Coronavirus

Are Masonic Lodges injecting children with "'free child identification chips' to 'help combat abduction,'" also collecting those children's DNA? No, that's not true: There is no credible evidence or reliable information to support such a claim. Multiple Masons organizations across the United States said their child-identification programs don't put tracking chips in children and any DNA information is retained by…

Did The Washington Post report that Bill Gates was "being held under armed watch at Guantanamo Bay" after having been "charged with war crimes against humanity"? No, that's not true: A search through the newspaper's digital database returned no such results, and no credible news publication or official government statement describing such an event was publicly available as of July…

Did Canadian journalist Mark Slapinski promote a Nazi-style "final solution" for people who refused to get the COVID-19 vaccine? No, that's not true: Slapinski said on one of his social media accounts that his words about unvaccinated Canadians were "meant to be satirical." The claim appeared in a post and video on Instagram on July 13, 2023, under the title…

Does a new study prove that the Pfizer mRNA COVID-19 vaccine causes "turbo cancer"? No, that's not true: The study cited in the social media post doesn't show that the Pfizer mRNA COVID-19 vaccine induces something called "turbo cancer." Additionally, a cancer expert wrote, "'Turbo cancer' is not a thing." It's not a recognized medical term. The claim appeared in…

Did a preprint paper submitted to The Lancet on July 5, 2023, find that 74 percent of the deaths in the autopsies it reviewed were caused by the COVID-19 vaccine? Additionally, was it also a legitimate study from The Lancet? No, neither is true: The preprint paper never made it past the submission stage with the medical journal because The…

Did COVID-19 vaccines cause a massive mortality spike in breast cancer female patients below the age of 45, reaching 297,000 deaths during the first six months of 2023? No, that's not true: Posts on social media distorted a report published by the American Cancer Society (cancer.org), conflating the number of projected new cases with expected mortality. The story appeared in…

Are "600,000 Americans Per Year Are Dying From COVID Shots"? No, that's not true: COVID-19 vaccines have undergone rigorous testing and monitoring for safety and efficacy before being approved for use. While vaccines can have side effects, the vast majority of them are mild and temporary. Serious adverse events are rare, and the benefits of vaccination in preventing severe illness,…

Does a video on social media show an extremely long protein string from a vaccine being removed from a person's body? No, that's not true: The video shows a tapeworm being pulled out through a person's nostril. Vaccines work by triggering an immune response to a particular pathogen, like a virus, rather than by producing long protein strings in the…

Did a herd of cattle in northern Italy die within a day of receiving a COVID-19 vaccine injected by the government? No, that's not true: The herd was sickened by grazing on drought-stressed sorghum, Italian public television reported. The video filmed on August 6, 2022, shows dead and dying cattle in northwestern Italy. Sorghum during drought contain high levels of…

Does the video "Plandemic 3: The Great Awakening" assemble the "forbidden puzzle pieces to reveal the big picture of what's really happening in America and beyond"? No, that's not true: The video repeats an unsubstantiated claim of a plan by global elites to replace national sovereignty with a one-world government and rehashes previously debunked false and misleading claims made by…

Are tetanus shots being used to sterilize people? No, that's not true: Such claims are "completely illogical and contrary to fact," a molecular biologist told Lead Stories. There is no substantive evidence that tetanus vaccines available as of June 2023 contain a hormone that would "attack" a pregnancy and cause a miscarriage. Numerous studies indicate that tetanus vaccines are safe…

Does a video presentation prove that the spike protein in COVID-19 mRNA vaccines replaces the sperm in men? No, that's not true: No scientific evidence supports the claim. The spike protein is a harmless protein found on the surface of the coronavirus. It is the target of the immune response COVID-19 vaccines aim to trigger. The mRNA vaccines, such as…

Did a legitimate, peer-reviewed study successfully demonstrate that COVID-19 mRNA vaccines produced by Pfizer and Moderna were shown to contain simian virus 40 (SV40), a DNA virus that has been linked to certain cancers? No, that's not true: The research in question was not published in a peer-reviewed journal and as such, has not been vetted for accuracy by scientific…

Did the "most vaccinated countries in the world" have the "worst case fatality rates" for COVID-19? In addition, did the vaccines fail to save lives? No, that's not true: These claims are not supported by current scientific evidence. Numerous studies have shown that COVID vaccines have been effective in reducing severe illness, hospitalizations and deaths caused by the virus. Vaccines…

Did the U.S. military convict Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky of treason on May 29, 2023? No, that's not true: A Pentagon duty officer told Lead Stories, "There is no truth to this claim." It is also not in the U.S. military's jurisdiction to arrest civilians, and this claim is from a website that regularly publishes…

Do Israeli data show "Zero Young Healthy Individuals Died Of COVID-19"? No, that's not true: While the risk of severe illness or death from COVID-19 is generally higher among older individuals or those with pre-existing health conditions, it does not mean that young and healthy individuals are completely immune to the virus's severe effects. Additionally, the Israel Ministry of Health…

Does a number code printed on a streetlight match that of a ribosomal protein and does this show that mRNA from the COVID-19 vaccines can be activated using optogenetic technology if a vaccinated person is exposed to the light from the street lamp? No, that's not true: The L17 marking on the LED street lamp appears to be a product…

Did the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) say that AIDS-associated diseases and cancers have increased by 338 times since the rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine? No, that's not true: The CDC says there are no indications that COVID vaccines are causing or contributing to these conditions. The public health agency regularly monitors and reports on health conditions including…

Will a new mRNA universal flu vaccine only be tested on 50 volunteers to "assess the safety" of the experimental shot? No, that's not true: New drugs and medicines in the United States go through rigorous testing and three phases of clinical trials involving thousands of people with different health statuses before the products can potentially be authorized for widespread…

Does the state of Michigan ban most stores from selling seeds, and is the purpose of this ban to force people to only buy fruit from big corporations? No, that's not true: Michigan does not ban seed sales. There was a short period during the early weeks of the coronavirus pandemic when seeds were off limits to customers shopping in…