News Punch

Did an official study conclude that masks caused more COVID-19? No, that's not true: This is not an official study by a government or medical organization. It is a study written by an individual, Beny Spira, an associate professor of microbiology at the University of Sao Paulo in Brazil. Also, the conclusions section of his report says, "no cause-effect conclusions…

Was the founder of the Timberland boot company an 18th-century slave owner in Mississippi named Timberland Hawkins who hung slaves he couldn't auction from a tree in his field that's still standing and is now featured as the Timberland company logo? No, none of that is true: This post is a spinoff from earlier false social media rumors that the…

Do Pfizer documents reveal vaccinated people will transfer their COVID-19 shots to the unvaccinated through inhalation and skin contact? No, that's not true: The claim is based on the standard clinical study protocol used for a wide range of medicines. There is no publicly available evidence the mRNA COVID vaccines cause vaccinated persons to cast off excess spike proteins. The…

Did the Irish Examiner publish a report about a sudden increase in heart problems among sports players due to referee whistles? No, that's not true: A spoof image was created using a fake story and the masthead of the Irish Examiner. This was circulated on social media via a screenshot -- but this article never appeared in the Irish Examiner.…

Did Russia go back to using a currency that operates on a gold standard? No, that's not true: Although Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin announced the abolition of the value-added tax (VAT) on precious metals in March 2022, this change is unrelated to whether the Russian ruble, Russia's currency, is based on the value of gold. The claim appeared in…

Did the Make-A-Wish Foundation refuse to grant a 4-year-old cancer patient a wish because he is not vaccinated? That's not true: The charity's medical team had ruled out air travel and large group settings for unvaccinated and critically ill children, which is why the charity's staff asked the boy to make a wish other than flying his family to Disney…

Is a video of an assault on a female police officer a recording of recent events? No, that's not true: The video of the attack in Carthage, Texas, is old. It's from 1997, not 2021. The officer in the video survived and the man who attacked her remained behind bars in May, 2021. The claim appeared in a Facebook post…

Did a buff father who "identifies as the tooth fairy" knock the teeth out of a man pretending to identify as a woman who followed his daughter into a public restroom? No, that's not true: The meme is a mash-up of fabricated events that mock transgender women, attached to an authentic photo of a protective father. The memes featuring this…

Did a former CIA agent confess on his deathbed that he infected reggae legend Bob Marley with cancer? No, that's not true: There is no record of a now-deceased CIA agent named Bill Oxley, beyond a story published in 2017 and later deleted by the publisher, who explained to Lead Stories it was unpublished in a purge of unreliable conspiracy…

Does Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data "reveal" that COVID-19 death totals have been exaggerated by hospitals counting heart attacks as COVID deaths? No, that's not true: Hospitals don't fill out death certificates, doctors and/or medical examiners do. The claim relies on misinterpretation of death certificates. Death certificates record the sequence of events by which humans succumb to a…