Does a book titled "Understanding Omicron Variant" by an author named Dr. Theresa Bishop have a 2020 copyright date, meaning it was published before the omicron variant was publicly identified? No, that's not true: This Amazon book was self-published on December 15, 2021, nearly a month after the omicron variant was officially identified in November 2021. No information is available…

Did this videotape of a speaker at an anti-vaccine conference prove COVID-19 is a bioweapon created by government officials to kill Americans and put the world's people under the dominion of a globalist cabal? No, there's no evidence the pandemic was caused by a super-virus developed at the University of North Carolina's immunology laboratories, the central allegation by conference speaker…

Do COVID-19 vaccine spike proteins enter cell nuclei, suppress DNA repair, unleash cancer, immunodeficiency, autoimmune disorders or accelerated aging? No, that's not true: The claim was based on a preliminary research report from researchers at two Swedish universities. The study was not peer-reviewed and at least one of the universities in question said it requested that the draft be withdrawn…

Does the claim that the vaccinated account for four in every five COVID-19 deaths in England tell the complete story? No, that's not true: It is misleading because it fails to consider the context of very high vaccine coverage in the population. The claim pulls numbers from a recent U.K. Health Security Agency (UKHSA) report, but does not include the…

Did the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) admit that COVID-19 vaccines cause more instances of carditis, or heart inflammation, than the agency has previously stated? No, that's not true: Such a claim pulls numbers from the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS). Conditions reported to VAERS after a vaccination do not automatically prove a causal relationship between the…

Does an animated short film from the 1920s or 1930s foretell a planned introduction of "weaponized influenza" in order to control the world? No, that's not true: This film is a modern creation done in the style of, and in some portions copied directly from, 1930s-era Fleischer Studios animated films. This cartoon was introduced online as early as May 2021…

Does a list of athletes from around the world who have died or collapsed help parents of athletic children to weigh the risks and benefits of their child receiving the COVID-19 vaccine? No, that's not true: While this list does enumerate many incidents, in only a few does it mention if the person was even vaccinated, and it does not…

Have 45,000 people died as a result of receiving the COVID-19 vaccine? No, there's no evidence of that: The number is a guesstimate from an anonymous "whistleblower" who relied on data from the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS), which is a collection of unverified reports. She did not provide the statistical model for calculating her claim. The claim appeared…

Do vaccines pose a seven times higher risk of death than COVID for people in their 20s? No, that's not true: The authors of a Japanese medical bulletin provide no clear evidence of deaths due to the vaccine to establish a ratio with deaths because of the virus. A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) study also says "vaccinated…

Did German police arrest a man in a Santa Claus costume at a Christmas market in the city of Stralsund because he was not wearing a mask? No, that's not true: Local police told Lead Stories the man was not hired to appear as Santa Claus at the official Christmas market, but took part in an unregistered protest against COVID…

Do records from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) subpoenaed by an attorney show over 158,000 adverse "events" in the first 2½ months of COVID-19 shot trials? Yes, but that number is misleading. While "158,000 adverse events" were noted in Pfizer documents released as part of a lawsuit, that doesn't mean there were 158,000 serious effects in people who received…

Did the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) arrive in Kentucky after the December 10, 2021, tornadoes, and start giving COVID-19 vaccinations to the storm victims instead of blankets or food? No, that's not true: FEMA's director of public affairs told Lead Stories that the claim is false and FEMA is not vaccinating anyone in the affected areas. The claim originated…

Did Dr. Anthony Fauci admit that COVID-19 vaccines may make people worse? No, that's not true: His comments were taken out of context. He spoke in March 2020, when the vaccines were still in development. The nation's top infectious disease expert was talking about a concern that some scientists had at that time: the theoretical possibility, with any vaccine candidates,…

Was the definition of what constitutes a positive COVID-19 test changed to include the omicron variant? No, that's not true: The variant (SARS-CoV-2, B.1.1.529) was first reported to the World Health Organization from South Africa on November 24, 2021. And while one widely used COVID PCR test sometimes misses one of the three key target genes, such a result can…

Did a Brazilian city cut hospitalizations and mortality in half after offering everyone ivermectin before COVID-19 vaccinations were available? No, that's not true: City officials in Itajai, Brazil, rebut the draft study, saying less than 10% of the 130,000+ people who started the Itajai health department's regimen of the antiparasitic medication continued taking the doses until the end. The much…

Was a video game named "Omikron: The Nomad Soul" created by Bill Gates, and does it have any ties to the emergence of the omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2, the novel coronavirus? No, that's not true: Although the game was originally made to be used with a Microsoft Windows operating system, it was not created by Gates. Other claims about the…

Did 67 children ages 5-14 die from COVID-19 in 2020? Yes (68, to be precise), but this chart comparing that to the much higher death tolls from traffic accidents, fires and other causes obscures the risk posed by children's infections, which though rarely fatal to the child, are increasing and can spread and add to the adult cases, hundreds of…

Are stillbirths rampant among fully vaccinated mothers? No, that's not true. The claim that there is a spike in stillbirths among mothers who had received a full COVID-19 vaccine is not supported by any evidence. It was made by a doctor in Canada and was denied by two Canadian health care organizations, and is the opposite of statistics published by…

Did Japanese health ministry panels of experts add myocarditis to warning labels for COVID-19 vaccines? Yes, that's true, but they are not in "stark contrast" to the rest of the world. The addition of warnings about myocarditis (inflammation of the heart muscle) and pericarditis (inflammation of the tissue surrounding the heart) to the Pfizer and Moderna labels in Japan on…

Did UNICEF and several agencies and organizations based in the United Kingdom endorse a graphic that includes misinformation about masks? No, that's not true: Six of the eight agencies and organizations included in the graphic told Lead Stories they did not co-sign the inaccurate graphic, which nonetheless pasted on their logos, including two obsolete logos. Lead Stories awaits updates from…