Covid Deaths

Was the statement that HIV causes AIDS "made Up"? No, that's not true: It's an established fact, proven by numerous scientific studies. However, posts on social media continue to claim otherwise. A recent example appeared on Facebook on December 15, 2022, under the text line: SHARE THE SHIT OUT OF THIS!!!! A video opened with a narrator saying: Under the…

Have COVID-19 vaccine rollouts increased "sudden deaths" in Germany by four times? No, that's not true: The claim misuses billing data to make medical claims, according to the chairman of the board of the doctors who provide health under the national system and Germany's federal institute for vaccines and biomedicines The claim appeared in an article (archived here) published by…

Were there zero influenza cases worldwide in 2021 because flu cases were fraudulently recorded as COVID-19 cases? No, that's not true: Since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic in March 2020, flu cases have been categorized separately from COVID by national and international surveillance programs. Global flu cases significantly decreased during the 2020-2021 flu season -- in large part due…

Did country singer Jake Flint die from COVID-19 or complications related to the COVID-19 vaccine, as a social media post implies? No, that's not true: Flint's publicist told Lead Stories that Flint's death was not related to the vaccine or the virus, and that his two vaccinations were more than a year before his death. The implied claim appeared in…

Did the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) "quietly" confirm in late 2022 that at least 118,000 children and young adults have "died suddenly" in the U.S. since rollout of COVID-19 vaccines? No, that's not true: Experts told Lead Stories that excess death data has been publicly published by the CDC since COVID was declared a pandemic in March…

The year is almost over, so it is good to look back. First, the numbers, as of December 15, 2022. This year we have published 1,555 fact checks in English (so far ...) 283 fact checks about COVID misinformation; 244 debunks of Russian propaganda and false claims about the invasion of Ukraine; 140 debunks of false claims about election fraud,…

Did 80 Canadian doctors die after being vaccinated for COVID-19? No, that's not true: As of December 12, 2022, there had been no COVID vaccine caused deaths - of doctors or non-doctors - in Canada, according to the national public health agency. The claim was made with no evidence that the vaccines caused any physician deaths. Publicly available information shows…

Does a "secret" CDC report reveal that at least 1.1 million Americans have "Died Suddenly" since the COVID-19 vaccine roll-out? Does a separate government report from the United Kingdom prove the vaccines are to blame? No, that's not true: There's no evidence to connect COVID vaccinations to the deaths. Simply because these people received COVID shots and later died doesn't…

Does British government data prove COVID-19 vaccination is causing "significant numbers of deaths" in British children? In addition, does the same dataset also show children are up to 137 times more likely to die following COVID vaccination than their unvaccinated counterparts? No, that's not true: There's no evidence that the numbers draw a causal relationship between COVID vaccination and the…

Does data showing that vaccinated people now make up a majority of COVID deaths in the United States mean the vaccines are ineffective? No, that's not true: As of November 29, 2022, more than three-quarters of Americans had received at least one vaccine dose -- that means the pool of vaccinated people who could potentially die is more than triple…