVID-19 shots? No, that's not true: There's no evidence that anywhere near that number of people have died due to vaccination for the disease as of mid-August 2022. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have only identified "nine…

Did the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) "just dramatically" change their claims about mRNA vaccine safety? No, that's not true: While the public health agency did remove information from a COVID-19 vaccine website that said, "The mRNA and the spike protein do not last long in the body," it doesn't represent "a change to the science of how…