By Uliana Malashenko Is it true that the Ukrainian president's daughter, Oleksandra Zelenska, called her father, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, a "Nazi" and a "murderer"? No, it's not true: The image of a crying woman that circulated on social media in spring 2022 is a screenshot from a 5-year-old video of another Russian-speaking woman who was caught on camera crying about not…

Does data from England show children are up to 303 times more likely to die from COVID-19 following vaccination than unvaccinated children? Yes, that's true, but raw numbers don't tell the full story. "The numbers appear correct, but ... are highly misleading. Mortality rates should be interpreted carefully for children because of the way children at risk were prioritised in…

Was Salvador Ramos, the Texas school shooter, transgender? No, there's no evidence that's true: A post saying he was offers nothing to substantiate the claim. It's likely related to other claims that falsely identify Ramos in photographs of a person wearing a skirt and holding a transgender pride flag. Lead Stories has previously debunked claims about the photographs. The transgender…

Can a person remove a tick with just dish soap and a cotton swap? No, that's not true: This will not work unless the tick is engorged and already ready to let go, Barry OConnor, an expert in parasites at the University of Michigan, told Lead Stories. OConnor, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Johns Hopkins Lyme…

Do some photographs in some social media posts show Texas school shooter Salvador Ramos wearing skirts? No, that's not true: Images depicting a person dressed in a skirt and holding a transgender pride flag do not show Ramos. They show a Reddit user, identified as Apprehensive_Ad_995, who has posted since the shooting, writing, clearly: "it's not me." An example of…

Did Wilhelm Reich invent a way to cure cancer and many other ailments -- simply by sitting a patient in an "Orgone Accumulator" box for a few sessions? And did the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) ban the invention and sentence Reich to prison, where he died? The first part of this claim is not true: Reich never claimed that…

Was PepsiCo ever the "6th most powerful military in the world"? No, that's not true: A University of Massachusetts Amherst professor tells Lead Stories, "The statement is false on several details." While portions of this claim have been reported since at least 1989 as historically accurate, there are details surrounding it that were not clarified until at least 2018. The…

Do COVID-19 vaccines cause monkeypox and shingles? No, that's not true: There's no evidence that either disease is caused by the shot for COVID. Both monkeypox and shingles are caused by specific viruses, neither of which are included in COVID-19 vaccines. But, even if the viruses were the same, the COVID shots still couldn't cause infection. "Because none of the…

Are the City of London, the Vatican and Washington, D.C., all sovereign states? No, that's not true: While the Vatican city-state is, the City of London and Washington, D.C., are not. The claim appeared in a Facebook post on May 20, 2020, that says "Everything what we know is a lie" The rest of the post is a compilation of…

Is Bill Gates behind the 2022 monkeypox outbreak? No, that's not true: The claim wildly misconstrues a November 2021 comment Gates made about pandemic preparedness. He was discussing the possibility of simulating a smallpox attack in order to build global readiness. Gates did not mention monkeypox and there is no evidence to support the allegation that he is, in any…