Hydroxychloroquine

Did the American Medical Association rescind its original guidance on the use of hydroxychloroquine to treat COVID-19? No, that's not true: The AMA's guidance on hydroxychloroquine remains unchanged. Since the association's original March 25, 2020, statement on the use of the anti-malarial drug, the agency has added more information, but never back-tracked. The claim appeared in a blog post (archived…

Does a Stanford professor's study conclude that people under 70 years of age only have a 0.05% to 0.07% chance of dying from the novel coronavirus? Yes, that's true, but the professor, a medical doctor with an expertise in epidemiology, estimates patients under 70 account for 20% of the deaths in the United States, which adds up to about 60,000…

Did an anti-mask group of doctors prove its claim that masks are "irrelevant" to the prevention of COVID-19? No, that's not true: The 19 people in white lab coats who stood in front of the U.S. Supreme Court to make the claim did not provide a citation to published research papers nor supply records to support their claim that masks…

Was a September 18 tweet by someone named John Cammo (@johncammo) predicting that President Trump would become infected with COVID-19 in October the only one to make that assertion? No. There were several prior tweets that made the same prediction. The claim is in the September 18, 2020, posting on Twitter titled "JohnCammo on Twitter" (archived here) which opened: "@joshtpm…

Have other countries proved the U.S. Food and Drug Administration endangered thousands of lives by withdrawing approval of hydroxychloroquine as a treatment for COVID-19? No, that's not true: The findings of clinical studies in the U.S. and overseas show the anti-malarial drug is ineffective against COVID-19. The anti-abortion website saying otherwise bases its claim on an essay published by a…

Did Nevada 'quietly reverse' its decision to 'block' hydroxychloroquine prescriptions for COVID-19? No, that's not true: The emergency regulation simply expired. Also, although the order did put some limits on hydroxychloroquine, it did not prohibit prescriptions of the drug outright. It remained available to COVID-19 patients in hospitals and emergency rooms in Nevada. The claim appeared in a post (archived…

Has the widely-used PCR test for COVID-19 returned false positive results, exaggerating the number of Americans infected? No, that's not true: The test accurately determines whether patients' nasal swabs show infection. But anti-quarantine-and-mask activists, who did none of their own reporting, have misused the results of a reporter's recent analysis of testing: it shows many who are infected may not…

Did the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention fraudulently add deaths from poisoning, trauma and unintentional injury to its tally of COVID-19 deaths? No, that's not true: That claim is based on a mischaracterization of CDC listings of patients' other health conditions, which are commonly listed on death certificates as "comorbidities." The claim cites as a source "c19study," an…

Did a "massive international study" show a much lower COVID-19 mortality rate in countries where hydroxychloroquine was prescribed to patients? No, that's not true: The "C19study" is not a massive international study. It is an anonymous collection of words and graphics referring to other scientific papers, but does not itself qualify as a scientific paper or study: No medical expert…

Are the "MAGA hat kid from Covington Catholic," the "MyPillow guy," the "demon sperm doctor," musician Kid Rock, actor Scott Baio and the "racist gun couple" all featured speakers at the 2020 Republican National Convention? No, that's not true: The final lineup has not been announced. However, some of the people in that list are expected to speak, and others…