Fake news about the coronavirus can do real harm. Polygraph.info is spotlighting fact-checks from other reliable sources here.
Vaccine-related deaths may rival recorded COVID-19 deaths.
False
A purported graphic of COVID-19 “vaccine deaths and injuries” that claims to show data from the European Medicines Agency (EMA).
Misleading
Group of Seven leaders conferring at summit in England discussed causes of the global pandemic.
-- Wall Street Journal (via Mint), June 12
Large gatherings and much more lenient restrictions have allowed the virus to spread at devastating levels.
-- Scientific American, June 9
A report on the origins of COVID-19 by a U.S. government national laboratory concluded that the hypothesis of a virus leak from a Chinese lab in Wuhan is plausible and deserves further investigation, the Wall Street Journal said on Monday, citing people familiar with the classified document.
-- Reuters, June 7
The Covid-19 pathogen has a genetic footprint that has never been observed in a natural coronavirus.
-- Wall Street Journal (via BizNews), June 6
Labs like the one in Wuhan are essential to preparing for future pandemics.
-- Washington Post, June 4
Throughout 2020, the notion that the novel coronavirus leaked from a lab was off-limits. Those who dared to push for transparency say toxic politics and hidden agendas kept us in the dark.
-- Vanity Fair, June 3
The silencing of scientists, the blanket denials, the careful guarding of raw data and biological samples — these elements have been emblematic of the approach by Chinese authorities at every stage of the coronavirus outbreak. And they continue to obstruct the world’s ability to get answers.
-- Washington Post, June 3
People who have had mild illness develop antibody-producing cells that can last lifetime.
-- Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, May 24
Three researchers from China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology became sick enough in November 2019 that they sought hospital care, according to a previously undisclosed U.S. intelligence report that could add weight to growing calls for a fuller probe of whether the COVID-19 virus may have escaped from the laboratory.
-- Wall Street Journal (via MarketWatch), May 23
As scientists with relevant expertise, we agree with the WHO director-general, the United States and 13 other countries, and the European Union that greater clarity about the origins of this pandemic is necessary and feasible to achieve.
-- Science, May 14
Neither the natural emergence nor the lab escape hypothesis can yet be ruled out. There is still no direct evidence for either. So no definitive conclusion can be reached. That said, the available evidence leans more strongly in one direction than the other.
-- Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, May 5