Health Feedback
Verifying the credibility of claims related to medical, health and life sciences.
Latest reviews
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UnsupportedIt’s safe to use aluminum foil when cooking food; no evidence to date showing it causes Alzheimer’s or cancer
Claim:
Cooking with aluminum foil can cause Alzheimer’s, cancer
Source: Facebook, Social media user, 2024-03-22 -
MisleadingFebrile seizures after COVID-19 vaccination are rare and aren’t linked to long-term health problems, contrary to implication in Gateway Pundit article
Claim:
“FDA admits” that “young children are at a ‘significantly elevated’ risk of seizure after taking the COVID-19 vaccine”
Source: Gateway Pundit, The Gateway Pundit, Ben Kew, 2024-03-24 -
IncorrectClaim that the HPV vaccine increases risk of cervical cancer misleads by cherry-picking data from FDA document
Claim:
HPV vaccine increases the risk of developing cervical cancer
Source: Instagram, Pierre Kory, 2024-03-27 -
Misleading2019 report by TV host Sharyl Attkisson exaggerates one expert’s opinion in court case to claim vaccines cause autism
Claim:
Government silenced “top expert witness” who denied the vaccine-autism link in court and changed opinion; his testimony could have changed the court’s decision
Source: Full Measure, Sharyl Attkisson, 2019-01-06 -
InaccurateNo, a court didn’t rule that the FDA broke the law with advisory warning against using ivermectin for COVID-19
Claim:
Court rules FDA broke the law with advisory warning against using ivermectin for COVID-19; FDA lost lawsuit, proving ivermectin is effective against COVID-19
Source: Gateway Pundit, Twitter, Vigilant Fox, Jim Hoft, Pierre Kory, Roger O'Handley, 2024-03-22 -
UnsupportedFluoride level in U.S. drinking water is safe; people of all ages, including infants, can consume fluoridated water
Claim:
Babies shouldn’t drink fluoridated water; the blood-brain barrier in infants is not fully formed until six months of age
Source: Instagram, Robert W. B. Love, 2024-03-05
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Insights
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Are claims linking recent U.S. trends in cancer diagnoses to COVID-19 vaccines plausible? A look at the available data
Since it takes several years to gather, verify, and consolidate cancer data at the national level, there’s no real-time way to monitor national cancer trends. Medical experts have also explained that there is no plausible mechanism or data that connect COVID-19 vaccines to cancer.
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Use of information panels on YouTube videos containing misinformation – a ’quick check’ study
This quick check study suggests that the information panels applied by YouTube are highly unlikely to have the desired effect of connecting users to authoritative information on topics prone to disinformation.
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How health problems after COVID-19 vaccination are sometimes used to feed misinformation narratives
While illness can occur shortly after vaccination, it doesn’t mean that the vaccine must be the cause. Illness can also occur simply by coincidence, since diseases have existed long before vaccines arrived. Part of evaluating whether a vaccine is the cause of an illness requires determining if vaccinated people are at a higher risk of the illness compared to unvaccinated people—something that anecdotes alone cannot provide.