Fauci

Did an international court charge Dr. Anthony Fauci with 2,967,108 counts of murder? No, that's not true: A headline making that claim originated on The Dunning-Kruger Times, a site with a satire disclaimer. The article itself contained several hints it was all satirical and meant to troll those who just shared the headline. The headline appeared in an article published…

Does U.S. law allow for Dr. Anthony Fauci to be extradited to Russia? No, that's not true: A notoriously unreliable website that published a story about Putin supposedly demanding such an extradition did not offer any named sources or specifics regarding alleged charges. Lawyers who specialize in extradition told Lead Stories that there's no legal basis to send an American…

Is Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s only stated position on vaccines that they should be studied "like any other pharmaceutical product" as a social media post claims? No, that's not true: In 2023, Kennedy said, "There's no vaccine that is ... safe and effective," and he has a long history of questioning vaccine safety and suggesting links between vaccines, autism and…

Did Dr. Anthony Fauci ever say that 72 mandatory childhood vaccines were never safety tested? No, that's not true: Fauci, the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told Lead Stories, "This claim is not true." Vaccines are carefully tested in multiple stages of clinical trials to ensure they are safe and effective before being approved…

Was a prominent HIV researcher who died in the 2014 crash of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 planning to declare the virus a "man-made disease"? No, that's not true: Dr. Joep Lange's work in the field of HIV/AIDS focused largely on developing treatment options and the global inequities of treating the disease, not the origin of AIDS itself. A Google News…

Were COVID-19 vaccines manufactured by military contractors rather than by Pfizer and Moderna? No, that's not true: FDA inspection records show the vaccines were made in drug industry labs. Pfizer pointed Lead Stories to publicly available documents about its facilities in Belgium, Germany and at least two locations in the U.S., including Kalamazoo, Michigan. Under Operation Warp Speed, the government…

Did former chief White House medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci and billionaire philanthropist George Soros say they would leave the United States if Donald Trump wins the 2024 election? No, that's not true: No credible media reports indicate that either man has made plans to vacate the country should the presumptive Republican nominee win. Additionally, neither Fauci nor Soros has…

Were the "mass graves of thousands of children killed ... in illegal experiments" by Dr. Anthony Fauci found in New York City? No, that's not true: The police department for the county where the mass graves supposedly rest says there are no such graves. Additionally, a picture used in the article making the claim to illustrate a purported mass grave…

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 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…