Does a video of a blank product insert inside a box of the Johnson & Johnson/Janssen COVID-19 vaccine show anything unexpected or untoward? No, that's not true: The insert's front and back panels were intentionally left blank, according to the makers of the vaccine. There is a QR code, as well as a website, on the back of the box…

Did a surgeon from Ohio die shortly after receiving the second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine? There is no evidence that Dr. Thomas Lee Flanigan's death on April 27, 2021, was related to the COVID-19 vaccine he had received 12 weeks earlier. The cause of his death has not been made public. Flanigan's death was reported by several news outlets…

Did Norwegian scientists say it was less risky to catch COVID-19 than to take the AstraZeneca vaccine? No, that's not true: The Norwegian Institute of Public Health believes the AstraZeneca is a good vaccine, but since Norway has a low infection rate, its younger population can wait for a vaccine alternative. The claim originated in an article published by Sputnik…

Did President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden put former President Jimmy Carter and former first lady Rosalynn Carter at risk by not wearing masks inside the Carters' home? No, that's not true: Although the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention generally recommends wearing face coverings for maximum protection against COVID-19, fully vaccinated individuals like the Carters and the…

Did a federal agency document 3,848 deaths due to COVID-19 vaccinations? No, that's not true: The claim exploits the government's rough list of unverified reports collected by the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS). Anyone can submit a report to VAERS. The Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) monitors incoming items and, if patterns emerge, investigates them. In releasing…

If COVID-19 is airborne would everybody have caught it by now? A viral video with an anti-vaccine message peddles false information about the coronavirus outbreak, throwing doubt on the authenticity of the virus by stating, "If it is airborne everybody'd've caught it already." COVID-19 is airborne but the amount of virus in the droplets that are expelled make it unlikely…

Did an Instagram influencer shout an expletive at Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, after Fauci told the influencer to lift up his mask at an airport? No, that's not true: the claim was made in a fake tweet and there is no evidence that Fauci has been to any airport since the…

If you die within 20 days of testing positive for COVID-19 are you therefore added to the pandemic's death toll? No, that's not true: The claim was made with no offer of proof and in apparent ignorance of the systems by which cause of death is determined and documented. Lead Stories found no publicly available evidence of a 20-day rule…

Does a video, purportedly from a nurse in Halifax, Canada, contain only accurate and true statements about COVID-19? No, that's not true: The video is chockful of fabrications, verifiably false claims that have been debunked. Among the disproven allegations are statements that the head of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced that he wouldn't authorize vaccines, that the…

Has a medical journal published a scientific study confirming the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine causes neurodegenerative diseases? No, that's not true. An anti-vaccine activist's essay is not a report on a clinical or lab study with reproducible experimental methods. And it appeared in a journal that research librarians have warned academicians to avoid. The maker of the vaccine says prion disease…

Did a 5G horse appear on the lawn of a family's home, worrying the unvaccinated family who live there? No, that's not true: This photo of a flyer stapled to a wooden pole is an art piece by prankish artist Alan Wagner that has been altered from its original design. A large portion of the original text has been cropped,…

Did the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) show the death rate for people fully vaccinated against COVID-19 is higher than the death rate for those who are not vaccinated? No, that's not true: While some of the data cited with the claim are authentic CDC numbers, the agency has not published a death rate comparison that would support…

Does a video prove that "final moves against the deep state" are happening now? No, that's not true: Many of the conspiracy theories claimed in the video are false. Donald Trump is not still president or "in charge," the London 2012 Olympics did not foreshadow the coronavirus outbreak and John McCain and George H.W. Bush were not found guilty by…

Did the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announce that it would not authorize or approve any COVID-19 vaccine? No, that's not true: Stephen Hahn, then-commissioner of the FDA, did say in a statement to a Senate committee in 2020 that the "FDA would not authorize or approve any COVID-19 vaccine ..." but that was just part of his sentence, which…

Are COVID-19 shots set to contribute to the "decimation of the world's population"? No, that's not true: The claim is one of several presented without credible evidence during a video interview with Dr. Sucharit Bhakdi, a German microbiologist. He also alleges that the COVID-19 pandemic is "fake," that PCR tests lie, that the success of vaccines is measured by their…

Has Pfizer instructed male COVID-19 vaccine recipients to refrain from donating sperm, to wear condoms and/or be abstinent for at least 28 days after getting a shot? No, that's not true: A screenshot used as the basis of the claim was taken from a lengthy protocol that was designed at the start of a clinical trial, approved on April 17,…

Was the novel coronavirus launched as a diversionary tactic to distract the masses from misdeeds of global elites, and is COVID-19 less dangerous than the seasonal flu? No, that's not true: Experts in public health and virology have published several peer-reviewed papers dismissing as conspiracy theories the claim that the COVID pandemic was launched on purpose. The nation's leading infectious…

Is Bill Gates fighting to keep the ingredients of COVID-19 vaccines secret? No, that's not true: The ingredients to each COVID-19 vaccine currently in use are not secret. They are publicly available, including on the FDA website. Gates, a billionaire philanthropist and founder of Microsoft, does not own any of the vaccine patents. The claim that he does control them…

Should unvaccinated people stay away from vaccinated people because the COVID-19 vaccine sheds and causes problems including miscarriages in pregnant unvaccinated people? No, that's not true. "This claim is false," Dr. George Rutherford, professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at the University of California at San Francisco's School of Medicine, told Lead Stories. The claim appeared in a video published by…

Did this "Stanford Study" prove that face masks don't slow the spread of COVID-19 and harm the health of mask-wearers? No, that's not true: Stanford University disavows the article, which is not a report on new research and is full of the kind of spelling and grammar errors not found in journals by and for science professionals. It is, as…