Vaccine Fail

Does a comparison of January 2022 case rates for the unvaccinated and the vaccinated in Scotland prove that refusing vaccination improves Scots' odds of avoiding infection, hospitalization and death from COVID-19? No, that's not true: A gross comparison of the two groups does not account for important differences between those two groups other than their vaccination status. For instance, the…

Did Dr. Robert Malone correctly claim in a speech that COVID-19 vaccines are not working, that they cause infertility and that vaccine makers are protected legally while families are not? No, that's not true: The vaccines have prevented serious illness and death for millions. Studies have shown the vaccines do not cause infertility and there is a compensation system for…

Did the Washington State Board of Health adopt a rule that would involuntarily place unvaccinated residents, including children, into COVID-19 quarantine camps? No, that's not true: The board made an administrative rule change to the law that governs the state's handling of HIV and some other communicable diseases. The rules do not apply to COVID. The claim began circulating on…

Does a report from the German public health agency Robert Koch Institute (RKI) show that 95% of those infected with the omicron variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus are vaccinated? No, that's not true: This calculation is based on incomplete data published in a weekly report by RKI on December 30, 2021, that included vaccination status for only about half the…

Do gematria codes used by conspiracy theories always result in matches? Yes, that's true: Gematria is a form of numerology in which the letters of the alphabet are substituted with corresponding numbers. A single word or phrase can yield several values depending on which alphanumerical cipher is used. Gematria is popular with conspiracy theorists, looking to find hidden connections or…

Did a woman find that there was evidence of SARS-CoV-2 in tap water because she tested the water with a COVID-19 home test kit? No, that's not true: The reading at the end of the video shows an invalid test result, not a positive COVID result. The test was performed incorrectly, outside of the manufacturer's labeling instructions and intended purpose.…

Do data from Ontario, Canada prove COVID-19 vaccines are either a failure or that omicron "preferentially infects vaccinated people"? No, neither of those choices is true: Using only raw data, the claim-maker draws a misleading conclusion and forces only two of the many interpretations that can be made from the data. The statistically elementary and valid way to compare the…

Did this videotape of a speaker at an anti-vaccine conference prove COVID-19 is a bioweapon created by government officials to kill Americans and put the world's people under the dominion of a globalist cabal? No, there's no evidence the pandemic was caused by a super-virus developed at the University of North Carolina's immunology laboratories, the central allegation by conference speaker…

Does the claim that the vaccinated account for four in every five COVID-19 deaths in England tell the complete story? No, that's not true: It is misleading because it fails to consider the context of very high vaccine coverage in the population. The claim pulls numbers from a recent U.K. Health Security Agency (UKHSA) report, but does not include the…

The British Medical Journal published an open letter on December 17, 2021 (archived here) taking issue with a Lead Stories fact check. Our response is below (UPDATE: also see "Context Matters: Why Lead Stories Fact Checked The BMJ"): It is ironic to read that BMJ.com objects to the headline on Lead Stories' fact check of a BMJ.com article when the…