Coronavirus

Did a July 2023 report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention conclude that children are being harmed by masks, resulting in a 17 percent rise in developmental disabilities in children 3-17? No, that's not true: A misleading headline on a paywalled Substack blog post mentions a "New CDC Report" as if it offers evidence supporting the claim that…

Did talk show host and podcaster Megyn Kelly say she "contracted Vaccine Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (VAIDS)" after getting the COVID-19 mRNA vaccine? No, that's not true: On "The Megyn Kelly Show" in early September 2023, she said, "I tested positive for an autoimmune issue at my annual physical." She never mentions VAIDS, which is not a real medical condition.…

Are the heads of vaccinated people exploding and combusting when the 5G signal in Israel is turned up? No, that's not true: These video clips are real, but the headline is baseless as the video clips have nothing to do with Israel, COVID-19 vaccines or 5G. The first two graphic clips show 2019 footage of Iraqi protestors who were killed…

Did 850 deaths occur in two weeks in Monterrey, a city in the Mexican state of Nuevo León, that were caused by myocarditis? No, that's not true: The increased number of deaths in Mexico during June 2023 occurred during a heat wave, and it wasn't 850 deaths. Myocarditis is a term for the inflammation of the heart muscle and is…

Did a 2023 "government report" prove that "millions of children" who were vaccinated with the Pfizer mRNA COVID-19 vaccine developed a condition known as "vaccine acquired immune deficiency, or VAIDS"? No, that's not true: There was no "government report." A site with a rich history of spreading false statements distorted a genuine Australian study. In response to the claim, the…

Did the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) remove COVID-19 vaccine adverse event reports from its website? No, that's not true: The national public health agency did not remove COVID vaccine adverse event reports from its website. The CDC and other health agencies regularly monitor and report on vaccine safety, including adverse events, through the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting…

Did the U.S. military place "Moderna chemist" Melissa J. Moore under arrest for developing a "mRNA clot shot" for the COVID-19 vaccine manufacturer? No, that's not true: A Moderna spokesperson told Lead Stories that this claim is "false." Also, the website where this claim was made has a disclaimer that states it publishes satirical content. The claim appeared in a…

Did a "survey" find that "Vaccinated people are over 2X more likely to get COVID than the unvaccinated"? No, that's not true: The survey in question was not scientifically sound and included methodological flaws, an infectious disease expert told Lead Stories. The claim originated in a blog post by Steve Kirsch, whose false claims regarding COVID-19 vaccines have been debunked…

Did RT, a Russian state news organization, publish a headline saying that the plane whose crash killed Yevgheny Prigozhin was piloted by a person suffering "post-vaccine myocarditis"? No, that's not true: There is no evidence that RT ever published such a story about the August 23, 2023, plane crash that killed Yevgeny Prigozhin, leader of the Wagner group, a Russian…

Did the World Health Organization (WHO) say COVID-19 vaccination can cause multiple sclerosis? No, that's not true: WHO has not stated that COVID-19 vaccination can cause multiple sclerosis or any other serious chronic condition. The global public health agency told Lead Stories, "There is no conclusive link between multiple sclerosis (MS) and COVID-19 vaccination." The claim appeared in a post…

Does an article published in the medical journal Cureus prove that ivermectin reduces COVID-19 mortality by 74 percent? No, that's not true: A professor of medicine at John Hopkins University School of Medicine told Lead Stories, "The study does not establish a causal role for ivermectin in the fluctuations of death rates in Peru," adding "the claims seem poorly supported."…

Did Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates suggest on the social media platform X that people who resist a coming "mRNA tsunami" will be punished by exclusion from society? No, that's not true: There's no record the billionaire ever wrote it on his account. The expression "mRNA tsunami" was taken from a different person's public talk, and it was said in a…

Is mRNA being integrated into "every childhood vaccine" without regulatory reapproval? No, that's not true: The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) calls the claim "completely false." There are rigorous regulatory processes in place to evaluate and approve any changes to vaccines, including the incorporation of new technologies like mRNA. Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine was the first mRNA product to achieve…

Did Anthony Fauci state in August 2023 that "all unvaccinated citizens must be locked down this winter"? No, that's not true: Lead Stories watched the entire interview where this quote supposedly originated and found no such statement. Furthermore, no credible evidence or news reports exist that attribute the purported quote to the former director of the National Institute of Allergy…

Does the German government have study figures that show people given the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine (Comirnaty) "have overall suffered from fewer medically undesirable events as subjects who received the placebo"? No, that's not true: As of August 4, 2023, Germany's Federal Ministry of Health said it did not have "such figures." But not having such study figures proves nothing in…

Does an image show a single man in China breaking up couples' seating arrangements in a movie theater on Valentine's Day? No, there's no evidence of that: The image actually shows the reopening of a movie theater in Beijing amid the coronavirus pandemic in 2020. The claim appeared in a post (archived here) on Facebook on August 16, 2023. The…

Does a study conducted by researchers at the Cleveland Clinic provide an "absolute direct linear correlation" that the more COVID-19 vaccines a person receives, the higher likelihood that person has of contracting the disease, thus proving that the bivalent vaccine was a "complete failure"? No, that's not true: Dr. Nabin Shrestha, an infectious disease expert and one of the cited…

Does a "secret CDC report" show hundreds of thousands of children "died suddenly" in the United States following the COVID-19 vaccine rollout? No, that's not true: The author or authors of the article making the claims did not find any such report; instead, they created their own document using publicly available Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data they found…

Are COVID-19 vaccine-related "turbo cancers" real? Are they also "contagious" and "behaving like a bioweapon"? No, that's not true: There is no serious evidence for the claim that COVID vaccines cause "turbo cancers." Cancer is complex and has many causes. Additionally, the thought that cancers could be contagious or act like bioweapons lacks support from credible science. Vaccines help the…

Was ivermectin approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as a treatment for COVID-19 in August 2023? No, that's not true: The FDA has not granted approval of the anti-parasitic drug for treating the virus. Clinical studies and scientific evidence have not established the safety or efficacy of ivermectin for this purpose. The claim appeared in a post…