Coronavirus

Do COVID-19 nasal test swabs contain both lithium and DARPA hydrogel that allow recipients to be remotely controlled? No, that's not true: The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) told Lead Stories that nasal swabs used to test for COVID do not contain lithium or hydrogel from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). The claim appeared in a TikTok video…

Did Yemi Getachew, an immigration lawyer who posted in support of COVID-19 vaccination, subsequently die from COVID-19 vaccination? No, that's not true: Getachew was diagnosed with cancer and was admitted to hospice care shortly before her death because of the disease. The claim was implied in a post published on Instagram on November 17, 2022. The post contained a video…

Does the movie "Died Suddenly" demonstrate that COVID-19 vaccinations cause widespread sudden death or severe medical outcomes? No, that's not true: The film recycles previously debunked claims that the vaccine is lethal or dangerous for the average person receiving it. More than 5.45 billion people have been vaccinated worldwide and public health experts recommend immunization against the virus, saying it…

Do medical schools neglect to teach future doctors about vaccines, how they're made and their potential dangers? No, that's not true: Vaccine education is a typical part of the training in schools of medicine. Representatives of multiple medical schools told Lead Stories that learning about vaccines is a foundational part of their curriculum for teaching students to become doctors. The…

Did Canada or the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario -- a Canadian professional medical association -- "mandate psychiatric medication for those that refuse mRNA injections or any kind of vaccination"? No, that's not true: The official websites of the governments of Canada and the province of Ontario don't mention anything similar as of November 22, 2022. The spokesperson…

Did the U.S. Navy hang Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel at Guantanamo Bay? No, that's not true: This claim comes from a website that identifies itself as a satirical source and regularly publishes fake news. No serious news sites have carried such a story. And U.S. federal law prohibits the military from enforcing the law against civilians. The claim appeared in…

Did "Jacinta Ardern", the prime minister of New Zealand, threaten to put mRNA vaccines in the water supply if enough people did not take the shot? No, that's not true: This claim originated in late January 2022 with an image of a made-up news article that was never published. Although that false image has been debunked, the rumor that Ardern…

Was a doctor tried and executed in Malaysia for "giving the bioweapon vaccine and killing a patient" under the Nuremberg Code? No, that's not true: Malaysia stopped executing people in 2018 and hasn't reversed the moratorium on capital punishment since then. The claim originated in a video (archived here) shared on Telegram on November 3, 2022, by the user named…

Does a filing on the Florida Secured Transaction Registry show that Anthony Fauci, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and many other public servants are involved with a diamond business in Sulphur, Oklahoma? No, that's not true: There is no business by that name registered in Oklahoma. The Registry filing made by Paul Michael Walters does not appear to be a record…

Is it true that germ theory has "NEVER" been proven? No, that's not true: This claim was posted without corroborating materials, nor medical credentials for the person to whom the claim is attributed. The germ theory is a scientifically established explanation for infectious diseases. A medical professional told Lead Stories that "intoxication theory," a supposition that disease is the body's…

Does a viral video prove that the founder of the World Economic Forum, Klaus Schwab, and other speakers at WEF events planned to establish the "new world order" and "microchip human race"? No, that's not true: The heavily edited social media clip only shows short soundbites taken out of context, which alters the meaning of the speeches. The claim appeared…

Does a graph show that the COVID-19 vaccine increases stillbirths? No, that is missing context: The graph was published on the U.S. government's Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) website. As VAERS itself repeatedly explains, its purpose is to collect a wide-open, likely repetitive, messy and incomplete list of anecdotal, amateur, professional and even malicious reports of post-vaccination problems.The graph…

Did the U.K. Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) admit in a series of email exchanges that COVID-19 is man-made and that COVID vaccines were created with computer-generated DNA? No, that's not true: The MHRA told Lead Stories that the correspondence cited in a claim did take place, but the assertions made from those emails aren't correct. The claim…

Did U.S. Special Forces arrest Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel to charge him "on many counts of murder" for deaths caused by Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine? No, that's not true: This claim is made on a website that publishes false claims and identifies itself as a satirical website. No official news sources support this claim. U.S. Special Forces also do not have…

Were influenza deaths mislabeled as COVID-19 deaths in 2020 to inflate the toll of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic? No, that's not true: Registered deaths attributed to COVID were categorized separately from influenza and pneumonia by national and international surveillance programs. The claim originated in a tweet posted in April 2, 2022, that suggested deaths attributed to COVID were actually caused by…

Did a Finnish report expose "massive pandemic data fraud" and show that 40 percent of COVID-19 deaths were fabricated? No, that's not true: The article cited in the social media post provides no data to support its claim. In addition, the Finnish health official quoted extensively in the article told Lead Stories that the conclusions drawn were false. "There is…

Was a COVID-19 vaccination the cause of the August 2021 death of 22-year-old Florida resident Gabrielle Petito, who disappeared while traveling through Wyoming? No, that's not true: The official coroner's report confirms that Petito's cause of death was "manual strangulation/throttling," categorized as homicide. The Federal Bureau of Investigation reported in December 2021 that a notebook was found in which Petito's…

Are Phoebe and Jennifer Gates, the daughters of Bill and Melinda French Gates, unvaccinated? No, that's not true: In a 2019 Facebook post, Melinda Gates wrote that all three of her children were fully vaccinated. There are multiple instances where Phoebe and Jennifer Gates proved themselves vaccinated: Phoebe was at Jennifer's wedding where it was a requirement to be vaccinated,…

Does the "Died Suddenly" movie trailer demonstrate that COVID-19 vaccinations cause widespread sudden death or severe medical events? No, that's not true: The trailer recycles previously debunked claims that the vaccine is lethal. To support its implications, the trailer stitches together footage and screenshots of acute medical events unrelated to COVID vaccination. Public health experts, relying on clinical safety trials…

Do Comirnaty (Pfizer) COVID-19 vaccines contain parasites? No, that's not true: Claims made on social media that COVID vaccines contain parasites provided no laboratory or independent evidence to support the allegations, and a medical examiner told Lead Stories she has never seen any "parasites with tentacles" during autopsies she's conducted on people who had received the vaccine. In a statement…