Did an international court charge Dr. Anthony Fauci with 2,967,108 counts of murder? No, that's not true: A headline making that claim originated on The Dunning-Kruger Times, a site with a satire disclaimer. The article itself contained several hints it was all satirical and meant to troll those who just shared the headline.
The headline appeared in an article published by The Dunning-Kruger Times on January 28, 2025, under the headline "An International court has formally charged Anthony Fauci with 2,967,108 counts of murder" (archived here). It opened:
Dr. Anthony Fauci has officially been charged with nearly three million counts of murder in seven countries that recognize the International Criminal Court, according to this image we found on the internet:
This was the image in question:
(Source: Dunning-kruger-times.com screenshot taken on January 31 at 13:11:45 2025 UTC)
The article said:
The one clue, the small box that seems to say 'satire,' isn't really important, since everyone knows satire is just a way around the fact-checkers and that there's never anything that reveals those sources as satire.
The phone number listed in the image used the Danish country code +47 and a Gmail address to contact Interpol. In actuality, the inter-governmental police organization is based in Lyon, France, according to the contact page on its website.
The Dunning-Kruger Times
The Dunning-Kruger Times is a satirical website with an about page (archived here) that has the following disclaimer:
About Us
Dunning-Kruger-Times.com is a subsidiary of the 'America's Last Line of Defense' network of parody, satire, and tomfoolery, or as Snopes called it before they lost their war on satire: Junk News
About Satire
Before you complain and decide satire is synonymous with 'comedy':
sat·ire ˈsaˌtī(ə)r noun: The use of humor, irony, exaggeration, OR ridicule to expose and criticize people's stupidity or vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues.
Everything on this website is fiction. It is not a lie and it is not fake news because it is not real. If you believe that it is real, you should have your head examined. Any similarities between this site's pure fantasy and actual people, places, and events are purely coincidental and all images should be considered altered and satirical. See above if you're still having an issue with that satire thing.
The website is named after the Dunning-Kruger effect, a term from a psychology experiment that describes the phenomenon of being ignorant of one's ignorance. (A math professor has disputed that experiment.)
Self-described liberal troll Christopher Blair runs it.
The story also quoted a man described as "Chief Interpolian Joe Barron." Barron is a friend of Blair who passed away. His name is frequently used in Blair's satirical stories as an homage.
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Other Lead Stories fact checks of claims involving Dr. Anthony Fauci can be read here.
