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0,,,,False,,2021-07-21,,factcheck_aap,,https://www.aap.com.au/vaccine-transhuman-claims-patently-wrong-on-us-supreme-court-ruling/,,,factcheck_aap,,"The StatementAn Instagram post claims a US Supreme Court ruling means that people who have received mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccines are now patented and legally “no longer human”.The July 10 post from an Australia-themed account features a screenshot referring to a 2013 case, which the text says included a ruling that the human genome could be patented if modified by mRNA vaccines.“This means that everyone who has received the vaccine is now technically ‘patented’ and something that is patented is ‘proprietary’ and will be included in the definition of ‘transhumans’,” the text in the screenshot says.Similar screenshots and claims have circulated widely on social media, for example in a video here, as well as on various meme libraries, blogs and forums (see here, here and here).The claim in the post can be traced as far back as an April 27 post on The COVID Blog, which frequently posts misinformation on COVID-19 and vaccines. The post includes claims that people vaccinated against COVID-19 are legally no longer human. The AnalysisThe post repeats a frequently debunked claim that mRNA COVID-19 vaccines alter the human genome alongside incorrect information about the US Supreme Court case and a legal interpretation dismissed as “nonsensical” by experts.The false claim that mRNA vaccines for COVID-19 modify either the human genome or DNA has been addressed multiple times by AAP FactCheck (see here, here and here), as well as by other fact-checking organisations (see here, here, here and here) and agencies such as the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).Both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines use messenger RNA (mRNA), a molecule that puts DNA instructions into action, to cause the body’s cells to make a protein piece that in turn triggers an immune response and protects the recipient from the virus.The post attempts to link the vaccine technology to a 2013 US Supreme Court case involving the Association for Molecular Pathology and Myriad Genetics.According to the ruling, Myriad Genetics had discovered the location of two genes which significantly increased the risks of breast and ovarian cancer when they mutated and had patented a method for testing for these gene mutations (page 1).The court decided Myriad Genetics was unable to patent the isolation of the two cancer-causing genes because they were naturally occurring (page 2).However, it said the creation of the synthetic cDNA – DNA synthesised from a strand of mRNA – involved in the testing process could be patented because it had been modified from its natural state (page 2-3).But the court did not find that the human genome could be patented if it was modified, as claimed in the post. In fact, the judgment explicitly stated that it did not deal with “the patentability of DNA in which the order of the naturally occurring nucleotides has been altered” (page 21).The ruling also makes no mention of mRNA vaccines or vaccines in general.University of Utah law professor and adjunct professor in human genetics Jorge Contreras, who has written a book on the Myriad Genetics Supreme Court case, told AAP FactCheck the claims in the Instagram post are “patently absurd”.Prof Contreras said the post was correct that the Supreme Court ruled human DNA could not be patented because it was a product of nature. However, the same ruling did not determine that the human genome could be patented if it was modified, or that those who received a vaccine which modified their genome could be patented, he added.“Just because a patented substance is injected into a person, that does not, under even the wildest interpretation of patent law, mean that the person somehow becomes ‘patented’,” Prof Contreras said via email. “At the most basic level, the US Patent Act expressly prohibits patenting human organisms.”He referred to Section 33(a) of the 2011 Leahy-Smith America Invents Act, which states, “Notwithstanding any other provision of law, no patent may issue on a claim directed to or encompassing a human organism.”Prof Contreras said: “Even without this statute, the idea that injecting someone with a patented vaccine renders that person patented makes no sense. Does implanting a patented artificial heart valve into a person somehow make that person covered by the heart valve patent? Does taking a patented drug? Of course not.“The ‘making’ of further copies of the mRNA construct within the person’s body is authorised as the natural and intended use of the patented item … The person, of course, would not be permitted to somehow extract the vaccine from his arm, then replicate it and begin to sell vaccine doses. But the idea that the person is patented is utter nonsense.”George Washington University health policy associate professor Lara Cartwright-Smith, who has written a paper on the implications of the 2013 Supreme Court case, told AAP FactCheck the claims in the post were “both factually and legally incorrect”.“Receiving an mRNA vaccine does not and cannot alter one’s DNA, so the basis for the claim is wrong,” Dr Cartwright-Smith said via email.She also said a person cannot be legally patented. While the Supreme Court ruling said cDNA could be patented, this in no way affected the legal status of the person who underwent the relevant procedure, she added.The Associated Press previously labelled similar claims as false. The claim that mRNA vaccines for COVID-19 alter the human genome has been repeatedly debunked.","https://www.instagram.com/p/CRHxl3nt7lR/,https://fb.watch/6S7hjEaTpQ/,https://ifunny.co/tags/patented,https://www.blaqsbi.com/3jsy-Post-The-Vaccinated-can-be-Patented-Owned,https://8kun.top/qresearch/res/14069866.html,https://web.archive.org/web/20210718184315/https://thecovidblog.com/2021/04/27/supreme-court-pfizer-moderna-et-al-may-own-your-genes-once-youre-injected-with-their-lab-created-mrna-dna/,https://www.aap.com.au/chill-out-cold-storage-mrna-covid-19-vaccines-are-legitimate/,https://www.aap.com.au/vaccine-being-developed-for-covid-19-wont-alter-a-persons-dna/,https://www.aap.com.au/covid-19-vaccine-gene-therapy-suggestion-diagnosed-as-false/,https://fullfact.org/health/mrna-covid-vaccine/,https://apnews.com/article/archive-fact-checking-9340521654,https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-factcheck-covid-19-vaccine-modify/false-claim-a-covid-19-vaccine-will-genetically-modify-humans-idUSKBN22U2BZ,https://theconversation.com/can-the-pfizer-or-moderna-mrna-vaccines-affect-my-genetic-code-162590,https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/different-vaccines/mrna.html,https://www.genome.gov/genetics-glossary/messenger-rna,https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/different-vaccines/mrna.html,https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/12pdf/12-398_1b7d.pdf,https://www.amp.org/about/who-we-are/,https://myriad.com/about-myriad/inside-myriad/overview/,https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/12pdf/12-398_1b7d.pdf,https://faculty.utah.edu/u0989706-JORGE_L_CONTRERAS/hm/index.hml,https://www.amazon.com/Genome-Defense-Inside-Battle-Determine/dp/1616209682/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=contreras+genome+defense&qid=1626094132&sr=8-3,https://www.congress.gov/bill/112th-congress/house-bill/1249/text,https://expert.gwu.edu/display/laracs,https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3982540/,https://apnews.com/article/fact-checking-858056718583",Vaccine ‘transhuman’ claims patently wrong on US Supreme Court ruling,,,,,,
1,,,,False,,2021-07-21,,factcheck_aap,,https://www.aap.com.au/onion-and-sugar-flu-remedy-is-more-a-recipe-for-bad-teeth/,,,factcheck_aap,,"The StatementMultiple Facebook posts claim that a homemade medicine of raw onion and sugar can cure colds and flu in children – even newborns.The recipe was posted to Facebook by a user in Australia along with the text: “Obviously there’s still a lot of people who don’t know about this simple and effective home remedy … it works better than any over the counter prescriptions that are out there and best of all your (sic) not giving your kids unknown chemicals or whatever poisons they put into meds these days”.According to the post, the concoction is made by soaking sliced brown onions in sugar, before placing the mixture in the fridge overnight. “The next morning you will end up with liquid or onion juice on the plate. The liquid is what you take or give to your child,” it says.At the time of writing, the July 6 post had been viewed more than 500,000 times and shared more than 3400 times. Other Facebook users in Australia and New Zealand have posted the same recipe, see here, here, and here. The purported remedy is made by soaking sliced onions in sugar and placing the mix in the fridge. The AnalysisDousing onions in sugar is a great way to make caramelised onions – but it’s not a good way to stop kids from getting colds and flu.Paediatric respiratory health experts told AAP FactCheck that the mixture will do absolutely nothing to cure children of respiratory health problems and is more likely to result in a trip to the dentist.Professor Anne Chang, the head of child health at the Menzies School of Health Research, told AAP FactCheck in an email that there is “no published scientific evidence whatsoever in reputable journals” to back up the claims made in the social media posts.“Anything soaked in sugar is likely to be unhealthy,” she added.Professor Sarath Ranganathan, a paediatric respiratory medicine from the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, also told AAP FactCheck that the supposed remedy will do nothing to cure respiratory problems in children.“There is no cure for colds, flu and bronchitis (or bronchiolitis),” he said in an email. “Occasionally wheezy children benefit with bronchodilators. Paracetamol can occasionally be given for high fever with distress (and) risk of influenza can be mitigated with seasonal vaccination.”Prof Ranganathan said the most likely outcome from drinking sugary onion juice is that it would “rot the teeth”.The myth that onions prevent colds and flu goes back many centuries. In the first century AD, Roman emperor Nero reportedly swore by onions as a cure for colds, while the claim that onions can treat influenza goes back to at least the 1500s, according to the US National Onion Association.However, despite some anecdotal stories of success, the idea that mixing onions with sugar will prevent colds, flu and bronchitis is not supported by medical science.Some studies have found that onion extracts can prevent respiratory disease in animals, such as this Japanese study showing that fructan (sugar molecules) extracted from Welsh onions could reduce influenza in mice. A 2019 study found red onion extract could help prevent lung lesions in chickens.Onions also have nutritional benefits for humans, while some studies have found that their extracts could potentially improve wellbeing in a range of ways, such as reducing cholesterol, treating fungal diseases or lowering blood pressure. Other studies – see here, here, here, here and here – suggest onions may even help prevent some types of cancer, although further research is needed.Despite these benefits, no credible research has concluded that onions or onion juice will stop humans from contracting a cold, influenza or bronchitis. Mixing onions with sugar to prevent colds and flu is not supported by medical science, experts say.","https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=964550944470083&set=a.109863869938799&type=3,https://www.facebook.com/littlesunbeams98/posts/4360380507354896,https://www.facebook.com/doralee.harimate/posts/10224604494247204,https://www.facebook.com/kiripara.gordon/posts/10222616086683169,https://www.taste.com.au/recipes/caramelised-onions/5e9306e9-8c70-48dc-98ea-d1f646b6065d,https://www.menzies.edu.au/page/Our_People/Researchers/Anne_Chang/,https://www.menzies.edu.au/,https://www.mcri.edu.au/users/aprofessor-sarath-ranganathan,https://www.mcri.edu.au/,https://blog.britishmuseum.org/who-was-nero/,https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/howto/guide/ingredient-focus-onions,https://web.archive.org/web/20200423023839/https://www.onions-usa.org/tips-myths-faqs/onions-flu/,https://www.kidspot.com.au/lifestyle/family-health/mum-shares-natural-remedy-to-clear-a-childs-cough-in-just-3-days/news-story/11f0b9d536bf71eb9aede8885538eac9,https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S030881461200653X,https://www.monashfodmap.com/blog/fructans-fodmap-reintroduction/#:~:text=A%20fructan%20is%20a%20molecule,sugar%20molecule%20at%20the%20end.,https://www.easpublisher.com/media/features_articles/EASJALS_21_13-18_c.pdf,https://onion.nmsu.edu/nutrition-facts.html,https://www.koreascience.or.kr/article/JAKO201007049674475.page,https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16690223/,https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/british-journal-of-nutrition/article/effects-of-a-quercetinrich-onion-skin-extract-on-24-h-ambulatory-blood-pressure-and-endothelial-function-in-overweighttoobese-patients-with-prehypertension-a-randomised-doubleblinded-placebocontrolled-crossover-trial/C33CDF1F4E46BB8BCD14940B2F005615,https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4366009/,https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1541-4337.12331,https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304383508003972?casa_token=7BYdWDcNQ8IAAAAA:crETOIrQSX8A_vY-AiKAD5_7rrsTMjVuMVhHdCPv6J7_N4ZuL62ZIlLBwmvH5S8Ei2jzPcFDAQ,https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6694434/,https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0963996917301060?via%3Dihub",Onion and sugar flu ‘remedy’ is more a recipe for bad teeth,,,,,,
2,,,,False,,2021-07-21,,factcheck_aap,,https://www.aap.com.au/no-jab-no-baguette-posts-misconceive-france-health-pass-plan/,,,factcheck_aap,,"The StatementAustralian social media users have shared claims that French President Emmanuel Macron is banning unvaccinated people from purchasing food at supermarkets from August.A screenshot including the claim was posted on July 14 to the Facebook account of Jamie McIntyre, who has repeatedly shared false or misleading information about COVID-19 (see here, here and here).The post features an image of Mr Macron with the caption: “French President announces that from August 1, 2021 people won’t be allowed to PURCHSE (sic) FOOD at supermarkets unless they are vaccinated!”Similar posts have been shared by multiple other Australian social media users, including by former Neighbours actor Nicola Charles. Unvaccinated French people won’t be able to buy food from supermarkets from August 1, a meme says. The AnalysisFrench President Emmanuel Macron announced plans on July 12 to combat the rise in Delta variant cases of COVID-19, including the introduction of a “health pass” as a requirement to access many facilities.However, the passport is not available only to the vaccinated, nor is there any evidence that it will be used to bar people from shopping in supermarkets.As of August, all visitors to restaurants, cafes, shopping centres, hospitals or bars in the country will have to show a COVID-19 “pass sanitaire” – or health pass. The pass will provide proof that a person has been vaccinated against COVID-19, has recently had a negative coronavirus test or has recovered from the virus within the past six months.Mr Macron set out the plan in an address, during which he said vaccination would not be mandatory but the health pass was being extended in order to drive as many people to become vaccinated as possible.He went on to say only the vaccinated and those who had tested negative to the virus would be able to access places such as cafes, restaurants, shopping centres, hospitals and long-distance transport.The announcement, which has been described as one of the world’s most strict pandemic edicts, resulted in a reported rush for vaccines, with nearly one million people booking online in the first day after Mr Macron’s announcement.According to reports, French Health Minister Olivier Véran later clarified the rules surrounding grocery shopping: “We are talking about (asking for health passes in) big shopping centres … not supermarkets.”The country’s finance minister, Bruno Le Maire, also confirmed in an interview that the restrictions would only apply to the largest shopping centres, those with an area greater than 20,000sq m.Dominique Schelcher, president of the French retailers co-operative Système U, which includes several hundred independent supermarkets, tweeted regarding the health pass that only major shopping centres would be affected and that “the small supermarket of your daily life is not concerned” (translated from French).There have been large-scale protests throughout France about the health pass since Mr Macron’s address, while the measure has also been reportedly used to fuel various COVID-19-related conspiracy theories.The image of Macron’s speech in the Facebook meme identifies that it was received from Azazel News (Aries), a channel on the encrypted messaging platform Telegram that frequently shares unsubstantiated and conspiratorial material. French President Emmanuel Macron announced plans on July 12 to combat a rise in Delta variant cases.","https://archive.is/SH4LD,https://www.aap.com.au/muddled-up-data-misleads-on-covid-19-vaccine-efficacy/,https://www.aap.com.au/the-uk-isnt-expecting-most-covid-19-vaccine-recipients-to-die-in-a-third-wave/,https://www.aap.com.au/no-evidence-to-support-claim-tanzanias-virus-sceptic-president-was-murdered/,https://www.facebook.com/PeopleOfVic/photos/pcb.273557011193036/273555767859827/,https://twitter.com/nicola1charles/status/1415085168306528257,https://www.facebook.com/kevinspire/posts/10220417451886801,https://twitter.com/nicola1charles/status/1415085168306528257,https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/delta-variant-account-most-new-french-covid-cases-this-weekend-minister-2021-07-09/,https://www.france24.com/en/europe/20210712-follow-live-france-s-macron-addresses-the-nation-as-covid-19-delta-variant-surges,https://www.gouvernement.fr/pass-sanitaire-toutes-les-reponses-a-vos-questions,https://www.elysee.fr/emmanuel-macron/2021/07/12/adresse-aux-francais-12-juillet-2021,https://edition.cnn.com/2021/07/15/opinions/emmanuel-macron-bet-covid-health-pass-andelman/index.html,https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2021/07/13/1015591406/french-people-rush-for-vaccines-after-macron-ties-a-new-health-pass-to-cafe-life,https://www.connexionfrance.com/Practical/Your-Questions/Will-I-need-a-health-pass-to-go-to-the-supermarket-in-France,https://www.lejdd.fr/Politique/bruno-le-maire-au-jdd-sur-le-passe-sanitaire-les-sanctions-doivent-etre-dissuasives-4058376,https://www.statista.com/study/65607/grocery-stores-systeme-u-in-france-brand-report/,https://twitter.com/schelcher/status/1414978618065924100,https://www.france24.com/en/france/20210718-conspiracy-theories-fuel-french-opposition-to-covid-19-health-pass,https://t.me/s/AzazelNews","No jab, no baguette? Posts misconceive France health pass plan",,,,,,
3,,,,False,,2021-07-19,,factcheck_aap,,https://www.aap.com.au/clogged-dutch-motorway-pic-doesnt-show-nz-farming-protest/,,,factcheck_aap,,"The StatementAn Instagram post claims to show dozens of tractors blocking a main Auckland motorway as part of a major protest against various government policies that affect farmers.The July 16 post includes an image of a long line of tractors blocking one site of a motorway. Its caption includes the text: “HAPPENING RIGHT NOW IN AUCKLAND!!! When the government wants to take on the farmers.. this is what happens… the farmers are SHUTTING DOWN AUCKLAND CBD!!”The same image was posted by multiple accounts in New Zealand at around the same time. One Facebook post included the photo with the caption: “AWESOME. Share to support them.” It had been shared more than 15,000 times at the time of writing.An earlier post included the image alongside text previewing the planned farmers protest the next day, adding: “Should only be medium chaos on Auckland Motorway tomorrow.”In addition, the photo was also used in an article about the farmers protest on the Australian Chinese-language website AusToday.com.au and on the BFD blog in a post republishing a New Zealand National Party press release. A social media post claims an image of tractors jamming a motorway is of the NZ farmer protest. The AnalysisWhile thousands of tractors clogged roads in New Zealand in a mass protest this month, the image used in the Facebook post depicts a protest in the Netherlands nearly two years earlier.The New Zealand protest on July 16 involved a convoy of tractors driving on State Highway One into Auckland, with the main roads south of the city reportedly gridlocked. Photos of the protest show tractors filling one lane of a motorway and blocking Auckland’s main street (see here and here).Tractors also reportedly filled 55 cities and towns around the country, including a five kilometre-long convoy in Dunedin, where organisers estimated more than 700 tractors and utes took part.The protest was organised by Groundswell NZ, a group which says it is made up of volunteer farmers and rural professionals who want to stop “unworkable regulations” aimed at reducing water pollution, greenhouse emissions and biodiversity loss.However, the photo in the Facebook post doesn’t show the New Zealand protests and is taken from a national farming demonstration in the Netherlands.The image was shot by Dutch photographer Vincent Jannink on October 1, 2019 for the European Pressphoto Agency. The photo caption says it shows farmers blocking the A28 highway between Hoogeveen and Meppel on their way to The Hague as part of a protest against farming regulations.The photo was used widely in media coverage of the protests at the time, for example in the UK and Australia.The image appears to have been reversed in the New Zealand posts, making it appear like the tractors are driving on the left-hand side of the road, as well as being cropped in a way that removes the Dutch signage. A close inspection of the photo in the posts reveals the numbers and letters on one of the tractor’s licence plates are backwards. The 2019 EPA photo by Vincent Jannink showing farmers blocking the A28 Highway in The Netherlands.","https://www.instagram.com/p/CRXhmaqHzCW/,https://www.facebook.com/NZSPEEDLIMIT/photos/a.989192024429642/4833476303334509/,https://www.facebook.com/783640348330172/posts/4611811418846360,http://austoday.com.au/thread-519666-1-1.html,http://austoday.com.au/,https://thebfd.co.nz/2021/07/17/farmers-sent-a-clear-message-labour-should-listen/,https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/howl-of-a-protest-tractors-and-utes-descend-on-cities-as-farmers-protest/Q2A6FXLGBLTWWE6IPNBFFBTKL4/,https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/howl-of-a-protest-tractors-and-utes-descend-on-cities-as-farmers-protest/Q2A6FXLGBLTWWE6IPNBFFBTKL4/,https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/farming/300359312/howl-of-a-protest-in-photos-tractors-take-over-main-streets-across-nz,https://www.odt.co.nz/star-news/star-christchurch/blown-away-thousands-descend-south-island-centres-protest,https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jul/16/new-zealand-farmers-stage-huge-protest-over-environmental-rules,https://www.odt.co.nz/rural-life/rural-events/%E2%80%98enough-enough%E2%80%99,https://groundswellnz.co.nz/,https://photos.aap.com.au/search/NETHERLANDS%20FARMERS%20PROTEST%20Vincent%20Jannink%202019,https://metro.co.uk/2019/10/01/massive-tractor-protest-leads-700-miles-traffic-jams-10843566/,https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/6416758/dutch-farmers-drive-tractors-to-the-hague/",Clogged Dutch motorway pic doesn’t show NZ farming protest,,,,,,
4,,,,False,,2021-07-19,,factcheck_aap,,https://www.aap.com.au/baby-sex-selection-tips-a-bundle-of-myth/,,,factcheck_aap,,"The StatementA Facebook post claims the timing of intercourse can influence the sex of a baby, going on to suggest how readers can increase their chance of the preferred outcome at conception.The May 22 post from a Papua New Guinea-based account claims sperm cells contain either an X chromosome, which will lead to a girl if it enters the egg, or a Y chromosome, which will result in a boy.It states Y sperm cells “move fast but die fast”, while X sperm cells “move slowly but survive longer”. It claims that based on this information, people can increase their chances of having a girl with sex several days before ovulation, while for a boy “intercourse must be timed to coincide with ovulation”.The post recommends people use a product called Predicte to determine the ovulation cycle. The post’s text is very similar to information on the Predicte website. A post claims the timing of intercourse can help would-be parents choose a baby’s sex. The AnalysisThere have long been claims that the timing of intercourse influences the sex of a baby, however experts say the approach detailed in the post is unsupported by evidence and has been widely discredited.The method described was developed and popularised by Columbia University fertility doctor Landrum B. Shettles.According to an article in the Embryo Project Encyclopedia, Dr Shettles developed the “Shettles method” in the 1960s based on his observations that the size, shape and behaviour of sperm cells correlated with the different sex chromosomes they carried.He believed the differences between the two types of sperm cells could lead to a means of sex selection. He observed that X sperm appeared to survive longer in the acidic conditions normally present in the vagina, while Y sperm swam faster in the alkaline conditions present during ovulation.He theorised that if couples abstained from intercourse except for the two or three days during and after ovulation, then a boy was more likely. Conversely, if couples had sex at least three days before ovulation, a female baby was more likely.Some studies have found the timing of intercourse has a statistically significant impact on a baby’s sex, but the results have been conflicting – and many have contradicted the Shettles approach advocated in the post.A 1979 study study of 3658 births found 65 per cent of babies were male when intercourse resumed two days after ovulation.However, a number of studies delivered results that conflicted with Shettles’ recommendations (see here, here and here), including a meta-analysis published in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, which found males were less likely to be born when conception occurred during ovulation. It said the evidence was “insufficient to allow sex selection by timing of intercourse”.“This study disproves the suggestion by Shettles and Billings that the selection of male offspring by intercourse around the time of ovulation is possible,” the study said.Several studies found the timing of intercourse had no significant influence on the sex of a baby for practical purposes (see here and here). One study from Johns Hopkins University researchers looked at 947 births and found “the sex ratio did not vary consistently or significantly with the estimated timing of insemination relative to the day of ovulation”.“Study findings suggest that manipulating the timing of insemination during the cycle cannot be used to affect the sex of offspring,” it said.Some studies have also refuted Dr Shettles’ claim that sperm have different physical characteristics.A 2020 review of studies on the features of X and Y sperm, published in the journal Frontiers in Cell and Development Biology, said that while previous studies had proposed a substantial difference between X and Y spermatozoa, recent studies suggested negligible or no differences in respect to their shape, size, swimming pattern or strength. It said the only difference was their DNA content.Alex Polyakov, an obstetrician and senior lecturer at the University of Melbourne Medical School, said the claim in the Facebook post was false and the Shettles method was “unsupported by evidence”.He said while some studies had supported Dr Shettles’ theory that timing intercourse during ovulation resulted in a higher chance of males, other studies had found the opposite – and there was no consistency in the results.Dr Polyakov said modern microscopes had also shown that Dr Shettles’ theory that X and Y sperm had different attributes was incorrect.“The whole idea of his that you can time sex and you will get a boy or a girl by doing it is really nonsensical,” he said.Adelaide Medical School professor Sarah Robertson, an expert on seminal fluid, said there was no evidence that sperm swam at different speeds or died at different rates based on the chromosomes they carried.She said while it is “not impossible” that the timing of intercourse impacted the ability of Y sperm and X sperm to access and fertilise an egg, “no biological mechanism that affects X sperm versus Y sperm has been reported”.“In humans, there is no robust clinical evidence that the sex of offspring is affected by timing of intercourse, and no evidence that the survival or fate of Y sperm and X sperm are differentially affected by timing of intercourse in relation to ovulation,” Prof Robertson said.University of Newcastle professor Brett Nixon, an expert on sperm biology, said the claim in the Facebook post was “very unlikely to be true”, while Monash University senior research fellow Karin Hammarberg, a fertility expert, called its claims “an urban myth”. Experts say the Shettles method for choosing a baby’s sex has been discredited.","https://www.facebook.com/saplasofficial/posts/141142494711977,http://www.predicte-ng.com/chils_sex.htm,https://www.nytimes.com/2003/02/16/nyregion/dr-l-b-shettles-93-pioneer-in-human-fertility.html,https://embryo.asu.edu/pages/shettles-method-sex-selection,https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/449885/,https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/2687028/,https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJM197411142912004,https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/1836712/,https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/1836712/,https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJM199512073332301,https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2016.00102/full,https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9647580/,https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcell.2019.00388/full,https://findanexpert.unimelb.edu.au/profile/772397-alex-polyakov,https://www.adelaide.edu.au/directory/sarah.robertson,https://www.newcastle.edu.au/profile/brett-nixon#career,https://research.monash.edu/en/persons/karin-hammarberg",Baby sex selection tips a bundle of myth,,,,,,
5,,,,False,,2021-07-19,,factcheck_aap,,https://www.aap.com.au/military-drone-patrol-over-sydney-is-just-an-unidentified-viral-object/,,,factcheck_aap,,"The StatementA post by an Australian Facebook user claims to show a military-style drone patrolling Sydney skies during the city’s COVID-19 lockdown.The July 12 post shows two pictures purportedly taken at Bass Hill, in the city’s southwest. The words “UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle) bass hill” appear on both images.The post’s caption reads: “Captured Flown from Bankstown airport they are watching us big brother is watching unprecedented times 50 million dollar machine 40 metres in length unmanned this is the new Sydney the new world order we are doomed army is on its way people Marshall law (sic) around the corner,” the caption reads.At the time of writing, the post had been shared more than 1100 times and attracted more than 320,000 views. A post claims to show a military-style drone patrolling Sydney’s skies during lockdown. The AnalysisAmid a surge in COVID-19 cases, New South Wales police launched a controversial crackdown to target potential breaches of lockdown orders in southwest Sydney.However, the drone photo in the Facebook post was not taken in Sydney – and is unrelated to the coronavirus restrictions.A reverse image search of the post’s photo shows that the same image appeared online late last year, before Sydney’s current COVID-19 outbreak and lockdown. A Reddit post on October 11, 2020 by user “Gabriellinho10” shows the image. It was posted to the subreddit for the game Call Of Duty Mobile with the tag “humor” and caption, “Enemy UAV spotted”. UAVs frequently appear in the game.The same Reddit user has posted other manipulated images showing video game elements in real-life scenarios with “humor” tags attached. Comments by other users on those posts indicate the Reddit user may be based in the Philippines.After its appearance in the Reddit thread, the image was repeatedly used on Facebook and Twitter in various countries during October 2020. It was also used in November 2020 on a meme forum with the same layout as the Facebook post with a second cropped close-up of the drone.Nigel Meadows, a director with the Asia Pacific RPAS Consortium, a Sydney-based consulting firm dedicated to unmanned aircraft, told AAP FactCheck the photo showed “a ‘Predator’ family remotely piloted aircraft (possibly a ‘Grey Eagle’) – made by General Atomics – a US company”.“I can assure you that no such aircraft flies over Australian cities,” he said.Images of the Gray Eagle unmanned aircraft closely resemble the pictures in the meme.The post claims the aircraft is a “50 million dollar machine 40 metres in length” and adds that the “army is on its way”. However, the Australian Army uses the RQ-7B Shadow 200 for surveillance operations, a far smaller drone than that claimed in the post. It also bears little resemblance to the aircraft in the social media images.A prototype of a larger 11.5 metre-long Boeing drone was presented to Australia last year but does not resemble the one in the photo, while General Atomics MQ-9B SkyGuardian drones were ordered from the US for Australia in late April but are still reportedly several years away from use.The Air Force has ordered several Northrop Grumman MQ-4C Triton unmanned aircraft, however these are not due to be operational until at least 2025. The Department of Defence did not respond to a request for comment.When contacted by AAP FactCheck, NSW Police confirmed that the drone in the post’s photo was not used by state law enforcement.“We don’t operate that type of drone nor have we deployed any of our own remotely piloted aircraft during lockdown anywhere in NSW,” a spokeswoman said in an email. Police use small surveillance drones for other operations. Drones carry giant notes over Sydney Harbour during a promotion.","https://www.facebook.com/BUX2200/posts/1425401567834621,https://www.whereis.com/nsw/bass-hill-2197,https://www.9news.com.au/national/coronavirus-nsw-police-operation-100-more-officers-south-west-sydney/fd8412ad-bbdf-4a06-9ded-dc58764513ee,https://www.google.com/search?tbs=sbi:AMhZZitOjzqsMqRLi-mWWZ8tchz7j93MI6i_1L4IpJoFSN2E3waGx7FsrtV2vAR_1z6EbLBigrDGbrtFfQr8r3MVjrzsxua_1HNUGlmOManC-EM68sSRGN5sALx6YJiWvSNsvGKz93wvUL-DXLs5tNGY3Yjk9E973Ye7gNDQopeCwVSQ2afXS42ham8XLb6G_1BwsF25QtNMO-Z5BQfI5GbKdQE_1XnURb1a_16fJD5ik227xKVQOsaJSAI6Ml5WS7v_10ngd4knC5n6scjkwoMqruJZ0zNalYGGNd0xqFSmRfyn2IOfi4_1coyaCuuqh_1Y7Ux2givdRNKy_1wpUS&btnG=Search%20by%20image&hl=en-NZ,https://archive.ph/sBTEt,https://www.reddit.com/r/CallOfDutyMobile/,https://www.callofduty.com/mobile,https://afkgaming.com/mobileesports/guide/5255-everything-about-scorestreaks-and-uavs-in-call-of-duty-mobile,https://www.reddit.com/r/CallOfDutyMobile/comments/htfe64/quarantine_making_me_see_things/,https://www.reddit.com/r/CallOfDutyMobile/comments/hukj60/quarantine_making_me_see_things_pt2/,https://www.reddit.com/r/CallOfDutyMobile/comments/hukj60/quarantine_making_me_see_things_pt2/,https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=2807779466133147&id=2019162014994900,https://twitter.com/vardack_/status/1317215913100365829,https://es.memedroid.com/memes/detail/3154580/ese-we-tiene-buena-racha?refGallery=tags&page=1&tag=uav,https://ar-consortium.com/arc_executive_team/,https://ar-consortium.com/objective-and-vision/,https://www.defenceconnect.com.au/strike-air-combat/651-rpas-s-take-on-how-drones-are-changing-the-nature-of-warfare,https://www.defenceconnect.com.au/strike-air-combat/691-australian-drone-expert-calls-for-focus-on-uav-safety-guidelines,https://www.ga-asi.com/remotely-piloted-aircraft/gray-eagle,https://www.ga-asi.com/remotely-piloted-aircraft/gray-eagle#images-3,https://www.army.gov.au/our-work/equipment-uniforms/equipment/surveillance/unmanned-aerial-vehicles,https://edition.cnn.com/2020/05/05/asia/australia-loyal-wingman-drone-intl-hnk/index.html,https://www.ga-asi.com/remotely-piloted-aircraft/mq-9b,https://australianaviation.com.au/2021/04/us-approves-sale-of-mq-9b-reaper-drones-to-australia/,https://www.aspistrategist.org.au/australia-has-more-important-things-to-buy-than-mq-9-drones/,https://www.airforce.gov.au/technology/aircraft/intelligence-surveillance-and-reconnaissance/mq-4c-triton-unmanned-aircraft,https://www1.defence.gov.au/project/triton-remotely-piloted-unmanned-aircraft-system,https://www.9news.com.au/national/how-police-drones-are-changing-policing-in-australia/e050debc-3dce-4d99-afae-de1d610df283",‘Military drone patrol’ over Sydney is just an unidentified viral object,,,,,,
6,,,,False,,2021-07-16,,factcheck_aap,,https://www.aap.com.au/post-offers-thin-evidence-that-antarctica-is-not-losing-ice/,,,factcheck_aap,,"The StatementA Facebook post claims Antarctica is not losing ice because a number of British Research Station bases have previously been destroyed by mounting snow.The July 1 post by Ken Ring, an astrological weather forecaster from New Zealand, features a photo of the UK’s Antarctic Halley VI Research Station. Its caption claims: “There have been five previous bases at Halley, all now covered by mounting snow, giving (sic) the lie that Antarctic ice is disappearing.”It goes on to state: “The truth about Antarctic snow accumulation is kept from the world, lest the the (sic) public learn that ‘global warming’ is all nonsense.”The post also predicts Antarctica may experience some of its lowest temperatures ever recorded this winter. A post claims global warming is “nonsense”, pointing to Antarctic snow accumulation as evidence. The AnalysisWhile several British Halley bases were destroyed by mounting snow, this fact is unrelated to disappearing Antarctic ice or climate change.Several experts told AAP FactCheck the bases were built on top of ice sheets away from where ice melting or breakaways occur, which results in them being covered in ice and snow during regular accumulation. However, Antarctica is losing land ice overall.The British Antarctic Survey’s (BAS) Halley base was established in 1956 and is used for atmospheric science, geology and glaciology research. Since then, there have been five bases – including the current base Halley VI – all constructed on the Brunt Ice Shelf. Four of them were eventually rendered uninhabitable.The shelf records approximately 1.2 metres of snow annually, making it necessary to periodically rebuild the bases as they become covered in snow and get crushed, according to the BAS.Andrew Shepherd, a professor of earth observation at the University of Leeds with expertise in polar and climate science, told AAP FactCheck that Antarctic bases like Halley only experienced snowfall as they were placed on top of the ice sheet, where little melting or ice breakaway occurred.“Anything placed on top of the ice sheet will get buried over time and eventually either end up at the base or the edge (through ice movement transporting older ice towards the edge) where it will then either melt out or break free,” Prof Shepherd said in an email.Ian Simmonds, a professor at the University of Melbourne’s School of Earth Sciences, agreed, telling AAP FactCheck in an email: “Precipitation falls over the continent and this means that at most places over Antarctica objects located on the surface will ultimately be buried. While this is true it is, on its own, irrelevant to the argument that the continent is gaining mass.”For the claim that Antarctica’s disappearing ice is a “lie”, the experts said there is a consensus backed by scientific evidence to show that Antarctica is losing ice.Prof Shepherd described the post as misleading as it appeared to be based solely on Antarctic snowfall, which he said was only half of the story.“Antarctica does receive around 2098 billion tons of snow each year (1979-2008 average), but it also loses around 2306 billion tons per year (2009-2017 average) due to icebergs calving from the edge and ice melting from the base,” he said.“So it is losing 208 billion tons of ice per year overall which means it is shrinking, not growing.”Professor Rob DeConto, a polar climate change expert at the University of Massachusetts, said Antarctica is losing ice “at a quacking pace”.“The rate of ice loss is accelerating (demonstrated by multiple lines of evidence and with high confidence). The pace of ice loss has tripled in the decade from 2007 to 2017, relative to the previous decade, mainly in response to change in the flow of the ice sheet triggered by warm ocean waters in contact with the edge of the ice sheet,” he told AAP FactCheck in an email.The US-based National Snow and Ice Data Center says the Antarctic peninsula is experiencing ice loss as it has warmed by 2.5 degrees Celsius since 1950, while a large area of the west Antarctic ice sheet is also losing mass.NASA satellite data indicates Antarctica’s land ice sheet is losing 151 billion metric tons of ice per year, the organisation says. The ice sheet is the largest store of frozen freshwater in the world.Prof Simmonds identified that the term “Antarctic ice” can be defined by three main categories: the ice sheet covering Antarctica’s land and bedrock; sea ice, which floats on the ocean; and the ice shelf, permanent floating ice sheets connected to the Antarctic landmass.Of these, only sea ice levels have remained relatively steady, according to data from the UK’s Royal Society, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and NASA. Prof Simmonds said Antarctic sea ice levels had increased until around 2015 but had since started showing declines.The experts also disputed the claim that Antarctica may record some of its lowest temperatures this winter.Prof Simmonds said while parts of Antarctica experienced unseasonably cold weather recently due to a polar vortex, this is part of the natural climate system.“It is ingenuous to pick on an isolated (in time and/or space) event to make a broad statement about the whole climate system,” he said.Similarly, Professor Chris Rapley, an expert in climate and polar science at University College London and former director of the British Antarctic Survey, told AAP FactCheck that “one swallow doesn’t make a summer”.“If there has been or is predicted to be a low extreme, it does not invalidate a trend,” he said in an email.A scientific paper co-authored by Prof Simmonds details an overall warming trend over the entire Antarctic continent from 1950 to 2020 (Figure 1a), while the World Meteorological Organization this month recognised a new record high Antarctic temperature of 18.3C.AAP FactCheck sought comment from Mr Ring on the Facebook post but received no response.The rate of ice loss in Antarctica is accelerating, a polar climate change expert told AAP FactCheck","https://archive.ph/0XStx,https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/ken-ring-now-fears-for-his-life/WSVYQ3KAEOINXZFDLBEGFS32XE/,https://www.bas.ac.uk/about/about-bas/history/british-research-stations-and-refuges/halley-z,https://www.bas.ac.uk/about/about-bas/history/british-research-stations-and-refuges/halley-z/,https://environment.leeds.ac.uk/see/staff/1536/professor-andrew-shepherd,https://findanexpert.unimelb.edu.au/profile/16043-ian-simmonds,https://www.geo.umass.edu/people/robert-m-deconto,https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-018-0179-y,https://nsidc.org/cryosphere/quickfacts/icesheets.html,http://www.antarcticglaciers.org/antarctica-2/west-antarctic-ice-sheet-2/west-antarctic-ice-sheet/,https://climate.nasa.gov/vital-signs/ice-sheets/,http://www.antarcticglaciers.org/glaciers-and-climate/what-is-the-global-volume-of-land-ice-and-how-is-it-changing/,https://royalsociety.org/topics-policy/projects/climate-change-evidence-causes/question-12/,https://www.climate.gov/news-features/understanding-climate/understanding-climate-antarctic-sea-ice-extent,https://earth.gsfc.nasa.gov/cryo/data/current-state-sea-ice-cover,https://www.climate.gov/news-features/understanding-climate/understanding-arctic-polar-vortex#:~:text=The%20Arctic%20polar%20vortex%20is,Hemisphere%20stratosphere%20in%20its%20winter.),https://www.ucl.ac.uk/earth-sciences/people/academic/prof-chris-rapley,https://www.bas.ac.uk/,https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/ac0211,https://public.wmo.int/en/media/press-release/wmo-verifies-one-temperature-record-antarctic-continent-and-rejects-another",Post offers thin evidence that Antarctica is not losing ice,,,,,,
7,,,,False,,2021-07-14,,factcheck_aap,,https://www.aap.com.au/quote-that-nsw-police-will-arrest-shoe-shoppers-is-a-step-too-far/,,,factcheck_aap,,"The StatementMultiple social media accounts have attributed a quote to NSW Police Assistant Commissioner Tony Cooke in which he purportedly says people may be arrested for shoe-shopping during Sydney’s COVID-19 lockdown.An Instagram post from July 9 includes an image of Mr Cooke and the following words credited to him: “If you buy things we think you don’t need, for example a new pair of shoes, we will arrest you.”The post includes the caption: “Yes it’s real, the clip can also be found from yesterday’s NSW Police conference regarding the COVID-19 police force crackdown in Western Sydney.”At the time of writing, the Instagram post had received more than 4,500 likes. The quote meme has also been posted to several Facebook accounts including here, here and here.On July 10, federal MP Craig Kelly – whose Facebook page was removed in April after the company accused him of repeatedly sharing misinformation – posted the quote on Twitter with a comment: “When in history, other than in the most totalitarian regimes, has the police decided whether people need new shoes our not ? I’m embarrassed to say I live in NSW. We are a laughing stock.” A meme claims a senior NSW Police officer said people may be arrested for shoe-shopping. The AnalysisThe Instagram post published on July 9 claims that Mr Cooke made the statement at a NSW Police press conference held the previous day. However, a video of the July 8 press conference shows Mr Cooke did not say the words attributed to him when he briefly mentions shoe-shopping.Rather, when responding to a journalist’s question about whether police will enforce NSW’s lockdown rules at shopping centres, he says: “The question will be asked … what’s your reasonable excuse for being here? You don’t need that pair of shoes today.” (video mark 5min 40sec)Mr Cooke’s comment was reported across multiple news outlets – see here, here and here. AAP FactCheck could find no evidence that he used the phrase attributed to him in the social media posts at the July 8 press conference, or in any other public forum.At the time of writing, the COVID-19 restrictions for Greater Sydney state that only one person per household may leave their home each day to shop for food or other goods and services. Under “rules for leaving home”, it states for shopping: “Go directly to and from the shops to get what you need. Do not spend time looking at other things.”NSW Police’s website reports numerous examples of $1,000 fines being issued to people who fail to comply with the current lockdown restrictions (see here, here, here and here).A NSW Police spokesperson told AAP FactCheck in an email that “the quote in the Instagram post is incorrect”, and confirmed it is likely a misquote of comments made by Mr Cooke at the July 8 press conference.“As per NSW Health’s Public Health Orders, NSW Police have been urging the community to not leave home without a reasonable excuse, with browsing in shops prohibited,” the spokesperson added.Daily Mail Australia reported on July 10 that one Facebook post identified police as checking bags outside a Kmart store in south-west Sydney to confirm people’s reason for travel, however a NSW Police spokesperson told the publication that officers attended “for other reasons”.“Checking shopping bags is not part of the COVID police operation,” the spokesperson said. NSW Police Assistant Commissioner Tony Cooke speaks to media in Sydney this year.","https://www.instagram.com/p/CRGJ5C0tbve/,https://www.facebook.com/100063708519971/posts/196561452477471,https://www.facebook.com/100064569917312/posts/173405474821782,https://www.facebook.com/567132099990868/posts/4101138679923508,https://www.aph.gov.au/Senators_and_Members/Parliamentarian?MPID=99931,https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-04-26/craig-kelly-facebook-page-removed-covid-19-misinformation/100095622,https://web.archive.org/web/20210709145304/https://twitter.com/CraigKellyMP/status/1413509961078898694,https://web.archive.org/web/20210714040115/https://www.nsw.gov.au/covid-19/rules/greater-sydney,https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?v=400117041435519&ref=watch_permalink,https://www.sbs.com.au/news/double-standard-in-plain-sight-covid-19-police-operation-in-south-west-sydney-draws-criticism,https://www.9news.com.au/national/coronavirus-nsw-police-operation-100-more-officers-south-west-sydney/fd8412ad-bbdf-4a06-9ded-dc58764513ee,https://www.msn.com/en-au/news/australia/covid-police-operation-for-sthwest-sydney/ar-AALUjSI,https://web.archive.org/web/20210714040115/https://www.nsw.gov.au/covid-19/rules/greater-sydney,https://www.police.nsw.gov.au/news/news_article?sq_content_src=%2BdXJsPWh0dHBzJTNBJTJGJTJGZWJpenByZC5wb2xpY2UubnN3Lmdvdi5hdSUyRm1lZGlhJTJGOTY0NTkuaHRtbCZhbGw9MQ%3D%3D,https://www.police.nsw.gov.au/news/news_article?sq_content_src=%2BdXJsPWh0dHBzJTNBJTJGJTJGZWJpenByZC5wb2xpY2UubnN3Lmdvdi5hdSUyRm1lZGlhJTJGOTY0NzQuaHRtbCZhbGw9MQ%3D%3D,https://www.police.nsw.gov.au/news/news_article?sq_content_src=%2BdXJsPWh0dHBzJTNBJTJGJTJGZWJpenByZC5wb2xpY2UubnN3Lmdvdi5hdSUyRm1lZGlhJTJGOTY0OTUuaHRtbCZhbGw9MQ%3D%3D,https://www.police.nsw.gov.au/news/news_article?sq_content_src=%2BdXJsPWh0dHBzJTNBJTJGJTJGZWJpenByZC5wb2xpY2UubnN3Lmdvdi5hdSUyRm1lZGlhJTJGOTY1MDIuaHRtbCZhbGw9MQ%3D%3D,https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9774861/Police-spotted-waiting-outside-Kmart-western-Sydney-check-customers-shopping-bags.html",‘Quote’ that NSW Police will arrest shoe shoppers is a step too far,,,,,,
8,,,,False,,2021-07-13,,factcheck_aap,,https://www.aap.com.au/video-backfires-with-claimed-german-electric-car-fire/,,,factcheck_aap,,"The StatementA Facebook video post claims Germany has banned electric vehicles from parking underground because of the risk of fire.The video shows several electric vehicles (EVs) parked at a charging station. After 10 seconds, smoke emerges from beneath a van before a fire rages quickly and moves to a truck alongside. The blaze engulfs the truck and begins to burn a third vehicle.The post’s caption reads: “Charging station for electric vehicles in Germany shows why Germany will not let you park electric cars underground. A shorting battery cell causes a fire which takes 1:15 sec to destroy three cars!”At the time of writing, the July 5 post by an Australian user had been shared more than 9,500 times and the video had been viewed over 190,000 times.A later example of the same video and claim, posted by a Facebook page administered from New Zealand, had been shared more than 200 times. Its post also referred to New Zealand’s incentives to encourage the uptake of EVs. The post’s video shows a fire underneath an electric vehicle parked at a charging station. The AnalysisThe fire seen in the Facebook video may be a dramatic electric vehicle fire, but it’s not from Germany – nor has the European nation introduced a ban on electric cars being parked underground.The blaze seen in the video took place in the city of Dongguan in China’s Guangdong province on May 8, 2020, an incident reported on alongside the same video by outlets including Yahoo!News and an EV industry website at the time.The incident was also covered by the Chinese media site Sixth Tone, which revealed the fire-damaged EV was manufactured by Zhengzhou Nissan, a joint venture company. Chinese characters are visible on the vehicles in the video.The fire was completely unrelated to temporary decisions by two German car parks, in the states of Bavaria and Baden-Wurttemberg, to ban EVs from parking underground this year. Both decisions were the result of internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicle fires, and were not part of a national policy on the safe storage of EVs.A spokeswoman from Germany’s Federal Ministry for Transport and Digital Infrastructure confirmed to AAP FactCheck via email that it had not introduced any ban on electric vehicles from being parked underground due to the risk of fires.She noted that fire protection and fighting was the responsibility of each state, pointing to the city of Kulmbach’s ban following an ICE vehicle fire.“The ban on electric and hybrid vehicles entering that parking facility was imposed as a transitional measure and has been already repealed again,” she said.“In principle, the owner can regulate or restrict the use of his public or private garage (parking garage, underground garage) on his own authority.”A news report on the Kulmbach car park reopening in February said the fire on September 7, 2020 involved an old VW Golf. It also explained the reason behind the ban on EVs, quoting Michael Kuhnlein from the city’s civil engineering department.“In future, electric and hybrid cars will no longer be allowed to park in the underground car park. The fire brigade cannot extinguish such vehicles, they have to let them burn out. The underground car park is also not high enough to pull out burning cars with heavy equipment,” Mr Kuhnlein told inFranken.de.A report from German news agency DPA added details on the bans in Kulmbach and Leonberg in Baden-Wuerttemberg, saying that Teslas and other EVs as well as petrol and diesel hybrids were not allowed to use the two underground car parks. The Leonberg car park reopened to electric and hybrid cars on March 30, according to the city’s website.Thomas Neumann, a policy officer with Avere, the European Association for Electromobility, said the bans were limited to the two examples – which were widely reported on at the time.“No broader pattern of such bans has emerged since. The German Parking Association, automotive association VDA, and the German Firefighters’ Association are all of the opinion that such a ban is not necessary, given EVs do not pose a more significant fire hazard than ICE vehicles and EV fires can be extinguished safely and effectively,” he said.Eva Siegfried, of VDA, the German Association of the Automotive Industry, confirmed to AAP FactCheck that the Kulmbach ban had been lifted in May, and that no federal restriction on EVs being parked underground was in place in Germany. A row of parking spots with charging stations for electric vehicles.","https://archive.ph/sfjmj,https://www.facebook.com/989160901099421/videos/1494006290941770, https://www.transport.govt.nz/area-of-interest/environment-and-climate-change/electric-vehicles-programme/,https://uk.news.yahoo.com/four-vehicles-burnt-fire-erupts-130000743.html?guccounter=1,https://insideevs.com/news/423581/severe-electric-car-fire-explosion-charging/,https://www.sixthtone.com/news/1005631/blast-and-furious-battery-fires-add-to-chinas-ev-woes,https://www.merkur.de/wirtschaft/tesla-verbot-tiefgarage-kulmbach-parkhaus-elektroauto-hybrid-e-auto-brandgefahr-bayern-zr-90207549.html,https://www.bmvi.de/EN/Meta/Contact-Us/contact-us.html,https://www.infranken.de/lk/kulmbach/tiefgarage-e-autos-muessen-draussen-bleiben-art-5164055,https://www.dpa-international.com/topic/fire-risk-prompts-ban-electrics-underground-car-parks-urn%3Anewsml%3Adpa.com%3A20090101%3A210220-99-524091,https://www.leonberg.de/B%C3%BCrger-Stadt/Aktuelles/Bundestagswahl-2021/Parkhaus-Altstadt-Einfahrt-f%C3%BCr-E-und-Hybrid-Kfz-wieder-m%C3%B6glich.php?object=tx,2691.8&ModID=7&FID=2691.14320.1&NavID=2691.1397.1&NavID=2691.100,https://www.avere.org/what-is-avere/,https://www.vda.de/en/association/about.html",Video backfires with claimed German electric car fire,,,,,,
9,,,,False,,2021-07-13,,factcheck_aap,,https://www.aap.com.au/depopulation-projections-a-dystopian-fantasy/,,,factcheck_aap,,"The StatementA social media post claims that a “major military industrial corporation” projected Western populations would be cut in half by 2025 “inexplicably”, with the post linking the dire prediction to “future biological warfare” following the COVID-19 pandemic.The text claims the projections were “discovered in 2014”, pointing to the post’s comments for “photo evidence”. In the comments, screenshots from the Deagel.com website show forecasts that the populations of the United States and Australia will drop to 65 million and 8.9 million respectively by 2025.The Facebook post, by a page administered from Australia, had generated more than 550 interactions at the time of writing. A Facebook post claims a major military corporation has dire forecasts for Western populations. The AnalysisThe source of the post’s projected population figures is not a “major military industrial corporation” as claimed but an obscure website, which itself admits made the predictions based on pure speculation.Deagel.com has described itself as a “non-profit, built on spare time” that is “not linked to any government”. Nevertheless, it has previously been falsely identified as a secret US intelligence agency and a United Nations-linked group in posts and articles sharing misinformation based on the site’s groundless projections.As noted previously by AAP FactCheck, the website’s grim forecasts have proved inaccurate. For example, in February 2012, it predicted the US population would fall to 248 million by 2020 – when in fact it reached around 330 million.The 2025 projections are no longer displayed on the Deagel site, but an archived version from the beginning of the year shows predictions for large population declines in Western countries – but increases in countries like India, Brazil and Indonesia.Contrary to the post’s claim that the depopulation prediction was unexplained, a disclaimer at the bottom of the page gives the reason for the massive decline as “the collapse of the Western financial system”.“As COVID has proven Western societies embracing multiculturalism and extreme liberalism are unable to deal with any real hardship,” the disclaimer says.It describes the population decline as the “Great Reset”, which it says is “another attempt to slow down dramatically the consumption of natural resources and therefore extend the lifetime of the current system”.An archived version of a similar table from 2017 also ascribed cataclysmic population decline to the collapse of the Western financial system but made no mention of the Great Reset.The term originated in June 2020 with an initiative launched by Prince Charles and World Economic Forum chief Klaus Schwab to recast the COVID-19 pandemic as a chance to reframe the global economy around sustainable industries. Since then, it has become attached to various conspiracy theories – some of which are tied to baseless claims that pre-date the pandemic about a plot for global depopulation.The photo used in the Facebook post dates back to 2009 and a blog post diarising a trip to see the so-called “Georgia coffins” in Madison, Georgia.Fact checkers and local news reports have identified that the “cheap plastic coffins” were in fact burial vaults, an outer container placed in the ground before a coffin to protect it and maintain level ground.The owner of the vaults told the Morgan County Citizen the items had been stored on the site since the late 1990s to provide for future burial needs. Nevertheless, the same photo has since been attached to unfounded conspiracy theories that the Ebola outbreak of 2014-2016 was planned. The coffin of a COVID-19 victim is carried to a graveyard.","https://www.facebook.com/TheVikingChristian/photos/a.1829088784048828/2748067815484249,https://web.archive.org/web/20210101125922if_/https://www.deagel.com/forecast,https://web.archive.org/web/20210709051432/https://greatgameindia.com/deagel-intelligence-depopulation-covid-19/,https://www.aap.com.au/post-tying-nz-vaccine-program-to-dire-population-warning-full-of-falsehoods/,https://www.aap.com.au/post-tying-nz-vaccine-program-to-dire-population-warning-full-of-falsehoods/,https://web.archive.org/web/20120205065317/http://www.deagel.com/country/United-States-of-America_c0001.aspx,https://www.census.gov/popclock/,https://web.archive.org/web/20210101125922if_/https://www.deagel.com/forecast,https://archive.is/eHOXw,https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-57532368,https://www.aap.com.au/conspiracy-theorists-depopulation-text-does-not-appear-in-great-reset-book/,https://web.archive.org/web/20110914132247/http://sherriequestioningall.blogspot.com/2009/08/my-adventure-in-georgia-to-see-what-is.html,https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/false-coffin-corner/,http://web.archive.org/web/20120521010322/http://www.morgancountycitizen.com/?q=node/7524,https://newspunch.com/ebola-outbreak-planned-years-ago-what-do-you-think-the-millions-of-coffin-liners-are-for/amp/,https://www.who.int/health-topics/ebola/#tab=tab_1",Depopulation projections a dystopian fantasy,,,,,,
10,,,,Missing Context,,2021-07-09,,factcheck_aap,,https://www.aap.com.au/reheated-news-clip-obscures-up-to-date-advice-on-masks/,,,factcheck_aap,,"The StatementSocial media users in Australia are pointing to a Nine News story as evidence that face masks are not effective against the spread of COVID-19.A two-minute video of the news segment begins with an anchor saying: “Healthy West Australians are being warned against using face masks to protect themselves against coronavirus.”The report goes on to say the state government’s advice was in line with that from the World Health Organisation (WHO) – that only those with COVID-19 symptoms should wear masks.The item features Western Australia Health Minister Roger Cook, who says wearing a face mask “as a fit and healthy person in the street is not going to provide you with any greater level of protection”.It also includes an appearance from a Curtin University academic, Ben Mullins, who tells viewers face masks will “soak up moisture very easily and can easily infect someone wearing them”.A video of the news segment was posted on June 30, 2021 to an Instagram account for Jamie McIntyre, who has previously shared various misinformation about COVID-19 (see here, here and here), with the caption: “Channel 9 admitting masks shouldn’t be used”.Another Australia-based Instagram user posted the same news segment on July 1, 2021 adding a subtitle to the video saying: “Masks do NOTHING. Mainstream lamestream catches up 2yrs later…”Several other social media users have shared the video with similar comments (see here, here and here). Social media users are sharing a Nine News item about masking to prevent COVID-19. The AnalysisThe Nine News segment is real but it was broadcast more than a year ago, in April 2020 – a key piece of information not mentioned in the social media posts.It also deals primarily with the usefulness of masks in protecting the wearer from COVID-19, rather than their ability to halt the spread of the virus from the infected to others.Since the segment was broadcast, the advice on masks has evolved. The West Australian government has long recommended that face masks be worn to combat COVID-19.During the state’s five-day lockdown beginning on January 31, 2021, the WA government made masks mandatory for all residents when outside their homes. Masks have also been mandated during subsequent snap lockdowns affecting the Perth and Peel regions of WA (see here and here).WA Premier Mark McGowan has also advocated for the use of masks during COVID-19 outbreaks in the state, telling a news conference on May 2, 2021: “We can avoid a lockdown purely based on the restrictions we have had in place over the past week and the requirement that people had to wear masks; it has significantly reduced the risk of transmission in our community.” (video mark 6min 6sec)On May 6, Mr McGowan said: “Obviously, masks can be annoying but they do help protect us.”At the time of writing, everyone in Western Australia is required to wear a mask at airports, while travelling on aircraft, or when transporting a person who is subject to a quarantine direction. The Australian government’s infection experts have also identified that masks are most effective for source control – to prevent those with COVID-19 from infecting others.Curtin University professor Ben Mullins, the expert in aerosols featured in the Nine broadcast, told AAP FactCheck he was not suggesting in the interview that all face masks were ineffective.“The comments I made are still valid, however I was by no means suggesting they do not work,” Prof Mullins said in an email.“I was mainly referring to poor-quality homemade masks here that are worn too long – especially in wet/winter conditions. The interview was at a time when all and sundry were trying to make/sell masks.“Commercially made masks and good quality cloth masks incorporate a hydrophobic (water repellent) barrier to help limit transmission of accumulated droplets between the inside and outside.”Prof Mullins added that since the interview was aired multiple epidemiological studies have been released showing that masks are effective at preventing the spread of COVID-19.The WHO has also updated its advice on masks since the Nine story was broadcast. As previously explained by AAP FactCheck, WHO officials initially said there was no evidence to suggest the wearing of masks by the general population was of benefit.However, by June 2020 the WHO advised that masks should be worn in public where social distancing was not possible as the roles of asymptomatic and aerosol spread of the virus became clearer. The WHO has since consistently advocated for the use of masks to slow the spread of the virus. The WA government introduced its first mask mandate in January.","https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=213142103275809,https://www.wa.gov.au/government/people/roger-cook,https://www.instagram.com/tv/CQugx-fDV5d/,https://www.aap.com.au/muddled-up-data-misleads-on-covid-19-vaccine-efficacy/,https://www.aap.com.au/the-uk-isnt-expecting-most-covid-19-vaccine-recipients-to-die-in-a-third-wave/,https://www.aap.com.au/no-evidence-to-support-claim-tanzanias-virus-sceptic-president-was-murdered/,https://www.instagram.com/tv/CQvaI_bjMHP/,https://www.facebook.com/thenicholasfairbairn/videos/277575177491988,https://www.facebook.com/tracey.mcguinness.5/videos/212931847354796/,https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=926254247936801,https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=213142103275809,https://www.mediastatements.wa.gov.au/Pages/McGowan/2021/01/Western-Australia-enters-five-day-lockdown-from-6pm-tonight.aspx,https://www.mediastatements.wa.gov.au/Pages/McGowan/2021/04/Perth-and-Peel-to-enter-lockdown-from-12-01am-Saturday.aspx,https://www.mediastatements.wa.gov.au/Pages/McGowan/2021/06/Restrictions-introduced-for-Perth-and-Peel-immediately.aspx,https://7news.com.au/lifestyle/health-wellbeing/wa-premier-mark-mcgowan-warms-masks-may-become-longer-term-measure-in-fight-against-coronavirus-c-2741730,https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-05-06/wa-new-covid-rules-for-perth-and-peel-explained/100122000,https://www.healthywa.wa.gov.au/Articles/A_E/Coronavirus/Face-masks,https://www.health.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/2020/07/coronavirus-covid-19-are-cloth-face-masks-likely-to-provide-protection-against-covid-19_0.pdf,https://research.curtin.edu.au/supervisor/aprof-benjamin-mullins/,https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/science/science-briefs/masking-science-sars-cov2.html,https://www.aap.com.au/the-who-hasnt-admitted-healthy-people-should-stop-wearing-masks/,https://www.who.int/news-room/q-a-detail/coronavirus-disease-covid-19-how-is-it-transmitted,https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/advice-for-public/when-and-how-to-use-masks",Reheated news clip obscures up-to-date advice on masks,,,,,,
11,,,,False,,2021-07-09,,factcheck_aap,,https://www.aap.com.au/ginger-treatment-for-lung-conditions-hasnt-crystallised-into-evidence/,,,factcheck_aap,,"The StatementA social media post claims that a treatment of ginger applied to the skin has remarkable healing properties – removing mucus from the lungs overnight and putting an end to severe coughs.The May 13 Instagram post from a New Zealand-themed account includes a meme which shows an image of a child with a dressing attached to their chest.“Wrapped ginger can remove mucus from your lungs in just one night, and can completely stop a bad cough,” the meme’s text says. Similar memes have also been shared from accounts based in the Philippines, Portugal and the United States, among other locations. A meme claims wrapped ginger can cure a severe cough. The AnalysisWhile ginger may have beneficial properties, experts say there is no medical evidence to support the post’s health claims – nor is it biologically plausible that applying such a treatment to the skin would be effective.Ginger has been identified as having potential anti-inflammatory properties, with one 2011 journal article suggesting its compounds could be used in drugs to combat respiratory infections based on laboratory tests on human cells.Research has suggested gingerols and shogaols, the pungent compounds present in the rhizomes of fresh and dried ginger respectively, could have wide-ranging biological properties, including anti-oxidant, anti-microbial and anti-allergic effects, if used in therapeutic treatments.Ginger has also been touted in online articles as a potentially beneficial home remedy, for example as a treatment for acute bronchitis or to prevent colds, although these articles often provide little or no medical evidence to back up the claims, and commonly focus on oral consumption of ginger rather than application to the skin.For example, one article points to a review of ancient folk recipes by Iranian scholars of traditional medicines published in the Jundishapur Journal of Natural Pharmaceutical products as a source, but that review notes further research is needed to support the purported health benefits.An article for WebMD by pediatrician and medical editor Hansa Bhargava says ginger is a common folk treatment for a range of maladies, from an upset stomach to nausea and painful periods. Her summary makes no suggestion that it can remove mucus congestion or stop a bad cough when applied to the skin, but does note it’s unclear if a ginger compress can lessen pain.Professor Brian Oliver, a research leader at the Woolcock Institute specialising in respiratory viral infections, told AAP FactCheck in a phone interview there is no real evidence to support ginger being effective against coughs and colds.Prof Oliver said a lot of plant-derived medicines have their roots in Chinese traditional medicine, which consists of combining many ingredients together.“But for ginger, alone, there’s absolutely no evidence whatsoever, whether it’s ingested, taken as a tea or put on the skin, to support its utility,” he said.Associate professor Yuben Moodley, a respiratory physician from the University of Western Australia’s Institute for Respiratory Health, agreed, telling AAP FactCheck the claim is almost certainly not credible given the wide range of coughs and the serious underlying lung diseases often associated with them.“There are no studies that have studied ginger to any great extent, or to any extent to my knowledge, that would allow doctors to recommend its use in our practices,” he said in a phone interview.Both experts were also highly skeptical of the wrapping method, questioning how ginger could impact the lungs when applied to the skin.Prof Oliver said it would be “quite remarkable” if the method worked as it was “the wrong route of delivery”.“Whatever’s in the ginger would need to be absorbed through the skin, then go into the bloodstream, around the body and end up in the lungs before some medicinal effects can actually cure your cough and cold,” he said.New Zealand pharmacist and medical doctor Shaun Holt, who has authored numerous books on natural products, told AAP FactCheck that he could not find any evidence in the medical literature that a ginger wrap on the chest could help remove mucus from the lungs or help a bad cough.He also said it was not biologically plausible that sufficient ginger could enter the bloodstream via the skin to have an effect, or that sufficient vapour could be inhaled by a person wearing the wrap.“Nausea is a different matter, and ginger is proven to be effective; one large study worked out the dose needed and found it to be effective for nausea caused by chemotherapy,” he said.The Cochrane review website, a not-for-profit collection of systematic scientific reviews, identifies few clear benefits to the use of ginger other than as a potential treatment for nausea.Ginger has been prescribed to treat various conditions as a folk remedy.","https://www.instagram.com/p/COzdzihNXXA,https://www.facebook.com/1611187905618493/posts/5492145837522661,https://www.facebook.com/984464928382970/posts/1736001626562626,https://www.facebook.com/2521235407949790/posts/4662023840537592,https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2213434416300676,https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21698672/,https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0031942215300509,https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/pharmacology-toxicology-and-pharmaceutical-science/gingerol,https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/pharmacology-toxicology-and-pharmaceutical-science/shogaol,https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/agricultural-and-biological-sciences/rhizome,https://www.healthline.com/health/home-remedies-for-bronchitis#home-remedies,https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/ginger-for-colds#is-it-effective,https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/ginger-for-colds#is-it-effective,https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4377061/,https://www.webmd.com/vitamins-and-supplements/ginger-uses-and-risks,https://www.webmd.com/hansa-bhargava,https://www.woolcock.org.au/our-people/professor-brian-oliver,https://www.resphealth.org.au/personnel/a-professor-yuben-moodle-copy/,https://www.honeylab.co.nz/about/,https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00520-011-1236-3,https://www.cochranelibrary.com/,https://www.cochranelibrary.com/cdsr/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD007575.pub4/full?highlightAbstract=ginger",Ginger treatment for lung conditions hasn’t crystallised into evidence,,,,,,
12,,,,False,,2021-07-08,,factcheck_aap,,https://www.aap.com.au/yes-viruses-can-evolve-to-become-more-deadly/,,,factcheck_aap,,"The StatementSocial media posts claim that viral mutations have never resulted in viruses becoming more deadly.A July 1 Instagram post from an Australia-themed account includes a meme that states: “In the history of virology there has never, ever been a viral mutation that resulted in a virus that was more lethal. As viruses mutate they become more contagious and less lethal.”The post mirrors the wording of a June 26 tweet, which had been retweeted more than 2400 times at the time of writing. It was posted by controversial activist Dr Kelly Victory, who has been identified as sharing various coronavirus-related conspiracy theories in the past.Screenshots of the tweet have been shared on various social media platforms (see here, here, here and here), including by minor political party the Great Australia Party. A meme claims there has never been a virus that mutated to become more deadly. The AnalysisContrary to the posts’ claim, there are multiple examples of viruses that have mutated to become more virulent with the potential to prove more deadly to hosts.Viral variants have been gaining increased attention following the rapid spread of the Delta variant of the virus that causes COVID-19, which the WHO says is 55 per cent more transmissible than earlier variants of the coronavirus (Edition 46, Pg 8).Viruses themselves are constantly changing parasites that are unable to replicate without a host cell. There are multiple ways in which they can mutate, including antigenic drift, when the genes of a virus go through a series of small changes until a host organism may no longer recognise the virus and be immune to it.A more dramatic change called an antigenic shift may also occur. This can occur in cases where a virus that previously only infected animals gains the ability to infect humans, for example. Few potential hosts may be immune to the newly mutated virus, giving the pathogens the potential to cause epidemics.Virologists say these mutations can lead to viruses becoming more or less virulent (paragraph 5), which is typically defined as the ability of a virus to multiply and cause harm to its host.In the case of the Delta variant of SARS-CoV-2, first documented in India in October, it is currently unclear whether it is more deadly in addition to being more transmissible, although a June Public Health Scotland analysis found it was approximately twice as likely to lead to hospitalisation than the Alpha variant, which was discovered in the UK in September.World Health Organisation executive director Michael Ryan, who heads the agency’s emergencies program, said in a 21 June press conference (55min 54sec) the Delta variant of the coronavirus was “faster” and “fitter”, and would “pick off the more vulnerable more efficiently than previous variants”.Edward Feil, a professor of microbial evolution at The Milner Centre for Evolution at the University of Bath who recently wrote about evolution of the coronavirus, said the posts’ claims about viruses never becoming more deadly were incorrect.“I’m afraid that this claim is not in the least bit true – although it would be great if it was … (but) then it would be kind of hard to explain why so many virulent viral infections still exist,” he told AAP FactCheck via email.Prof Feil cited studies identifying mutations that led to increased virulence in zika virus, hepatitis B and canine and phocine (seal) distemper viruses.Influenza viruses can also mutate and become more virulent, periodically leading to deadly epidemics and pandemics, such as the 1918 Spanish flu that is estimated to have killed at least 20 million people worldwide – including many young, otherwise healthy adults.Prof Feil noted that increased virulence did not necessarily mean the same thing as a virus’s mortality rate, however the two concepts were linked. The term “lethality”, used in the meme, was “not a term widely used in the scientific literature,” he said.“If it means mortality (ie the chance that you will die if you catch it), then there will be a broad link with virulence, but exactly how that works will depend on the specific virus and mutations,” he said.Troy Day, a professor of mathematics and biology at Queen’s University in Canada told the Associated Press that for viruses to thrive it was advantageous for them to become more transmissible and less lethal, “but the problem is that it’s not always possible”.Jemma Geoghegan, an evolutionary biologist and virologist with the University of Otago who has also written on the evolution of virus virulence, told AAP FactCheck the claim in the meme was “completely false”.“A virus will evolve to become more or less virulent if it provides a selective advantage for the virus. There are examples of virulence increasing and decreasing. Bird flu, for example, has become highly pathogenic in humans,” she said.“Some of the best examples are in animals: there is good evidence to suggest myxoma virus has increased virulence.”Influenza viruses have periodically evolved to become more deadly.","https://www.instagram.com/p/CQxICS0sxqx/,https://web.archive.org/save/https://twitter.com/DrKellyVictory/status/1408572544639242244,https://www.denverpost.com/2020/04/07/coronavirus-steve-house-congress-victory/,https://quackwatch.org/11ind/a-skeptical-look-at-kelly-victory-m-d/,https://www.facebook.com/100044404811790/posts/365703938253097,https://www.facebook.com/kathleen.chambers/posts/2959653070944974,https://www.instagram.com/p/CQw7s96NmCz/,https://www.facebook.com/127846500638848/posts/4220712354685555,https://www.facebook.com/100044404811790/posts/365703938253097,https://www.yalemedicine.org/news/5-things-to-know-delta-variant-covid,https://www.who.int/publications/m/item/weekly-epidemiological-update-on-covid-19---29-june-2021,https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK8439/,https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7122971/,https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/viruses/change.htm,https://www.britannica.com/science/antigenic-drift,https://www.britannica.com/science/antigenic-shift,https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7095397/,https://www.otago.ac.nz/parasitegroup/PDF%20papers/PoulinCombes1999-PT.pdf,https://www.who.int/en/activities/tracking-SARS-CoV-2-variants/,https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2021/06/coronavirus-evolution-virulence/619301/,https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(21)01358-1/fulltext,https://www.who.int/publications/m/item/covid-19-virtual-press-conference-transcript---21-june-2021,https://researchportal.bath.ac.uk/en/persons/edward-feil,https://www.bath.ac.uk/research-centres/milner-centre-for-evolution/,https://theconversation.com/will-coronavirus-really-evolve-to-become-less-deadly-153817,https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8137341/pdf/fmicb-12-655065.pdf,https://aasldpubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1053/he.2000.6709,https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6833027/pdf/viruses-11-00944.pdf,https://www.nature.com/scitable/topicpage/genetics-of-the-influenza-virus-716/,https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC15547/,https://www.queensu.ca/mathstat/people/faculty/profiles/day,https://apnews.com/article/fact-checking-011488089270,https://micro.otago.ac.nz/our-people/teaching-research-and-support/jemma-geoghegan/,https://www.otago.ac.nz/,https://www.nature.com/articles/s41576-018-0055-5,https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2235289/","Yes, viruses can evolve to become more deadly",,,,,,
13,,,,Missing Context,,2021-07-02,,factcheck_aap,,https://www.aap.com.au/misleading-edit-of-gladys-berejiklian-clip-shrouds-her-stance-on-masks/,,,factcheck_aap,,"The StatementA social media post has singled out a comment from NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian as purported evidence face masks don’t help prevent the spread of COVID-19.The Instagram video post, shared by an Australian account on June 24, features a short snippet of Ms Berejiklian speaking during a press conference.In the excerpt, the premier can be heard saying: “Please know that if you’re symptomatic and put a mask on, it doesn’t mean you’re not going to transfer the virus to others.”The post’s caption states: “Sooooooo, what you’re saying is… they don’t work? Gotcha Gladys.”At the time of writing, the video had been viewed more than 19,000 times while the post had attracted more than 2000 likes. An Instagram post includes a clip of NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian discussing face masks. The AnalysisThe video has been misleadingly edited to remove key context. While the NSW premier correctly stated face masks don’t prevent transmission of the virus, she went on to add that masks provide important protection alongside other measures to reduce the spread of COVID-19.Ms Berejiklian held the press conference seen in the Instagram video on June 24, two days before Sydney and other parts of NSW were plunged into lockdown amid a COVID-19 outbreak.She prefaced the quote about symptomatic cases passing on the virus to others despite the use of masks by saying the face coverings were just one part of the strategy to reduce transmission, alongside other measures such as social distancing and hand sanitising (video mark 2min 51sec).“The mask is simply the fourth line of defence. It is not the only line of defence, and it doesn’t mean you can’t transfer the virus, but it certainly provides the added layer of protection, which is what this is about,” Ms Berejiklian said.“When you have a contagious variant, you need to make sure you have that added layer of protection and that’s why that mask wearing is so important.”NSW Health’s official advice states masks can help stop infected people from spreading COVID-19 to others when they cough, sneeze or speak.“The main value of wearing a mask is to protect other people. If used correctly, masks may prevent sick people from infecting others.”Professor Michael Toole, an epidemiologist from the Burnet Institute in Melbourne, told AAP FactCheck in a phone interview the four key measures of wearing a mask, physical distancing and paying attention to ventilation and hand hygiene added up to “pretty effective prevention” of viral spread.He pointed to a study published in the Lancet in June last year, which suggested that wearing face masks could result in significant reduction in the risk of virus transmission, particularly when N95 respirators or surgical masks were used.AAP FactCheck has previously addressed various claims relating to the effectiveness of face masks (see here, here and here). Several experts have previously identified that the purpose of mass masking was to slow the spread of the virus in the community. Gladys Berejiklian said masks were one of the measures that could help prevent spread of COVID-19.","https://www.instagram.com/p/CQfdacSDOSZ/,https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=331945538306286,https://www.nsw.gov.au/media-releases/covid-19-restrictions-extended-nsw,https://www.nsw.gov.au/covid-19/how-to-protect-yourself-and-others/face-masks/how-wearing-a-face-mask-may-help,https://www.burnet.edu.au/people/78_michael_toole_am,https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)31142-9/fulltext#%20,https://www.aap.com.au/does-a-new-study-show-masks-are-ineffective-at-stopping-covid-19-infection/,https://www.aap.com.au/dusty-plasterboard-test-masks-covid-protection-facts/,https://www.aap.com.au/the-who-hasnt-admitted-healthy-people-should-stop-wearing-masks/,https://www.aap.com.au/does-a-new-study-show-masks-are-ineffective-at-stopping-covid-19-infection/",Misleading edit of Gladys Berejiklian clip shrouds her stance on masks,,,,,,
14,,,,False,,2021-07-01,,factcheck_aap,,https://www.aap.com.au/jurassic-era-co2-claim-belongs-with-the-dinosaurs/,,,factcheck_aap,,"The StatementA Facebook user claims atmospheric carbon dioxide levels were 30 times higher during the Jurassic Period than at present, going on to suggest current levels of the greenhouse gas are lower than ever.The June 17 post from a New Zealand-based account included the claims alongside images showing aeroplanes and ships operating around the world while also questioning the contribution of the user’s own vehicle to “an imaginary ecological problem”.“Researched data shows that during the Jurassic period carbon content in the atmosphere was around 30 times more than it is now,” the post says.“Ferns etc the dinosaurs lived on where (sic) thirty feet tall and thriving. Carbon content in our atmosphere now is at an all time low and on the brink of plant life starving.”At the time of writing, the post had been shared more than 2800 times. It came four days after the New Zealand government announced a policy of providing a discount on low-emission vehicles funded through a levy on high-emission vehicles. A Facebook post claims current CO2 levels are at an all-time low. The AnalysisThe post exaggerates the difference between carbon dioxide (CO2) levels in the atmosphere during the age of the dinosaurs and present levels, while ignoring that current rates are thought to be the highest in three million years.While present CO2 levels are low on a geological timescale, experts say greenhouse gases are increasing at an almost unprecedented rate – and note that previous spikes have resulted in mass extinctions.Wesleyan University earth and environmental sciences professor Dana Royer has published multiple papers on CO2 levels during the Phanerozoic Eon, which spans from 541 million years ago to the present.He told AAP FactCheck via email that “almost all” studies have estimated CO2 levels were below 2000 parts per million (ppm) during the Jurassic Period, which ranges from around 200 million years ago to 145 million years ago. This CO2 level is around five times higher than the present level of about 416ppm.Prof Royer noted one study put CO2 levels at 5000ppm during the Jurassic Period, but this used “an outdated regression” and its figures were closer to 10 times present levels when using updated models.He referred to a 2017 paper he co-authored, published in Nature, which looked at CO2 levels over the past 420 million years. It showed CO2 levels peaked at about 2000ppm around 400 million years ago and again between 220 and 200 million years ago (figure 1). The figures were based on 1500 estimates using five different techniques taken from 112 published studies.The study said fossil fuel consumption could increase atmospheric CO2 to levels not seen for 50 million years and may result in heating not seen in half a billion years if emissions continued unabated.Prof Royer said ice core data from the past 800,000 years show CO2 levels are now significantly higher than at any other time in that period, and “the chances are pretty high” that CO2 levels are at the highest point in three million years.He said the argument that “climate is changing all the time, and the earth has done just fine” is common among climate sceptics, but ignores the extreme level and pace of climate change caused by humans.“The fastest climate events that we know about in the geologic record happened over thousands of years, and without exception these ‘fast’ events are associated with acute biological stress (e.g. the end-Triassic mass extinction, the end-Permian mass extinction and the Paleocene-Eocene thermal maximum).“Climate change today is occurring over hundred-year timescales, over an order of magnitude faster than the aforementioned geological events. In my opinion, the main take-home lesson from studying the geologic record is that what is happening today is very unusual and grounds for extreme concern.”According to NASA data reconstructed from ice cores, current CO2 levels are higher than at any point in the last 800,000 years, with a steep increase recorded in the 20th century.The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) says the last time atmospheric CO2 levels were more than 400ppm was more than three million years ago, when temperatures were two to three degrees warmer and sea levels were 15 to 20 metres higher. It said levels have increased from 280ppm since 1750.University of Sheffield natural sciences professor David Beerling, who is also an expert in Phanerozoic CO2 levels, said he was “not aware of publications out there supporting (the post’s) wild claim”.He said his most recent research, published in Geophysical Research Letters in 2014, found CO2 levels during the Jurassic were likely around 1000ppm, or about two and a half times the present level.University of Wollongong paleoclimatologist Helen McGregor said CO2 levels were about 2000ppm during the Jurassic Period, when temperatures were about five degrees warmer than today. She said levels are not currently at an all-time low as the CO2 concentration was about 180ppm 20,000 years ago and plants “were not starving” then.“Up until the past few decades, the earth’s atmosphere has ranged between 180-280ppm for about two million years and plants have done just fine,” Dr McGregor said via email.University of Victoria professor and founding director of the New Zealand Climate Change Research Institute Martin Manning also referred to Prof Royer’s Nature study and said CO2 levels peaked at about 2000ppm during the Jurassic. He said while current CO2 levels are lower than during that period, they are increasing about 1000 times faster than they had in the past.Experts say CO2 levels were significantly higher during the dinosaur era than now.","https://www.facebook.com/dale.gunn/posts/10221953171272241,https://www.radarbox.com/@2.41699,27.25463,z3,https://www.vesselfinder.com/,https://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/clean-car-package-drive-down-emissions,https://www.britannica.com/science/geologic-time,https://www.wesleyan.edu/academics/faculty/droyer/profile.html,https://www.researchgate.net/scientific-contributions/Dana-L-Royer-38907054/publications/2,https://www.britannica.com/science/Phanerozoic-Eon,https://www.britannica.com/science/Jurassic-Period,https://climate.nasa.gov/vital-signs/carbon-dioxide/,https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms14845,https://www.britannica.com/science/end-Triassic-extinction#:~:text=End%2DTriassic%20extinction%2C%20also%20called,percent%20of%20all%20taxonomic%20families.,https://www.britannica.com/science/Permian-extinction,https://www.britannica.com/science/Paleocene-Eocene-Thermal-Maximum,https://climate.nasa.gov/vital-signs/carbon-dioxide/,https://www.climate.gov/news-features/understanding-climate/climate-change-atmospheric-carbon-dioxide,https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/biosciences/people/aps-staff/academic/david-j-beerling-frs,https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/2014GL060457,https://scholars.uow.edu.au/display/helen_mcgregor,https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms10015,https://www.wgtn.ac.nz/sgees/about/staff/staff-publications/publications-martin-manning,https://www.wgtn.ac.nz/sgees/research-centres/ccri,https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms14845",Jurassic era CO2 claim belongs with the dinosaurs,,,,,,
15,,,,False,,2021-06-28,,factcheck_aap,,https://www.aap.com.au/conspiracy-theorists-depopulation-text-does-not-appear-in-great-reset-book/,,,factcheck_aap,,"The StatementA Facebook post claims a book written by the executive chairman of the World Economic Forum detailed plans to depopulate the world through wars, organised epidemics and starvation.The June 23 post by an Australian user claims to show a page from World Economic Forum (WEF) chairman Klaus Schwab’s book, COVID-19: The Great Reset.The highlighted text mentions plans to kill off billions of people beginning with white populations.“At least 4 billion ‘useless eaters’ shall be eliminated by the year 2050 by means of limited wars, organized epidemics of fatal rapid-acting diseases and starvation,” it says.The post had been viewed more than 24,000 times and shared more than 340 times at the time of writing. It and other versions of the same claim (see here and here) state: “This is not a conspiracy theory. This is 100% real. Do your research.” A post claims a book by the founder of World Economic Forum details plans to depopulate the world. The AnalysisThe passage included in the post does not come from World Economic Forum founder Klaus Schwab’s book on the opportunities for change following the COVID-19 pandemic.Rather, it appears in a 30-year-old document by a British author who put forward numerous baseless conspiracy theories. That author, in turn, appeared to falsely link the text to acclaimed science fiction writer H.G. Wells.Professor Schwab is a German engineer and economist who established the World Economic Forum in 1971 as a not-for-profit organisation with the stated aim of bringing together political, business, cultural and other leaders.In 2020, the WEF, in partnership with Prince Charles, launched an initiative called “The Great Reset” to “reinvigorate and rebalance” the world after the disruption of the pandemic.However, the term “Great Reset” has been “hijacked” by conspiracy theorists, who baselessly claim a group of global elites staged the pandemic in order to bring about economic collapse and install a new socialist world government, according to this BBC explainer.Last year, Prof Schwab co-authored a book titled, Covid-19: The Great Reset, which discussed the impacts of the pandemic on the world and the potential for the world to “reset” to become “more inclusive, more equitable, more respectful of Mother Nature”.AAP FactCheck confirmed that neither the text in the post nor its claims appear anywhere in Prof Schwab’s book.WEF’s head of media, Yann Zopf, also told AAP FactCheck that the post’s claim is “fake”.“The World Economic Forum and Professor Schwab never published this and of course it is not at all aligned with our values,” he said in an email.The text in the post can instead be found in a 1992 book by author John Coleman called, Conspirators’ Hierarchy: The Story of the Committee of 300, which claims a group of 300 powerful figures control the world.Coleman claimed to be a former intelligence officer who uncovered the elite’s plan for a “godless one world-new world order government”. His book makes various other outlandish and unsubstantiated claims, including that the Beatles were part of a plot to brainwash the masses and introduce drugs to American youth.His book includes the passage that can be seen in the post (page 105), which appears in italics after a section of text wrongly attributed to H.G. Wells’ 1928 book, The Open Conspiracy: Blue Prints for a World Revolution. It is not clear if Coleman claims the entire italicised section should be credited to Wells.AAP FactCheck examined the text of Wells’ book, which details his vision on “the way the world ought to be ordered”, and confirmed the text from the post and Coleman’s document does not appear in the work.The earlier italicised section of Coleman’s book, which does not resemble the text in the post or include related claims about wars, epidemics or depopulation, is instead taken from Wells’ 1902 book, Anticipations Of the Reaction of Mechanical and Scientific Progress Upon Human Life and Thought.This section begins: “The Open Conspiracy will appear first, I believe as a conscious organization of intelligent, and in some cases wealthy men, as a movement having distinct social and political aims…”Professor Klaus Schwab is the founder and executive chairman of the World Economic Forum.","https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10219652304513793&set=a.1641387550198&type=3,https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=2316157281850999&set=a.242962969170451&type=3&theater,https://twitter.com/ChrisHaworth368/status/1406921631570620417,https://www.bl.uk/people/h-g-wells,https://www.weforum.org/about/klaus-schwab,https://www.weforum.org/about/world-economic-forum,https://youtu.be/hRPQqfwwuhU,https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-57532368,https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/07/covid-19-the-great-reset/,https://www.amazon.com.au/COVID-19-Great-Reset-Klaus-Schwab-ebook/dp/B08CRZ9VZB#:~:text=%22COVID%2D19%3A%20The%20Great,and%20sustainable%20world%20going%20forward,https://www.weforum.org/people/yann-zopf,https://books.google.com.au/books/about/Conspirators_Hierarchy.html?id=gAUCAAAACAAJ&source=kp_book_description&redir_esc=y,https://www.thesun.co.uk/living/3271871/bizarre-conspiracy-theory-the-beatles-created-by-the-illuminati-to-peddle-drugs-to-us-kids/,https://www.cia.gov/library/abbottabad-compound/4A/4A92FD2FB4DAE3F773DB0B7742CF0F65_Coleman.-.CONSPIRATORS.HIERARCHY.-.THE.STORY.OF.THE.COMMITTEE.OF.300.R.pdf?fbclid=IwAR1Hld-1GdymiIut8PzU0LxvNE4Prb_3gaFYSGyl7wl0qq8bDfsXPQgKFKM%20https://www.booktopia.com.au/the-open-conspiracy-h-g-wells/book/9781946963031.html,https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/829737,http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks13/1303661h.html,http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks13/1303471h.html",Conspiracy theorist’s ‘depopulation’ text does not appear in Great Reset book,,,,,,
16,,,,False,,2021-06-25,,factcheck_aap,,https://www.aap.com.au/no-evidence-to-support-claim-tanzanias-virus-sceptic-president-was-murdered/,,,factcheck_aap,,"The StatementA Facebook post claims the late Tanzanian president John Magufuli was murdered due to his views on COVID-19.The June 3 post said the president was killed “because he opposed the insane global medical experiment” before it goes on to make several negative claims about COVID-19 vaccines.It was posted by Australian Jamie McIntyre, who has previously shared false information regarding COVID-19 and vaccines (see here and here).A number of similar claims about Mr Magufuli’s death have been made on social media – see here, here and here – including in an Instagram post which claims Mr Magufuli “was murdered by the Chinese in callaboration (sic) with the western countries”. A social media post claims claims the late Tanzanian President John Magufuli was murdered. The AnalysisThe late Tanzanian president John Magufuli was a prominent COVID-19 sceptic who reportedly died from a heart condition at the age of 61 on March 17. While baseless claims he was assassinated for his views on COVID-19 have gone viral on social media, there is no evidence that he was murdered.The Facebook post credits an article in The Australian for “acknowledging” that Mr Magufuli was murdered. However, the article by columnist Peter Hoysted does not include the suggestion – rather, it repeats the official announcement that Mr Magufuli died of heart failure while noting speculation that he had in fact contracted COVID-19.The article states that official reports, from then Tanzanian vice president Samia Suluhu Hassan, said Mr Magufuli died from “chronic atrial fibrillation”, which in “an overwhelming number of cases … is easily treated by a pharmacological response”.“We’ll never know the exact cause of death but Mr Magufuli was the world’s most politically prominent avowed anti-vaxxer, a national leader spruiking his own version of anti-vax misinformation,” it continues.The article ends by saying those opposed to COVID-19 vaccination “are going to go out feet first, the Magufuli way”.The news of the former president’s death was widely reported around the world and attributed to his heart condition. There were no credible reports that suggested he was murdered.The BBC reported that his death was officially announced by Ms Hassan, who has since become president. On March 17, Ms Hassan said Mr Magufuli died from “heart complications” at a hospital in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.The report said Mr Magufuli was one of Africa’s most prominent coronavirus sceptics and that opposition politicians claimed he had contracted COVID-19, although this had not been confirmed. The BBC said he had not been seen in public for two weeks prior to his death and “rumours had been circulating about his health”.It noted that Mr Magufuli declared Tanzania COVID-19-free last year after three days of prayer.Al Jazeera reported that Mr Magufuli had suffered from a heart condition for a decade and had been taken to Jakaya Kikwete Cardiac Institute on March 6. It said he was subsequently discharged but was rushed to hospital again on March 14 after feeling unwell and later died from the condition.Mr Magufuli had downplayed the severity of COVID-19, “urging Tanzanians to pray, use steam inhalation and embrace local remedies to protect themselves from the respiratory disease”, Al Jazeera added.Similarly, Reuters reported that Ms Hassan announced Mr Magufuli’s death from “heart disease that had plagued him for a decade”. It said he was last seen in public on February 27, “sparking rumours that he had contracted COVID-19”. On March 12, officials denied he had fallen ill, Reuters said.The Guardian said that Mr Magufuli wore a pacemaker for a heart condition, while also noting rumours that he had died of COVID-19. It said some of the president’s staff reportedly contracted the coronavirus, adding that Mr Magufili had suggested people “pray and inhale herb-infused steam” to combat the disease rather than taking vaccines.AAP FactCheck contacted the Tanzanian president’s office for comment, however it had not responded at the time of writing.A fact check by Reuters found no evidence that Mr Magufuli was murdered, noting there had been a pattern of posts on social media claiming without evidence that various African leaders had been assassinated for opposing COVID-19 vaccination. A portrait of Tanzania’s former President John Magufuli is placed next to a book of condolences.","https://archive.is/AEP31,https://www.aap.com.au/muddled-up-data-misleads-on-covid-19-vaccine-efficacy/,https://www.aap.com.au/the-uk-isnt-expecting-most-covid-19-vaccine-recipients-to-die-in-a-third-wave/,https://www.facebook.com/101309878346146/posts/236441058166360,https://www.facebook.com/114111333477013/posts/345006823720795,https://www.facebook.com/1875613082692819/posts/2890573481196769,https://www.instagram.com/p/CM1WyRpnlSi/,https://www.theaustralian.com.au/commentary/how-it-ends-for-the-antivaxxers/news-story/4d0d82da9c9b49541267485a5a1b1254,https://www.penguin.com.au/authors/peter-hoysted,https://www.tanzania.go.tz/profiles/profiles/details/249,https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-56437852,https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/3/17/tanzanian-president-john-magufuli-is-dead-vp,https://www.reuters.com/world/tanzanias-president-john-magufuli-dead-61-2021-03-17/,https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/mar/17/tanzanias-president-john-magufuli-dies-aged-61,https://www.reuters.com/article/factcheck-africa-leaders-idUSL2N2NP2SW",No evidence to support claim Tanzania’s virus-sceptic president was murdered,,,,,,
17,,,,False,,2021-06-24,,factcheck_aap,,https://www.aap.com.au/vaccine-spike-protein-link-to-male-infertility-is-a-failed-conception/,,,factcheck_aap,,"The StatementAn Instagram post cites a Canadian pathologist’s purported claim that men who receive a COVID-19 vaccine will “lose their reproductive capacity”, which could spell “the end of having children altogether”.The June 11 post by an Australian user includes a photo of a man clutching his groin next to a caption with the headline: “UK Pathologist Warns Spike Proteins will Cause All Men to Lose their Reproductive Capacity.”“The mRNA vaccines is (sic) found also to damage men’s reproductive organs, warns Dr. Roger Hodkinson of Western Medical Assessments. The vaccine spike proteins express themselves both in the placenta and the testes,” the caption says.“For pregnant women, this could mean a terminated pregnancy. For men, it could spell the end of having children altogether. People who get the jabs are going to regret it, Dr. Hodkinson warns, because many, if not all, of them will lose their reproductive capacity.”The post includes a link to an article from the European Union Times, a long-standing source of misinformation, extensively quoting Dr Hodkinson.At the time of writing, the post had been viewed more than 16,000 times. Variations of the same claims have been shared in countries such as Canada, Estonia and the UK. A post quotes a Canadian pathologis as claiming that mNRA vaccines damage male reproductive organs. The AnalysisThere is no credible research that supports the claim that mRNA COVID-19 vaccines cause damage to male reproductive organs and cause men to become infertile.The Instagram post and linked article claim Dr Hodkinson, a Canadian pathologist who has been quoted as describing COVID-19 as a “hoax”, said there was “sufficient evidence in the literature” to suggest that spike proteins resulting from mRNA vaccines express themselves both in the placenta and the testes.However, Dr Hodkinson told AAP FactCheck in an email that there were “substantial inaccuracies” in the European Union Times article including “some things I did not say at all”.He declined to state which parts were inaccurate and instead referred to an interview posted on LewRockwell.com, which frequently publishes anti-vaccination and conspiratorial material.In the interview, Dr Hodkinson said there were serious scientific grounds for concern about the vaccines and male fertility, but he concedes these concerns were “not proven” (11min 14sec).He later claims there is “scientific evidence in the literature for concern about the consequences of the vaccine targeting the ovaries and the spike proteins targeting the testes” without providing further details (12min 22sec).Professor David Tscharke, a virologist and immunologist at the Australian National University (ANU), described the claim that spike proteins from vaccines inhibit reproductive function as “made up” and “extremely unlikely”.“Unlike SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19), which is a replicating infectious agent that can spread systemically, none of the vaccines are able to spread far from the site of injection and none disseminate through the body,” he told AAP FactCheck in an email.“There is no plausible mechanism by which spike protein alone would disturb the function of the testes.”Professor Mark Hedger, the head of the laboratory of endocrinology and immunophysiology at Melbourne’s Hudson Institute of Medical Research, told AAP FactCheck there was no evidence in medical literature to show that COVID-19 vaccines would leave men infertile.“They’ve been doing clinical trials for 12 months … if it was a problem, it would have been reported by now,” Prof Hedger said in a phone interview.“We already know about blood clots, and they’re extremely rare events, and the sort of thing that we’re talking about here is an effect on fertility which would probably also be an extremely rare event if it was to occur, but there’s just been no mention of it.”The article quotes Dr Hodkinson as saying that excess spike proteins generated by COVID-19 vaccines circulate in the testes, impairing reproductive function due to the presence of ACE2 receptors.ACE2 enzymes are responsible for regulating various body processes, such as blood pressure, however in cases of coronavirus infection the virus attaches to the enzyme and inhibits its normal activities, leading to a higher risk of tissue damage in organs such as the heart and lungs.However, Gaetan Burgio, a geneticist and infectious diseases researcher also at ANU, told AAP FactCheck in an email there is no evidence to date that “excess” spike proteins from the vaccines have been observed in reproductive organs.“The vaccine only produces the key protein for viral infection (spike protein) and not the entire virus. Studies have demonstrated the virus needs to be produced to invade the tissue in the testes. Therefore the spike protein alone is not sufficient to bind ACE2 receptors in the testes,” Dr Burgio said.An Israeli study, which is yet to be peer reviewed, into the Pfizer vaccine’s effect on male fertility concluded the vaccine “does not affect sperm whereas SARS-CoV-2 infection does impair sperm”.A US study looking at the effect of mRNA vaccines on sperm quality in men concluded “there were no significant decreases in any sperm parameter among this small cohort of healthy men”.“This is the full life cycle of sperm and 70 days is sufficient time to see if the vaccine impacts semen parameters,” Daniel C. Gonzalez, one of the study’s authors, said in a statement.“We measured semen volume, sperm concentration, and the total amount of moving sperm and found there were no declines in any of the parameters as compared to the baseline analysis.”Studies and reviews published in journals such as Nature, Reproduction and Journal of Medical Virology have suggested a potential link between COVID-19 infection – not vaccination – and a reduction in men’s fertility, although there is currently no evidence of long-term impacts.Associate professor Peter Illingworth, the medical director at IVF Australia, told AAP FactCheck in a phone interview: “So far, there is no evidence of reduction of fertility (after infection) and there are a number of studies that have been published showing that, for example, IVF success rates, which is a much quicker marker of fertility than natural conception, is unchanged by men who have had COVID.”AAP FactCheck has previously debunked claims that COVID-19 vaccines cause sterility in women or generate “toxic” spike proteins that spread throughout the body.A 3D print of a spike protein on the surface of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19.","https://www.instagram.com/p/CP-QDnatwK_/,https://web.archive.org/web/20210623070400/https://www.eutimes.net/2021/05/uk-pathologist-warns-spike-proteins-will-cause-all-men-to-lose-their-reproductive-capacity/,https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2009/12/16/racist-skinheads-wife-behind-european-news-website,https://www.instagram.com/p/CPUi0jgH4IY/,https://archive.ph/pBs8y,https://www.facebook.com/105404128050400/posts/249058503684961,https://westernmedical.ca/employees/roger-g-hodkinson/,https://apnews.com/article/fact-checking-9785042487,https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/different-vaccines/mrna.html,https://www.lewrockwell.com/2021/06/no_author/dr-roger-hodkinson-interview-with-anna-brees-as-the-evidence-becomes-overwhelming/,http://web.archive.org/web/20210623075404/https://www.lewrockwell.com/?s=vaccine,https://researchers.anu.edu.au/researchers/tscharke-dc#biography,https://hudson.org.au/researcher-profile/mark-hedger/,https://www.bbc.com/news/health-56674796,https://theconversation.com/what-is-the-ace2-receptor-how-is-it-connected-to-coronavirus-and-why-might-it-be-key-to-treating-covid-19-the-experts-explain-136928,https://researchers.anu.edu.au/researchers/burgio-g,https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.04.30.21255690v1,https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2781360?guestAccessKey=17114e03-640c-4688-b1c2-9ed8b936c3cd&utm_source=For_The_Media&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=ftm_links&utm_content=tfl&utm_term=061721,https://physician-news.umiamihealth.org/miller-school-study-in-jama-shows-covid-19-mrna-vaccines-do-not-impact-male-fertility/,https://www.nature.com/articles/s41423-020-00604-5,https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/COVID-19-and-male-reproductive-function%3A-a-cohort-Maleki-Tartibian/084f7ac95dc6ddbe93b7cf45e11f90d02b9a6a60,https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jmv.26667,https://www.ivf.com.au/specialists/ivf-doctors-australia/a-prof-peter-illingworth,https://www.aap.com.au/no-covid-19-vaccines-dont-cause-sterility/,https://www.aap.com.au/toxic-spike-protein-claims-misinterpret-vaccine-study/",Vaccine spike protein link to male infertility is a failed conception,,,,,,
18,,,,False,,2021-06-22,,factcheck_aap,,https://www.aap.com.au/no-greg-hunt-didnt-say-no-one-had-died-from-covid-19-in-australia/,,,factcheck_aap,,"The StatementA social media post claims Australian Health Minister Greg Hunt admitted no one in the country had died from a locally transmitted case of COVID-19.The Facebook post includes a screenshot with text that reads: “Greg Hunt just said ‘No lives lost in Australia from Covid caught in Australia’.”“Guess those people who died, including those in Aged Care pretended to die or they were too old to be considered Australian!”Other posts feature an edited video showing Mr Hunt apparently making a similar statement during a press conference. One example, posted to Instagram, includes footage of Mr Hunt saying, “Whilst the world has agonisingly lost over two million souls to COVID, there have been no people who have caught COVID in Australia and passed away.”The video then cuts to a black screen featuring the words, “Wait … What?!?!?”Several comments on the post describe COVID-19 as a “scam” or the pandemic as “faked”, while one comment on another similar Instagram post responded: “Is this a slip of the tongue? Or him actually admitting no one is (sic) Oz has died purely of Covid without underlying conditions contributing?” A post claims Health Minister Greg Hunt said no one had died from COVID-19 caught in Australia. The AnalysisHealth Minister Greg Hunt did not say that no one in Australia has died from a local case of COVID-19 – social media clips of the press conference have been selectively edited to add the implication.In fact, unedited video and a transcript of Mr Hunt’s statements show he was correctly referring to the fact that no one has died from a locally acquired case of COVID-19 in 2021, wording omitted from the posts. At no point did he say this was true since the start of the pandemic.Australia has recorded 910 deaths as a result of COVID-19, according to Department of Health figures. The vast majority of the deaths occurred in Victoria during its second wave of the coronavirus.The videos of and quote from Mr Hunt come from a press conference held on June 17. In his introduction, Mr Hunt told the media: “One of the things that we have done throughout the course of the pandemic, from the earliest days when (former chief medical officer) Brendan (Murphy) provided his advice, is follow that medical advice.“It has been the difference in so many ways as to why this year, for example, whilst the world has agonisingly lost over 2 million souls to COVID, there have been no people who have caught COVID in Australia and passed away.” (video mark 48sec)Later in the press conference, while answering a question from a journalist, Mr Hunt makes a similar statement: “As I say, over two million lives lost officially, yet none in Australia to anybody who’s caught COVID in 2021.” (video mark 33min 47sec)In a press conference the following day, Mr Hunt repeated the line: “And, again, to step back, in a world of two million lives lost this year to COVID, but no lives lost for COVID caught in Australia, by following that medical advice, that’s kept us safe.”Only one COVID-19-related death has been recorded in Australia in 2021, that of a man who died in April after returning from the Philippines and testing positive for the virus while in hotel quarantine.Prior to that, the most recent death was that of a 70-year-old man, who died in December from respiratory complications nine months after he contracted the disease in Australia.AAP FactCheck has previously debunked other posts attempting to downplay the number of COVID-19 deaths in Australia. Greg Hunt said no one had died in Australia from a locally acquired case of COVID-19 this year.","https://www.facebook.com/libideology/photos/a.659900810741412/4246382858759838/,https://www.instagram.com/p/CQQLH-JFSDM/,https://www.instagram.com/p/CQQcHd_A0kw/,https://www.health.gov.au/news/health-alerts/novel-coronavirus-2019-ncov-health-alert/coronavirus-covid-19-current-situation-and-case-numbers#total-covid19-cases-in-australia-by-source-of-infection,https://www.health.gov.au/ministers/the-hon-greg-hunt-mp/media/press-conference-in-canberra-on-17-june-2021-about-updated-atagi-covid-19-advice,https://www.facebook.com/7NewsAustralia/videos/360638482062847,https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?v=360638482062847&ref=watch_permalink,https://www.health.gov.au/ministers/the-hon-greg-hunt-mp/media/press-conference-in-canberra-on-18-june-2021-about-the-covid-19-vaccine-advice-update-vaccine-hesitancy-and-vaccine-supply,https://covid19.who.int/region/wpro/country/au,https://thewest.com.au/news/coronavirus/latest-snapshot-of-the-coronavirus-impact-c-2584235,https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/nsw/coronavirus-nsw-man-dies-nine-months-after-contracting-covid19/news-story/a72d4b73d68838646977e62d9923a36f,https://www.aap.com.au/post-misleads-on-australian-covid-19-death-data/","No, Greg Hunt didn’t say no one had died from COVID-19 in Australia",,,,,,
19,,,,False,,2021-06-22,,factcheck_aap,,https://www.aap.com.au/vaccinated-passengers-havent-been-grounded-over-blood-clot-fears/,,,factcheck_aap,,"The StatementSocial media users are sharing excerpts from a Sky News Australia segment, which includes the claim that Spanish and Russian airlines are advising those vaccinated against COVID-19 not to fly due to blood clot risks.One Instagram video, posted on June 14, includes a snippet from Sky in which host and former South Australian senator Cory Bernardi makes the statement. The same claim is repeated in an on-screen graphic during the broadcast.The caption on the Instagram post states: “Please share this to anyone who is considering getting the jab so that they can travel. Still sound like a good idea?!?!”A screenshot of the broadcast was also shared in a post from One Nation senator Malcolm Roberts alongside similar claims, while other versions have been shared in Australia (see here and here) and in countries such as Haiti and Greece. Social media users are sharing excepts of a Sky News Australia segment about vaccinated passengers. The AnalysisThere is no evidence that airlines in Spain and Russia – or elsewhere – have recommended that people vaccinated against COVID-19 refrain from flying due to concerns about blood clotting.Multiple aviation bodies have debunked the claim, while experts say flying poses no increased risk for those who have been inoculated against the virus.Cory Bernardi made the claim about vaccinated passengers on Sky News Australia after taking aim at Qantas CEO Alan Joyce for calling for people to be inoculated before they can fly. A video of the June 11 broadcast appears to have been removed but an excerpt including the claim can be viewed here.“Here’s another inconvenient truth, in other parts of the world airlines are now advising people who have been vaccinated not to fly,” he said.“Yep, you heard me correctly. Airlines in Spain and Russia are warning people who have been vaccinated against coronavirus not to travel because of the risk of blood clots.”Mr Bernardi was contacted for comment on the claim but did not respond.An on-screen graphic repeats the claim and credits the information to Uncut News. However, the article on the Swiss website, which has been identified by local media as a source of misinformation, ties the information to media in Spain and Russia – rather than airlines in those countries, as stated by Mr Bernardi.The Uncut News article links to two other sources: a post on a Spanish website, which shares various conspiratorial material about COVID-19, claiming without evidence that the world’s major airlines are discussing whether to allow vaccinated customers to fly based on the purported risk of blood clots from “experimental” mRNA vaccines.Both the AstraZeneca and Janssen/Johnson & Johnson vaccines – which are viral vector rather than mRNA vaccines – have been linked to extremely rare cases of potentially fatal blood clots. Neither the Pfizer nor Moderna mRNA vaccines have been connected to the same side effect.The second article was posted to an obscure Russian website which says discussions were already underway in Europe about limiting air travel for those who have been vaccinated, again without presenting evidence to support the claim.However, a spokeswoman for Airlines for Europe, a trade body that includes most of Europe’s major airlines as members, told AAP FactCheck that “no such discussions” had taken place to prevent “either vaccinated or unvaccinated passengers from flying”.“On the contrary, airlines in Europe are pushing for non-discrimination amongst tested/vaccinated/non-vaccinated as far as restrictions and free movement is concerned,” she said via email.A spokesperson for Iberia, Spain’s flag carrier airline, told AAP FactCheck in an email the suggestion it was warning vaccinated passengers against flying was “completely false” and it, like all European airlines, followed European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) recommendations.The two bodies jointly issued a new aviation health safety protocol on June 17. It makes no mention of any concerns relating to blood clotting, nor does it advise vaccinated passengers against flying. Rather, it notes the success of vaccination programs has allowed some COVID-19 control measures to be relaxed for fully vaccinated travellers.A spokeswoman for low-cost Spanish carrier Vueling also told AAP FactCheck the claim was false, while national aviation trade body ALA told fact-checkers Newtral.es that national governments – rather than airlines – would be the authorities to ban vaccinated flyers if any such ban existed. The Spanish government reopened the country’s borders to all vaccinated visitors on June 7.Meanwhile, a spokeswoman for the International Air Transport Association (IATA), a trade group that represents the majority of the world’s airlines, including several Spanish and Russian carriers, said the association was not aware of any airlines considering denying vaccinated passengers flights due to the blood clot risks.“We do have a medical advisory group that looks at health and air travel issues. This is not an issue on their agenda. And, as far as we are aware there are no meetings taking place among airlines on this topic,” an IATA spokeswoman told AAP FactCheck in an email.She added that IATA is also not aware of any suggestion in medical literature that the rare blood clot phenomenon linked to the viral vector vaccines had any impact on air travel.In mid-May, Russia’s flag-carrier and largest airline, Aeroflot, recently launched a “miles for vaccination program” offering bonus frequent-flyer miles to the first 10,000 vaccinated passengers to book a flight.“Promoting vaccination is our contribution to facilitate a full-fledged recovery of air transportation and provide convenience and comfort to our passengers,” CEO Mikhail Poluboyarinov said in the airline’s statement at the time.Public health experts at Meedan’s Health Desk say there is currently no data to link an increase in blood clots while flying with any COVID-19 vaccines.They note the blood clotting condition associated with flying, deep vein thrombosis, was connected to the restricted movement of passengers on planes. It differs from cerebral venous sinus thrombosis, the clotting condition associated with some vaccines.AAP FactCheck has previously debunked false claims that airlines were banning vaccinated passengers due to baseless fears that the vaccine made passengers infectious.Some airlines have run campaigns to get more passengers vaccinated against COVID-19.","https://www.instagram.com/p/CQGB4_IFW7Y/,https://www.aph.gov.au/Senators_and_Members/Parliamentarian?MPID=G0D,https://archive.ph/Gqt1u,https://www.facebook.com/reignitedemocracyaustralia/photos/a.118024456667094/307575871045284,https://www.instagram.com/p/CQLGUiIDCL5/,https://www.facebook.com/100045833191513/posts/333853774819060,https://www.facebook.com/1010587388969755/posts/4708659325829191,https://www.bbc.com/news/business-56460329,https://web.archive.org/web/20210613172208/https://www.skynews.com.au/details/_6258355702001,https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DjS5Ii00l1s,https://uncutnews.ch/medien-in-spanien-und-russland-fluggesellschaften-gehen-das-problem-der-blutgerinnsel-an-und-empfehlen-geimpften-personen-nicht-zu-reisen/,https://www.bazonline.ch/news/standard/fakenews-made-in-switzerland/story/20233033,https://mpr21.info/las-aerolineas-se-enfrentan-al-problema-de-los-coagulos-con-recomendaciones-de-no-viajar-a-las-personas-vacunadas/,https://mpr21.info/dossier-coronavirus/,https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/different-vaccines/mrna.html,https://www.health.gov.au/initiatives-and-programs/covid-19-vaccines/is-it-true/is-it-true-does-the-astrazeneca-covid-19-vaccine-cause-blood-clots,https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/different-vaccines/janssen.html,https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/different-vaccines/viralvector.html,https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/different-vaccines/Pfizer-BioNTech.html,https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/different-vaccines/Moderna.html,https://live24.ru/obschestvo/privitym-ot-koronavirusa-sars-cov-2-mogut-zapretit-letat-na-samoletah.html,https://a4e.eu/about-us/our-story/,https://www.easa.europa.eu/,https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en,https://www.easa.europa.eu/sites/default/files/dfu/Joint%20EASA-ECDC%20Aviation%20Health%20Safety%20Protocol%20issue%203.pdf,https://www.alaspain.com/,https://www.newtral.es/coagulos-sangre-vuelo-vacuna-bulo/20210605/,https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/spain-let-vaccinated-travellers-non-eu-countries-june-7-2021-05-21/,https://www.iata.org/en/about/,https://www.iata.org/en/about/members/airline-list/?search=Spain&ordering=Relevance,https://www.iata.org/en/about/members/airline-list/?page=1&search=Russian&ordering=Relevance,https://www.aeroflot.ru/xx-en/news/62008?_preferredLocale=xx&_preferredLanguage=en,https://health-desk.org/articles/does-flying-increase-the-risk-of-blood-clots-in-people-who-have-been-vaccinated,https://www.healthdirect.gov.au/deep-vein-thrombosis,https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/conditions-and-diseases/cerebral-venous-sinus-thrombosis,https://www.aap.com.au/suggestion-airlines-will-ban-vaccinated-travellers-doesnt-fly/",Vaccinated passengers haven’t been grounded over blood clot fears,,,,,,
20,,,,False,,2021-06-22,,factcheck_aap,,https://www.aap.com.au/toxic-spike-protein-claims-misinterpret-vaccine-study/,,,factcheck_aap,,"The StatementA new medical study is being cited as evidence that COVID-19 vaccines can cause serious harm by spreading “toxic” spike proteins into a recipient’s bloodstream and internal organs.On June 4, Facebook page Ross Walter Nutritionist & Naturopath published a post that refers to a recent US study of health workers who received the Moderna mRNA vaccine. The study detected the spike protein for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, in the blood of 11 of the 13 participants.The post then quotes a Canadian immunologist as saying the study shows that by vaccinating people, “we are inadvertently inoculating them with a toxin that gets into circulation”. AAP FactCheck has previously debunked several false or misleading claims about vaccines published by the same Australia-based page (see here, here, here and here).Similar claims have been shared in New Zealand, where one website published a lengthy blog post under the headline: “New study shows potential for serious harm in COVID-19 vaccinated.”A Facebook post from the NZ Outdoors Party, which attracted 3256 votes in the 2020 election, draws on the same study to suggest mRNA vaccines “take over cells to manufacture the deadly (spike protein) toxin and this spread throughout much of the body”. A Facebook post includes a series of claims about a new study and mRNA vaccines for COVID-19. The AnalysisDespite the claims circulating online, a co-author of the study cited in the posts said the research did not suggest COVID-19 vaccines posed serious risk of harm – adding that its results had been misinterpreted.David R. Walt, an expert in diagnostic testing from the Department of Pathology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, said the study he jointly authored, which has been accepted for publication by the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases, was intended to see if researchers could use an ultra-sensitive test to detect circulating antigens produced by mRNA vaccines.“We found we could detect extremely low concentrations of S1 (a subunit of the spike protein) in 11 of 13 healthy vaccinated individuals and the full spike in 3 of 13,” Dr Walt told AAP FactCheck in an email.However, he added that the presence of “minute” quantities of spike protein did not mean mRNA vaccines had the potential to cause serious harm.“We actually found that within a few days of the antigen appearing, the individuals developed antibodies that removed the antigen from the bloodstream. Our conclusion was that the vaccine is working as intended,” he said.An Australian biotechnology expert also told AAP FactCheck that the study has been misconstrued. University of Queensland (UQ) professor Trent Munro, who was involved in UQ’s development of a COVID-19 vaccine candidate last year, said in an email: “The (mRNA vaccine) dose used is very small, and is specifically designed to ensure a small amount of spike protein is produced from the injected RNA.“During development, several dose levels were tested to identify a dose that is sufficient to provide the most robust immune response and protection against COVID-19 disease… There is no known ‘toxic’ effect of this process after mRNA vaccination, and studies will continue to monitor for any potential safety signals.”The theory that the study discovered “toxic” spike proteins circulating in the bloodstream has been fuelled by comments made in a radio interview by Canadian immunologist Byram Bridle, an associate professor at Ontario Veterinary College.Referring to the new research, Dr Bridle said there was now “clear-cut evidence” that the vaccine spike protein spreads into the bloodstream, where it has the potential to damage organs.“In short, the conclusion is, we made a big mistake,” he said. “We never knew the spike protein itself was a toxin and was a pathogenic protein, so by vaccinating people we are inadvertently inoculating them with a toxin.”However, multiple vaccine experts have challenged Dr Bridle’s characterisation of how the vaccine works, saying the spike protein created by the vaccine acts differently to the spike protein of a live virus.Adam Ratner, a paediatric infectious disease specialist at NYU Langone Health, told Associated Press that Dr Bridle’s analysis of the research is “completely inaccurate” and vaccines are mostly concentrated at the site of injection or the local lymph nodes.“There is no spike protein in the vaccines first of all. The amounts that are made after the mRNA is injected are very small and it almost exclusively stays locally. It is nowhere near the amount he was talking about,” Dr Ratner said.US fact checking website Health Feedback, which uses experts to verify claims about health science, said Dr Bridle’s statement “rests on the assumption that if the viral spike protein causes cardiovascular toxicity in COVID-19 patients, the spike protein produced in vaccinated people should be toxic as well”.However, Health Feedback said this assumption was incorrect: “While both mRNA vaccines and viral vector vaccines carry the instructions to produce the entire spike protein, the cells break down much of the protein into small fragments. Furthermore, unlike infection, the spike protein from COVID-19 vaccination doesn’t get assembled into new viral particles.”Prof Munro told AAP FactCheck that mRNA vaccines were “proving to be incredibly effective and safe” in protecting both the recipients and others from COVID-19, backing up clinical trials which “consistently demonstrated an excellent safety profile”. mRNA vaccines produce a “small amount” of spike protein to illicit protection against COVID-19.","https://www.facebook.com/rawnutritionist/posts/3910563255724357,https://academic.oup.com/cid/advance-article/doi/10.1093/cid/ciab465/6279075,https://theconversation.com/new-coronavirus-variant-what-is-the-spike-protein-and-why-are-mutations-on-it-important-152463,https://www.aap.com.au/the-2019-coronavirus-is-not-a-man-made-combination-of-hiv-and-sars-viruses/,https://www.aap.com.au/vitamin-d-claim-for-covid-19-fails-to-shine-light-on-evidence/,https://www.aap.com.au/no-bill-gates-isnt-partnering-with-id-companies-to-implant-microchips-in-humans/,https://www.aap.com.au/covid-19-false-positives-claim-is-positively-false/,https://web.archive.org/web/20210601151124/https://voicesforfreedom.co.nz/new-study-shows-potential-for-serious-harm/,https://www.facebook.com/1007678625957002/posts/4311412022250296,https://elections.nz/media-and-news/2020/2020-general-election-official-results/,https://wyss.harvard.edu/team/core-faculty/david-walt/,https://www.brighamandwomens.org/,https://academic.oup.com/cid/advance-article/doi/10.1093/cid/ciab465/6279075,https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4860016/,https://researchers.uq.edu.au/researcher/536,https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/on-point-with-alex-pierson/id1318830191?i=1000523346577,https://ovc.uoguelph.ca/pathobiology/people/faculty/Byram-W-Bridle,https://nyulangone.org/doctors/1972558187/adam-j-ratner,https://apnews.com/article/fact-checking-377989296609,https://healthfeedback.org/,https://healthfeedback.org/claimreview/byram-bridles-claim-that-covid-19-vaccines-are-toxic-fails-to-account-for-key-differences-between-the-spike-protein-produced-during-infection-and-vaccination-misrepresents-studies/",‘Toxic’ spike protein claims misinterpret vaccine study,,,,,,
21,,,,False,,2021-06-21,,factcheck_aap,,https://www.aap.com.au/veteran-journalist-verballed-in-quote-about-pm-staff-lawyering-up/,,,factcheck_aap,,"The StatementMultiple social media users have shared a purported quote from ABC political journalist Laura Tingle that suggests Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s staff are “hiring lawyers to protect themselves from him”.One Australian user posted the quote in a meme alongside the comment: “From Laura Tingle!! of all people.. I haven’t found the source for this, but it speaks volumes!”.At the time of writing, the June 15 post had been shared more than 900 times. Numerous other Australian Facebook pages have published the same meme – see examples here, here, here and here. A quote on a social meme attributes the source to ABC political journalist Laura Tingle. The AnalysisThe quote has been wrongly attributed to the long-standing political reporter – rather, it is from a political blog and has been falsely ascribed in the meme.On March 24, the Kangaroo Court of Australia website, which says it is focused on investigating political, judicial and police corruption, published a commentary article titled: “Scott Morrison’s office staff lawyer up because they do not trust him regarding the Brittany Higgins alleged rape cover-up.”The article claims staff in the Prime Minister’s office are hiring lawyers “to protect themselves” from an internal investigation into how rape allegations put forward by former Liberal staffer Brittany Higgins were handled. The review is being overseen by the head of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, Philip Gaetjens.The Kangaroo Court of Australia article includes comments from Tingle about the investigation drawn from ABC’s 7.30 program on March 17. The article then continues in a lengthy commentary section that includes the quote from the meme.In the 7.30 broadcast, Tingle, the program’s chief political correspondent, told host Leigh Sales that “there are quite a lot of lawyers involved” in the Gaetjens review “with staff wanting to make sure that their positions are protected”. The full exchange is as follows:LEIGH SALES (2min 40sec): Can you give us an update, Laura, please, on the Gaetjens review which is the one that is looking at who knew what in the Prime Minister’s office about the Brittany Higgins case?LAURA TINGLE: Yes, you would think that this wasn’t all that complicated, Leigh. That the prime minister could just go and ask his staff, but he has got the head of PM and C (Prime Minister and Cabinet) to investigate this. He has told parliament today that he still hasn’t got that report. He still has not said whether it will be made public and there are suggestions that there are quite a lot of lawyers involved now with staff wanting to make sure that their positions are protected in whatever they say to the Gaetjens review, so that may be why the whole review has been slowed down.Tingle does not say the words attributed to her in the meme during the interview, nor does the Kangaroo Court of Australia article claim she said them.In an email to AAP FactCheck, Tingle said she was “rather mystified” by the commentary from the article being wrongly attributed to her.“(The article) quoted me saying people were lawyering up and then made the other observations themselves. Someone has accidentally or mischievously attributed the whole thing to me,” she said.The publisher of the Kangaroo Court of Australia website, Shane Dowling, also confirmed to AAP FactCheck via email that he was responsible for the words included in the meme – not Tingle.The same meme was previously posted to Twitter in March, Dowling said, prompting him to issue a tweet on April 2 correcting the source of the text.“I suppose it is the ultimate form of flattery when someone takes what I said and gives credit to Laura Tingle for saying it,” he tweeted.ABC journalist Laura Tingle addressing the National Press Club this year.","https://www.abc.net.au/news/laura-tingle/9711054,https://archive.ph/ndV1B,https://archive.ph/PCViR,https://archive.ph/Vn9yQ,https://archive.ph/CKI9Z,https://archive.ph/KAVTv,https://kangaroocourtofaustralia.com/about-shane-dowling/,https://web.archive.org/web/20210324014831/https://kangaroocourtofaustralia.com/2021/03/24/scott-morrisons-office-staff-lawyer-up-because-they-do-not-trust-him-regarding-the-brittany-higgins-alleged-rape-cover-up/,https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-05-25/prime-ministers-department-investigation-brittany-higgins/100162748,https://pmc.gov.au/who-we-are/the-secretary,https://www.abc.net.au/7.30/laura-tingle-speaks-to-leigh-sales-on-the-concerns/13257386,https://archive.ph/0K0Nk,https://archive.ph/fO5U1",Veteran journalist verballed in quote about PM staff ‘lawyering up’,,,,,,
22,,,,False,,2021-06-18,,factcheck_aap,,https://www.aap.com.au/fake-north-pole-sunset-image-is-just-a-bad-moon-rising/,,,factcheck_aap,,"The StatementA Facebook post from a New Zealand user claims to show a recent – and spectacular – sunset at the North Pole.The image, which shows a faint red sunset and gigantic crescent moon above it on a snowy mountainous horizon, carries the caption: “This is the sunset at the North Pole with the moon at its closest point last week. A scene you will probably never get to see in person, so take a moment and enjoy. And, you also see the sun below the moon. An amazing photo and not one easily duplicated. You may want To pass it on to others so they can enjoy it.”The post finishes with a call to share, citing a “Chinese saying” about sharing objects of value.At the time of writing, the June 6 post had been viewed more than 15,000 times. The same image with similar text has been posted to Facebook hundreds of times since as early as 2014, with some examples generating tens of thousands of shares. A post claims to show the sunset at the North Pole with the moon at its closest point last week. The AnalysisThe post’s widely-shared image is certainly stunning – but it is not a photograph, was not taken “last week” and does not show the North Pole as claimed in the posts. In fact, the image is a digital artwork by a German artist that has been circulating on the internet for at least 15 years.Hamburg artist Inga Nielsen creates fantasy art and for years her work Hideaway has been credited on social media and elsewhere on the internet as showing “sunset at the North Pole”.Nielsen debunked the claim about her photorealistic image in a caption on her website: “After someone spread it on the web as (a) photograph of a ‘Sunset at the north pole’, this image became quite popular. It is of course not a photo and it does not show a place anywhere near the terrestrial North Pole.”She also addressed the same false claim on her Facebook page in 2011, writing: “I never intended this to be a sunset on Earth. This is an alien world thousands if not millions of light years away.”Nielsen told the Hoax Slayer website that her creation went viral because someone “cut out my name, called the image ‘sunset at the north pole’ and told everyone it was a photograph”.Although social media captions say the image was taken “last week”, Nielsen’s artwork featured as NASA’s “astronomy picture of the day” in June 2006 and reportedly started circulating via email as early as 2005.Nielsen has previously explained that she uses both Terragen, which renders realistic natural environments, and Photoshop for her work. She credits both platforms in the image’s caption.Her digital artwork shows the moon and sun as dramatically different in size, a phenomenon that is not possible when both are viewed from earth. This is because the angular diameter of the moon and sun – the size they appear in the sky – are almost identical.While the sun is around 400 times bigger than the moon in diameter, the moon is 400 times closer to the earth. This “cosmic coincidence” means they appear as the same size, which is why the moon conceals the sun during a solar eclipse.While it is true the moon can look somewhat bigger against the horizon at times – a phenomenon called the “moon illusion” – as other fact checks have noted, it is impossible that it could appear hundreds of times bigger than the setting sun as depicted in Nielsen’s artwork. This real photo shows a spectacular sunset near the North Pole.","https://archive.is/x6R5Q,https://www.facebook.com/242809755762964/posts/756933421017259,https://www.facebook.com/pfiddle/posts/10158912905342487,http://www.gatetonowhere.de/,https://www.deviantart.com/gate-to-nowhere/about,https://web.archive.org/web/20060329223635/http://www.8ung.at/gtn/Gallery/other/images/hideaway.jpg,https://fineartamerica.com/featured/sunset-at-the-north-pole-merton-allen.html,https://www.pinterest.nz/pin/379006124871935496/,http://ezinearticles.com/expert/Ehtesham_Mirza/396754/professional_image/1,https://www.deviantart.com/gate-to-nowhere/art/Hideaway-61855403,https://www.facebook.com/gatetonowhere/posts/250301271695052,https://web.archive.org/web/20180307170722/https://www.hoax-slayer.net/image-of-the-north-pole-with-the-moon-at-its-closest-point/,https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap060620.html,http://www.snopes.com/photos/natural/northpole.asp,https://forums.cgsociety.org/t/city-in-the-clouds-inga-nielsen-2d/1218580,https://planetside.co.uk/terragen-overview/,https://www.deviantart.com/gate-to-nowhere/art/Hideaway-61855403,https://astronomy.swin.edu.au/cosmos/a/Angular+Diameter,https://astronomy.com/magazine/ask-astro/2000/10/why-is-the-moon-exactly-the-same-apparent-size-from-earth-as-the-sun-surely-this-cannot-be-just-coincidence-the-odds-against-such-a-perfect-match-are-enormous,https://www.maas.museum/sydney-observatory/astronomy-resources/solar-and-lunar-eclipses/,https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/news/1191/the-moon-illusion-why-does-the-moon-look-so-big-sometimes/,https://www.discovermagazine.com/the-sciences/an-unreal-picture-of-sunset-at-the-north-pole?fbclid=IwAR2kBSQcysv3TO3Mkix5I6Qlrhqr7jqBq3BML_M1QLfTRviPEPwGhwH_2bs,https://www.universetoday.com/18167/image-of-sun-and-moon-at-the-north-pole-real-or-work-of-art/",Fake ‘North Pole sunset’ image is just a bad moon rising,,,,,,
23,,,,False,,2021-06-17,,factcheck_aap,,https://www.aap.com.au/flyer-doesnt-expose-jacinda-ardern-on-nzs-democratic-future/,,,factcheck_aap,,"The StatementA Facebook post includes claims that New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern supports 50 per cent Maori rule – and that non-Maori (Pakeha) votes will be devalued in the country.The suggestion is made in a flyer, an image of which appears in the June 1 post. The image is a screenshot from a Newshub article published the same day with the headline, “Auckland Transport takes action over conspiracy flyer on Auckland bus.”The full text of the flyer reads: “Jacinda supports 50% Maori rule. Pakeha votes will be worth less than Maori votes. Jacinda is destroying NZ democracy behind your back. Wake up Kiwis! Has Jacinda fooled you?” A Facebook post claims NZ Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern supports 50 per cent Maori rule. The AnalysisThe flyer photo was posted a month after New Zealand’s main opposition party, National, revealed the full text of a report into Maori self-determination, entitled He Puapua, which had been released under the Official Information Act.The report sets out a plan for how New Zealand can realise by 2040 its obligations under the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The then National government announced its support for the UN declaration in April 2010 after New Zealand and three other countries – Australia, the United States and Canada – initially voted against its adoption.The declaration recognises the rights of indigenous people to self-determination, and to autonomy in their own affairs. It provides a set of international human rights standards that apply to New Zealand’s Treaty of Waitangi, a constitutional document co-signed by the British Crown and Maori chiefs in 1840 that established the relationship between the Crown and indigenous people.He Puapua was compiled by a working group of non-government members and government officials in 2019, however the report was not released publicly and did not garner significant media attention until National Party leader Judith Collins highlighted its contents at a party conference in Auckland on May 1.Ms Collins identified that the report raised the creation of separate Maori parliament or upper house, which she claimed would be able to veto decisions of the existing New Zealand parliament.Alongside increased protection for Maori seats in parliament, the report said “further options could be explored … including the creation of a senate or upper house in Parliament that could scrutinise legislation for compliance with (the Treaty of Waitangi) and/or the (UN) declaration” (page 47).“Various models for the composition of such a body could include a partnership model (with 50/50 rangatiratanga (self-determined) and kawanatanga (government representation),” it said.The report also suggests “an avenue for constitutional dialogue … to consider a range of constitutional matters, including new governance institutions (e.g. Upper House, Maori parliaments)” (page 38).Under existing New Zealand election rules, Maori voters can choose between the Maori and general electoral rolls when casting their ballots for seats in the national parliament’s single chamber, the House of Representatives. Those on the Maori roll vote for candidates in designated Maori electorates.Following the airing of He Puapua, Ms Ardern ruled out establishing a Maori parliament although she declined to comment on all of the report’s recommendations. She previously told parliament the government had “no intention” of making the constitutional change.Ms Ardern also defended not releasing the report “because of a concern that it would be misconstrued as government policy”.She added the report had not gone to Cabinet, did not represent a government program nor had it been endorsed by the Labor government.While the flyer in the Facebook post does not mention He Puapua, it echoes some of the concerns raised by Ms Collins based on the report, including “two systems for everything”.A spokeswoman for Ms Ardern told AAP FactCheck in an email the claims that the prime minister supported 50 per cent Maori rule or devaluing the non-Maori votes were not true.Experts said nothing in the report or Ms Ardern’s comments indicate support for “50 per cent Maori rule”, as claimed.Professor Andrew Geddis, who lectures on law and the democratic process at Otago University in Dunedin, said the prime minister had not indicated support for the idea – and the report did not propose it. He is married to law professor Jacinta Ruru, one of the He Puapua report’s authors.“The current PM’s support for (the declaration’s) requirements appears to be no more nor less than those of the preceding PM’s from the National Party,” Prof Geddis said in an email.“The report includes a set of possible responses to the (declaration’s) recognition of ongoing indigenous people’s rights to self-determination.“The basic thrust of those responses is that if this right is to be given real meaning, then it has to include an equal Maori voice on some matters that directly affect their interests.“But this in no way equates to ’50 per cent Maori rule’ over everything, any more than does some partnership arrangement between central and local government means that the people of a local area will get ’50 per cent rule’ over all the decisions taken in relation to all matters.”On the claim that non-Maori votes will be devalued, Prof Geddis said there had been no proposals put forward to alter the make-up or system of election to the House of Representatives.“Any arrangements for self-determination would be additional to our current parliament,” he said.David Williams, professor emeritus and honorary research fellow in the Faculty of Law at Auckland University, told AAP FactCheck in a phone interview that there were almost no suggestions in the report that had not been put forward previously.The difference in the case of He Puapua was the goal of meeting New Zealand’s obligations under the UN declaration, Dr Williams said.“There have been Maori calls for constitutional reform very frequently for the last 50 years. And they usually get put in the too-hard basket. I suspect He Puapua is in the too-hard basket as well.“In terms of the slogan, ‘Jacinda supports 50 per cent Maori rule’, what the present government has put forward is that there are certain areas – such as Maori health, and that one in particular – where a different model of delivery of government services should give more weight to ‘by Maori, for Maori’ type of arrangements.“What I heard the PM and other ministers say in the house is that this is not segregation, it’s not apartheid, this is (Treaty of Waitangi) partnership. And how the treaty partnership works out in one sector or another will vary, but that’s got nothing to do with the weighting of Pakeha votes.” NZ PM Jacinda Ardern receives rowing instructions before joining a Maori crew on Waitangi Day.","http://archive.today/oNyIZ,https://maoridictionary.co.nz/search?idiom=&phrase=&proverb=&loan=&histLoanWords=&keywords=Pakeha,https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-zealand/2021/06/conspiracy-theory-flyer-on-auckland-bus-accuses-jacinda-arden-of-destroying-nz-democracy.html,https://d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net/nationalparty/pages/15429/attachments/original/1619921833/He_Puapua.pdf?1619921833,https://www.un.org/development/desa/indigenouspeoples/declaration-on-the-rights-of-indigenous-peoples.html,https://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/national-govt-support-un-rights-declaration,https://www.un.org/development/desa/indigenouspeoples/wp-content/uploads/sites/19/2018/11/UNDRIP_E_web.pdf,https://www.hrc.co.nz/our-work/indigenous-rights/our-work/undrip-and-treaty/,https://www.justice.govt.nz/about/learn-about-the-justice-system/how-the-justice-system-works/the-basis-for-all-law/treaty-of-waitangi/,https://www.tpk.govt.nz/en/whakamahia/un-declaration-on-the-rights-of-indigenous-peoples,https://www.national.org.nz/where-does-the-prime-minister-stand-on-he-puapua,https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/441575/government-plans-may-lead-to-maori-systems-for-education-justice-collins,https://d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net/nationalparty/pages/15429/attachments/original/1619921833/He_Puapua.pdf?1619921833,https://maoridictionary.co.nz/search?&keywords=rangatiratanga,https://maoridictionary.co.nz/search?idiom=&phrase=&proverb=&loan=&histLoanWords=&keywords=kawanatanga,https://www.elections.nz/democracy-in-nz/what-is-an-electoral-roll/what-is-the-maori-electoral-option/,https://www.parliament.nz/en/visit-and-learn/how-parliament-works/our-system-of-government/,https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/prime-minister-jacinda-ardern-responds-over-maori-self-determination-report-he-puapua/XHHT3AD77XYT2JV2MJPWLES7PQ/,https://www.parliament.nz/en/pb/hansard-debates/rhr/document/HansS_20210414_050700000/3-question-no-3-prime-minister,https://www.parliament.nz/en/pb/hansard-debates/rhr/document/HansS_20210504_050580000/2-question-no-2-prime-minister,https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/441575/government-plans-may-lead-to-maori-systems-for-education-justice-collins,https://www.otago.ac.nz/law/staff/andrew_geddis.html,https://www.otago.ac.nz/,https://www.otago.ac.nz/law/staff/jacinta_ruru.html,https://unidirectory.auckland.ac.nz/profile/dv-williams,https://www.auckland.ac.nz/en.html",Flyer doesn’t expose Jacinda Ardern on NZ’s democratic future,,,,,,
24,,,,False,,2021-06-17,,factcheck_aap,,https://www.aap.com.au/photo-said-to-show-woman-carrying-quadruplets-is-hard-to-stomach/,,,factcheck_aap,,"The StatementA Facebook post that features a photo of a woman with a monstrously swollen belly claims the image shows a pregnant mother carrying quadruplets.“Please, I need your prayers because the Doctor has tested me and it has declared that I have four babies in my stomach. Don’t be heartless and ignore without Sharing my picture to reach more people for their prayers,” the meme’s text reads.The June 1 post was from a user in Papua New Guinea. Earlier versions of the same meme have drawn thousands of interactions, with one post from October 2020 attracting more than 40,000 shares. A meme on Facebook claims to show a pregnant mother carrying four babies. The AnalysisThe photo in the Facebook meme does not show a pregnant mother carrying four babies – rather, it’s of a woman in Vietnam who had a giant ovarian cyst removed.Several news sites covered the woman’s operation in May 2018 using the same image. English-language newspaper Viet Nam News reported that the woman, whose name was not disclosed, was a 39-year-old from An Giang Province who had been diagnosed with a non-malignant ovarian cyst in 2014. Doctors had not operated at the time because of unrelated but life-threatening medical issues.The cyst grew bigger over the following four years to the point of making breathing difficult and causing the woman severe stomach pain, the report said. A decision was made to conduct life-saving surgery at the University Medical Centre in Ho Chi Minh City and the woman underwent a successful six-hour operation to remove the cyst. The report credits the medical centre for the photo.Another local news report said the cyst contained 48 litres of fluid and was the fifth largest in the world. Another report and a photo of the operation was published here. Several ovarian cysts weighing more than 50kg have been reportedly removed in various countries, including one that weighed more than 137kg.The meme, with the associated claim that the image shows a woman pregnant with quadruplets, began to circulate on social media after it was shared to a Facebook comedy page in September 2020.While the photo is not what is claimed in the meme, quadruplet births do occur – although they are rare. A US ABC News report on the birth of identical quadruplets in August 2007 said the chances of having quadruplets was about one in 800,000, while the chances of having a set of identical quadruplets was one in 11 million to 15 million.According to a 2014 blog by the Jackson Health System in Miami, quadruplets conceived naturally occurred in about one in 700,000 pregnancies. The vast majority of quadruplets were conceived with the help of medical technology, it said.In May last year, a US woman gave birth to identical monochorionic quadruplets, of which there are only 72 cases recorded in medical literature, according to her obstetrician.The record for the most children delivered at a single birth to survive is held by California woman Nadya Suleman, aka “Octomom”, who gave birth to six boys and two girls in 2009. They were conceived using IVF treatment and born nine weeks premature by caesarean section. The photo in the Facebook post does not show a pregnant mother carrying four babies.","https://archive.ph/6GbMf,https://www.facebook.com/Loyaboy2/photos/a.379263862913011/756460618526665,https://vietnamnews.vn/society/427933/doctors-in-hcm-city-remove-massive-ovarian-cyst.html,https://www.vietnamonline.com/az/medical-university-of-ho-chi-minh-city.html,https://vov.vn/suc-khoe/boc-tach-khoi-nang-50kg-lon-nhat-viet-nam-tu-truoc-toi-nay-762169.vov,https://tinmoi.vn/nguoi-phu-nu-mang-thai-khoi-u-lon-nhat-viet-nam-nang-toi-48kg-011483527.html,https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3862319/,https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S009082588471225X,https://www.facebook.com/114356646953113/posts/176903997365044,https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Health/identical-quadruplets-born-13-million/story?id=3506690,https://jacksonhealth.org/blog/2014-02-01-gutierrez-quadruplets-neonatology/,https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2020/05/21/quartet-marvels-woman-had-quadruplets-without-fertility-treatments-they-are-identical/,https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/gynecology_obstetrics/specialty_areas/fetal_therapy/conditions-we-treat/complications/,https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/most-children-delivered-at-a-single-birth-to-survive,https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/15/style/octomom-kids-2018.html",Photo said to show woman carrying quadruplets is hard to stomach,,,,,,
25,,,,False,,2021-06-15,,factcheck_aap,,https://www.aap.com.au/muddled-up-data-misleads-on-covid-19-vaccine-efficacy/,,,factcheck_aap,,"The StatementA social media post claims the efficacy rates of four COVID-19 vaccines are far lower than those claimed by vaccine companies, citing figures from a “peer reviewed study” as evidence.The May 28 Facebook post features a screenshot that says a Lancet study “confirms vaccine efficacy” is not the 95 per cent “stated by the vaccine companies”.It goes on to claim the actual efficacy rates are between 0.84 per cent and 1.3 per cent for various vaccines, adding: “They deceived everyone by reporting Relative Risk Reduction (RRR) rather than Absolute Risk Reduction (ARR).”The post was from a Facebook account for Australian Jamie McIntyre, who has previously shared misinformation regarding COVID-19 and vaccines. Similar claims have also been shared by social media accounts in Canada and the UK. A post claims drug companies have “deceived” the public over COVID-19 vaccine efficacy. The AnalysisClaims that vaccine efficacy rates are much lower than commonly cited figures misinterpret The Lancet article – which is a commentary piece not a peer-reviewed study – that has been used to support the suggestion.The article does not say that COVID-19 vaccines are ineffective nor that their publicly quoted efficacy rates are wrong, only that multiple measures of efficacy should be used to properly determine the benefits of a vaccine.The Lancet Microbe article, written by academics in the UK and Luxembourg, argues that absolute risk reduction (ARR) figures should be cited alongside relative risk reduction (RRR) rates when vaccine trial results are outlined in order to avoid reporting bias and to ensure public health decisions around which vaccines to deploy are based on a “full picture” of the data. Vaccine efficacy is commonly reported in only RRR terms following clinical trials.The figures listed in the Facebook post are the ARR rates included in the article for four vaccines commonly used in Western countries.However, contrary to the post’s suggestion that the ARR rates show vaccines’ true efficacy, the different rates do not contradict each other or show that the vaccines are largely ineffective.Rather, RRR shows the reduction in risk of an outcome based on an intervention – in this case, the reduced chance of contracting COVID-19 after being inoculated against the virus. In comparison, as explained by Meedan Health Desk experts, ARR is simply the difference in infection rates between the intervention group and the placebo group.Paul Glasziou, the director of the Institute for Evidence-Based Healthcare at Bond University, gave a hypothetical example of the difference between the two measures: Over the next year a patient had a two per cent chance, but by performing a treatment that risk was reduced to one per cent.“That’s a 50 per cent relative reduction (RRR), in other words you’re halving the number of people who would get an event out of those who would get it,” he told AAP FactCheck.“But it’s an absolute one per cent reduction because you’ve gone from two per cent to one per cent.”Piero Olliaro, a co-author of The Lancet article and professor of poverty-related infectious diseases at the University of Oxford, told AAP FactCheck in an email the article did not suggest that vaccines did not work.“It is extremely disappointing to see how information can be twisted and how divisive discussions have become especially on COVID-19 vaccines …These vaccines are good public health interventions,” he said.Associate professor James Wood, an expert in mathematical modelling and infectious diseases epidemiology at UNSW Sydney, said there are limitations with using ARR to measure a person’s risk of getting COVID-19.“The basic problem with this idea is that it assumes that the absolute risk observed in the trial is a good measure of your risk of getting COVID without the vaccine. It’s not – trials are of limited duration (only a few months), and we expect that without a vaccine pretty much everyone will eventually be exposed to COVID,” Dr Wood said in an email.“Using ARR would be highly misleading about eventual risks of contracting COVID-19 in the absence of vaccination, and vastly underestimates the benefits of the vaccines.”As noted in The Lancet article, ARR figures are influenced by background factors such as the infection rate within a given population. Dr Glasziou noted the time frame in which data was collected also affected ARR rates, while RRR figures generally remained steady.Vaccine efficacy rates shown in clinical trials have since been backed up by data from various international rollouts. A US analysis showed the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines were at least 90 per cent effective in preventing infection in real-world settings, while another set of data from Israel put the Pfizer vaccine’s effectiveness at stopping infection at 95 per cent.Further data, yet to be peer-reviewed, suggests the AstraZeneca vaccine (page 5) offers a similar level of protection from symptomatic illness.Similar claims have been debunked by other fact-checking organisations here, here and here. Real-world data shows COVID-19 vaccines are highly effective in combatting the virus.","https://archive.ph/qljnQ,https://www.aap.com.au/the-uk-isnt-expecting-most-covid-19-vaccine-recipients-to-die-in-a-third-wave/,https://www.facebook.com/CounterBalanceToday/posts/1931993313630498,https://archive.ph/cg0kz,https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanmic/article/PIIS2666-5247(21)00069-0/fulltext#,https://www.cdc.gov/csels/dsepd/ss1978/lesson3/section6.html,https://health-desk.org/articles/what-do-the-efficacy-rates-of-covid-19-vaccines-mean-and-do-the-efficacy-rates-impact-a-population-s-herd-immunity,https://research.bond.edu.au/en/persons/paul-glasziou,https://iebh.bond.edu.au/,https://www.tropicalmedicine.ox.ac.uk/team/piero-olliaro,https://research.unsw.edu.au/people/associate-professor-james-gareth-wood,https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/70/wr/mm7013e3.htm?s_cid=mm7013e3_w,https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(21)00947-8/fulltext,https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/990089/Vaccine_surveillance_report_-_week_20.pdf,https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2021/may/28/instagram-posts/instagram-post-misleads-vaccine-efficacy-conflatin/,https://factcheck.afp.com/medical-journal-did-not-say-covid-19-vaccines-offer-limited-protection?fbclid=IwAR2GhXze2SWkN-uamJ2cw5oo9il3JxkzSLa8-QoG2LOTDWOI7s808bK5Nyk,https://fullfact.org/online/covid-vaccines-are-effective/",Muddled-up data misleads on COVID-19 vaccine efficacy,,,,,,
26,,,,False,,2021-06-11,,factcheck_aap,,https://www.aap.com.au/times-up-on-daniel-andrews-fall-date-conspiracy/,,,factcheck_aap,,"The StatementSocial media posts suggest there is a conspiracy involving the media reporting the time and day of Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews’ fall, which left the state leader seriously injured.A June 8 Facebook post features two screenshots: an ABC News article detailing the news that the premier had been admitted to hospital after a fall, and an Ambulance Victoria statement providing details of the related ambulance response.The timestamp on the ABC article identifies it was purportedly published on March 8, while the Ambulance Victoria statement lists the date an ambulance was called for Mr Andrews as March 9.These two dates are circled in red, with the post’s text claiming: “Daniel Andrews official statement and the official statement of Ambulance Victoria are not in agreement about the time and day an ambulance was called. The Victorian people deserve to be told the truth.”Related claims have been shared elsewhere on Facebook (see here and here), with a similar post that features a screenshot of a time-stamped Guardian Australia article including the caption: “So the media can predict the future now?” Social media users are claiming a cover-up around the time and day of the Victorian premier ‘s fall. The AnalysisClaims that news articles “predicted” Daniel Andrews’ fall a day earlier than it was confirmed by ambulance officials are wrong – and are based on an incorrect or intentionally misleading interpretation of the articles’ timestamps.The Victorian premier released a statement on March 9 revealing he had been admitted to hospital with “several broken ribs and vertebrae damage” after “slipping and falling on wet and slippery stairs”.The premier has been on leave since the fall and is expected to return to work in June, acting premier James Merlino has said. Nevertheless, Mr Andrews’ extended absence has led to Opposition politicians demanding the premier answer a list of questions about the circumstances surrounding the fall, which has been the subject of various unfounded conspiracy theories online.In response to the questions, Ambulance Victoria released a media statement on June 8, with the permission of the premier, that included information about the ambulance response to Mr Andrews’ fall.The statement initially incorrectly listed the date of the incident as Monday, March 9. That date fell on a Tuesday, not a Monday as stated. Ambulance Victoria later corrected the day to Tuesday. The mistake was also highlighted on Twitter at the time.The social media posts placed the ambulance statements alongside screenshots of news reports from the ABC and The Guardian purportedly showing the dates of their initial reports as March 8.However, the screenshot of the Guardian article shared in the Facebook posts lists the user’s time zone as Eastern Standard Time (EST), used in parts of North and Central America.Both the ABC News and Guardian articles were first published on March 9, 2021, when viewed from a computer or device set to Australian time. The Guardian’s article has a timestamp of 2:50pm, Australian Eastern Daylight Time (AEDT), while the ABC article includes a timestamp of 8:36am.Similar times are reflected in the first tweets from the ABC and The Guardian carrying the news.When converted to EST, both dates shift to March 8 – and match the timestamps shown in the Facebook posts.Using the example of the ABC article, AAP FactCheck set a computer’s time zone to EST – which resulted in the article’s date stamp changing from March 9 to March 8.In response to questions on Twitter over the timing of The Guardian story, its author, Josh Taylor, wrote: “Whoever took the screenshot to share is looking at the US EST time of publication, I think, not AU. So it looks like it is the day before.” Daniel Andrews was taken to hospital on March 9 after he fell while getting ready for work.","https://archive.is/XSgBl,https://www.facebook.com/390540501590013/posts/839128483397877,https://www.facebook.com/318381395018064/posts/1677108362478687,https://www.facebook.com/107099651172107/posts/250426196839451,https://www.premier.vic.gov.au/statement-premier-89,https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/his-doctors-are-happy-premier-on-track-to-return-to-work-in-june-20210506-p57pcu.html,https://7news.com.au/politics/daniel-andrews/ambulance-victoria-release-statement-on-premier-daniel-andrews-fall-after-cover-up-comments-c-3045355,https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/jun/11/daniel-andrews-injury-inside-the-conspiracy-theory-around-the-premiers-fall,https://s3.ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/aap-nw-aap.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/11155633/Screenshot-2021-06-11-155610.jpg,https://s3.ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/aap-nw-aap.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/11155213/Ambulance-Victoria-Statement-Final.jpg,https://archive.is/7FjyC,https://s3.ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/aap-nw-aap.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/11170254/Screenshot-2021-06-11-170051-2.jpg,https://www.timeanddate.com/time/zones/est,https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/mar/09/daniel-andrews-taken-to-hospital-for-x-rays-after-nasty-fall,https://www.timeanddate.com/time/zones/aedt,https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-03-09/daniel-andrews-hospitalised-after-fall/13229014,https://twitter.com/abcnews/status/1369044279583109121,https://twitter.com/GuardianAus/status/1369108788041707523,https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html?iso=20210309T030000&p1=tz_aet&p2=tz_et,https://s3.ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/aap-nw-aap.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/11153126/Screenshot-2021-06-11-111341.png,https://s3.ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/aap-nw-aap.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/11153108/Screenshot-2021-06-10-211543.png,https://web.archive.org/web/20210608053427/https://twitter.com/joshgnosis/status/1402135784744833024",Time’s up on Daniel Andrews fall date ‘conspiracy’,,,,,,
27,,,,False,,2021-06-11,,factcheck_aap,,https://www.aap.com.au/a-one-star-rating-wont-get-facebook-unfriended-by-google/,,,factcheck_aap,,"The StatementA social media post urges people to give Facebook’s app a one-star review on Google’s Play Store, going on to claim that Google will automatically delete the app when its rating drops to one.The May 28 Facebook post, shared by an Australian user, features screenshots from an earlier Instagram post. They include an image of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg above a banner that reads: “Facebook rating drops from 4.0 to 2.6 as users report ‘1 star’ on Playstore.”Beneath the image, further text reads: “When the rating reaches 1, Google will automatically delete it from the store, which means that Mark will lose billions of dollars. Now the number of people who rated is 220 thousand, we need about 100 thousand one-star ratings in order to get it to the stage of removing it from the Google / App Store.”The text goes on to claim, “If you evaluate Facebook with one star, its market value will be lowered on the stock exchange, and it will lose billions in losses.”Other versions of the post and claim have been shared on Facebook and Instagram, for example here and here. Social media posts claim a one-star rating will get Facebook’s app removed from Google Play. The AnalysisThe removal of an app from the Google Play app store is not determined by its star rating but rather by whether it has violated the company’s developer program policies, a Google spokeswoman told AAP FactCheck. As such, a one-star rating would not lead to any app being automatically removed from the platform.Facebook, the sixth most valuable public company in the world as of March 31, has faced a coordinated campaign from pro-Palestinian social media users who have bombarded the social media giant with one-star reviews in the Apple and Google Play app stores since May as a protest against what they claim was the company censoring Palestinian voices during the 2021 conflict with Israel in Gaza.A similar campaign was later used by anti-vaccination activists in protest over Facebook’s policy of downgrading and removing some COVID-19 and vaccine-related content. The tech company says it will remove content for a range of reasons, including when public health authorities conclude the material is “false and likely to contribute to imminent violence or physical harm”.Since late May, Facebook’s rating on Google Play has dropped to 2.3 stars from above four stars. The post claims that 220,000 people have already posted a review and that 100,000 more one-star reviews will lead to removal. The Google Play review breakdown chart, however, shows that more than 117 million reviews had been submitted for the Facebook app, and the bar chart indicates that one star reviews account for more than half of the total.A Google spokeswoman told AAP FactCheck in an email that an app’s rating on Google Play does not influence the company’s decision on continuing to offer an app for download.Apps on Google Play must adhere to the company’s developer program policy, with breaches potentially leading to one of four determinations: rejection, removal, suspension or termination. The policy covers issues such as malware, spam and intellectual property breaches.According to an explainer video from Android Developers, which provides information about building apps for the operating system used by Google devices, an app may be removed from the Google Play Store if it violates policies by, for example, inciting hate speech.Removed apps can be restored to the Play Store once the app developer has dealt with the violation and the app complies with its policies, according to Google.While a one-star rating on app stores won’t see the social media giant kicked off the Google app store, Alexander Kurov, a professor of finance at West Virginia University who has previously written about the effect social media has on stock prices, told AAP FactCheck in an email that low ratings on the Google app store could potentially have a knock-on effect for Facebook’s market value.“The low ratings on the Google app store will likely have little effect on Facebook’s existing users. But to the extent the low ratings divert new potential users to competing social media platforms, they will likely have a negative effect on Facebook stock price,” he said.Nevertheless, the campaigns do not appear to have had any short-term effect on Facebook’s market value. Between May 17 and June 10, the company’s share price rose more than five per cent.Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, whose company is one of the world’s most valuable.","https://archive.ph/bqaWM,https://www.instagram.com/p/CPJpt7JN58a/,https://www.facebook.com/540627846060121/posts/3736150686507805,https://www.instagram.com/p/CPQOt6tnV4T/,https://www.pwc.com/gx/en/audit-services/publications/assets/pwc-global-top-100-companies-2021.pdf,https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/social-media/pro-palestinian-activists-target-facebook-1-star-app-store-reviews-n1268258,https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/05/28/facebook-palestinian-censorship/,https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-57218428,https://www.facebook.com/1592734257659285/posts/2863225303943501,https://www.facebook.com/help/230764881494641,https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.facebook.katana,https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/social-media/pro-palestinian-activists-target-facebook-1-star-app-store-reviews-n1268258,https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.facebook.katana,https://play.google.com/about/developer-content-policy/,https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/9899234/enforcement-process#,https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjRqFbTHUOQ&t=58s,https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/9899234/enforcement-process#,https://business.wvu.edu/faculty-and-staff/directory/profile?pid=242,https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3206093,https://www.nasdaq.com/market-activity/stocks/fb",A one-star rating won’t get Facebook unfriended by Google,,,,,,
28,,,,False,,2021-06-10,,factcheck_aap,,https://www.aap.com.au/meme-misuses-australian-data-to-falsely-claim-covid-19-vaccine-deaths/,,,factcheck_aap,,"The StatementA Facebook meme claims that more than 200 people in Australia have died as a result of COVID-19 vaccinations based on purported official figures from the country’s drug assessor.The meme includes text claiming that from January 1 until May 23 there had been only one COVID-19 death in the country but 210 “COVID-19 vaccine deaths”.It includes the logo of the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA), Australia’s regulatory body for medicines and therapeutic goods. The same claim has been posted by multiple Facebook users in Australia and New Zealand – examples are here, here, and here. A post featuring the logo of Therapeutic Goods Administration lists 210 COVID-19 vaccine deaths. The AnalysisThe figure included in the meme is not the number of “COVID-19 vaccine deaths” in Australia, as claimed. Rather, it is the number of people reported to have died after immunisation; only one of whose deaths could be directly attributed to the treatment, according to the TGA.This figure is less than the expected natural death rate in the general population for the same cohort, the TGA says.The meme misrepresents official COVID-19 vaccine safety figures, published by the TGA each week.In its vaccine safety update on May 27, which covers all COVID-19 vaccinations in Australia up to May 23, the TGA said: “In this period, the TGA has received 210 reports of deaths following immunisation.”Three-quarters of those deaths were people aged 75 and over, it said, while 93 per cent were people aged 65 and over.In a statement to AAP FactCheck, a TGA spokesperson said the regulator had determined COVID-19 vaccines to be causally linked to only one of those deaths, which was a person affected by Thrombosis with Thrombocytopenia Syndrome (TTS) due to the AstraZeneca vaccine.“The reporting of an adverse event to the TGA does not mean the event was caused by the vaccination. In some cases adverse events may occur coincidentally after vaccination,” the spokesperson said in an email.“Our analysis includes comparing expected natural death rates to observed death rates following immunisation. To date, the observed number of deaths reported after vaccination is actually less than the expected number of deaths.”The May 27 update includes similar context, reiterating: “Apart from the single Australian case in which death was linked to TTS, COVID-19 vaccines have not been found to cause death.” More than 3.6 million vaccine doses had been administered in Australia by May 23.Professor Louisa Jorm, the director of UNSW’s Centre for Big Data Research in Health, told AAP FactCheck that an average of 464 Australians died every day in 2019 before the COVID-19 pandemic, including an average of 348 people aged 70 or over.She said it is inevitable that some deaths will occur shortly after COVID-19 vaccination – but this did not mean the vaccines were the cause.“The COVID-19 vaccination rollout is prioritising the protection of people who are most likely to die from COVID-19,” she said in an email.“These people are already at high risk of dying due to their age and/or underlying health problems. Therefore it is totally to be expected that (unrelated) deaths will occur soon after vaccination.”Anybody can report an adverse event to the TGA, however its spokesperson told AAP FactCheck that around four out of five cases are logged by health professionals or state and territory public health units.Official data from the US and the UK has been similarly misused to falsely claim vaccines have caused large numbers of deaths.AAP FactCheck previously examined a claim that the US VAERS database showed a string of vaccine deaths; in fact, the database represents unverified reports of deaths subsequent to vaccination which authorities said were not linked to the inoculations.In the UK, claims that hundreds of people died from COVID-19 vaccines last year were similarly found to be a misrepresentation of vaccine safety data.The TGA’s spokesperson noted the misuse of its logo in the meme could constitute a Commonwealth criminal offence on the grounds of impersonating an official body, and the matter had been referred to the Australian Federal Police.“The alleged posting, particularly of false information surrounding deaths from ‘COVID-19 vaccines’ with the (health) department’s and TGA’s apparent endorsement is particularly concerning,” the spokesperson said. People wait in line for a COVID-19 vaccine at a mass vaccination centre in Melbourne.","https://archive.is/txgS9,https://www.tga.gov.au/,https://www.facebook.com/1576289275993875/posts/2968078463481609,https://www.facebook.com/250000031724735/posts/4092323254159041,https://www.facebook.com/133117410231812/posts/1659834747560063,https://www.tga.gov.au/communicating-covid-19-safety-information,https://www.tga.gov.au/periodic/covid-19-vaccine-weekly-safety-report-27-05-2021,https://www.health.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/2021/05/patient-information-sheet-on-astrazeneca-covid-19-vaccine-and-thrombosis-with-thrombocytopenia-syndrome-tts.pdf,https://www.tga.gov.au/periodic/covid-19-vaccine-weekly-safety-report-27-05-2021,https://www.health.gov.au/resources/publications/covid-19-vaccine-rollout-update-24-may-2021-0,https://cbdrh.med.unsw.edu.au/people/professor-louisa-jorm,https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/people/population/deaths-australia/latest-release#national,https://www.tga.gov.au/reporting-problems,https://www.aap.com.au/video-misuses-data-to-level-flawed-claims-of-vaccine-deaths/,https://fullfact.org/online/460-vaccine-deaths-yellow-card/,https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C2018C00386/Html/Volume_1",Meme misuses Australian data to falsely claim COVID-19 vaccine deaths,,,,,,
29,,,,False,,2021-06-09,,factcheck_aap,,https://www.aap.com.au/the-nuremberg-code-doesnt-apply-to-covid-19-vaccinations/,,,factcheck_aap,,"The StatementA Facebook post claims people are protected from mandatory vaccination by the Nuremberg Code.The post by an Australian account includes a meme listing 10 points from the code. The text in the meme includes the headline: “They can’t force you to get j@bbed no matter how hard they try. The law is on your side.”Various phrases from the code are highlighted, such as the words “voluntary consent of the human subject” and “results will justify the performance of the experiment”.At the time of writing, the May 29 post had been viewed more than 55,000 times and shared more than 700 times. A similar Facebook post claims mandatory or “coerced” vaccinations are “in direct violation of the code” and amount to war crimes, while another suggests that “experimenting on the population” is a breach of the Nuremberg Code. A social media post claims people are protected from forced vaccinations by the Nuremberg Code. The AnalysisThe Nuremberg Code was developed following World War II and addresses human medical experimentation – not approved vaccines. Experts in bioethics say attempting to apply the code to COVID-19 vaccines is incorrect and misleading.The Nuremberg Code is a 10-point set of rules for the conduct of medical experiments on humans. It formed part of the International Medical Tribunal’s case involving 23 doctors and administrators in August 1947 as part of the Nuremberg Trials, during which former Nazi leaders were tried as war criminals. The “doctors’ trial” related to often deadly medical experiments carried out on concentration camp inmates, among other atrocities.The first principle of the code begins, “The voluntary consent of the human subject is absolutely essential.” It goes on to describe in detail that subjects must have the legal capacity to give consent and be in a position to exercise free power of choice.Suggestions that those administering vaccines are violating the code and will be tried as war criminals often centre on the suggestion that recipients are being forced to receive the treatments.However, there is no mandatory vaccination program in Australia – although COVID-19 vaccinations are strongly encouraged. Patients receive and must complete a consent form as part of the vaccination process. Numerous claims about COVID-19 vaccination programs being incompatible with the Nuremberg Code have previously been debunked (see here, here, here, here, and here).In addition, COVID-19 vaccines are not considered “experimental”, as claimed in some of the posts. The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, for example, was granted approval for emergency use by US regulators in December 2020 after clearing stage-three clinical trials. In Australia, it was granted provisional approval in January.Similarly, the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine was provisionally approved in Australia by the Therapueutic Goods Administration in February. According to the regulator, both vaccines’ approvals were based on quality, non-clinical and clinical data – including “efficacy data from large-scale clinical trials”. Similar claims about vaccines being “experimental” have previously been debunked (here and here).Angus Dawson, a professor of bioethics and the director of Sydney Health Ethics at the University of Sydney, told AAP FactCheck the Nuremberg Code was not applicable to the delivery of vaccinations during a public health crisis.He said the code’s emphasis on requiring consent for participation was about what was permissible during research experiments but, outside of clinical trials, this was irrelevant for vaccines.Prof Dawson also addressed the issue of whether people were being coerced into getting vaccinations for fear of losing freedoms such as travel, noting that no vaccinations were compulsory in Australia – except as a requirement of certain types of employment.“It is true that a choice not to be vaccinated may mean that you do not have access to certain benefits, but this is not coercion, as such,” he said via email.“If a legitimate law establishes that you do not have access to some benefits as a result of not doing something, (and) this is known and publicly declared, it seems odd to call this coercion.”Across Australia, for example, children must already be fully immunised in order for their parents to receive certain benefits from the government.David Hunter, a senior lecturer in ethics and professionalism in the Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences at the University of Adelaide, said the Nuremberg Code was created to govern the ethics of human experimentation and research, and it was “a mistake” to attempt to apply the code to a vaccination program.“This is like the ‘sovereign citizens’ appealing to the Magna Carta – it’s a disingenuous appeal to authority that they hope will convince people because people kind of know it is an old and important thing but not its content,” he told AAP FactCheck in an email.Dr Hunter said there have been extensive clinical trials and “considerable” real-world data relating to COVID-19 vaccines, which meant “by this stage we have pretty good information about efficacy and effectiveness in reducing harms and transmission and reasonably solid risk data as well”.Megan Best, associate professor of bioethics with the Institute for Ethics and Society at the University of Notre Dame Australia in NSW, agreed the code would not apply to use of a vaccine which had been tested in clinical trials prior to administration.Dr Best and the other experts also noted the Nuremberg Code was an important historical document, but it was no longer used to guide research ethics as it had been replaced by the World Medical Association’s Helsinki Declaration (1964).A health worker injects a dose of the COVID19 vaccine into a woman.","http://archive.today/y1Zhj,https://www.facebook.com/103023368050685/posts/254834206202933,https://www.facebook.com/530702127033360/posts/2920924511344431,https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2649074,https://media.tghn.org/medialibrary/2011/04/BMJ_No_7070_Volume_313_The_Nuremberg_Code.pdf,https://nuremberg.law.harvard.edu/nmt_1_intro,https://www.britannica.com/event/Nurnberg-trials,https://media.tghn.org/medialibrary/2011/04/BMJ_No_7070_Volume_313_The_Nuremberg_Code.pdf,https://www.health.gov.au/initiatives-and-programs/covid-19-vaccines/is-it-true/is-it-true-are-covid-19-vaccines-mandatory-in-australia,https://www.health.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/2021/06/covid-19-vaccination-consent-form-for-covid-19-vaccination-covid-19-vaccination-consent-form_0.pdf,https://leadstories.com/hoax-alert/2020/07/fact-check-mandatory-vaccinations-are-not-in-direct-violation-of-the-nuremberg-code.html,https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2021/feb/11/blog-posting/doctors-administering-covid-19-vaccines-arent-guil/,https://fullfact.org/online/war-criminals-covid/,https://www.boomlive.in/world/do-vaccinations-violate-human-rights-under-the-nuremberg-code-8308,https://factcheck.afp.com/principles-nuremberg-code-are-compatible-vaccination,https://www.fda.gov/media/144245/download,https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/nejmoa2034577,https://www.health.gov.au/news/tga-provisionally-approves-pfizerbiontech-covid-19-vaccine-for-use-in-australia,https://www.health.gov.au/initiatives-and-programs/covid-19-vaccines/covid-19-vaccine-government-response/australias-vaccine-agreements,https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2021/mar/31/instagram-posts/instagram-post-overlooks-fda-sign-covid-19-vaccine/,https://healthfeedback.org/claimreview/covid-19-vaccines-received-emergency-use-authorization-from-the-fda-after-clinical-trials-demonstrated-that-they-are-safe-and-effective-covid-19-vaccines-arent-experimenta/,https://www.sydney.edu.au/medicine-health/about/our-people/academic-staff/angus-dawson.html,https://www.servicesaustralia.gov.au/individuals/services/centrelink/family-tax-benefit/who-can-get-it/immunisation-requirements,https://researchers.adelaide.edu.au/profile/david.hunter,https://www.sbs.com.au/news/the-feed/the-rise-of-sovereign-people-and-why-they-argue-laws-don-t-apply-to-them,https://www.notredame.edu.au/research/institute-for-ethics-and-society/staff/Megan-Best,https://www.wma.net/what-we-do/medical-ethics/declaration-of-helsinki/",The Nuremberg Code doesn’t apply to COVID-19 vaccinations,,,,,,
30,,,,False,,2021-06-08,,factcheck_aap,,https://www.aap.com.au/no-proof-ivermectin-and-hydroxy-regime-led-to-covid-decline-in-india/,,,factcheck_aap,,"The StatementAn Instagram post by an Australian user suggests that falling cases of COVID-19 in India are due to a regime of hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin being used as treatments.The post features a graph of Indian COVID-19 cases and deaths credited to Johns Hopkins University. The chart shows a steep rise in cases before a peak and gradual decline to 24 May.“This is why India is no longer on the news and why we (in Australia) suddenly have cases,” the post claims. “India started a regime of hydroxychloriquine (sic) nd ivermectin and saw vax hesitancy rise and is looking to re-open ASAP.”At the time of publication, the post had been liked nearly 500 times and shared more than 14,000 times. A post suggests falling COVID cases in India are due to hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin. The AnalysisWhile India’s COVID-19 cases have declined from their peak in early May, there is no evidence a “regime” of the drugs hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin are responsible for the fall.The same period also reflects a time when strict regional health controls were in place in many parts of the country and tens of millions of vaccine doses were rolled out to combat a deadly second wave of the virus.India’s COVID-19 case count began to rise sharply in mid-March, eventually reaching a peak of more than 400,000 daily diagnoses in early May, according to Johns Hopkins University data.Since the peak, cases have declined; the same figures put the new case count at 114,000 on June 5. By that date, the number of active cases in the country was around 40 per cent of the peak figure, local media reported.The true case numbers in India are suspected to be considerably greater than reported due to limited testing, according to analysis by The Associated Press.The rise in cases led to many states introducing curbs on economic activity and public movement, although the national government shied away from introducing a country-wide lockdown. For example, Delhi’s regional government announced it would extend its curfew on non-essential movement until June 14.Meanwhile, the drop in COVID-19 cases also coincides with the acceleration of the country’s vaccination program. According to Our World in Data, more than 140 million people had received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine by mid-May. The figure represents around 10 per cent of the population.The post’s claim regarding India beginning a “regime” of hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin treatments appears to relate to updated guidelines for mild and asymptomatic cases of COVID-19 issued by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on April 28.Both drugs have been frequently touted as possible COVID-19 treatments, however international health agencies (see here, here, here and here) have advised against their use citing a lack of evidence of their efficacy as well as potential side-effects.Nevertheless, the Indian guidelines recommended close contacts of mild or asymptomatic cases take hydroxychloroquine, an anti-rheumatic drug, while people in home isolation with similar cases were told to “consider” taking ivermectin, commonly used in humans and animals to treat disease caused by parasites.The advice was included alongside various other guidelines, such as twice-daily “warm water gargles” and the wearing of a triple-layer medical mask.The health ministry’s clinical treatment guidelines, issued on 24 May, also said doctors should “consider” giving either ivermectin or hydroxychloroquine to patients with mild cases of COVID-19.However, the guidelines did not represent a major shift in the official advice except for the addition of ivermectin. India’s superseded guidelines, issued on July 3, 2020, also said hydroxychloroquine could be used for for both mild and moderate cases.The Indian Council of Medical Research had advised the use of the drug since as early as April that year, despite criticism from some experts that the treatment was unproven in its effectiveness and could lead to “preventable morbidity and mortality”. By February 2021, the government had distributed more than 100 million hydroxychloroquine pills.Researchers from the George Institute for Global Health, which has offices in Australia and India, wrote in an article published by The Lancet on June 2 that ivermectin and hydroxycloroquine were amongst several drugs that were included in a “typical prescription” for COVID-19 in India.Carlos Chaccour, a health researcher at The Barcelona Institute of Global Health, has written extensively on ivermectin and urged caution on its use to fight COVID-19.“These kind of ‘ecologic analyses’ (in the Instagram post) have been broadly used to support ivermectin,” he told AAP FactCheck in an email.“The truth is that many other states/countries NOT deploying ivermectin have experienced a sharp descent in transmission, normally because of lockdown, awareness or other non-pharmacological measures.”Dr Chaccour wrote that ivermectin has “been in the spotlight as an example of the risks of rushed and scientifically unfounded debates in the response to crises” such as COVID-19.Professor Catherine Bennett, the chair of epidemiology at Deakin University, wrote in February that the evidence on hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin was lacking. When contacted by AAP FactCheck, she said her opinion remained the same.“There has been no change re: evidence, except even more trial results published that indicate neither make a difference in moderating disease outcomes in those with COVID-19,” she said in an email.Prof Bennett said many factors came into play to reduce case numbers in a country, but it was “nonsensical” for such changes to be attributed to the two drugs.Steven Tong, an infectious diseases physician and associate professor at the Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity, agreed, telling AAP FactCheck via email: “There is no evidence to support the claim that hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin would lead to reduced case numbers. All the trials I am aware of have not demonstrated any beneficial effect of these two agents.”The post’s claims follow a May 17 article by the far-right website, The Gateway Pundit, which has been fact-checked as a frequent source of misinformation, which stated: “Coronavirus cases are plummeting in India thanks to new rules that promote Ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine to its massive population.”However, fact-checkers Health Feedback noted India’s reproduction rate (R rate) – a measure of the number of new COVID-19 infections generated by each case – was already falling prior to the health ministry’s new guidance.Similar claims have previously been debunked here, here and here. People wait to be vaccinated against the coronavirus at Radha Soami Satsang Ground in New Delhi.","https://www.instagram.com/p/CPU7v8bJaQP/?utm_source=ig_embed&ig_rid=e8809580-f7b6-441c-984f-4b80283a5df2,https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html,https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/active-covid-cases-fall-below-15-lakh-now-at-40-of-peak/articleshow/83272613.cms,https://apnews.com/article/canada-business-pandemics-science-health-9a5edad508f63b05e4465fdffa61bcb8,https://www.reuters.com/world/india/indian-health-agency-chief-says-most-country-should-remain-locked-down-6-8-weeks-2021-05-12/,http://ddma.delhigovt.nic.in/wps/wcm/connect/doit_dm/DM/Home/COVID-19/Orders+of+DDMA+on+COVID+19/,https://ourworldindata.org/covid-vaccinations?country=IND,https://www.mohfw.gov.in/pdf/RevisedguidelinesforHomeIsolationofmildasymptomaticCOVID19cases.pdf,https://www.ema.europa.eu/en/news/ema-advises-against-use-ivermectin-prevention-treatment-covid-19-outside-randomised-clinical-trials,https://www.ema.europa.eu/en/news/covid-19-reminder-risks-chloroquine-hydroxychloroquine,https://www.who.int/news-room/feature-stories/detail/who-advises-that-ivermectin-only-be-used-to-treat-covid-19-within-clinical-trials,https://www.who.int/news/item/15-10-2020-solidarity-therapeutics-trial-produces-conclusive-evidence-on-the-effectiveness-of-repurposed-drugs-for-covid-19-in-record-time,https://www.versusarthritis.org/about-arthritis/treatments/drugs/hydroxychloroquine/,https://www.fda.gov/consumers/consumer-updates/why-you-should-not-use-ivermectin-treat-or-prevent-covid-19,https://www.mohfw.gov.in/pdf/UpdatedDetailedClinicalManagementProtocolforCOVID19adultsdated24052021.pdf,https://web.archive.org/web/20210507074216/https://www.mohfw.gov.in/pdf/UpdatedClinicalManagementProtocolforCOVID19dated03072020.pdf,https://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS1473-30992030313-3/fulltext,https://www.georgeinstitute.org/who-we-are,https://www.thelancet.com/journals/langlo/article/PIIS2214-109X(21)00252-7/fulltext#%20,https://www.isglobal.org/en/our-team/-/profiles/7304,https://www.thelancet.com/journals/eclinm/article/PIIS2589-5370(20)30464-8/fulltext,https://www.isglobal.org/en/healthisglobal/-/custom-blog-portlet/ivermectin-and-covid-19-how-a-flawed-database-shaped-the-covid-19-response-of-several-latin-american-countries/2877257/0,https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/aug/13/what-is-ivermectin-and-should-we-be-using-it-to-treat-covid-19,https://www.isglobal.org/en_GB/-/31-ivermectina-y-covid-19-que-esta-pasando-,https://www.deakin.edu.au/about-deakin/people/catherine-bennett,https://www.smh.com.au/national/wait-for-the-science-why-we-shouldn-t-be-rushed-on-covid-drugs-20210204-p56zog.html,https://medicine.unimelb.edu.au/engage/alumni/chiron/associate-professor-steven-tong,https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/05/elites-worried-covid-cases-india-plummet-government-promotes-ivermectin-hydroxychloroquine-use/,https://www.politifact.com/personalities/gateway-pundit/,https://healthfeedback.org/claimreview/no-data-available-to-suggest-a-link-between-indias-reduction-of-covid-19-cases-and-the-use-of-ivermectin-jim-hoft-gateway-pundit/?fbclid=IwAR3IDr2bKSdSK4VdkFCwnPxLdE-n3RUcCfR8-6a9h_BY23VQcgbYEs4ypdM,https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-transmission-expla-idUSKBN22N2ZS,https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2021/05/21/fact-check-india-covid-19-cases-hydroxychloroquine-not-related/5173021001/,https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2021/may/21/gateway-pundit/no-proof-drugs-not-approved-us-covid-19-caused-dro/,https://www.poynter.org/fact-checking/2021/theres-no-proof-that-hydroxychloroquine-or-ivermectin-caused-a-drop-in-cases-in-india/",No proof ivermectin and hydroxy ‘regime’ led to COVID decline in India,,,,,,
31,,,,False,,2021-06-04,,factcheck_aap,,https://www.aap.com.au/male-dna-living-forever-in-women-after-sex-is-short-on-evidence/,,,factcheck_aap,,"The StatementA social media post claims that if a woman has sex with a man, his DNA lives in her forever.The Facebook post from May 19 features an image of a man and women wrapped in chains and engaged in a sexual act. The post is headed: “Recent research on DNA transmission via sex.”The text of the post goes on to say, “If you have sex with a man, his DNA lives in you forever. A research (sic) by university of Seattle USA has proven that. There is now a greater understanding of why God asks us not to have sex before we get married. This research proves that any man, that a woman has sex with leaves a part of his DNA in the woman. The man who has had more sex with her, leaves more of his DNA in the woman. So when a woman ovulates, the eggs that she produces contain more of other DNAs.”The post goes to say the study found the presence of genetically distinct male cells in the brains of women, called “microchimerism”.“This also means these other male cells will be found in a fetus when the woman gets pregnant,” it says.The post by a page in Papua New Guinea had been viewed more than 16,000 times and shared more than 175 times at the time of writing. A Facebook post claims that if a woman has sex with a man, his DNA lives in her forever. The AnalysisThe study that appears to be the source of the Facebook post’s claims does not suggest that a man’s DNA is transferred into a woman during sexual intercourse.The idea that women carry the DNA of their sexual partners can be traced to a 2017 article from YourNewsWire, a frequent source of misinformation. The article cites a “new” study from researchers which purportedly showed “women retain and carry living DNA from every man with whom they have had sexual intercourse”.However, the study it referred to – published in the medical journal PLOS One in 2012 – was not new at the time of either the 2017 article or the Facebook post’s publication. The study, titled “male microchimerism in the human female brain”, was also misidentified in both cases as involving researchers from the University of Seattle.Instead, it involved academics from Seattle’s Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and the University of Washington in Seattle. One of the Fred Hutchinson centre’s labs focuses on the concept of “microchimerism”, which it says most commonly involves the exchange of DNA between mother and child during pregnancy.Identifying the existence of male cells in the bodies of females is not new, as this blog post published by PLOS about the research pointed out. For example, it cited 1996 research that found pregnancy set up a “long-term, low-grade chimeric state in the human female”.The significance of the 2012 study was to demonstrate for the first time the presence of genetically distinct male cells in the brains of women, whose bodies were examined during autopsy. However, it does not mention sexual intercourse as a source of the foreign DNA.Rather, it states: “The most likely source of male (microchimerism) in female brain is acquisition of fetal (microchimerism) from pregnancy with a male fetus. In women without sons, male DNA can also be acquired from an abortion or a miscarriage.”The study noted the pregnancy history was not known for all of the subjects, which meant pregnancy as a source of the DNA could not be properly evaluated. Other possible sources of the male DNA were stated as: “A recognised or vanished male twin … an older male sibling, or through non-irradiated blood transfusion.”Nevertheless, other studies have speculated that sexual intercourse could be one of several potential sources of male cells found in women and girls. A 2016 Danish study and a 2005 study from Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center academics both raised intercourse as a possible source of male microchimerism, but neither investigated the supposition in depth.None of the studies support the post’s claim that all men leave part of their DNA in a woman during sex, nor that this purported foreign material is then transferred into the woman’s eggs and children.One of the 2012 study’s authors, Professor J. Lee Nelson, who leads a research team at the Fred Hutchinson centre, told Insider in 2018 there was no scientific evidence to suggest male DNA was routinely retained from women’s sexual partners.She added that data did not support the speculation, noting that “if this were routinely happening … you would see (male microchimerism) in the vast majority of women that we studied”.Mike Garratt from the Department of Anatomy at Otago University, whose area of research includes the consequences of mating for health and ageing, told AAP FactCheck there was evidence in mice that male seminal fluid caused an immune response in females – but that wasn’t the same as male DNA staying in the female body for a lengthy period of time.“I don’t think that there is evidence that male DNA gets into the female brain as a consequence of seminal fluid exposure,” Dr Garratt said in an email.Professor Sarah Robertson from the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences at the University of Adelaide agreed there was some evidence from mice and other mammalian species that sperm-derived DNA could persist in the female reproductive tract after sex. But whether that built up over time with repeated matings was unknown.As to whether a similar transmission could occur in humans, Prof Robertson said it had not been investigated, to her knowledge.Research hasn’t shown a link between sex and the presence of male DNA in some women.","http://archive.today/wC4EV,http://archive.is/phVpT#selection-565.0-565.61,https://www.poynter.org/fact-checking/2018/fact-checkers-have-debunked-this-fake-news-site-80-times-its-still-publishing-on-facebook/,https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0045592#s4,https://research.fredhutch.org/nelson-j-lee/en.html?_ga=2.200285288.755063639.1622495904-2129011015.1622495904,https://dnascience.plos.org/2012/10/25/male-dna-in-female-brains-revisited/,https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/19381956.2016.1218583,https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16084184/,https://www.fredhutch.org/en/faculty-lab-directory/nelson-j-lee.html,https://www.insider.com/why-women-retain-male-dna-2018-3,https://www.otago.ac.nz/bms/expertise/profile/?id=2975,https://researchers.adelaide.edu.au/profile/sarah.robertson",Male DNA ‘living forever’ in women after sex is short on evidence,,,,,,
32,,,,Missing Context,,2021-06-03,,factcheck_aap,,https://www.aap.com.au/claim-vaccines-wont-stop-covid-spread-ignores-key-facts/,,,factcheck_aap,,"The StatementSocial media posts suggest people are being misled about the usefulness of COVID-19 vaccinations because the treatments do not stop transmission of the coronavirus.Former One Nation candidate Emma Eros posted a related image to Facebook, the text of which reads: “According to the government, the vaccine doesn’t prevent transmission of the virus, but vaccination passports will. Ever get the feeling you’re being played?” At the time of writing, the May 24 post had been shared more than 200 times.Similar suggestions that vaccines do not stop the virus from infecting vaccine recipients or spreading have been shared widely elsewhere. One post by an Australian Facebook page claims many people “fail to see any benefit from a supposed vaccine that neither prevents the spread nor prevents infection of this virus”.A cartoon, shared by a New Zealand Facebook user on May 22, also implies the vaccine does not provide immunity to recipients, while an Instagram meme, posted by an Australian user on May 11, suggests vaccinations will not stop people from catching COVID-19 or passing it on to others. A Facebook meme claims COVID-19 vaccines do not stop transmission of the coronavirus. The AnalysisMultiple scientific studies have concluded that COVID-19 vaccines dramatically reduce the chance of getting infected with the coronavirus, with research also indicating they cut the risk of onward transmission.Immunology experts told AAP FactCheck that no vaccine is 100 per cent effective at preventing infection or transmission, however vaccines have been highly successful to date at combating the virus.Two COVID-19 vaccines have been approved for use in Australia: the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine and the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine.The Pfizer vaccine has been found to be 95 per cent effective at reducing symptomatic COVID-19, according to the pharmaceutical company’s initial large-scale clinical trial. The efficacy rate means fully-vaccinated trial participants were much less likely to develop symptomatic cases of laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 when compared to unvaccinated participants who received placebo injections.The result of the Pfizer trial has since been supported by real-world data from Israel’s vaccination rollout, published in The Lancet on May 15, which found full vaccination to be 95.3 per cent effective in preventing infection with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. The figures also showed the vaccine to be 91.5 per cent effective at preventing asymptomatic infection.Clinical trials of the AstraZeneca vaccine in 2020 suggested it offered lower levels of protection, with researchers finding the AstraZeneca jab was 70.4 per cent effective in preventing symptomatic COVID-19 after two doses.However, a preprint study published in April by medical experts from the University of Oxford found the Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines offered similar levels of protection from SARS-CoV-2 infection. Both offered a 70 per cent reduction in the chance of a new infection, with the figure rising to 88 per cent for infections with strong evidence of “viral shedding“.Jennifer Juno, a postdoctoral researcher at Melbourne’s Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity, told AAP FactCheck that “no vaccine is 100 per cent effective at stopping infection” but COVID-19 vaccines were so far proving very successful.“The currently licensed vaccines are all highly effective at preventing severe COVID-19 disease or death, which will save many lives,” Dr Juno said in an email.“Additionally, vaccines are effective at preventing people from becoming ill (symptomatic infection) or from becoming infected at all (including asymptomatic infection), which means that the vaccine not only benefits the person being vaccinated, but also those around them.”The World Health Organization says COVID-19 vaccines mean recipients are less likely to infect people around them, while the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says early data shows vaccines help prevent people with no symptoms from spreading the illness – although researchers are still learning how well the vaccines work in stopping transmission.Associate professor Nathan Bartlett, a viral immunology expert at the University of Newcastle’s School of Biomedical Sciences and Pharmacy, told AAP FactCheck the primary objective of vaccination “is to protect you from severe disease (and) keep you out of hospital, thereby protecting health care systems”.“There are many non-COVID vaccines covering different types of diseases, but COVID vaccines look to be amongst the most effective in terms of reducing transmission,” Dr Bartlett said in an email.It is still possible for vaccinated people to catch COVID-19, such as six people who recently tested positive in Sydney hotel quarantine despite being vaccinated overseas and eight vaccinated members of the New York Yankees baseball team who contracted the virus in May. However, cases of people contracting COVID-19 after vaccination are both relatively rare and expected by experts.Current evidence also suggests these “vaccine breakthrough cases” carry a lower viral load than unvaccinated people who become infected, and are less likely to pass on the virus.“This does mean that the vaccines do not completely (100 per cent) stop viral transmission, but that was unlikely to ever be the case,” Dr Juno told AAP FactCheck.In an article for The Conversation, University of Cambridge immunologist Sarah Caddy said producing a vaccine that entirely prevents infection and transmission – known as “sterilising immunity” – is often the goal of vaccine design, but this was extremely difficult to achieve.“Fortunately, this hasn’t stopped many different vaccines substantially reducing the number of cases of virus infections in the past,” Dr Caddy wrote. “By reducing disease levels in individuals, this also reduces virus spread through populations, and this will hopefully bring the current pandemic under control.”The Australian government accepts that vaccination may not fully protect everyone from infection. Instead, it says it aims to achieve herd immunity by immunising enough of the population to stop the disease from spreading.“We seek herd immunity,” Health Minister Greg Hunt told The Age newspaper in January. “(But) that outcome will depend on the longevity of protection, the coverage of the population (expected to be high by global standards in Australia), and the impact on transmission, which are yet to be determined for any vaccine.”AAP FactCheck could find no evidence the Australian government has said vaccine passports — digital verification that a person has been vaccinated — would stop transmission of the virus, as claimed in the Facebook post. Vaccines have been overwhelmingly successful at combating COVID-19, experts told AAP FactCheck.","https://pastvtr.elections.nsw.gov.au/SG1901/LA/Hornsby/cc/fp_summary,https://archive.ph/EetTV,https://www.facebook.com/1669830766572320/posts/2964997650388952,https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10165146565135057&set=a.10152943419665057&type=3,https://www.instagram.com/p/COu7FNDpQG4/,https://www.health.gov.au/initiatives-and-programs/covid-19-vaccines/getting-vaccinated-for-covid-19/which-covid-19-vaccine-will-i-receive,https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/nejmoa2034577,https://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS1473-3099(21)00075-X/fulltext,https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(21)00947-8/fulltext#%20,https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)32661-1/fulltext,https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.04.22.21255913v1.full#T7,https://theconversation.com/whats-the-difference-between-viral-shedding-and-reinfection-with-covid-19-150547,https://www.doherty.edu.au/people/dr-jennifer-juno,https://www.who.int/news-room/q-a-detail/coronavirus-disease-(covid-19)-vaccines,https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/keythingstoknow.html,https://www.newcastle.edu.au/profile/nathan-bartlett,https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/fully-vaccinated-travellers-test-positive-in-sydney-hotel-quarantine-20210507-p57pt4.html,https://www.npr.org/2021/05/14/996873507/what-to-make-of-the-yankees-outbreak-scientists-say-dont-panic-we-expected-this,https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/hsph-in-the-news/number-of-covid-19-breakthrough-cases-lower-than-expected/,https://www.technologyreview.com/2021/04/29/1024301/vaccines-covid-breakthrough-infections-immunity-cdc/,https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/effectiveness/why-measure-effectiveness/breakthrough-cases.html,https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-021-01316-7,https://www.gov.uk/government/news/one-dose-of-covid-19-vaccine-can-cut-household-transmission-by-up-to-half,https://theconversation.com/coronavirus-few-vaccines-prevent-infection-heres-why-thats-not-a-problem-152204,https://www.infectiousdisease.cam.ac.uk/directory/sarah-caddy-dr,https://www.health.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/2021/02/covid-19-vaccination-information-on-covid-19-pfizer-comirnaty-vaccine_2.pdf,https://www.who.int/news-room/q-a-detail/herd-immunity-lockdowns-and-covid-19,https://www.smh.com.au/national/protection-versus-immunity-the-great-vaccination-debate-20210115-p56ud7.html,https://theconversation.com/how-would-digital-covid-vaccine-passports-work-and-whats-stopping-people-from-faking-them-156032",Claim vaccines won’t stop COVID spread ignores key facts,,,,,,
33,,,,Partly False,,2021-06-01,,factcheck_aap,,https://www.aap.com.au/mars-astronaut-memes-boldly-go-beyond-whats-actually-happened/,,,factcheck_aap,,"The StatementMultiple posts on social media claim a young American woman is preparing to become the first human on Mars, and that she will never return to Earth, get married or have children.One example, a Facebook post by an Australian user from May 21, shows a photo of a woman in a blue jumpsuit above text that reads: “Meet Alyssa Carson. She can’t get married, She can’t have kids. She is preparing to become the first human on Mars and She will never return to Earth.”The post had been shared more than 250 times and attracted more than 850 reactions at the time of writing. Similar posts on Facebook and Instagram have been shared or liked thousands of times. A post claims a US woman is preparing to become the first person on Mars but won’t return to Earth. The AnalysisAlyssa Carson is a 20-year-old woman from Louisiana in the United States who has a long-running ambition to become an astronaut and go to Mars – a role she says she has been in preparation for during much of her life.However, she is not part of an official training program or mission with a space agency such as NASA – nor do any of her plans necessarily involve a one-way trip to the Red Planet.Ms Carson’s website says she first told her father at three years of age that she wanted to be an astronaut and go to Mars. Since then, she has attended the US Space and Rocket Center’s Space Camp multiple times and completed the Advanced PoSSUM Scientist-Astronaut space academy training program at Florida Institute of Technology, according to her bio.She has been featured in multiple media stories but has not presented herself as being an astronaut or selected for a Mars mission. She has frequently been called an “astronaut in training” or similar.When contacted by AAP FactCheck, NASA spokeswoman Brandi K. Dean said: “Alyssa Carson is not a NASA astronaut. There are some activities that we offer to students or provide to the public that it’s possible Alyssa may have taken part in. However I can confirm that she is not in astronaut training.”A full list of current and past NASA astronauts is featured on the agency’s website.The 20-year-old, who is studying at university for a bachelor of science according to her LinkedIn profile, is not yet able to meet NASA’s educational requirements which include at least a master’s degree in a science, technology, engineering or mathematics field among other possible qualifications.The average age of successful astronaut candidates is 34, according to NASA.Social media posts also often claim that because of her plans to go to Mars, Ms Carson can’t get married or have children – and that she will never return to Earth. Many astronauts have been married and had children.NASA is also not planning its eventual Mars missions to be one-way, Ms Dean confirmed.“No mission assignments have been made for future crewed NASA missions to Mars at this time but we absolutely plan for it to be a round trip when we do begin sending astronauts to Mars,” she said.NASA currently operates unmanned exploration missions on Mars and has said it is developing capabilities to send humans to Mars by the 2030s. A trip to Mars has been estimated to take a minimum of six months each way.A privately funded project to colonise Mars, Mars One, was declared bankrupt in 2019. Ms Carson was listed as an ambassador for that project. Its organisers claimed a one-way trip to the planet was the only option for a manned mission in the next 20 years.In an Uproxx video about Ms Carson from 2016, a friend recalls the aspiring astronaut talking about going to space and “how she can’t get married and she can’t have kids” (video mark 4min 32sec), but Ms Carson has clarified the topic in other interviews.“There are a lot of interviews that talk about me as if I were against marriage, having children, and that makes me uncomfortable,” she told the Spanish-language website Economía Y Negocios in 2018.“If there was a boyfriend, I’m sure we could come to an agreement … I admit that sometimes I don’t speak clearly enough.”Ms Carson told the Daily Mirror in 2019 that she was ruling out a relationship until she was back from Mars, but she also said: “I have enough time to settle down and have children on my return.”Her father Bert Carson, who is listed as her media contact, told AAP FactCheck some of the claims in the viral posts weren’t accurate, noting that Mars missions were not intended to be one way.“It is the intention to bring people back from Mars. However, there is an option to not return and if that is the only way then Alyssa would still go,” he said in an email.Mr Carson said his daughter was working as an intern with the Jacobs Engineering Group at Kennedy Space Center in Florida in addition to her studies.“Alyssa is in touch with every space agency in the world with her job with Jacobs,” he said.“With so many agencies and private companies working on this, we do not know exactly what the plan will be.”While his daughter is not yet an astronaut, Mr Carson said her goal “has always been to be one of the first to Mars and she has (been) working on making such a unique resume that she will be selected for the mission”. NASA has been running unmanned missions to Mars.","https://archive.is/0xiyA,https://www.facebook.com/CTEions/photos/bc.AboP-OU7KN_sNdJdDLSehJr_B6XtKfF7gJU-ME1HUPZTMwYnJlh1QSbybwvHzqdoEE8fwFY7CK1iMR2qvkmzjWLXRfP3UJnHqsGTBUqIOey3uvC_5xKhYn4joUTvyG7AwOrysQIUWYMlhAS-chY1l5am/322284812695703/?opaqueCursor=AbpPQ7stH9vzLfHb3G9HI1yYqVlzQ4k-TBWIzuipe3iAKKUwMo-G8Ku73ZTBNbTeuHiksFuAnlXWrszQgq4sUIzJ5LI8OTRXKeWGt5h-vLDzGGNBam9d0iO0k0xubAVJu6lh_Zs1SwcL4sJcQwvi9hz0CD_mQhjRJMxNlGsHTOrqpAWk4YY4mB5D_MduyEnfItA_g4U9c2_D5uHw0ygoDK_7dCA0-yVZGab10hreotOySan5jn2N-LcCKkJQ6fkz2hPOu5Z4n6_-VqkovnYU0GrHg1dDwgnBoV5Y71ej2uG6NS0xW6pjwRMT3ZzoFtm9tUoUmZlGRLPlIMGcvn8zEICBLbcB9SgBEVJ7tppCtJ6_mcAKew_bQAwtDeH66VvblNEJRhnwVA6KeMDgxXaiCXyN-q_HbEyv5mSlN1vssvQpQN7M38g9gKB6cvKiKjwwQB6U10KxsnHEv-GagpxuudOJToZG0RpYzsC4ILlRBw-FIw,https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=2373646502780078&set=basw.Abqhcr0y6Qq9z0Ii3Pcdkv-8jcTTlGGpO4--LdkmKbQHyfJoIHlzWe8hhZT2orfj_S7nyIpeKOCS1ziyKFn8yMhciRbHN65cghhE_wz6Qeb57G1JlmuRoX1iV10E2SHEj_obj9FmKH-UCA6qa44hyBGC&opaqueCursor=AbpyfZXSB7mNAZ96UlasLhEbs_uAQoatAF-ofIwSZ6XwI_DFzn7wJ510OMLG-cpb6dhaGzT6rswfc9W6zvYqHqXkn_av35I3ZZTAMApNlkAcb9jy1vz6XxdLN6QK5t9p31pkz9LqFTlseiAgIA4g-emH-V4Wlospv3lcINf_KnQUOZPNJFYl6Mrap_WoUNIUluR_yJovyGbGk3ryEd3120d38QGvZAliO5jX5RSsW25jR0_rI-DLpP_KloE2l1wusDdnPFbAxgkE6Efq1p7cei0aUiGKX3VekxnFYzMS0ZV3f1kqIdK25WQlJOEXEcSpQTh9CiAjT91HxL0H9meJktzCT1GT93pY5PyVr8RZbEVdHwSKGjrjFVgs1xuILSv-QHCspnswblzxwrjLxk3zObwLEjv93t3i793MtI7zNTUJA4acbs5ia87BHCiSj2jEcBx_BTLUF2E_TD3NowE9JSlZZmnCe2NwEGX9_NYxBq2EB01FCbyLIsCftS2qGGRVsMHdOlQ1-rtW4E-p38Vcs4DK4RUHv4Vut9AgVx2Pk2-LVhPYFlIEONSzaJemwSA8Twe1HS0JBOboRZq4ngtnoUB9Y5g2_waJOFz8_i-c_QyGyxl4dOon46UHjR6KnbM-twkC5Kc5aB9vs0N4Xw53-8VyH-A32RIUi_Yy-TIXecHFGKh1t6MD3yZ77WfBv4YVNlSuzvuZ-CKQopdoJ3wDJU41Rs48TKV918XaEcEV6X2a3X23mcCKwizoAntO-Dc2ATBULSueDKSW4woSO_UarEOJF5vmloGKjcn8Dn2RyIrALKmRai2UHYGZgw_Aw-95iadl7q1i7hMCd4FYgcCbvWKsfIhEJjeE9sHIm9XTpOu45IJO2E9ZPsut5rfQHghPOKugA77NwLazWkecTc-odD5_JuOOPNu8uiyFvqx-7pXBN_sEtlYOXANNSOvQ4Fosqazzgl-_p93L34y7MkIKQdmoEJsPmETC-Q5vwISQBMspRqhmTPvqjknINcxiHDY_voj9MReojwetKDKYhP6CN-ddQ-hRp8mYdv-bjbcSln46aRaUQLvA5QGDGhNJOl2H6rP9oG1KlE0tFvu-p2X5KE7tiMQVM09hVZHJmrNk3JCJ-fSAMskhVGHMOTtyJEv78KWW2igUnzkz2AFgj0XdExBmgXuUWeBC2ebo4G00UVS-Q7tizrNwj-s9vW4rbq9f9dU,https://www.facebook.com/101025291597176/posts/307223484310688,https://www.instagram.com/p/CPILlhHBmKn/,https://www.instagram.com/p/CPKOK0yjWZe/,https://nasablueberry.com/about/,https://www.spacecamp.com/,https://projectpossum.org/science-programs/possum-space-academy/,https://www.fit.edu/,https://www.abc.net.au/triplej/programs/hack/alyssa-carson-on-a-misson-to-mars/13286824,https://designmuseum.org/exhibitions/moving-to-mars/qa-with-alyssa-carson,https://www.businessinsider.com/mars-inspires-new-generation-of-astronauts-alyssa-carson-2020-7?r=AU&IR=T,https://hellogiggles.com/lifestyle/self-care-sunday/alyssa-carson-interview-astronaut/,https://www.linkedin.com/in/brandi-dean-19612a6/,https://www.linkedin.com/in/brandi-dean-19612a6/,https://www.nasa.gov/astronauts/biographies/active,https://www.linkedin.com/in/alyssa-carson-87b874152/,https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/edu/news/2015/11/4/so-you-want-to-be-an-astronaut/,https://www.nasa.gov/feature/frequently-asked-questions-0/,https://www.today.com/parents/nasa-astronauts-parenting-space-brings-challenges-t128322,https://mars.nasa.gov/,https://www.nasa.gov/content/nasas-journey-to-mars,https://theconversation.com/how-to-get-people-from-earth-to-mars-and-safely-back-again-150167,https://www.mars-one.com/about-mars-one,https://www.popularmechanics.com/space/moon-mars/a26286368/mars-one-is-dead/,https://www.mars-one.com/about-mars-one/ambassadors/alyssa-carson,https://www.mars-one.com/faq/health-and-ethics/is-this-ethical,https://www.air.tv/watch?v=c5WKNF2HS7S1yoNlDsiMig,https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&u=http://www.economiaynegocios.cl/noticias/noticias.asp?id%3D529435,https://www.pressreader.com/uk/daily-mirror/20190713/282016148899273,https://nasablueberry.com/press/,https://www.linkedin.com/in/alyssa-carson-87b874152/",Mars astronaut memes boldly go beyond what’s actually happened,,,,,,
34,,,,False,,2021-05-28,,factcheck_aap,,https://www.aap.com.au/french-nobel-laureate-falsely-credited-with-faux-vaccine-quote/,,,factcheck_aap,,"The StatementA Facebook post claims Nobel laureate Luc Montagnier said everyone who received a COVID-19 vaccination would develop a disorder called antibody-dependent enhancement (ADE) and die within two years.The May 22 post, shared by a New Zealand account, features a screenshot of a message which reads, “All vaccinated people will die within 2 years.” It attributes the quote to Dr Montagnier and says he “confirmed that there is no chance of survival for people who have received any form of vaccine”.“There is no hope, and no possible treatment for those who have been vaccinated already. We must be prepared to incinerate the bodies,” the message claims the French virologist said during an interview. “They will all die from antibody dependent enhancement.”It also lists three links at the bottom of the text: a Wikipedia page for Luc Montagnier, and links on Streamable and 4chan which are now defunct. At the time of writing the post had been viewed more than 24,000 times and generated more than 380 shares. Other versions of the post have also been shared in Australia, Italy, Hong Kong, Kenya – and by British pop band Right Said Fred. A post claims virologist Luc Montagnier said people who take any COVID vaccine won’t survive. The AnalysisFrench virologist Luc Montagnier has previously made some questionable medical claims, however there is no evidence of him saying all COVID-19 vaccinated people will die within two years.Dr Montagnier received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2008 for discovering the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) with Françoise Barré-Sinoussi. He has since become a controversial figure for pushing various fringe medical theories, while he has also been denounced by sections of the wider academic fraternity for his dubious claims about AIDS transmission.One of the links included in the post is an excerpt of an interview with Dr Montagnier for a French conspiracy documentary on the country’s coronavirus response. The film contains false claims that have previously been debunked by fact checkers.The extended video of Dr Montagnier’s interview in French runs for more than 10 minutes, while the excerpt featuring English subtitles was published by US activist organisation RAIR, which has been described as an anti-Muslim group.AAP FactCheck confirmed via interpreters that Dr Montagnier did not make the statements about all vaccinated people dying within two years at any point in the interview, nor did he say anything about preparing bodies for cremation.The statements do not appear in the English subtitles of the shorter RAIR video. Following the widespread circulation of the falsely attributed quotes, RAIR published an article stating, “Luc Montagnier Did NOT Say Vaccine Would Kill People in Two Years.” The piece said it was an “outright misrepresentation of Prof. Montagnier’s statement”.There is no evidence in media reports from reputable news outlets attributing the purported quotes to Dr Montagnier. AAP FactCheck made several attempts to contact Dr Montagnier, including via institutions to which he is affiliated, but did not receive a response.In the interview snippet published by RAIR, Dr Montagnier did make a number of false or unproven claims, including the COVID-19 vaccines caused antibody-dependent enhancement – or ADE – (1min 52sec), that countries with higher rates of vaccination experienced more COVID-19 deaths (1min 03 sec) and the vaccine caused new vaccine-resistant variants (1min 24sec).ADE is a phenomenon in which people who become reinfected with a slightly different version of a virus after developing antibodies to the initial virus experience more severe reactions to the pathogen.Adam Wheatley, a senior research fellow, and Wen Shi Lee, a postdoctoral researcher at the Peter Doherty Institute of Infection and Immunity wrote an article last year in Nature Microbiology examining the possibility of COVID-19 vaccines causing ADE.The article concluded clinical data had “not yet fully established a role for ADE in human COVID-19 pathology” and recommended “ongoing animal and human clinical studies to provide important insights into the mechanisms of ADE in COVID-19”.The researchers told AAP FactCheck that based on vaccine effectiveness data from Israel (Pfizer) and UK (AstraZeneca and Pfizer), there is currently no evidence to suggest that existing COVID-19 vaccines cause ADE.“The level of vaccine effectiveness against infection, symptomatic illness, hospitalisation, severe disease and death increases dramatically after two doses of the vaccine, arguing against antibodies playing a detrimental role in COVID-19 disease progression,” Dr Wheatley and Dr Lee said in an email.They said the “theoretical risk” of ADE was taken into consideration during the development of COVID-19 vaccines based on researchers’ prior experience with failed vaccines for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and Dengue fever. However, the different traits of SARS-CoV-2, which causes COVID-19, and most of its vaccines meant ADE was “very unlikely … with no evidence to date from the field”, they added.An Our World in Data chart comparing the rate of daily new COVID-19 deaths to the share of people who received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccines, shows nations with high vaccination rates such as Israel and the United Kingdom had experienced significant reductions in deaths due to the virus, contradicting Dr Montagnier’s claims.Public Health England published a study in March which showed the number of observed deaths among people aged 60 and over began declining as vaccination rates improved. The study found 10,400 deaths among this cohort had been averted by the end of March 2021 as a result of vaccinations.Dr Montagnier also suggests in the interview that COVID-19 vaccines are the cause of new variants which become resistant to the vaccines.Associate professor Menno van Zelm, a researcher at Monash University’s Department of Immunology, told AAP FactCheck that COVID-19 variants arise through natural processes of mutation and natural selection, not due to vaccines.“The main driver of these variants is the high case number around the world. With many infected individuals that produce high virus copy numbers, the risk of mutations that increase spread and/or evade immune responses becomes high,” he said in an email.While some variants of the virus such as the South African strain are more resistant to the vaccines than others, Dr Wheatley and Dr Lee said this is not catastrophic as the current COVID-19 vaccines will still likely stop people infected with variants from getting seriously ill and requiring hospitalisation.Posts using the purported Dr Montagnier quotes have been debunked here, here, here and here.Dr Luc Montagnier is a world-renowned virologist who won the Nobel prize in 2008 for discovering HIV.","https://archive.ph/Z5J8K,https://web.archive.org/web/20210519234514/https://streamable.com/dxp1qa,https://boards.4chan.org/pol/thread/322345744,https://archive.ph/YaMln,https://archive.ph/P9tSk,https://www.facebook.com/1150029561677106/posts/4942740809072610,https://www.facebook.com/104367681283731/posts/327684252285405,https://archive.ph/JRrc1,https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine/2008/montagnier/facts/,https://www.pasteur.fr/en/institut-pasteur/history/francoise-barre-sinoussi-born-1947,https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevensalzberg/2012/05/27/nobel-laureate-joins-anti-vaccination-crowd-at-autism-one/?sh=2d0ddcf15c53,https://sante.lefigaro.fr/article/le-lent-naufrage-scientifique-du-pr-luc-montagnier/,https://holdup-lefilm.fr/le-projet-lequipe/,https://www.disinfo.eu/publications/whats-the-hold-up%3F-how-youtubes-inaction-allowed-the-spread-of-a-major-french-covid-19-conspiracy-documentary/?-how-youtubes-inaction-allowed-the-spread-of-a-major-french-covid-19-conspiracy-documentary%2F,https://www.lemonde.fr/les-decodeurs/article/2020/11/12/covid-19-les-contre-verites-de-hold-up-le-documentaire-a-succes-qui-pretend-devoiler-la-face-cachee-de-l-epidemie_6059526_4355770.html,https://odysee.com/@holdup_ledoc:9/lucmontagnierfocus:3,https://rairfoundation.com/bombshell-nobel-prize-winner-reveals-covid-vaccine-is-creating-variants/,https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2018/06/12/unmasked-anti-muslim-troll-amy-mekelburg-connected-chris-gaubatz,https://web.archive.org/web/20210527190953if_/https://rairfoundation.com/web/20210527190953if_/https://rairfoundation.com/web/20210527190953/https://rairfoundation.com/alert-luc-montagnier-did-not-say-vaccine-would-kill-people-in-two-years-heres-what-he-did-say-video/,https://www.google.com.au/search?q=luc+montagnier%2B+%22no+hope+and+no+possible+treatment+for+those+who+have+already+been+vaccinated%22&hl=en&biw=1920&bih=937&tbm=nws&ei=H9iuYPfhHoWP4-EPhPGVsA8&oq=luc+montagnier%2B+%22no+hope+and+no+possible+treatment+for+those+who+have+already+been+vaccinated%22&gs_l=psy-ab.3...115894.115894.0.120933.1.1.0.0.0.0.212.212.2-1.1.0....0...1c.1.64.psy-ab..0.0.0....0.hwoqU8cJctc,https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12725690/,https://findanexpert.unimelb.edu.au/profile/29476-adam-wheatley,https://biomedicalsciences.unimelb.edu.au/research/emcra/researcher-profiles/wen-shi-lee,https://www.nature.com/articles/s41564-020-00789-5,https://www.cdc.gov/rsv/index.html,https://www.healthdirect.gov.au/dengue-fever,https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/covid-vaccinations-vs-covid-death-rate?zoomToSelection=true&country=GBR~USA~ISR,https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/977249/PHE_COVID-19_vaccine_impact_on_mortality_March.pdf,https://research.monash.edu/en/persons/menno-van-zelm,https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/science/science-briefs/scientific-brief-emerging-variants.html,https://www.reuters.com/article/factcheck-health-coronavirus-idUSL2N2ND0WS?fbclid=IwAR1zSlKsqd3ALtJrbL19AzJosUDI3GAahLgC_0902GHhZWKhIkinSsJrU68,https://leadstories.com/hoax-alert/2021/05/fact-check-nobel-laureate-luc-montagnier-did-not-say-all-vaccinated-people-will-die-within-two-years.html,https://www.delfi.lt/news/melo-detektorius/is-dalies-melas/ziv-atradejas-tikina-kad-covid-19-vakcinos-sukurs-viruso-mutacijas-bet-mokslininkai-ramina-praktiniai-tyrimai-rodo-ka-kita.d?id=87291043&fbclid=IwAR0Rr1FX8KdnP6savumvUe32mfOyYUMwmqbP8BhuFwiBGu2thq6KllaTeYw,https://www.indiatoday.in/fact-check/story/fact-check-nobel-laureate-luc-montagnier-didn-t-say-covid-vaccine-recipients-will-die-in-two-years-1807023-2021-05-26",French Nobel laureate falsely credited with faux vaccine quote,,,,,,
35,,,,False,,2021-05-27,,factcheck_aap,,https://www.aap.com.au/rising-too-quickly-from-bed-does-not-cause-sudden-death/,,,factcheck_aap,,"The StatementA social media post warns that rising from bed too quickly during the night could prove fatal.The May 10 Facebook post, from a Fijian account, features a meme with the heading, “Avoid sudden death at night, doctor gives advice.” The text warns people who get out of bed at night to wait three and a half minutes before rising, otherwise their “ecg pattern can change” and their “brain will be anemic”, resulting in “heart failure for lacking of blood”.The post also provides instructions to avoid this outcome, stating: “When you wake up, stay in bed for a minute and a half”; “sit on the bed for a further half-minute”; and “lower your legs and sit on the edge of the bed for half a minute”.The post goes on to say that “after three and a half minutes, your brain will no longer be anemic and your heart will not be weaken (sic), which will reduce the risk of failing and sudden death”.At the time of writing, the post had been viewed more than 18,000 times. A version of the meme dates back to July 2019, while other examples can be viewed here and here. A Facebook post warns that rising too quickly from bed could cause “sudden death”. The AnalysisThere is no evidence of an increased risk of “sudden death” by rising too quickly from sleep, according to medical experts. Cardiologists also confirmed that taking three and a half minutes to get up is an arbitrary instruction that is not based on medical evidence.Isuru Ranasinghe, a senior cardiologist and associate professor with the Department of Cardiology at Brisbane’s Prince Charles Hospital told AAP FactCheck that rising too quickly did not lead to ECG changes, as claimed in the post. An electrocardiogaph (ECG) measures the electrical activity of the heart, while an uneven heartbeat is known as heart arrhythmia.In an email, Dr Ranasinghe said some people can experience low blood pressure when they sit up suddenly from bed or a chair, a condition known as postural – or orthostatic – hypotension.“When severe, this can result in dizziness, transient loss of consciousness and falls resulting in injury,” he said. This condition, exacerbated by low blood pressure, is considered most dangerous for the elderly, who are more likely to experience serious injuries if they fall.According to the Australian government’s Health Direct website, symptoms of hypotension, like light-headedness, dizziness and fainting, can occur when people are doing nothing.“They are more likely to occur when changing position, such as standing up or when straining on the toilet,” it says.There is a medical condition called sudden cardiac death (SCD), which refers to a sudden and often unexplained lack of heart activity, but what is described in the post isn’t SCD, Dr Ranasinghe added.“Rising too quickly at night does not cause sudden cardiac death or cause a change in the ECG pattern,” he said.Martin Ugander, a professor of cardiac imaging at the University of Sydney, also told AAP FactCheck the condition described in the meme had nothing to do with the risk of sudden cardiac death. He said the post described a drop in blood pressure.“‘Brain anaemia’ is basically the brain not getting enough blood because the blood pressure doesn’t catch up quick enough,” Prof Ugander said in an email.“That’s not necessarily anything particular to the time of day. Going from reclined to standing quickly in some people – and it’s very, very common – you get a little bit lightheaded and you can, in extreme circumstances, faint because you’ve stood up too quickly.”Prof Ugander said orthostatic hypotension was more common in older people, particularly if they were on medication to lower blood pressure, or medication that lowered blood pressure indirectly.“The recommendation is to take a nice, slow sit-up and then wait a second or two. Let’s say 30 seconds – three-and-a-half minutes is a random number,” he said.Separate to the post’s claims, Dr Ranasinghe added that there is a well-described phenomenon in patients with established coronary artery disease experiencing chest pain at night – a condition referred to as nocturnal angina.“These patients typically get angina (heart pain) which wakes them up at night, although these patients don’t necessarily have a higher risk of sudden cardiac death than other patients with coronary artery disease (but without nocturnal angina),” he said.Similar posts on sudden death at night have been debunked several times previously, see examples here, here and here. Rising too quickly from sleep does not lead to heart failure, experts say.","http://archive.today/gW4NE,https://www.facebook.com/MedicalDoctorMedicineOnline/posts/avoid-sudden-death-at-night-a-doctor-gives-advicefor-those-who-get-up-at-night-t/424047238453637/,https://www.facebook.com/663466710406096/posts/getting-up-from-bed-after-waking-from-sleep/3033179856768091/,https://www.facebook.com/didyk.inf/posts/2308626889223125?comment_tracking=%7B%22tn%22%3A%22O%22%7D,https://researchers.uq.edu.au/researcher/24909,https://www.healthnavigator.org.nz/health-a-z/e/electrocardiograph-ecg/,https://www.heartfoundation.org.au/conditions/heart-arrhythmia,https://www.cdc.gov/steadi/pdf/STEADI-Brochure-Postural-Hypotension-508.pdf,https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/low-blood-pressure/symptoms-causes/syc-20355465#:~:text=In%20severe%20cases%2C%20low%20blood,generally%20considered%20low%20blood%20pressure.,https://www.healthdirect.gov.au/low-blood-pressure-hypotension,https://baker.edu.au/health-hub/sudden-cardiac-death,https://www.sydney.edu.au/medicine-health/about/our-people/academic-staff/martin-ugander.html,https://www.heartfoundation.org.au/getmedia/bc1b436a-99de-4a96-b66f-e73f54615d93/200218_Angina_Brochure_WEB_Eugene-Lugg.pdf,https://factcheck.afp.com/bogus-doctors-advice-avoiding-sudden-death-night-shared-identical-posts-online?fbclid=IwAR20lpZ6mKpCXQSPVM6ICHvRVqrMx-ah7kcZSwJflJqJ8xKh3p0BMVxxl1c,https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2019/sep/26/viral-image/sitting-too-quickly-middle-night-might-make-you-di/,https://www.thatsnonsense.com/can-rising-from-bed-too-quickly-result-in-stroke-or-sudden-death-fact-check/",Rising too quickly from bed does not cause ‘sudden death’,,,,,,
36,,,,False,,2021-05-27,,factcheck_aap,,https://www.aap.com.au/purported-papal-vaccine-prayer-an-unholy-fabrication/,,,factcheck_aap,,"The StatementA social media post claims Pope Francis, the head of the Catholic Church, has asked followers to say a prayer that proclaims their devotion will protect them from viruses.The March 22 Facebook post, from a user in Papua New Guinea, includes a meme setting out the purported utterance: “I am vaccinated by the precious blood of Jesus Christ, no virus can touch me. Amen.”The same meme has been shared online in various forms since early in the COVID-19 pandemic. It includes a picture of the Pope with his head bowed below text that says: “The Holy Father, Pope Francis has requested everyone to say this prayer.”Another version of the post, from July 2020, has been shared more than 1400 times and generated more than 2400 reactions. Many of the comments on both posts echo the affirmation “Amen”. A meme says Pope France has called on followers to say a vaccination “prayer”. The AnalysisThe words attributed to Pope Francis do not appear among the Catholic leader’s public statements or edicts, while the purported prayer request runs against the Pope’s many statements calling for the widespread use of COVID-19 vaccines.The Reverend Kevin Waldie, a lecturer in biblical studies at Te Kupenga Catholic Theological College in Auckland, said there is no documentary evidence for the prayer emanating from the Pope, which is an indication that the post should be dismissed as mischievous manipulation.“What is being claimed does not fit with anything that Pope Francis regularly is reported to have said,” Dr Waldie told AAP FactCheck, adding: “He is totally in favour of the vaccination regime and has made that clear.”A version of the post from April was declared false here. A search for the phrase “no virus can touch me” on the Vatican website reveals no such papal edict, while the purported prayer also does not appear in the Pontifex twitter feed, which otherwise features prayers daily.Fr. Roger Landry, an attaché to the Permanent Observer Mission of the Holy See to the United Nations, told fact-checking organisation Check Your Fact: “We must pay very close attention to everything Pope Francis says publicly, particularly about COVID-19. As far as I am aware, Pope Francis has never said that. It would also seem to contradict his urging everyone in January to be vaccinated.”In an interview with Italian media broadcast on January 10, the Pope said: “I believe that ethically everyone must take the vaccine. It is an ethical option, because you risk your health, your life, but you also risk the lives of others.”The Pope added that he was receiving the vaccine “next week — we will start doing it here, in the Vatican, and I have booked. It must be done”. Both Pope Francis and Pope emeritus Benedict XVI have since received two doses of COVID-19 vaccines, according to reports.Dr Waldie said the posts were a “nefarious campaign” that could be linked to a literal reading of New Testament passages such as Mark 16:18, which reads: “They will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well”.It was reported in January that the Vatican would launch its own vaccination campaign against COVID-19 for the approximately 450 people resident there. The Pope has also supported waiving patent rights to boost vaccine supplies to poorer countries, calling for “universal access to the vaccine”.Meanwhile, a Vatican statement on December 21 sought to ease Catholics’ concerns about the ethics of receiving vaccines that were developed using stem cells. The “note”, approved by the Pope, said there was “a moral imperative for the pharmaceutical industry, governments and international organizations to ensure that vaccines, which are effective and safe from a medical point of view, as well as ethically acceptable, are also accessible to the poorest countries in a manner that is not costly for them”.Pope Francis has called for universal access to COVID-19 vaccines.","http://archive.today/jSHVU,https://www.facebook.com/1045691692214623/posts/3150347685082336,https://www.gsc.ac.nz/about-gsc/our-people/kevin-waldie/,https://www.facebook.com/groups/1288467894561584/permalink/5364614613613538,https://checkyourfact.com/2021/05/14/fact-check-pope-francis-encourage-prayer-vaccinated-blood-jesus-christ/?fbclid=IwAR2bCi5YeTt2a_zAutn6G6XN8iw4mZRlBspX7gXBNjbGu-WaTSgAYAcx0Zs,https://www.google.com/search?q=%22no+virus+can+touch+me%22+site%3Ahttps%3A%2F%2Fwww.vatican.va&rlz=1C1GCEV_enAU918AU918&oq=%22no+virus+can+touch+me%22+site%3Ahttps%3A%2F%2Fwww.vatican.va&aqs=chrome..69i57.6309j0j4&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8,https://twitter.com/search?q=from%3APontifex%20virus&src=typed_query&f=live,https://checkyourfact.com/2021/05/14/fact-check-pope-francis-encourage-prayer-vaccinated-blood-jesus-christ/?fbclid=IwAR2bCi5YeTt2a_zAutn6G6XN8iw4mZRlBspX7gXBNjbGu-WaTSgAYAcx0Zs,https://www.tgcom24.mediaset.it/televisione/domenica-sera-in-esclusiva-su-canale-5-lintervista-a-papa-francesco_27387990-202102a.shtml,https://www.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en.html,https://angelusnews.com/news/vatican/pope-francis-and-benedict-xvi-receive-second-dose-of-covid-19-vaccine/,https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mark%2016%3A18&version=NIV,https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-pope-idUSKBN29E0LY,https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/may/08/pope-francis-backs-waiving-patents-on-covid-vaccines,https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/pope-francis-covid-19-vaccines-vax-live/,https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_20201221_nota-vaccini-anticovid_en.html,https://www.aap.com.au/are-aborted-babies-being-used-for-a-covid-19-vaccine/,https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-55409693",Purported papal vaccine prayer an unholy fabrication,,,,,,
37,,,,Missing Context,,2021-05-25,,factcheck_aap,,https://www.aap.com.au/dusty-plasterboard-test-masks-covid-protection-facts/,,,factcheck_aap,,"The StatementAn Instagram video shows a man who claims he is conducting a “science experiment” by wearing a face mask while sanding. He later uses the apparent results to question masks’ effectiveness in keeping out viruses.The May 11 post to a New Zealand-themed account shows the man wearing a disposable surgical mask – non-coloured side out – for what he says was sanding “Sheetrock”, also known as drywall or plasterboard. The man cannot be seen sanding in the video, however his face is covered in fine dust.The man says he wore the mask because he didn’t want to breathe in the dust. He then removes the mask to show an outline of pale dust around his nostrils beneath the mask.“My question is, if this is Sheetrock dust, I thought it was supposed to protect me from a virus?” he asks. Similar claims have also been circulated in a widely shared meme. A man who says he has been sanding plasterboard questions the effectiveness of masks for viruses. The AnalysisIt’s true plasterboard dust can gather behind a disposable face mask – but that’s not a valid indication as to whether a mask can protect against COVID-19, experts say.When worn properly, surgical masks curb transmission by blocking the projection of droplets that contain the coronavirus.Respiratory droplets are one means by which SARS-CoV-2, which causes COVID-19, is passed from one person to another. The coronavirus can also be spread via smaller aerosols and contaminated surfaces, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).In the first months of the pandemic, authorities’ guidance on mask use focused primarily on those working in health care facilities and home care, while advice to the community was less clear.The WHO’s interim guidance on January 29, 2020 expressed concern that community use of medical masks could cause unnecessary costs and a false sense of security, although it also noted masks were one of the preventative measures that could limit the spread of respiratory diseases like the coronavirus.The guidance was updated on June 5, 2020 to say the general public should wear non-medical masks in areas with widespread COVID-19 transmission and where social distancing was difficult.The US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) began recommending the wearing of masks in April 2020. Its current guidance emphasises that masks help prevent a person’s respiratory droplets from reaching others.Both health agencies emphasise that masks should be used as part of a comprehensive suite of measures to suppress transmission of the virus.How much a mask can protect a person from the virus, depends on the fabric and how the mask is worn, experts say.Hassan Vally, an epidemiologist at La Trobe University in Melbourne, told AAP FactCheck the video does not contradict the usefulness of masks for preventing person-to-person transmission of COVID-19.“One always has to be careful in drawing conclusions based on a scenario that is obviously very different to the real-life transmission of virus from airborne droplets,” he said in an email.“Plasterboard dust has very different properties to airborne droplets containing virus. Having said this, what has been presented in the video doesn’t contradict the public health advice.”Dr Vally said the evidence is “wearing a surgical mask has a greater effect on protecting others by physically blocking the projecting of droplets containing virus from the nose and mouth of an infected person”.“The situation represented in the video doesn’t really replicate these scenarios,” he added.Medical epidemiologist Abrar Chughtai, a lecturer in the School of Population at UNSW Sydney, told AAP FactCheck that masks are used to filter respiratory droplets, not viruses as claimed in the video.“We know that viruses are of small size, but they are inside the droplets and masks efficiently block those large droplets,” he said in an email.Dr Chughtai was among a group of researchers from UNSW who used an LED lighting system and a high-speed camera to film people coughing and sneezing while wearing different types of masks.The video shows a three-ply surgical mask is significantly better than a one-layered cloth mask at reducing the spread of droplets, although all masks limited the spread to some degree when compared to a person with no mask. The results were published by respiratory medicine journal Thorax, a companion to BMJ Open Respiratory Research.Dr Chughtai also noted that in the Instagram video the mask is being worn incorrectly.“The blue, water-resistant layer of the mask should be outside,” he said.Research published in June 2020 by US medical journal Health Affairs found that mandating the use of face masks in public was associated with a decline in the daily COVID-19 growth rate by up to two percentage points over 21 or more days.Separate US research, published in May 2021 by the Annals of Epidemiology, identified that rapid increases in COVID-19 cases were much less likely in counties that had statewide mask mandates in place following the easing of restrictions to prevent virus spread.AAP FactCheck has previously addressed the effectiveness of face masks in stopping COVID-19 transmission, debunked claims that the WHO advised healthy people to stop wearing masks and countered misinformation about how to wear a surgical mask properly.The WHO says masks should be used as part of measures to suppress transmission of COVID-19.","https://www.instagram.com/p/COq3jGNlpL7/?utm_source=ig_embed,https://fantastichandyman.com.au/blog/plaster-drywall-differences-pros-cons/#:~:text=Drywall%2C%20also%20known%20as%20plasterboard,attaching%20them%20to%20wall%20studs.,https://archive.ph/qN3qu,https://www.who.int/news-room/q-a-detail/coronavirus-disease-covid-19-how-is-it-transmitted#:~:text=%E2%80%A2%20Current%20evidence%20suggests%20that,nose%2C%20or%20mouth.,https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/330987/WHO-nCov-IPC_Masks-2020.1-eng.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y,https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/06/who-updates-guidance-on-masks-heres-what-to-know-now/,https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2020/04/03/826219824/president-trump-says-cdc-now-recommends-americans-wear-cloth-masks-in-public,https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/prevent-getting-sick/cloth-face-cover-guidance.html?CDC_AA_refVal=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cdc.gov%2Fcoronavirus%2F2019-ncov%2Fprevent-getting-sick%2Fcloth-face-cover.html,https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/prevent-getting-sick/masks-protect-you-and-me.html,https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/advice-for-public/when-and-how-to-use-masks,https://scholars.latrobe.edu.au/hvally,https://research.unsw.edu.au/people/dr-abrar-ahmad-chughtai,https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNeYfUTA11s&t=82s,https://thorax.bmj.com/content/75/11/1024,https://bmjopenrespres.bmj.com/,https://www.healthaffairs.org/doi/10.1377/hlthaff.2020.00818,https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1047279721000211,https://www.aap.com.au/does-a-new-study-show-masks-are-ineffective-at-stopping-covid-19-infection/,https://www.aap.com.au/the-who-hasnt-admitted-healthy-people-should-stop-wearing-masks/,https://www.aap.com.au/medical-mask-colour-instructions-are-misleading-and-false/",Dusty plasterboard test masks COVID protection facts,,,,,,
38,,,,False,,2021-05-24,,factcheck_aap,,https://www.aap.com.au/moderna-toxic-vaccine-claim-a-potent-dose-of-misinformation/,,,factcheck_aap,,"The StatementSocial media posts claim an ingredient contained in Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine has been deemed unsafe for human use.One Instagram post, from May 18, features a list of the vaccine’s ingredients with the term “SM-102” highlighted.It also includes a screenshot of a “safety data sheet” from Cayman Chemical for a product identified by the trade name SM-102. The data sheet includes the words: “For research use only, not for human or veterinary use.”Red text has been added to the post that reads: “Even they state its (sic) not meant for humans.”Various versions of the same claim have been shared online, including on Facebook and elsewhere on Instagram. The claim was also promoted by US conspiracy theorist Alex Jones. An Instagram post links the Moderna vaccine to a toxic chemical mixture. The AnalysisDespite the post’s claim, Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine is not unsafe for humans. The Cayman Chemical solution highlighted in the post contains a toxic additive not included in the Moderna treatment, and it is this component that makes it potentially dangerous to people and animals.In comparison, the Moderna vaccine has been found to be safe and effective for human use.The Australian government announced on May 13 it had secured 25 million doses of the Moderna mRNA vaccine to bolster the country’s stock of COVID-19 inoculations. Supply to the public will only begin if the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) approves it for use.Since the announcement, several social media users in Australia have circulated claims that one ingredient, SM-102, is dangerous to recipients based on a safety data sheet from a biotechnology company Cayman Chemical.However, the document details two components in the mixture (page 3). Under “dangerous components” it lists chloroform, which was once used as an inhaled anaesthetic for surgery but is now mainly used as an industrial solvent.This makes up 90 per cent of the mixture, while the remaining 10 per cent is SM-102, a type of lipid – or fat – used in the Moderna vaccine. SM-102 is listed under “other ingredients” in the Cayman Chemical safety sheet. Elsewhere, the document makes several other references to toxicology and safety information for the chloroform component only.Dr Bryan Williams, emeritus director at Melbourne’s Hudson Institute of Medical Research, told AAP FactCheck that SM-102 was a lipid that acted as a coating to protect the mRNA in the vaccine from breaking up when it entered a recipient’s cell.“The very small amount of SM-102 along with the other lipid components in a vaccine dose would pose no risk to humans as is clear by its approval (by regulatory agencies) for use,” he said.The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the US, where the vaccine has been rolled out, states the Moderna vaccine is highly effective at preventing COVID-19 illness in a diverse range of people, including those with underlying medical conditions.Common side effects include pain in the arm at the injection site, headache, muscle pain and chills, but the CDC says most of these symptoms are mild to moderate in severity.The European Medicines Agency has authorised the Moderna vaccine for use across the European Union after “thoroughly assessing the data on the quality, safety and efficacy of the vaccine”.Dr Pall Thordarson, a professor of chemistry from UNSW Sydney with expertise in lipids, nanoparticles and RNA, told AAP FactCheck in an email the claim that Moderna vaccines are unsafe for humans is “bogus”.Prof Thordarson noted the Cayman Chemical mixture was mainly composed of chloroform and was intended for research purposes.“The safety data sheet refers to the risk associated with that mixture – where all the risk factors, as far as I can see, are from the chloroform component,” he said.In comparison, Prof Thordarson said Moderna used pure SM-102. This would be dissolved in pure ethanol, not chloroform, and mixed with the mRNA before the ethanol is filtered out in the final product, he said. Chloroform does not appear among the vaccine’s list of ingredients.The total amount of SM-102 entering the body after two injections would be well under one milligram, less than the mass of an ant, Prof Thordarson added.“We are talking very small amounts of a lipid that nothing indicates has any risks associated with it,” he said.Prof Thordarson likened the misinterpretation of the safety data sheet to someone who “took a look at a strawberry vodka bottle with all the warnings on it and concluded that strawberries are very dangerous, can cause you to drive erratically and even harm an unborn child”.Cayman Chemical released a statement on May 19 in which it said its SM-102 product contained both chloroform, which had several known hazards, and SM-102, which multiple agencies identified as having no hazards attached. The Moderna vaccine has been found to be safe and effective at preventing COVID-19.","https://www.instagram.com/p/CO_3vr9N2s2,https://www.facebook.com/ellesalzonee/posts/245076587394457,https://www.instagram.com/p/CO8jsFWAcQC/,https://web.archive.org/web/20210519214730/https://banthis.tv/watch?id=60a524572dc8c73727232894,https://www.health.gov.au/ministers/the-hon-greg-hunt-mp/media/australia-secures-moderna-vaccines,https://www.tga.gov.au/covid-19-vaccine-provisional-registrations,https://www.caymanchem.com/msdss/33474m.pdf,https://www.caymanchem.com/,https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/Chloroform,https://med.libretexts.org/Courses/American_Public_University/APU%3A_Basic_Foundation_of_Nutrition_for_Sports_Performance_(Byerley)/06%3A_Lipids_Basics_-_Another_Energy_Source_for_the_Athlete/6.02%3A_What_Are_Lipids,https://www.fda.gov/media/144638/download#page=2,https://hudson.org.au/researcher-profile/bryan-williams/,https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/different-vaccines/mrna.html,https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/different-vaccines/Moderna.html,https://www.ema.europa.eu/en/news/ema-recommends-covid-19-vaccine-moderna-authorisation-eu#:~:text=EMA%20recommends%20COVID%2D19%20Vaccine%20Moderna%20for%20authorisation%20in%20the%20EU,-News%2006%2F01&text=COVID%2D19%20Vaccine%20Moderna%20is,Commission%20on%206%20January%202021.,https://www.chemistry.unsw.edu.au/staff/pall-thordarson,https://www.caymanchem.com/news/sm-102-statement",Moderna ‘toxic’ vaccine claim a potent dose of misinformation,,,,,,
39,,,,False,,2021-05-21,,factcheck_aap,,https://www.aap.com.au/suggestion-airlines-will-ban-vaccinated-travellers-doesnt-fly/,,,factcheck_aap,,"The StatementA Facebook video shared to an Australia-based page includes claims that people vaccinated for COVID-19 won’t be allowed on flights because the vaccine makes them infectious.“People aren’t going to be able to fly because they’re infectious after they have the vaccination,” a man speaking in the video says. “So airlines don’t want to let them on if they have had the vaccination, but they can’t let them on if they haven’t. I mean, this whole thing is just f***ing ridiculous.”The statement is made around four minutes into a six-minute video of the man speaking to the camera about face masks and other measures to tackle COVID-19. The video was published by a Facebook page that promotes anti-lockdown rallies in Australia, the US and the UK.At the time of writing, the post had been viewed more than 60,000 times, generating more than 1300 shares and 1700 comments and reactions. A Facebook video includes claims that vaccinated flyers won’t be allowed on planes. The AnalysisThere is no credible evidence that airlines do not want to take on passengers who have been vaccinated for COVID-19, or that they have any plans to prevent vaccine recipients from flying. Airline representatives told AAP FactCheck that vaccines are an important tool for getting people back in the sky – rather than being a potential barrier to travel.The claim about people being “infectious” after vaccination seems to be based on the false premise that COVID-19 vaccines can ‘shed’ from one person to another. As explained in a recent AAP FactCheck debunk, it is scientifically impossible for COVID-19 vaccines to pass from person to person as the vaccines contain no live virus or any other infectious material. Similar claims have been disproved here, here, here and here.A Google News search brings up hundreds of news stories about the prospect of mandatory vaccinations for airline passengers – sometimes referred to as “vaccination passports” – but AAP FactCheck could find no credible reports about airlines banning vaccinated passengers, considering such policies or raising concerns about taking these passengers on board.The International Air Transport Association (IATA), the global trade association for 290 airlines, representing 82 per cent of total air traffic, refutes the idea that vaccines are an impediment to travel. An IATA spokesman told AAP FactCheck the opposite was true.“The industry is of the view that vaccines have an important role to play in the restart and recovery of international travel,” IATA’s head of corporate communications, Albert Tjoeng, said in an email. “We see vaccination as facilitating people travelling, not to prevent travel.”An IATA position paper on vaccination and air travel notes that vaccines have proven very successful at reducing both infection and onward transmission of COVID-19, saying the risk of virus transmission by recipients “is very significantly reduced, relative to non-vaccinated travellers”.IATA does not support mandatory vaccinations for international travel, it says, because this would discriminate against travellers who cannot access the vaccine in their home country or are unable to have the jab for other reasons.Qantas and Virgin Australia both dismissed the idea they have considered preventing vaccinated passengers from boarding planes.A spokeswoman for Qantas told AAP FactCheck the airline has never mentioned banning vaccinated people from travel, and its CEO Alan Joyce has spoken on many occasions in support of COVID-19 vaccinations for airline passengers.She pointed to a media conference on April 15 in which Mr Joyce suggested vaccination should be a requirement of international travel. He told media at the time: “I would say that we are regarded as being the safest airline in the world and as a consequence of that we have a duty of care to our people and a duty of care to our passengers. We do think it should be a requirement that people are vaccinated on our aircraft to minimise the risk to people travelling.”Mr Joyce similarly told the BBC in March that many governments were talking about making vaccinations “a condition of entry” for international travel. Even if this didn’t happen, airlines should enforce their own vaccination policies, he added.“We have a duty of care to our passengers and to our crew, to say that everybody in that aircraft needs to be safe,” Mr Joyce said.A Qantas statement on vaccinations and international travel, published in November, said there is “no suggestion that a vaccine would be required for domestic travel” or travel to New Zealand but it is likely that some countries “and possibly airlines” will require passengers to be vaccinated before travel. Qantas acknowledged in the statement that an alternative process was needed for people who could not be vaccinated for medical reasons.A spokesman for Virgin Australia told AAP FactCheck via email: “It is highly unlikely that we would make vaccination compulsory for domestic flights, nor are we considering placing restrictions on vaccinated travellers. We will, of course, continue to consider relevant government and health advice around vaccination and will make any decisions in line with passenger and crew health and safety.”In a statement on May 17, the airline noted it was only a matter of time until “we will be sufficiently vaccinated to protect our people and our hospital system to open our international borders”. The CEO of Jetstar owner Qantas has said vaccinations should be required for international travel.","https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?v=507845603582426,https://www.aap.com.au/covid-19-vaccine-contagion-claims-defy-science/,https://factcheck.afp.com/covid-19-vaccine-does-not-make-people-dangerous-others,https://fullfact.org/health/covid-vaccine-shedding-side-effects-unvaccinated/,https://www.politifact.com/article/2021/may/06/debunking-anti-vaccine-hoax-about-vaccine-shedding/,https://www.reuters.com/article/factcheck-vaccines-transmission-idUSL1N2MR1VU,https://www.google.com/search?q=airline+vaccinated+passengers&rlz=1C5CHFA_enAU762AU765&biw=1280&bih=630&tbm=nws&ei=PJCkYMyiL9u9rQGL2Y6YCg&oq=airline+vaccinated+passengers&gs_l=psy-ab.3...3724.5796.0.7411.18.10.1.0.0.0.388.1614.2-1j4.5.0....0...1c.1.64.psy-ab..16.0.0....0.L3Ss_s3YbeQ,https://www.cntraveler.com/story/vaccine-passports-and-how-they-work,https://www.iata.org/en/about/,https://www.iata.org/contentassets/28ad0c2b1e4e454b88462e612917116a/facilitating-air-travel-for-vaccinated-passengers.pdf,https://www.theaustralian.com.au/breaking-news/qantas-revises-up-its-midyear-domestic-travel-expectations/news-story/6ce15785e52fd4491c20fb52f2e01411,https://www.bbc.com/news/business-56460329,https://www.qantasnewsroom.com.au/qantas-responds/qantas-group-position-on-covid-19-vaccination-for-international-travel/,https://newsroom.virginaustralia.com/release/virgin-australia-group-statement-international-borders",Suggestion airlines will ban vaccinated travellers doesn’t fly,,,,,,
40,,,,False,,2021-05-21,,factcheck_aap,,https://www.aap.com.au/cracking-qr-codes-venues-can-bar-patrons-who-refuse-to-sign-in/,,,factcheck_aap,,"The StatementA video on social media features claims that people can refuse to sign in at venues that require QR codes, claiming businesses that deny entry are breaching privacy laws.The Facebook video from April 23 was shared to an Australian page with a caption advising people “how to deal with unlawful QR codes” which “breach privacy act 94H”.In the video, a woman claims that while businesses may be required to ask people to sign in using QR codes due to COVID-19, customers “don’t have to abide by this”. “It’s not mandatory for us. We can say, ‘No thank you, I don’t want to’,” she continues.The woman suggests anyone refused entry after not signing in should “get out your legislation”, referring to the Privacy Act 1988. A screen then shows Section 94H of the Act, which refers to “requiring the use of COVIDSafe”.The woman says penalties of five years’ imprisonment or a fine of up to $30,000 apply “if they refuse to allow another person to enter (to a place) that is accessible to the public”.“A person commits an offence if the person requires another person to download COVIDSafe, have COVIDSafe in operation or consent to uploading COVID app data – so we don’t have to do this. We can say no and we can stop complying out of fear,” she adds.At the time of writing, the video had been viewed more than 8,000 times, drawing more than 430 comments and reactions and 270 shares. A video post on Facebook includes claims that mandatory QR code sign-ins break privacy laws. The AnalysisThe woman speaking in the video appears to confuse laws surrounding the federal government’s COVIDSafe app and state contract-tracing requirements such as QR code sign-ins. The latter are not unlawful, nor do they breach the Privacy Act, experts and government agencies say.The COVIDSafe app, mentioned in the legislation shown in the video, was introduced in the early stages of the pandemic by the federal government to help contact tracers find close contacts of people who tested positive to COVID-19. It has been criticised for identifying only a handful of unique contacts since it was introduced.In response to concerns about how data from the app would be accessed, the government amended the Privacy Act 1988 to penalise anyone found misusing the information. The changes introduced a string of offences relating to the COVIDSafe app and its data, including under the section cited in the video.Bill Swannie, a lecturer in law at Victoria University, told AAP FactCheck the section of the Privacy Act referred to in the Facebook video was enacted to address specific concerns that the COVIDSafe app may be used to deny people access to shops and workplaces.However, it did not relate to the use of Quick Response (QR) code sign-ins, which have been introduced in various Australian states and territories to aid with local contact tracing efforts. These codes allow people to easily provide their information via a mobile phone when entering a venue.In NSW, for example, the state government introduced mandatory electronic customer registration through QR codes or other systems that recorded names and contact information in November 2020. Under its public health order, hospitality and entertainment venues need to electronically record the contact details of patrons (page 14). In Queensland, food and drink and entertainment businesses need to record similar information (schedule 1A).Mr Swannie said such measures, introduced under public health orders, meant businesses were legally entitled to refuse entry to patrons who decline to sign in as required.“The Privacy Act only applies to federal government agencies and certain organisations, and it doesn’t prevent the collection of private information. It simply regulates its collection, storage and use,” he said in an email.The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) is the independent federal authority responsible for enforcing the Privacy Act, and in May 2020 guidance it noted that some states and territories had issued orders requiring businesses to obtain contact information from customers as a condition of reopening.“If a direction or order applies to your business, the collection of this personal information will be necessary for your organisation’s functions or activities. This means the collection of contact information is permitted under the Privacy Act 1988,” it said.Smaller businesses, those with annual turnover of $3 million or less, are already excluded from the Privacy Act.Peter Leonard, a data business lawyer and professor of practice at UNSW’s Business School, told AAP FactCheck in a phone interview that a state law like the NSW public health order created a legal obligation for entities to deal in a certain way with personal information.“(QR codes are) an example of (something that is) required or authorised by law, and therefore it falls within the exception from the federal Privacy Act,” he said.Prof Leonard said businesses which fall under the Public Health Directives requiring them to record contact information using QR codes are legally entitled to deny entry to patrons who refuse, provided the venues aren’t breaching other discrimination laws.A spokesman for Service NSW, the authority which oversees the QR code check-in function, told AAP FactCheck the state’s “COVID Safe check-in” is mandated by public health orders.“Customers that choose not to provide details will be refused entry,” he said in an email. QR codes are one of the sign-in methods widely used to help track COVID-19 contacts."," https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=362027801855202,https://covidsafe.gov.au/,https://www.sbs.com.au/news/the-government-s-covidsafe-app-dubbed-a-huge-bungle-after-tracing-just-17-unique-infections,https://www.zdnet.com/article/covidsafe-legislation-enters-parliament-with-a-few-added-privacy-safeguards/,https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C2021C00139,https://www.vu.edu.au/research/bill-swannie,https://www.cyber.gov.au/acsc/view-all-content/publications/quick-response-codes-covid-19-environment,https://www.nsw.gov.au/media-releases/electronic-registration-mandate-takes-effect,https://www.nsw.gov.au/covid-19/rules/check-in#using-the-service-nsw-app-for-covid-safe-check-in,https://legislation.nsw.gov.au/file/Public%20Health%20%28COVID-19%20Gathering%20Restrictions%29%20Order%202021_210503.pdf,https://www.health.qld.gov.au/system-governance/legislation/cho-public-health-directions-under-expanded-public-health-act-powers/business-activity-undertaking-direction#part1,https://www.oaic.gov.au/about-us/what-we-do/,https://www.oaic.gov.au/privacy/guidance-and-advice/guidance-for-businesses-collecting-personal-information-for-contact-tracing/,https://www.oaic.gov.au/privacy/privacy-for-organisations/small-business/,https://www.lawsociety.com.au/sites/default/files/2019-06/About%20our%20presenter%20-%20Peter%20Leonard.pdf,https://www.nsw.gov.au/covid-19/rules/check-in#using-the-service-nsw-app-for-covid-safe-check-in",Cracking QR codes: Venues can bar patrons who refuse to sign in,,,,,,
41,,,,Altered Photo/Video,,2021-05-21,,factcheck_aap,,https://www.aap.com.au/taken-to-tusk-elephant-and-rhino-pink-dye-pics-are-wildly-misleading/,,,factcheck_aap,,"The StatementA Facebook post claims that elephant tusks and rhinoceros horns are being dyed pink to make them worthless to poachers and ivory traders.It features photos of an elephant with pink tusks and a rhino with a pink horn accompanied by a caption within the meme that reads: “This is one of the best things I have seen in a while. They use the same pink dye that they use on bank notes. This makes the Ivory unsellable and it can’t be consumed. (the animals are not harmed and it is saving their lives)”.The May 13 post by an Australian Facebook user had been viewed more than 20,000 times and shared more than 700 times at the time of writing. The same pink-tinted images of the elephant and the rhino have previously done the rounds on social media, including in this 2015 Facebook post and another from 2016. It’s claimed elephant tusks and rhino horns are being dyed pink to make them worthless to poachers. The AnalysisThere is some truth that pink dye is used to deter rhino poaching, but not in the way suggested by the Facebook post. Experts say the dye does not turn rhino horns bright pink, nor is it used on elephants. The lurid colour in the post’s images has been digitally added to photos of animals with dye-free tusks and horns.The process of injecting pink dye into rhino horns has been pioneered by conservation organisation Rhino Rescue Project, which aims to devalue the horn and make it “useless for ornamental or medicinal use”. The treatment does not turn the surface of the horn pink but instead penetrates the horn’s internal structure with a chemical cocktail of dye and anti-parasitic drugs.Rhino Rescue Project says on its website that the dye is similar to products used to ink-stain banknotes, making treated horns visible on an X-ray machine or airport scanner even when they are ground down into a powder.The altered photo of the pink-horned rhino can be traced as far back as a 2013 article by a now-defunct website called TakePart, which reported on rhinos at Sabi Sands game reserve in South Africa having their horns injected with the anti-poaching dye. The article featured a photo of a white rhinoceros sporting a pink horn and a caption explaining: “This photo has been digitally altered and is not an actual photo of a rhino at Sabi Sand.”The original photograph of the white rhino was shot by wildlife photographer Heinrich van den Berg and can be found as a stock image here.Rhino Rescue Project attempted to quash misinformation about rhinos “roaming the African savannah with pretty pink horns”, saying digitally manipulated social media images create “unrealistic expectations” about its anti-poaching techniques.The second photo of an elephant with pink tusks is equally mythical, with the original – minus the added pink tint – featuring in a 2005 Open University article about natural selection. The same photo appears in a 2011 YouTube post, “Elephant Sound Effects”.For elephants, dyeing tusks is not practical because the ivory grows “as fast as an inch per year”, the International Fund for Animal Welfare explains.“The dye would grow out and re-dying each and every animal every few years is unrealistic,” the organisation says.An Australian conservation expert, who is “very familiar” with the images, confirmed to AAP FactCheck they are fake.Zara Bending, an academic at Macquarie University’s Centre for Environmental Law who has written articles (here and here) about the illicit trade in rhino horns and elephant ivory and appeared at a parliamentary inquiry on the topic, said: “That bright pink, almost fluoro horn on rhino or tusks on elephants isn’t real.“Now, there are anti-poaching strategies like dehorning and yes, even injecting poisons and dyes into rhino horn. But these images are misrepresentations. It doesn’t turn the horn that colour.”In a 2015 article, conservation group Save the Rhino says the idea of dyeing horns to aid conservation is a “red herring” and it “doesn’t work”.“No rhino horns have (yet) been detected by airport scanners due to dye having been injected. Money, time and scarce resources would be better spent elsewhere,” it said.The World Wildlife Fund told AFP in 2019 that the debate about pink horns and tusks is a distraction from the fight against animal poaching.“It seems illusory to me to imagine that dying elephants’ tusks could have an impact on the behaviour of poachers,” the organisation’s Stéphane Ringuet said. “Personally I don’t believe it for a second.”Similar claims about bright pink tusks and horns have been debunked several times previously, see examples here, here and here. A northern white rhino at Kenya’s Ol Pejeta Conservancy near Nanyuki, north of Nairobi.","https://archive.ph/4KnkC,https://perma.cc/9WRT-5EQT,https://archive.ph/ep8SM,http://rhinorescueproject.org/about-the-project/,http://rhinorescueproject.org/how-it-works/,https://rhinorescueproject.org/project-history/,https://www.ecb.europa.eu/euro/banknotes/ink-stained/html/index.en.html,https://web.archive.org/web/20150516033813/http://www.takepart.com/article/2013/04/10/pink-poison-rhino-horn-stop-ivory-trade,http://www.takepart.com/,http://heinrichvandenberg.com/,https://www.gettyimages.fr/detail/photo/white-rhinoceros-image-libre-de-droits/159953229?adppopup=true,http://rhinorescueproject.org/faq/,https://www.open.edu/openlearn/nature-environment/natural-history/natural-selection-and-evolution,https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=153xbn1k2H8&t=12s,https://www.ifaw.org/journal/why-some-creative-poaching-solutions-fail,https://researchers.mq.edu.au/en/persons/zara-bending,https://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/whp/eh/2018/00000024/00000002/art00003;jsessionid=rhiu7k8ibww1.x-ic-live-02,http://classic.austlii.edu.au/au/journals/AUJlEnvLaw/2015/6.html,https://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;db=COMMITTEES;id=committees%2Fcommjnt%2F287794d9-10d9-476d-bf37-2b9dfc1aaab0%2F0003;query=Id%3A%22committees%2Fcommjnt%2F287794d9-10d9-476d-bf37-2b9dfc1aaab0%2F0000%22,https://www.savetherhino.org/thorny-issues/dyeing-rhino-horn-and-elephant-ivory/,https://www.savetherhino.org/,https://www.worldwildlife.org/,https://factcheck.afp.com/no-these-tusks-and-horns-were-not-dyed-make-them-worthless,https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-factcheck-rhino-elephant-pink-dye-poa-idUSKBN25V1Y1,https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2020/sep/11/facebook-posts/anti-poaching-organizations-arent-dyeing-elephant-/,https://fullfact.org/online/pink-dyed-tusks-horns/",Taken to tusk: Elephant and rhino ‘pink dye’ pics are wildly misleading,,,,,,
42,,,,False,,2021-05-20,,factcheck_aap,,https://www.aap.com.au/wounded-infant-photo-has-nothing-to-do-with-palestine-conflict/,,,factcheck_aap,,"The StatementAn eye-catching photo of a baby with red marks across its face has been linked to the conflict in Gaza.The image, shared by a Facebook user to the group “Muslim post Australia”, shows a close-up of the infant and facial markings that resemble burns or scabs.“May Allah bless this little Palestinian angel and give her fast recovery & all injured Palestinian people,” the post’s caption reads.At the time of writing, the May 18 post had been shared more than 110 times and generated more than 750 reactions and comments. The image was also shared on Twitter, with one user claiming it showed a baby “attacked by Israel using white phosphorus bombs”. The tweet had generated more than 600 retweets and likes. A Facebook post includes an image of a baby with red marks across its face. The AnalysisThe photo does not show a victim of the conflict in Gaza – nor is the baby a Palestinian child. The infant is an American girl with a rare condition that leads to pronounced birthmarks.Hundreds of people have been killed since fighting erupted in Israel and Palestinian territories on May 10, with the majority of the casualties occurring among Palestinians in Gaza. Many of the injured and dead include children, with images of the casualties shared around the world.In a May 18 statement, UNICEF called for immediate humanitarian access to the territory after the deaths of at least 60 children and the wounding of 444 more in Gaza. Israel has denied widespread claims made on social media that it was using white phosphorus weapons, considered illegal if deployed against civilians.However, the baby pictured in the social media posts was not a Palestinian baby injured by Israeli forces. She is actually Bianca Latino from Rockford, Illinois, whose facial markings are a symptom of the rare disorder Sturge-Weber syndrome, which caused port wine stains on her face and back.The same image of Bianca as seen in the posts featured in media coverage in early 2019. According to a story by Caters News Agency, Bianca was diagnosed with the syndrome at three months of age, after which she had pulse dye laser treatment in an attempt to clear the marks.That treatment temporarily left red spots that looked like “burn marks” on the baby’s skin, as seen in a video that accompanied the article. The article and images were also picked up in April 2019 by British newspapers The Sun and Mirror.In the articles, Bianca’s mother Deanna Latino was quoted as saying she had received cruel comments suggesting she may be an abusive mother as a result of the markings.Ms Latino is now an ambassador for the US Vascular Birthmarks Foundation and has chronicled her daughter’s life in various YouTube videos and on a Facebook page. The YouTube video, posted in 2018, shows Bianca after her first laser treatment (3min 35sec) with red welts similar to those seen in the later photo beginning to appear. Hundreds of people have been killed in the recent conflict in Israel and Palestinian territories.","https://archive.ph/Yfdv9,https://archive.ph/IrbL8,https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-05-19/gaza-rocket-kills-two-israel-topples-building/100148078,https://pictures.reuters.com/CS.aspx?VP3=SearchResult&VBID=2C0BXZSQR920H1&SMLS=1&RW=1636&RH=872&POPUPPN=13&POPUPIID=2C0BF1U3BEGU2,https://www.unicef.org/press-releases/immediate-humanitarian-access-needed-stave-disaster-gazas-children,https://www.newsweek.com/israel-white-phosphorus-gaza-claims-false-idf-1591107,https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/oct/18/un-investigates-turkey-alleged-use-of-white-phosphorus-in-syria,https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/conditions-and-diseases/sturgeweber-syndrome,https://kidshealth.org/en/parents/port-wine-stains.html#:~:text=What%20Are%20Port%2DWine%20Stains,dark%20red)%20as%20kids%20grow.,https://www.catersnews.com/stories/real-people/mum-speaks-out-after-strangers-confuse-toddlers-rare-birthmark-treatment-for-abuse-and-contagious-disease-instead-dubbing-her-a-polka-dot-cutie/,https://www.catersnews.com/about-us/,https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6459097/,https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_U4MYuyf5pM&t=3s,https://www.thesun.co.uk/fabulous/8970029/cruel-strangers-hurl-abuse-birthmark/,https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/mum-says-strangers-confuse-toddlers-14971977,https://birthmark.org/ambassador/deanna-latino/,https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQOy3TWwfSQ,https://www.facebook.com/TinyButMightyBink/",‘Wounded’ infant photo has nothing to do with Palestine conflict,,,,,,
43,,,,False,,2021-05-19,,factcheck_aap,,https://www.aap.com.au/covid-19-vaccine-microchip-and-magnet-claims-dont-stick/,,,factcheck_aap,,"The StatementA video shared on social media suggests people who receive COVID-19 vaccines will have “trackers” injected into them, causing the recipients to become magnetic.An Instagram post shared by an Australian user on May 10 features a video of a woman who takes what she claims is a magnet and sticks it to one of her arms.“This is the arm I got the Pfizer shot in,” she says, before unsuccessfully trying to attach the same object to her other arm. “We’re chipped, we’re all f***ed,” the woman says at the end of the video.Similar videos have been shared elsewhere on Instagram, for example here, while the trend has also appeared on Twitter and TikTok. A woman in the video claims her arm became magnetic after she received a Pfizer COVID-19 jab. The AnalysisCOVID-19 vaccines do not contain any metallic ingredients, nor do they contain microchips. Experts say such devices would be impossible to secretly deliver via vaccine injections using existing technology.Dr Keith Chappell, a molecular virologist and affiliate academic at the Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, told AAP FactCheck in an email that COVID-19 vaccines do not – and could not – contain injectable microchips or any device with tracking capacity.Dr Chappell said the standard needle type used for vaccinations was a 25-gauge needle, which had an internal dimension of 0.3mm.“The microchip would need to be a fraction of this to stop it from getting clogged. I don’t think this is possible considering it would also need to involve a transmitter,” he said.The specifications for various 25-gauge needles show most have internal diameters of less than 0.3mm (see examples here, here and here).Murdoch University professor of immunology Cassandra Berry told AAP FactCheck that in order for a microchip to pass through a syringe needle easily it would need to be smaller than 10 microns, or ten one-thousandths of a millimetre.In comparison, the smallest current-generation RFID chips that have been developed are around 0.25mm in size. RFID tags can be used to store information that is then communicated to a nearby reader.False claims around COVID-19 vaccines containing microchips have circulated since early in the pandemic, before inoculations to combat the disease were available. Many of the baseless suggestions were tied to billionaire Bill Gates after he mentioned the idea of “digital certificates” to identify people already tested for COVID-19. These microchip claims have been widely debunked, for example here and here.Public health experts at Meedan Health Desk point out that injecting microchips into people as part of vaccinations would not be a practical tracking method due to technical and cost constraints – not to mention better alternatives for tracking and surveillance, like mobile phones, already being readily available.Authorities such as Australia’s Department of Health and the US Centers for Disease Control and Surveillance have also clarified that COVID-19 vaccines contain no microchips, software or tracking capabilities.Dr Chappell said he believed the microchip suggestion was invented and spread by people who enjoyed misleading the gullible for amusement.On the claim that COVID-19 vaccines have magnetic properties – or cause recipients to become magnetic – Prof Berry said neither the Pfizer nor AstraZeneca vaccines, both of which have been approved for use in Australia, contain any metallic ingredients.“The composition of the vaccines varies amongst the different types, but none have ‘magnetic’ particles/particulates in order to track people,” she said in an email.“The AstraZeneca vaccine contents just contain particles of recombinant adenovirus ChAdOx1 and saline solution, and the Pfizer vaccine contains mRNA and a saline solution.”Documents on the vaccines published by the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) show there are no metallic ingredients contained in either vaccine (here and here).Queensland Health explains the chemical ingredients as falling under several broad subcategories: the Pfizer vaccine contains lipids (fats), salts and sugar in addition to the mRNA, while the AstraZeneca vaccine contain emulsifiers, preservatives, amino acids, sugar and salt in addition to the modified adenovirus.Meedan Health Desk experts note a substantial amount of metal would be needed in a vaccine in order for it to attract a magnet, and this quantity far exceeds any amount that could possibly be present in a single vaccine dose.Similar claims that COVID-19 vaccines contain microchips and can make recipients magnetic have been repeatedly debunked (see here, here and here), while AAP FactCheck has also previously disproved suggestions vaccines are being used as a trojan horse to implant tracking microchips in people. COVID-19 vaccines do not contain metals or microchips.","https://www.instagram.com/p/COrDTyXnO4O/,https://www.instagram.com/p/COtlayPDo3t/?utm_source=ig_embed&utm_campaign=embed_video_watch_again,https://archive.ph/9eZV3,https://archive.ph/3B8wp,https://aidrc.org.au/keith-chappell,https://aibn.uq.edu.au/,https://immunisationhandbook.health.gov.au/resources/handbook-tables/table-recommended-needle-size-length-and-angle-for-administering-vaccines,https://www.allevi3d.com/gauge-size-guide/,https://www.hamiltoncompany.com/laboratory-products/needles-knowledge/needle-gauge-chart,https://www.sigmaaldrich.com/chemistry/stockroom-reagents/learning-center/technical-library/needle-gauge-chart.html,http://profiles.murdoch.edu.au/myprofile/cassandra-berry/, https://news.ncsu.edu/2021/05/smallest-gen2-rfid-chip/,https://www.fda.gov/radiation-emitting-products/electromagnetic-compatibility-emc/radio-frequency-identification-rfid,https://www.factcheck.org/2020/04/conspiracy-theory-misinterprets-goals-of-gates-foundation/,https://www.bbc.com/news/52847648,https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2020/06/12/fact-check-bill-gates-isnt-planning-implant-microchips-via-vaccines/3171405001/,https://health-desk.org/health-desk/health-desk,https://health-desk.org/articles/how-do-we-know-that-covid-19-vaccines-are-not-being-used-to-inject-tracking-chips,https://www.health.gov.au/initiatives-and-programs/covid-19-vaccines/is-it-true/is-it-true-do-covid-19-vaccines-contain-a-microchip-or-any-kind-of-tracking-technology,https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/downloads/vaccines/toolkits/AdditionalFAQ_COVID-19Vaccination-508.pdf,https://www.tga.gov.au/covid-19-vaccine-provisional-registrations,https://www.ebs.tga.gov.au/servlet/xmlmillr6?dbid=ebs/PublicHTML/pdfStore.nsf&docid=86C9837018C4DE49CA2586D100422CB5&agid=(PrintDetailsPublic)&actionid=1,https://www.ebs.tga.gov.au/servlet/xmlmillr6?dbid=ebs/PublicHTML/pdfStore.nsf&docid=58C8FFE2C6EC40B9CA2586D8004232EA&agid=(PrintDetailsPublic)&actionid=1,https://www.health.qld.gov.au/news-events/news/whats-really-in-a-covid-19-vaccine,https://health-desk.org/articles/what-do-we-know-about-the-pfizer-vaccine-and-magnets,https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2021/may/17/viral-image/no-these-videos-dont-prove-covid-19-vaccines-conta/,https://fullfact.org/online/covid-vaccine-magnet/,https://www.reuters.com/article/factcheck-coronavirus-vaccine-idUSL2N2N41KA,https://www.aap.com.au/no-bill-gates-isnt-partnering-with-id-companies-to-implant-microchips-in-humans/",COVID-19 vaccine microchip and magnet claims don’t stick,,,,,,
44,,,,Missing Context,,2021-05-19,,factcheck_aap,,https://www.aap.com.au/deceptive-video-on-using-mobile-phone-while-charging-gets-plug-pulled/,,,factcheck_aap,,"The StatementA social media post warns people against using their mobile phones while charging based on a video that purports to show proof of the device becoming an electricity “transmitter”.The April 19 Facebook post features a man using what appears to be a non-contact voltage tester, which begins flashing and making a sound when brought near a mobile phone charger or connected phone.“Watch what happens when I plug it (the mobile phone) in. It becomes a transmitter for electric (sic). Look at how far it transmits it. So if you’re lying in bed with that next to your head, that is all going into your head,” the man in the video warns.The post, by a New Zealand user, includes the accompanying text: “Warning! When charging your phone do not take a call!” The post had attracted more than 260 shares and 5500 video views at the time of writing.The same video was also posted on TikTok, where it had been shared more than 44,000 times, drawing more than 176,000 reactions. A similar video on YouTube has been viewed more than 133,000 times. A Facebook post warns against using a mobile phone while charging. The AnalysisThe video demonstrates the presence of an electric field near a charging phone, but experts say this is no cause for alarm. All mains-powered electric devices would demonstrate similar properties, and this does not mean they are unsafe to use.Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency (ARPANSA) assistant director of assessment and advice Ken Karipidis told AAP FactCheck the flashing device used in the video appears to be a non-contact voltage tester, however it did not show there were dangerous electromagnetic fields (EMF) coming from the mobile phone.“Any electrical source, including common household appliances and electrical wiring, emits EMF,”  he said in an email.“There is no established scientific evidence that the EMF we are exposed to in our everyday environment causes any health effect.”Dr Karipidis added that it was considered “safe to use a mobile phone, or take a phone call, while the phone is charging”.Swinburne University of Technology Department of Health and Medical Sciences chair Andrew Wood, an expert on the biological effects of EMF, agreed there was no danger in using a mobile phone while it is charging – and any exposure to EMF would be brief.Prof Wood said the electromagnetic field detected in the video would likely be similar to that emitted from other common appliances.“Probably the same would happen if they did the same for any device connected to the mains via an adaptor, such as Christmas tree lights,” he told AAP FactCheck in an email.While some studies have pointed to a link between high-intensity EMF and common childhood cancers, overall findings have been inconclusive, according to the US National Cancer Institute. Studies on lower-level exposure from household electrical appliances have not found any consistent evidence of potential harm, it said.Dr Karipidis said research that showed a possible association between EMF and leukaemia in children dealt with exposure levels usually only found in homes very close to electricity infrastructure such as high-voltage power lines.ARPANSA’s webpage on EMF radiation also states that magnetic fields from electrical sources such as computers and other appliances were low-level and were not associated with any health effects.A World Health Organization fact sheet on EMF and mobile phones says that following “a large number of studies” over the past two decades “no adverse health effects have been established as being caused by mobile phone use”.The research has largely focused on mobile phones’ functions as low-powered radio transmitters and receivers. Radio waves and extremely low frequency EMF, such as those produced by electrical appliances, are forms of non-ionizing radiation that have different wavelengths.A previous fact check on a similar video found warnings against using mobile phones while charging due to leaking voltage were misleading and there was no risk from their electric fields. There’s no scientific evidence a charging mobile phone has negative health effects, experts say.","https://archive.ph/HIamv,https://www.tiktok.com/foryou?is_copy_url=1&is_from_webapp=v1&item_id=6935377547593059590#/@tyler__adams/video/6935377547593059590,https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6aaYJj3W9I&ab_channel=fixitsamo,https://www.arpansa.gov.au/about-us,https://www.arpansa.gov.au/news/arpansa-scientist-appointed-international-commission,https://www.fluke.com/en-us/learn/blog/electrical/non-contact-voltage-detector-basics,https://www.swinburne.edu.au/health-arts-design/schools-departments/health-sciences/biomedical-health-sciences/staff/profile/index.php?id=awood,https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/causes-prevention/risk/radiation/electromagnetic-fields-fact-sheet,https://www.arpansa.gov.au/understanding-radiation/radiation-sources/more-radiation-sources/electricity,https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/electromagnetic-fields-and-public-health-mobile-phones,https://www.arpansa.gov.au/understanding-radiation/what-radiation/what-non-ionising-radiation,https://factcheck.afp.com/misleading-video-risks-charging-phone-spreads-worldwide",Deceptive video on using mobile phone while charging gets plug pulled,,,,,,
45,,,,False,,2021-05-18,,factcheck_aap,,https://www.aap.com.au/nothing-fishy-about-ancient-marine-fossils-on-everest/,,,factcheck_aap,,"The StatementA post by a Facebook user in Australia claims scientists studying Mount Everest have found fossilised fish skeletons, which are proof the earth previously experienced a great flood.A meme included in the post features an image of a fossilised fish and text that reads: “Scientists that are studying the peak of Mount Everest … have found skeletons of fish that have been stuck in the rock.“They believe that this is proof that water has reached this height in the past, which proves that the Earth was once flooded.”At the time of writing, the May 8 post had been viewed more than 41,000 times and shared nearly 300 times. Variations of the same meme have also been posted multiple times elsewhere on Facebook and on Instagram, generating thousands of shares and reactions. The meme claims fish fossils found on Mount Everest are proof of a worldwide flood. The AnalysisWhile the post claims fossils on Mount Everest are evidence of global flooding, scientists say they are actually proof of the earth’s constant change as a result of plate tectonics.This theory holds that the earth’s outer crust is formed by plates which slowly move over a molten upper layer of the planet’s interior. Mountains are formed by the collision of two plates, which slowly create the rock formations over millions of years.It is true that remnants of ancient sea life have been found fossilised on Everest, the world’s highest point above sea level. These include fragments of extinct and existing marine animals including trilobites, ostracods and crinoids – although all three are invertebrates not fish.Samples collected from high on the mountain have also contained parts (page 354) of the extinct prehistoric conodonts, thought to be distantly related to the modern hagfish, and coral.Some of the first fossils from Everest were collected during the ill-fated climbing expedition of George Mallory and Andrew Irvine in 1924.Mallory and Irvine perished in their attempt to summit Everest, but fossils collected by geologist Noel Ewart Odell – the last person to see teammates Mallory and Irvine alive – included many limestone samples. This sedimentary rock typically forms in warm waters from shell, coral and other organic debris.Edmund Hillary also collected limestone samples from near the summit of Everest when he and Tenzing Norgay became the first people to scale the peak in 1953.So how did marine fossils and sedimentary rock formations end up high on Everest?University of Wollongong geologist Dr Solomon Buckman, who has extensively studied the Himalayas, told AAP FactCheck the meme’s claim Everest fossils had been left behind in an ancient flood was misleading.“The fossils recorded around Mt Everest are Ordovician in age – that is, about 420 million years old – and formed under the ocean on the northern margin of India when it was still attached to Western Australia as part of the supercontinent Gondwana,” Dr Buckman said in an email.“About 130 million years ago, India drifted away from Gondwana and drifted northwards until it collided with Eurasia between 55-34 million years ago.“This collision of continents resulted in massive uplift of the crust and the fossiliferous sedimentary rocks that formed part of northern India were thrust upwards by these colossal tectonic forces. These fossils are now found on top of Mt Everest (Qomolangma).”NASA notes that the presence of limestone and marine fossils lifted from the once shallow sea bed to the top of the Himalayas was one of the main pieces of evidence cited to advance the idea of plate tectonics when it was first proposed. The Himalayas continue to rise as a result of the colliding plates, geologists say.The phenomenon of high-altitude fossils isn’t unique to the Asian mountain range. Whale fossils and evidence of other marine animals have been found high in the Andes, for example.The image of a fossilised fish included in the Everest meme is actually taken from a US National Park Service image of fossils recovered from the Fossil Butte region in Wyoming. The meme image has been cropped from the original to show only a single fish fossil.The meme’s image has been used elsewhere as a generic illustration for stories about Everest fossils.The idea that the presence of marine fossils in mountains proves the earth was once flooded has been associated with literal readings of the Biblical story of Noah and the flood, included in the book of Genesis.However, that account flies in the face of scientific evidence, Dr Buckman said, adding that the Himalayas’ were formed millions of years before the first humans appeared on earth. It is also worth noting that many of the fossils found in the Himalayas are of long-extinct species. The collision of continents formed Mount Everest, resulting in a massive uplift of earth’s crust.","https://archive.is/ekVY5,https://www.facebook.com/tajassusmagazine/posts/301330474797102,https://www.instagram.com/p/COesfq1o1ur/,https://www.britannica.com/science/plate-tectonics,https://www.nationalgeographic.org/media/plate-tectonics/,https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/highestpoint.html,https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1440-1738.2005.00499.x,http://www.earth.ox.ac.uk/~mikes/map/Searle.Everest.pdf,https://australian.museum/learn/australia-over-time/fossils/what-are-conodonts/,https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/14-fun-facts-about-hagfish-77165589/,https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/article/our-team-climbed-everest-to-try-to-solve-its-greatest-mystery-feature,https://www.jstor.org/stable/1782942?seq=1,https://www.britannica.com/science/limestone,http://www.sedgwickmuseum.org/index.php?page=explosion-of-life,https://scholars.uow.edu.au/display/solomon_buckman,https://www.uow.edu.au/the-stand/2019/rise-of-the-himalaya.php,https://www.britannica.com/science/Ordovician-Period,https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/3499/mt-everest,https://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/dynamic/himalaya.html,https://www.nytimes.com/1987/03/12/us/whale-fossils-high-in-andes-show-how-mountains-rose-from-sea.html,https://www.nps.gov/fobu/planyourvisit/images/4Priscacara_fullmatrix.jpg,https://www.nps.gov/fobu/index.htm,https://weather.com/en-IN/india/news/news/2018-06-29-fish-fossil-himalayas,https://watchjerusalem.co.il/1124-fossilized-fish-on-mount-everest-proof-of-the-flood,https://www.britannica.com/topic/Noah,https://theconversation.com/when-did-we-become-fully-human-what-fossils-and-dna-tell-us-about-the-evolution-of-modern-intelligence-143717",Nothing fishy about ancient marine fossils on Everest,,,,,,
46,,,,False,,2021-05-17,,factcheck_aap,,https://www.aap.com.au/covid-19-vaccine-contagion-claims-defy-science/,,,factcheck_aap,,"The StatementA Facebook post claims that people who are unvaccinated against COVID-19 are becoming ill “just by being in the vicinity” of those who have had the vaccine.“In a bizarre turn of events, the COVID vaxxed are apparently causing ill effects to the unvaccinated around them, as countless reports and anecdotes affirm,” the post says.It goes on to claim that “the more time goes by, the more horrible effects of the COVID ‘vaccine’ (which is not a vaccine but a medical device and experimental gene therapy) come to light”.The lengthy post lists alleged examples of illnesses and injuries unvaccinated people have picked up from vaccinated people. These include “irregular and heavy menstruation, bleeding while pregnant and miscarriages” as well as supposed cases of pets dying “when touched by someone who got the COVID jab”.Much of the text has been copied from an article published on April 28 by a conspiracy-promoting “alternative media” website that calls COVID-19 an “imaginary” virus.The post was published on April 30 by an Australian-managed Facebook page that was created in March 2021. Similar claims have been made in other posts from anti-vaccination activists in Australia. A Facebook post claims COVID-19 vaccine recipients have made other people – and even pets – ill. The AnalysisImmunology experts say it is scientifically impossible for COVID-19 vaccines to cause illness in unvaccinated people as they contain no live virus or any other infectious material that can pass from person to person.UNSW infectious disease scientist associate professor Holly Seale told AAP FactCheck via email: “The current COVID-19 vaccines use mRNA or non-replicating virus, which are not contagious and cannot be transmitted to non-vaccinated people.”Associate professor Menno van Zelm from Monash University’s Department of Immunology and Pathology agreed, telling AAP FactCheck that there are “no credible reports” that vaccinated people can make other people ill.“For one, COVID-19 vaccines do not contain the virus nor any other infectious agent that is contagious,” Dr van Zelm said in an email.“Yes, the vaccine activates the immune system and can make the recipient feel unwell for 24 hours, but this does not affect bystanders.”The claim that COVID-19 vaccines can spread from person to person seems to be based on a misconception or misinformation about recipients’ ability to “shed” vaccine particles.Vaccine shedding is technically possible when a vaccine uses a weakened version of the live virus, although this is extremely rare. However, COVID-19 vaccines do not use a live virus, meaning recipients cannot shed any virus particles.Dr Seale told AAP Factcheck some oral vaccines used live versions of weakened viruses that could be transmitted – although they were still too weak to cause illness.“In limited circumstances, live-weakened vaccine viruses can be passed to people who have not been vaccinated,” she said.“This relates to the use of the oral influenza vaccine and the oral poliovirus vaccine. Firstly, it is important to remember that the virus that is identifiable (either in the child’s nasal secretions or faeces) is so weak that it cannot cause disease. Secondly, neither of these vaccines are available for use in Australia.”Two COVID-19 vaccines have been approved for use in Australia: the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine and the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine. The Pfizer variant is a messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccine, a new type of vaccine that uses a genetic code called RNA to spark the production of a coronavirus spike protein.The AstraZeneca product is a viral vector vaccine which uses a harmless, weakened animal virus to instruct our cells to make the coronavirus spike protein. Both vaccines equip the immune system to recognise and attack the virus if it ever enters the body.The Australian Department of Health website confirms that those vaccines can sometimes cause side effects for recipients, such as fever and fatigue, but states: “None of the approved vaccines in Australia contain the live virus. This means they cannot give you COVID-19”.The post also falsely describes COVID-19 vaccines as “experimental gene therapy”. A similar claim was previously debunked by AAP FactCheck.Baseless claims about so-called ‘vaccine shedding’ have been debunked many times, including here, here and here. Professor Andrew Pollard, director of the Oxford Vaccine Group at the University of Oxford, told Full Fact: “I can’t think of any biologically plausible mechanism for shedding of components of any of the licensed COVID-19 vaccines after immunisation.”Céline Gounder, an infectious disease specialist who served as a COVID-19 advisor on President Biden’s transition advisory team, told the New York Times that vaccinated people can’t shed anything because “there’s nothing to be shedding”.The post’s claim that COVID-19 vaccines can somehow cause unvaccinated women to suffer heavy menstruation, bleeding or miscarriages has been disproven multiple times, including here, here and here.Each of the debunks make the same point that COVID-19 vaccines contain no live virus or other contagious elements, so they cannot possibly affect anybody other than the recipient.American-Canadian gynaecologist and New York Times columnist Jennifer Gunter published a blog post on April 20 addressing “a new lie circulating about the COVID-19 vaccine” that people who get the vaccine can affect the menstrual cycle or fertility of others.“Let me be very clear. The COVID-19 vaccines cannot affect anyone by proxy. Anyone telling you otherwise wishes you harm,” Dr Gunter wrote.There is also no evidence that COVID-19 vaccines affect fertility or pregnancy among recipients, although the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says there is limited data about the safety of the vaccines when taken by women who are pregnant or breastfeeding. False claims that COVID-19 vaccines cause sterility have previously been covered by AAP FactCheck here.Michelle Wise from the University of Auckland’s Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology wrote in a recent article for The Conversation that more research is needed to establish whether COVID-19 vaccines affect the periods of vaccine recipients – but she added that there was no need for people to be concerned.As for the claim that pets have died “when touched by someone who got the COVID jab”, Monash University’s Dr van Zelm and UNSW’s Dr Seale both told AAP FactCheck this is simply not possible for the same reason that vaccines cannot harm unvaccinated humans.“Vaccinated people are not contagious, so there is no reason to think that they can affect other people or animals merely by the fact that they have had the vaccine,” Dr van Zelm said.COVID-19 vaccine recipients can’t make the unvaccinated ill, experts say.","https://archive.ph/r7UPp,https://archive.ph/2V1uK,https://archive.ph/Evkjy,https://archive.ph/cf9Cu,https://www.facebook.com/avn.org.au/videos/1183474345410700/?__cft__[0]=AZX6kR8mqhG0x9KU5lIMX1T4pPE6NWPn8VcMXlBuKlKKnFIrMDOD1vysPnpEuilhO4L20vYtSWl5l6vR5KxZiICcaana3YeaH7DhNUZNyh0De3_lCGCtkZQKR6I8yOzq5eb2zNOISFrCKASlmBp1newPZ1DLDTuo6eCxQq5nF4rMTw&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R,https://research.unsw.edu.au/people/associate-professor-holly-seale,https://www.monash.edu/medicine/ccs/immunology/people/staff/associate-professor-menno-van-zelm,https://www.reuters.com/article/factcheck-vaccines-transmission-idUSL1N2MR1VU,http://immunize.astoundz.com/blog/2016/september/24/vaccine-shedding/,https://www.health.gov.au/initiatives-and-programs/covid-19-vaccines/getting-vaccinated-for-covid-19/which-covid-19-vaccine-will-i-receive,https://www.tga.gov.au/covid-19-vaccine-pfizer-australia-comirnaty-bnt162b2-mrna,https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/why-are-mrna-vaccines-so-exciting-2020121021599,https://www.health.gov.au/initiatives-and-programs/covid-19-vaccines/learn-about-covid-19-vaccines/how-do-covid-19-vaccines-work,https://www.tga.gov.au/covid-19-vaccine-astrazeneca-chadox1-s,https://www.health.gov.au/initiatives-and-programs/covid-19-vaccines/learn-about-covid-19-vaccines/how-do-covid-19-vaccines-work,https://www.health.gov.au/initiatives-and-programs/covid-19-vaccines/is-it-true/is-it-true-can-covid-19-vaccines-give-you-covid-19,https://www.aap.com.au/covid-19-vaccine-gene-therapy-suggestion-diagnosed-as-false/,https://www.politifact.com/article/2021/may/06/debunking-anti-vaccine-hoax-about-vaccine-shedding/,https://www.reuters.com/article/factcheck-vaccines-transmission-idUSL1N2MR1VU,https://factcheck.afp.com/covid-19-vaccine-does-not-make-people-dangerous-others,https://www.ovg.ox.ac.uk/team/andrew-pollard,https://www.ovg.ox.ac.uk/,https://fullfact.org/health/covid-vaccine-shedding-side-effects-unvaccinated/,https://med.nyu.edu/faculty/celine-r-gounder,https://nyulangone.org/news/new-york-times-dr-celine-gounder-joins-president-elect-bidens-covid-19-advisory-board,https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/29/technology/covid-vaccine-period-conspiracy.html,https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2021/apr/21/facebook-posts/no-womens-cycles-and-fertility-are-not-affected-be/,https://www.reuters.com/article/factcheck-covid19vaccine-reproductivepro-idUSL1N2MG256,https://www.the-scientist.com/news-opinion/no-proof-covid-19-vaccine-affects-menstruation-or-fertility-68720,https://drjengunter.com/,https://drjengunter.com/about-me/,https://vajenda.substack.com/p/the-covid-19-vaccine-is-a-vaccine,https://www.acog.org/clinical/clinical-guidance/practice-advisory/articles/2020/12/vaccinating-pregnant-and-lactating-patients-against-covid-19,https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/recommendations/pregnancy.html,https://www.aap.com.au/no-covid-19-vaccines-dont-cause-sterility/,https://unidirectory.auckland.ac.nz/profile/m-wise,https://theconversation.com/could-the-covid-vaccines-affect-your-period-we-dont-know-yet-but-theres-no-cause-for-concern-159912",COVID-19 vaccine contagion claims defy science,,,,,,
47,,,,False,,2021-05-14,,factcheck_aap,,https://www.aap.com.au/former-pfizer-scientist-wrong-on-asymptomatic-covid-19-spread/,,,factcheck_aap,,"The StatementA Facebook post features a video of “Pfizer’s former vice president” Michael Yeadon, who claims that it “defies common sense” people with no symptoms can spread a virus like the one that causes COVID-19.“This idea, for example, that you can be ill, even though you have no symptoms, and you can be a respiratory virus threat to someone else even if you have no symptoms – that’s also invented in 2020. There’s simply no history of it and it defies common sense as well,” he says at the start of the April 30 video post.He goes on to claim: “Most of you don’t need a vaccine at all. Most of you would be well advised to stay away from experimental vaccines unfortunately that do come with a blood clot risk. Why would you take a risk with your health for something that’s not a threat to you?”The post, which has been shared by New Zealand Facebook users, had gathered more than 480 shares and 2800 views at the time of writing. A video of “Pfizer’s former vice president” Michael Yeadon makes several claims about COVID-19. The AnalysisMichael Yeadon’s claim that asymptomatic cases and transmission of respiratory viruses were “invented in 2020” is contradicted by numerous studies and research articles predating the COVID-19 pandemic, as is the implication that such viral spread is impossible.He is also incorrect in his assertion that COVID-19 is not a threat and there is no need for vaccines in order to fight the coronavirus.Multiple scientific studies have shown that people infected with SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, can still transmit the virus despite being asymptomatic.A 2020 review of evidence on asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection, published in the American College of Physicians’ Annals of Internal Medicine, concluded that asymptomatic people can transmit the virus to others for perhaps longer than 14 days. It also says there is a likelihood that about 40 per cent to 45 per cent of people infected with SARS-CoV-2 will remain asymptomatic, but that the absence of symptoms does not necessarily imply an absence of harm.The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said that, as of March 19, its best estimate was 30 per cent of all infections were asymptomatic and the infectiousness of asymptomatic individuals relative to symptomatic cases was 75 per cent.In a study published in January, three of its academics found asymptomatic individuals were estimated to account for more than half of all COVID-19 transmissions based on a meta-analysis of eight studies from China.World Health Organization (WHO) guidance on COVID-19 transmission states “people can transmit the virus both when they have symptoms and when they don’t have symptoms”.Helen Petousis-Harris, a member of New Zealand’s Vaccine Safety Expert Advisory Group and director of the University of Auckland’s Vaccine Datalink and Research Group, said “asymptomatic transmission of infections is a well-established fact”.She listed meningococcus, pneumococcus, influenza and pertussis as examples of infections that spread in the absence of symptoms.“Most infectious diseases can be spread by persons not exhibiting any symptoms and history is filled with such examples,” Dr Petousis-Harris told AAP FactCheck in an email.“A famous example of this is the story of Typhoid Mary. Mary Mallon was an asymptomatic carrier of salmonella typhi. She is believed to have infected 53 people with typhoid fever.”Nikki Turner, director of the Immunisation Advisory Centre at the University of Auckland agreed, telling AAP FactCheck: “You can still carry (a) virus in the nasopharynx (back of the throat) without getting ill. Someone can be physically well but still carry and pass on a virus.”In the video, Yeadon claims that the idea a person could be ill or a “respiratory virus threat to someone else” when asymptomatic was “invented in 2020”, however the concept has repeatedly been identified as a risk in research and other material predating the COVID-19 pandemic.For example, a 2013 review into routes of influenza transmission noted that influenza modelling typically assumed up to 50 per cent of all infections would be asymptomatic or involve subclinical infections.It pointed to several studies that showed a small proportion of flu infectiousness occurred before the onset of symptoms, although it added that it was yet to be shown that asymptomatic patients could effectively transmit the virus.A 2005 Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security analysis on the effectiveness of public health and infection control measures in preventing the spread of influenza noted: “Asymptomatic patients shed virus and can transmit the disease, but not at the same rate as symptomatic individuals, which creates an invisible ‘reservoir’ for the virus. The implication of this is that public health disease containment measures and infection control measures, alone, may slow but cannot stop a flu epidemic.”Similarly, a review from early 2019 into asymptomatic infection with the MERS coronavirus found asymptomatic cases made up around 25 per cent of confirmed cases in 2014 and such patients “may contribute to the transmission of the virus”.Nevertheless, researchers have identified that one of the unique features of COVID-19 compared to SARS and MERS – although not the 2009 H1N1 virus, with which SARS-CoV-2 shares many characteristics – is that a large number of people are able to transmit the virus while pre-symptomatic, asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic.Yeadon also falsely claims in the video that most people don’t need vaccination to prevent COVID-19. The suggestion has been widely debunked (see here, here and here).In this article, Jennifer Grier, an assistant professor of immunology at the University of South Carolina, explains why relying on natural immunity isn’t enough to prevent COVID-19 infection.“Immune protection isn’t always equal. The strength of the immune response, the length of time that the protection lasts and the variation of the immune response across people is very different between vaccine immunity and natural immunity for SARS-CoV-2. COVID-19 vaccines offer safer and more reliable immunity than natural infection,” she writes.Dr Turner told AAP FactCheck unvaccinated people were at much higher risk of severe illness from COVID-19.“So anyone who is unvaccinated would need to be very confident they are not going to be at risk of contact with COVID – we cannot guarantee that for anyone in the world at this point,” she said.AAP FactCheck also sought clarification on Yeadon’s stint at Pfizer but received no reply from the company.The post’s video lists him as “Pfizer’s former vice president”, although PolitiFact previously identified that Yeadon hadn’t worked for the pharmaceutical giant since 2011. That year, he was identified in a press release as a former vice president and chief scientific officer of Pfizer’s allergy and respiratory unit. People can transmit COVID-19 when they have symptoms – and when they don’t, experts say.","https://archive.is/MElnM,https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/M20-3012,https://www.acpjournals.org/journal/aim/about-us,https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/hcp/planning-scenarios.html,https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2774707,https://www.who.int/vietnam/news/detail/14-07-2020-q-a-how-is-covid-19-transmitted,https://unidirectory.auckland.ac.nz/profile/hpet002,https://www.immune.org.nz/research/vaccine-safety-expert-advisory-group,https://www.fmhs.auckland.ac.nz/en/soph/about/our-departments/general-practice-and-primary-health-care/our-research/vaccine-datalink-and-research-group.html,https://www.health.nsw.gov.au/Infectious/controlguideline/Pages/meningococcal-disease.aspx,https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3590460,https://www.influenza.org.nz/influenza,https://academic.oup.com/cid/article/70/1/152/5525423?login=true,https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3959940/,http://www.bccdc.ca/health-info/diseases-conditions/typhoid-fever-salmonella-typhi#:~:text=Salmonella%20Typhi%20(S.,comes%20under%20the%20same%20title.,https://theconversation.com/typhoidmary-now-a-hashtag-was-a-maligned-immigrant-who-got-a-bum-rap-136571,https://unidirectory.auckland.ac.nz/profile/n-turner,https://www.immune.org.nz/about,https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/irv.12080,https://www.centerforhealthsecurity.org/cbn/2005/cbnreport_103105.html,https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30550839/,https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33350025/,https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2020/dec/02/blog-posting/former-pfizer-employee-wrong-coronavirus-pandemic-/,https://www.thejournal.ie/debunked-pfizer-employee-quotes-mike-yeadon-covid-19-vaccine-5311935-Dec2020/,https://apnews.com/article/fact-checking-afs:Content:9959383728,https://theconversation.com/why-you-should-get-a-covid-19-vaccine-even-if-youve-already-had-the-coronavirus-155712,https://www.sc.edu/study/colleges_schools/medicine_greenville/faculty/facultydir/pf09361d28fb24c3a44325286af1cc750e,https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2020/dec/02/blog-posting/former-pfizer-employee-wrong-coronavirus-pandemic-/,https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20111007005082/en/Pulmatrix-Appoints-Respiratory-and-Allergy-Expert-Michael-Yeadon-PhD-to-Scientific-Advisory-Board",Former Pfizer scientist wrong on asymptomatic COVID-19 spread,,,,,,
48,,,,False,,2021-05-13,,factcheck_aap,,https://www.aap.com.au/dam-lies-three-gorges-flood-claim-holds-no-water-at-all/,,,factcheck_aap,,"The StatementA social media post claims the Three Gorges Dam in China is “leaking” and has caused widespread flooding. The post includes footage and still images it claims “may or may not be” of destruction from the flooding, adding that it “certainly lines up big time with everything that’s happening right now”.The Facebook post, shared on May 2, features four images of flooding events taken from a YouTube video. The images show a flooded intersection, muddy water flowing over rocks, submerged houses and trees, and a house amid earth churned up in a landslide.The post’s caption claims the images are of events from the “3 Gorges Damm (sic) in China” and that “THE TIMING IS SPOT ON. FRESH OUT THIS MORNING. YESTERDAY THERE (sic) REPORTS OF IT LEAKING BIG TIME ALSO.”The post links to a YouTube video in the comments section.The post also mentions “Q” and the “Trump team”, references to the baseless QAnon conspiracy theory and former US president Donald Trump.At the time of writing, the post had been viewed more than 27,000 times and has attracted more than 280 shares. A post claims to show evidence of China’s Three Gorges Dam “leaking”. The AnalysisNone of the four images included in the post as evidence of the Three Gorges Dam recently “leaking” were taken in 2021, while two are not even from China. And while concerns were raised in 2020 about the safety of the dam during heavy rains, there is no proof of any concerns over its integrity in the period immediately leading up to the post.In addition, the YouTube video featured in the post includes a voiceover which repeats, word for word, a 2013 BBC news report of a landslide in China’s Sichuan province. The article and the landslide are both unrelated to the Three Gorges Dam, located far to the east in China’s Hubei province.There were no media reports in April or May 2021, prior to the post, of the Three Gorges Dam leaking or otherwise failing.There were, however, reports in 2020 that aired concerns about the integrity of the dam during heavy rain and flooding. Social media users in China circulated satellite images “purporting to show the dam had bent and was at risk of breaking”, according to reports at the time. Chinese officials rejected the images and said the dam was secure. International news organisations including the Guardian and Japan’s Nikkei also reported on fears over the dam’s safety.The YouTube video mentioned in the post’s comments was uploaded on April 26, 2021 to a channel called The Specifications, whose watermark appears in the Facebook post’s screenshots. It features a voiceover discussing the supposed toll of the flood in China, citing what is claimed to be news reports from the time. At no point does the voiceover refer to the Three Gorges Dam, although the video’s extended caption includes the words “3 Gorges Dam” and “China Flood 2020”.AAP FactCheck traced the voiceover script to the July 2013 BBC article. The voiceover of the video repeats the article verbatim, except for the final two paragraphs, which are omitted. The article refers to rescue efforts carried out in the city of Dujiangyan, which is about 900km west of the Three Gorges Dam.The images presented in the Facebook post and taken from the YouTube video are unrelated to any events in China in 2021.The first image, of a flooded intersection, was taken by Getty Images photographer Ian Hitchcock during an unprecedented weather event in the Queensland city of Townsville in 2019 when 850,000 megalitres of rain fell into the Ross River Dam, exceeding its capacity. A slightly different version of the same scene was also captured by AAP photographer Andrew Rankin on the same date, February 4.The second image features China’s second largest waterfall, the Hukou Waterfall in Shanxi Province. It was taken on July 5, 2020 by Xue Jun for Visual China Group via Getty Images and shows the waterfall dispensing flood waters.The Hukou Waterfall is located along China’s second longest river, the Huang He – or Yellow River – while the Three Gorges Dam is located on the Yangtze River. Flooding at the Hukou Waterfalls that year was unrelated to the Three Gorges Dam as the two rivers run parallel in the north and south before connecting through the Great Canal further downstream from the falls.The third image from the post, which shows floodwaters reaching the roofs of homes and tops of trees, is not from China. It was taken by photographer Tom Gilbert of the Tulsa World newspaper in the US state of Oklahoma.The aerial image from May 23, 2019 shows homes in Sands Springs, Oklahoma inundated with flood waters from the Arkansas River following torrential rains in the Midwest.The post’s fourth image, of houses and trees uprooted, was taken in China on July 8, 2020, and shows debris left behind from a landslide in Huangmei county in Hubei province. Local media reports from around that time said the landslides were the result of heavy rainfalls.The video also features an aerial image showing a boat motoring through flooded neighbourhood streets, however the photo was taken by photographer Karl Spencer during Hurricane Harvey in the US in 2017. The same photo has been used by other news organisations with attribution to Spencer. Floodwater is released from the Three Gorges Dam in 2010.","https://s3.ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/aap-nw-aap.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/13144021/Screen-Shot-2021-05-13-at-2.39.58-pm.png,https://www.facebook.com/scott.randell.5817/posts/174696007864182?comment_id=174696247864158,https://www.bbc.com/news/53498434,https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-23251188,https://www.britannica.com/topic/Three-Gorges-Dam,https://www.google.com/search?q=%22three+gorges+dam%22+leaking&biw=1862&bih=925&tbs=cdr%3A1%2Ccd_min%3A4%2F1%2F2021%2Ccd_max%3A5%2F3%2F2021&tbm=nws&ei=ZrCcYMLcPMq_3LUPoNCp-AE&oq=%22three+gorges+dam%22+leaking&gs_l=psy-ab.3...35410.40348.0.40776.10.7.3.0.0.0.220.895.0j5j1.6.0....0...1c.1.64.psy-ab..2.0.0....0.YqVljN8m5ZY,https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-hydropower-threegorges-idUSKCN1U40QB,https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/aug/20/china-three-gorges-dam-highest-level-hydro-electric-floods,https://asia.nikkei.com/Economy/Natural-disasters/As-water-crests-Three-Gorges-Dam-crisis-puts-400m-at-risk,https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMbyAPN7eD0,https://web.archive.org/web/20210513050147if_/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMbyAPN7eD0,https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-23251188,https://www.google.com.au/maps/dir/Three+Gorges+Dam,+Zigui+County,+Yichang,+Hubei,+China/Dujiangyan+City,+Chengdu,+Sichuan,+China/@30.5896823,105.1490721,7z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m13!4m12!1m5!1m1!1s0x368477f7d8d04299:0x2b6b0ad5fddb4a68!2m2!1d111.0037277!2d30.8233072!1m5!1m1!1s0x36f00687821ead4b:0xe39237074e70244d!2m2!1d103.646912!2d30.988434?hl=en,https://www.gettyimages.com.au/detail/news-photo/seen-is-a-general-view-of-a-blocked-major-intersection-in-news-photo/1127248339?adppopup=true,https://www.townsville.qld.gov.au/community-support/community-safety/disaster-management/2019-weather-event,https://photos.aap.com.au/search/20191211001437323734,https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/where-can-a-yellow-waterfall-be-seen.html,https://www.gettyimages.com.au/detail/news-photo/the-hukou-waterfalls-on-the-yellow-river-is-seen-on-july-5-news-photo/1254485305?adppopup=true,https://depts.washington.edu/chinaciv/geo/yelriver.htm,https://depts.washington.edu/chinaciv/geo/yangtze.htm,https://news.cgtn.com/news/2020-08-26/Floods-hit-Hukou-Waterfall-in-north-China-Th16H0kT4I/index.html,https://depts.washington.edu/chinaciv/geo/proper.htm#:~:text=Two%20great%20rivers%20run%20through%20China%20Proper%3A%20the%20Yellow%20River,west%20in%20the%20Tibetan%20Plateau.&text=And%20for%20long%20periods%2C%20the%20Huai%20River%20emptied%20into%20the%20sea.,https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1443/,http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Severe-Weather-Oklahoma/3d2c42c4b313494db9bdfe7f7cc1eb94/111/0,https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/145108/flooding-along-the-arkansas-river&sa,https://www.gettyimages.com.au/detail/news-photo/this-photo-taken-on-july-8-2020-shows-debris-at-the-scene-news-photo/1225710829?adppopup=true,https://news.cgtn.com/news/2020-07-08/At-least-9-missing-as-landslide-hits-central-China-township-RX7sw0OuAw/index.html,https://diimsa.photoshelter.com/image?&_bqG=45&_bqH=eJwryQ1yL7AwKvHxNMq0CAl1rkrP9PNytnSOzHG0MjYytjI0MABhIOkZ7xLsbOtRWlSUmZyYl6rtkVhUllqpBhaOd_RzsS0BskODXYPiPV1sQ0FaciOdQ9LjUxOjIgLV4h2dQ2xLi4uCUxOLkjPU3EGK3EGKogKdLYx9PcvM87LVnEGiAMlNLHA-&GI_ID=,https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/economy/2018/07/24/worst-floods-in-american-history/37070093/",Dam lies: Three Gorges flood claim holds no water at all,,,,,,
49,,,,False,,2021-05-12,,factcheck_aap,,https://www.aap.com.au/tesla-quote-about-earth-not-on-solid-ground/,,,factcheck_aap,,"The StatementA Facebook post suggests Nikola Tesla’s interests extended to otherworldly beliefs, featuring a purported quote from the acclaimed inventor that also states the earth “has no edge” and “electromagnetic levitation disproves gravity”.The April 29 post credits the inventor with a lengthy quote, which includes the words: “Earth is a realm, it is not a planet. It is not an object, therefore, it has no edge.“… The sun and moon are powered wirelessly with the electromagnetic field (the Aether). This field also suspends the celestial spheres with electo-magnetic levitation. Electromagnetic levitation disproves gravity because the only force you need to counter is the electromagnetic force, not gravity. The stars are attached to the FIRMAMENT.”The quote features in a meme alongside an image of Tesla, while the post’s caption adds, “Say no more we don’t live on a spinning ball.”The post was shared by a New Zealand user to the group The Great Spiritual Awakening, which has more than 64,000 members. It had garnered more than 140 shares and 500 reactions at the time of writing. The quote has also been used in other Facebook posts dating back to at least 2016. A widely shared post claims that Serbian inventor Nikola Tesla said the Earth “has no edge”. The AnalysisThe purported Nikola Tesla quote about earth having no edges and gravity being disproven was neither written nor said by the Serbian inventor, multiple experts told AAP FactCheck.It appears to have come from a Facebook post originally attributed to another source and circulated in “flat earth” groups, while the brief final sentence of the claimed Tesla saying is a distorted version of a line in a 1900 essay by the inventor.Tesla, who died in 1943 with nearly 300 patents to his name, is best known for developing early alternating-current (AC) systems, which provided the foundation for many household and industrial electrical devices, as well as inventions such as the Tesla coil.An early iteration of the purported Tesla quote features in a January 2016 Facebook post, which features two separate sections. One section, covering the bulk of the quote in the later meme, is attributed to a Darrell Fox, while a second section correctly attributed to Tesla reads: “Though free to think and act, we are held together, like the stars in the firmament, with ties inseparable.”In the post’s comments, a Darrell Fox, whose Facebook account no longer appears on the platform, writes: “The first part is my quote. The second is Tesla.” The quote was also referred to in a 2017 post to the Facebook group, Flat Earth With Darrell Fox.AAP FactCheck contacted several experts on Tesla regarding the meme’s quote. A spokesperson for the Tesla Museum in Serbia, which houses an extensive archive of the inventor’s writings and lectures, said in an email the words in the post were “not written or said by Nikola Tesla”.Dr Niyazi Yükçü, a physicist from Adiyaman University in Turkey and Turkey’s secretary for the Tesla Memorial Society of New York, agreed and told AAP FactCheck: “Throughout all my studies, I have never come across such an idea from Tesla.”A line referring to “firmament” and matching the corresponding segment of text in the January 2016 Facebook post appeared in a Tesla essay, The Problem of Increasing Human Energy: With Special Reference to the Harnessing of the Sun’s Energy,  published by Century Magazine in June 1900.However, in more recent posts the section of the quote has been altered to simply read: “The stars are attached to the firmament.”Iwan Rhys Morus, a professor of history at the University of Aberystwyth in Wales and author of the biography, Nikola Tesla and the Electrical Future, described the post’s quote as “definitely bogus”.“To my knowledge, Tesla nowhere has anything particularly specific to say about gravity – he certainly didn’t argue anywhere that electromagnetic radiation disproved gravity,” he told AAP FactCheck in an email.“He certainly did think the earth was a planet – his theory as to how he could transmit electromagnetic energy wirelessly depended on it.”A debunking site, FlatEarth.ws, highlighted that Tesla mentioned the word “globe” 12 times in the same essay in which the “firmament” line featured. Tesla referred to the earth as a globe several times in a single essay.","https://archive.ph/J6kHF,https://www.facebook.com/ScienceAndNonduality/posts/earth-is-a-realm-it-is-not-a-planet-it-is-not-an-object-therefore-it-has-no-edge/1304268096289901/,https://physicsworld.com/a/fighting-flat-earth-theory/,https://teslasciencecenter.org/about-nikola-tesla/,https://www.britannica.com/biography/Nikola-Tesla,https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-is-a-tesla-coil-22723,https://archive.is/7R5K2,https://www.facebook.com/darrell.p.fox,https://www.facebook.com/groups/1016816521702792/permalink/1422642087786898/,https://nikolateslamuseum.org/en/,https://nikolateslamuseum.org/en/writings/,https://nikolateslamuseum.org/en/lectures/,https://abys.adiyaman.edu.tr/niyazi-yukcu-508/en,https://www.teslasociety.com/,https://www.pbs.org/tesla/res/res_art09.html,https://www.manhattanrarebooks.com/pages/books/1355/nikola-tesla/the-problem-of-increasing-human-energy-with-special-reference-to-the-harnessing-of-the-suns-energy?soldItem=true,https://www.aber.ac.uk/en/history/staff-profiles/listing/profile/irm/,https://iconbooks.com/ib-title/nikola-tesla-and-the-electrical-future-3/,https://flatearth.ws/tesla-misquote",Tesla ‘quote’ about earth not on solid ground,,,,,,
50,,,,False,,2021-05-10,,factcheck_aap,,https://www.aap.com.au/the-uk-isnt-expecting-most-covid-19-vaccine-recipients-to-die-in-a-third-wave/,,,factcheck_aap,,"The StatementAn Instagram post claims official UK government modelling predicted up to 70 per cent of people vaccinated against COVID-19 will die during a third wave of the virus.The April 26 post includes a screenshot of an article, the text of which states: “According to projections by UK’s top modelling agency the thrid (sic) wave of COVID-19 spike will hospitalize and kill 60 to 70% of those people who took both the vaccine doses. The paper suggests that the resurgence in both hospitalisations and deaths will dominated (sic) by those who have received two doses of the vaccine, comprising around 60% and 70% of the wave respectively.”At the time of writing, the post had over 1500 reactions and 350 comments.It was posted to the Instagram account of Australian Jamie McIntyre, who has more than 29,900 followers. The account features a range of memes and other content critical of vaccines or detailing various COVID-19 conspiracy theories (for example here and here).The article is from the Great Game India website, which purports to be a “journal on geopolitics and international relations”. It publishes articles critical of COVID-19 vaccines and has been fact-checked previously for spreading other misinformation, including baseless claims that the coronavirus was a stolen bioweapon. A post suggests the majority of COVID-19 vaccine recipients will die in a third UK coronavirus wave. The AnalysisThe claim that UK government modelling predicted up to 70 per cent of those vaccinated against COVID-19 would die or be hospitalised during a future outbreak is false and based on a misreading or misrepresentation of an official report.The March 31 report does not say that a third wave of COVID-19 cases would kill between 60 and 70 per cent of people who were vaccinated, as claimed in the post and article.It examines what could happen as COVID-19-related restrictions in England are relaxed under the government’s roadmap out of lockdown. It finds, based on modelling, that an increase in COVID-19-related hospitalisations and deaths is likely after restrictions are relaxed.The report includes an estimate that 60 per cent of those hospitalisations and 70 per cent of deaths would be among people who had received two doses of the vaccine. This was due to the high vaccination rate among the most at-risk age groups, and the fact that for a small proportion of that at-risk contingent the vaccine will not be effective protection against serious illness or death.The document also clearly states that there would be many more deaths and hospitalisations if fewer people were vaccinated.The report was produced by the Scientific Pandemic Influenza Group on Modelling, Operational sub-group (SPI-M-O), which advises the UK government. It was released as the government was preparing to move to step two in the roadmap, involving the reopening of hospitality businesses and non-essential retail. Later stages are scheduled for no earlier than May 17 and June 21.The document said it was highly likely there will be another resurgence in hospitalisations and deaths after relaxing restrictions, but the scale, shape, and timing of any resurgence is highly uncertain (page 1). This was based on modelling from the University of Warwick, the Imperial College of London and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.The central scenario in the modelling was that more than 90 per cent of all adults would be vaccinated by June 21 (page 2).Under this scenario, receiving two doses of the Pfizer vaccine was estimated to reduce the risk of death or hospitalisation by between 90 and 98 per cent, while two doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine were expected to reduce the risk of death or hospitalisation by 80 to 90 per cent (page 3).The report said while modelling predicted the number of COVID-19 cases in the UK was likely to increase as restrictions eased, high vaccination rates and the efficacy of the vaccine meant that moving to step two in the roadmap “leads to only a relatively modest increase in hospital admissions and deaths” (page 8).It said implementing all four steps of the roadmap at the earliest possible date would result in a third wave of COVID-19 infections, peaking around July/August, but that the wave would be smaller than previous outbreaks (page 9 and Figure 4, page 10).The report added that this resurgence was “a result of some people (mostly children) being ineligible for vaccination; others choosing not to receive the vaccine; and others being vaccinated but not perfectly protected (including those who have only received one dose, rather than two)”.The majority of expected hospitalisations and deaths were in those who had been vaccinated, however the document said this was a result of the high vaccination rate among those most at risk from contracting COVID-19 and the fact the vaccines were not 100 per cent effective.“The resurgence in both hospitalisations and deaths is dominated by those that have received two doses of the vaccine, comprising around 60 per cent and 70 per cent of the wave respectively. This can be attributed to the high levels of uptake in the most at-risk age groups, such that immunisation failures account for more serious illness than unvaccinated individuals,” the report states (page 10).The report reiterates later that the reason the majority of projected  hospitalisations and deaths occur in those who have been vaccinated is because vaccination rates are predicted to reach 95 per cent in those over 50 – the cohort considered most vulnerable to the virus.“There are therefore 5% of over 50-year olds who have not been vaccinated, and 95% x 10% = 9.5% of over 50-year olds who are vaccinated but, nevertheless, not protected against death. This is not the result of vaccines being ineffective, merely uptake being so high,” the report states (page 18).It says the number of deaths and hospitalisations expected in a third wave was lower than in previous models because the uptake of vaccines was assumed to be higher in the most recent models (page 11).Mr McIntyre, who shared the claim, also runs a website which republishes a range of conspiracy theories and misinformation, including that COVID-19 vaccines are part of a “genocide agenda” and suggestions celebrities take adrenochrome made from terrorised children’s blood, alongside promotions for Bitcoin “sponsorship” opportunities.In 2016, he was banned from being a company director or offering financial services for a decade for running unregistered investment schemes. The Boris Johnson-led UK government has planned a roadmap out of lockdown as vaccinations continue.","https://s3.ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/aap-nw-aap.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/03133012/Screenshot-2021-05-03-132947.jpg,https://web.archive.org/web/20210503035334/https://greatgameindia.com/third-wave-two-vaccines-deaths/,https://www.instagram.com/p/CN2JBDSF5ii/,https://www.instagram.com/p/CN4L-gYl3hJ/,https://web.archive.org/web/20210503035334/https://greatgameindia.com/third-wave-two-vaccines-deaths/ ,https://www.aap.com.au/no-bill-gates-isnt-partnering-with-id-companies-to-implant-microchips-in-humans/,https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2020/jan/28/blog-posting/websites-spin-conspiracy-theory-about-coronavirus-/,https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/975909/S1182_SPI-M-O_Summary_of_modelling_of_easing_roadmap_step_2_restrictions.pdf,https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-response-spring-2021/covid-19-response-spring-2021-summary?priority-taxon=774cee22-d896-44c1-a611-e3109cce8eae,https://www.gov.uk/government/groups/scientific-pandemic-influenza-subgroup-on-modelling,https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/university-of-warwick-road-map-scenarios-and-sensitivity-29-march-2021,https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/imperial-college-london-evaluating-englands-roadmap-out-of-lockdown-30-march-2021,https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/lshtm-interim-roadmap-assessment-prior-to-step-2-31-march-2021,http://archive.today/9anaM,http://archive.today/ovzgP,https://archive.ph/YAmDM,https://www.smh.com.au/business/property-spruiker-jamie-mcintyre-banned-for-10-years-20161017-gs4by6.html",The UK isn’t expecting most COVID-19 vaccine recipients to die in a third wave,,,,,,
51,,,,False,,2021-05-07,,factcheck_aap,,https://www.aap.com.au/rare-pink-peacock-photo-is-a-fowl-hoax/,,,factcheck_aap,,"The StatementAn eye-catching photo claiming to show a “rare pink peacock” has received more than 28,000 views and 5000 shares on Facebook after being posted by an Australian user on April 16.The same image of the blushing bird has previously done the rounds on social media, including in this widely-shared post from 2016. Numerous other photos have previously been posted to social media – here and here – with claims about the fabled bird going back to at least 2013. A Facebook post with more than 5000 shares claims to show a “rare pink peacock”. The AnalysisPeacock experts in Australia and the US have told AAP FactCheck that pink peacocks don’t exist – and the image is fake. The photograph appears to have been digitally altered by colouring a photo of a rare white peacock.Dennis Fett, the co-founder of the Peacock Information Center, based in Iowa, told AAP FactCheck that claims about the existence of pink peacocks have been around for many years but are “as real as pigs flying”.“After hearing from so many people on these different colour types on the web or social media, it was obvious by our trained peafowl eyes that they were manipulated by infrared filters,” Mr Fett said in an email.“To be very specific, no there are no peacocks that are pink. Perhaps somebody might’ve used food colouring to dye a peacock pink, but there are no such colour types in my experience over 40 years.”Mr Fett, who dubs himself “Mr Peacock”, even published a video of made-up “orange and pink peacocks” in 2018 to demonstrate how easy it is to change the colour of the animals with simple computer edits.“The only place you’re ever going to find these (peacocks) are on this video,” he jokes.The pink peacock photo seems to have been created by altering a real image of a white peacock that has previously been published on the internet. Using a reverse image search, AAP FactCheck found a matching white peacock image published by a Reddit user on October 1, 2011. Other examples of white peacocks sporting their plumage can be seen here, here and here.White peacocks are a variant of the Indian blue peafowl, the national bird of India. Their striking white feathers are caused by a genetic mutation known as leucism, which causes a loss of the colour pigments in their plumage.Indian peafowl expert Sonika Kushwaha, who is a wildlife biologist and CEO of the Indian Biodiversity Conservation Society, told AAP FactCheck that three species of peafowl exist – the Burmese peafowl, African/Congo peafowl and the Indian peafowl – but the pink variety is nothing but an internet hoax.“There are no pink peacocks,” Dr Kushwaha said in an email.A digital media expert told AAP FactCheck that changing a picture of a white peacock into a pink peacock can be done in a matter of seconds using photo editing software.T.J. Thomson, a senior lecturer in visual communication and media at Queensland University of Technology (QUT) and associate editor of Visual Communication Quarterly, said digital images “can be easily manipulated for sensationalist effect with relatively little skill”.“Simple colour adjustments, for example, can be accomplished with just a few clicks, while additions, removals, or duplications are also easily possible … tweaking an existing image can take mere seconds for something like a colour shift using editing software like Photoshop,” he said in an email.Dr Thomson proved how easy it is to fake the pink peacock image in question, recreating a similar image for AAP FactCheck in less than a minute using his own computer.He noted that the pink peacock image includes ornamental peacock eyespots on its feathers, known as ocelli, which would have been painted or cloned in. This would require additional editing time, Dr Thomson said, but “is still doable within 5-10 minutes, depending on the user’s skill and the level of realism desired”. A white peacock displays its plumage at the Nehru Zoological Park in Hyderabad, India.","https://archive.ph/aaRY0,https://www.google.com/search?tbs=simg:CAQS_1AEJk5uWjEyQswYa8AELELCMpwgaOAo2CAQSEgP2Io4g9xOODs80vg_1_1PkXILxoa0sRzNU8l6F0T2JTrfYr1Hc7qSOZ2uXQ9NPwgBTAEDAsQjq7-CBoKCggIARIEi1R3KwwLEJ3twQkakgEKHwoMZmxvb3IgbGVuZ3Ro2qWI9gMLCgkvYS9kdjdtcmgKGQoHcGVhZm93bNqliPYDCgoIL20vMGgyOWMKIQoOaW5kaWFuIHBlYWZvd2zapYj2AwsKCS9tLzAybngxcgoYCgZnYXJkZW7apYj2AwoKCC9tLzBibDBsChcKBHBhcmvapYj2AwsKCS9tLzAxNjZscww&q=pink+peacock&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjVnLDCjKzwAhXpyjgGHUSfA4AQ2A4oAXoECAEQMw&biw=1280&bih=598,https://archive.ph/gwM8m,https://archive.ph/mvb6S,https://archive.ph/xexia,https://archive.ph/01lLA,http://www.peafowl.com/resume.htm,http://www.peafowl.com/,https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0Az-8zoqRY,https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/kx07c/an_albino_peacock/,https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-nottinghamshire-28694159,https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-06-27/demand-for-pet-peacocks-keeps-breeders-busy/11213480,https://www.wfla.com/news/viral-news/have-you-ever-seen-a-white-peacock/,https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Pavo_cristatus/,https://knowindia.gov.in/national-identity-elements/national-bird.php,https://www.bto.org/our-science/projects/gbw/gardens-wildlife/garden-birds/behaviour/plumage/leucism,https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Sonika-Kushwaha,https://staff.qut.edu.au/staff/tj.thomson,https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/hvcq20/current,https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/peacocks-tails-eyespots-feathers",‘Rare pink peacock’ photo is a fowl hoax,,,,,,
52,,,,Missing Context,,2021-05-07,,factcheck_aap,,https://www.aap.com.au/poison-post-delivers-dose-of-misleading-info-on-vaccine-safety/,,,factcheck_aap,,"The StatementA social media post claims there is justification for calling COVID-19 vaccines “poison” because the word appears in Australian legislation authorising defence paramedics and nurses to administer the immunisations.The Facebook post from April 26 features a screenshot of the title of an authorisation notice that appears on the Western Australian government website. It reads “Public Health Act 2016 (WA) – Instrument of Authorisation – Authorisation to Supply or Administer a Poison [SARS-COV-2 (COVID-19) VACCINE – Australian Defence Force] (No.2) 2021”. The word “poison” is circled in red.The post’s caption reads, “What? A poison? Ya don’t say…?? A bit of validation if you’ve been called a ‘conspiracy theorist’ for saying the vax is poison, that’s what the WA state government is calling it…”It continues with a statement that people can “feel free to fact check it yourself that the defence force has been given ‘authorization’ to supply and administer a poison in the name of a ‘vaccine’.”At the time of writing, the post had been viewed more than 50,000 times and shared more than 390 times. Similar claims have been shared on Instagram here and here by other Australian users. A post highlights the word “poison” in WA legislation relating to COVID-19 vaccines. The AnalysisThe post provides a screenshot of a real state government authorisation, however it ignores the fact that every medicine and vaccine distributed in Australia, alongside thousands of other chemicals, are classified under unifying federal legislation known as the Poisons Standard.The post seeks to portray the use of the term “poison” as an indicator that the COVID-19 vaccine will have a toxic or harmful effect. This is misleading. The Poisons Standard’s role is to establish a uniform national guideline for how both medicines and poisons are scheduled, labelled and packaged.The federal Health Department’s Introduction to the Poisons Standard document states at the onset: “Any substance (ingredient) can be a ‘poison’ and cause harm if used incorrectly or taken at the wrong dose.” (page 4)Substances covered by the Poisons Standard are categorised in 10 schedules based on their risk of harm to people, and how accessible they are to the public. COVID-19 vaccines are classified by the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) under schedule four, which covers prescription-only human and animal medicines (see here and here).Australia has provisionally approved two COVID-19 vaccines for use: the AstraZeneca and Pfizer vaccines. The TGA decided the vaccines meet the high safety, efficacy and quality standards required for use in Australia despite extremely rare cases of a potentially fatal blood-clotting adverse reaction to the AstraZeneca vaccine.The legislation featured in the post refers to the WA chief health officer’s decision, under the state’s Public Health Act (page 135-136), to authorise Australian Defence Force paramedics and medical technicians to supply or administer COVID-19 vaccines to the WA population from March 8. In Western Australia, the federal Poisons Standard categories are reflected in the state’s Medicines and Poisons Act 2014.A TGA spokeswoman told AAP FactCheck in an email that, under the law, all medicines are called poisons within the Poisons Standard. A document search within the Standard shows paracetamol, for example, is listed in schedule two while schedule four includes everything from the cholera vaccine to antidepressants as well as the COVID-19 treatments.In the current version of the Poisons Standard, the word “poison” does not appear in the definitions for schedules two to four, which refer to “medicines”, while “poison” and “dangerous poison” appear in schedules six and seven respectively.“Medicines are mostly included in schedules two, three, four and eight of the Poisons Standard, with progression through these schedules signifying increasingly restrictive regulatory controls,” the TGA spokeswoman said, noting that all human vaccines were included in schedule four.Substances in the Poisons Standard are not solely classified based on how toxic they are. Categorisation is based on a series of factors, including purpose of use, potential for abuse, how safe a substance is in use, the need for the substance and toxicity.A spokesperson for WA Health told AAP FactCheck in an email that “medicines are a subset of poisons as they are generally safe only at certain doses. Therefore (they) are regulated accordingly”. The AstraZeneca vaccine is listed under schedule four of the Poisons Standard.","https://archive.ph/ykkvG,https://www.wa.gov.au/government/publications/public-health-act-2016-wa-instrument-of-authorisation-authorisation-supply-or-administer-poison-sars-cov-2-covid-19-vaccine-australian-defence-force-no2-2021?fbclid=IwAR0o6tUtx5Ieq_v6M0P795q-XcFgrZuOgMX4XdDiywycNZmE9zDI2LQ9l_Q,https://www.instagram.com/p/COJHs7JgxLd/?utm_source=ig_embed ,https://www.instagram.com/p/COIcR7MAc7S/,https://www.tga.gov.au/publication/poisons-standard-susmp,https://www.tga.gov.au/publication/poisons-standard-susmp,https://www.tga.gov.au/sites/default/files/introduction-poisons-standard.pdf,https://www.tga.gov.au/scheduling-basics,https://www.ebs.tga.gov.au/servlet/xmlmillr6?dbid=ebs/PublicHTML/pdfStore.nsf&docid=15B200F89DE2BC52CA2586BD004225D8&agid=(PrintDetailsPublic)&actionid=1,https://www.ebs.tga.gov.au/servlet/xmlmillr6?dbid=ebs/PublicHTML/pdfStore.nsf&docid=957D4C259C3CFB90CA2586C000422285&agid=(PrintDetailsPublic)&actionid=1,https://www.tga.gov.au/covid-19-vaccine-provisional-registrations,https://www.tga.gov.au/covid-19-vaccine-astrazeneca-chadox1-s,https://www.tga.gov.au/covid-19-vaccine-pfizer-australia-comirnaty-bnt162b2-mrna,https://www.tga.gov.au/covid-19-vaccine-provisional-registrations,https://www.tga.gov.au/alert/astrazeneca-chadox1-s-covid-19-vaccine-3,https://www.legislation.wa.gov.au/legislation/prod/filestore.nsf/FileURL/mrdoc_43155.pdf/$FILE/Public%20Health%20Act%202016%20-%20%5B00-k0-00%5D.pdf?OpenElement,https://www.wa.gov.au/sites/default/files/2021-05/210305-Authorisation-to-supply-administer-COVID-vaccine-No2-Aus-Defence-Force.pdf,https://www.legislation.wa.gov.au/legislation/prod/filestore.nsf/FileURL/mrdoc_42497.pdf/$FILE/Medicines%20and%20Poisons%20Act%202014%20-%20%5B00-e0-01%5D.pdf?OpenElement,https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/F2021C00098/Html/Text#_Toc62808227,https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/F2021C00098/Html/Text#_Toc62808229,https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/F2021C00098/Html/Text#_Toc62808207,https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/F2021C00098",‘Poison’ post delivers dose of misleading info on vaccine safety,,,,,,
53,,,,Partly False,,2021-05-06,,factcheck_aap,,https://www.aap.com.au/some-of-these-12-healthy-eating-tips-are-hard-to-swallow/,,,factcheck_aap,,"The StatementA Facebook post features a list of health advice, including a claim that food consumed after 8pm becomes “a poison to your body”.The warning, posted by a Vanuatu-based page on April 25, contains 12 tips following on from the question, “Did you know?” They include the claims that people who don’t eat breakfast will have lower blood sugar levels and drinking water only when thirsty is a “license to damage your liver”.The post finishes with the message, “Please take care of your health is wealth”, before listing the seven “biggest brain damaging habits” as: “Missing breakfast; sleeping late; high sugar consumption; wearing cap/scarf or socks while sleeping; habit of blocking/stopping urine.”The same list features in posts from as early as January 2020. The Vanuatu post had been shared more than 3500 times and generated more than 950 reactions at the time of writing. A post claims to provide a “routine of proper eating” with 12 points of health advice. The AnalysisThe Facebook post purportedly provides a “routine of proper eating” – but its tips in reality includes some jumbled and misleading advice.Eating after 8pm is not a “poison to your body”, and a similar claim was debunked in early 2020. Nevertheless, however studies have shown that earlier food intake can be linked to lower body mass index and chance of obesity, and greater weight-loss success.Much of the research has focused on the benefits of eating larger meals in the morning and during the day, and smaller meals at night, although a large-scale study in Japan found that a habit of late-night dinner eating alone – defined as consuming the meal within two hours of bedtime at least three days per week – was linked to hyperglycemia.A 2019 review on the timing of breakfast, lunch and dinner by academics in Spain, concluded: “Unusual eating time can produce a disruption in the circadian system that might lead to unhealthy consequences.”However, the review said a relevant aspect of meal timing studies was to define a “late dinner”, suggesting that 8pm is an arbitrary external deadline.“Dinner at 9pm may be a late circadian dinner for those subjects with melatonin onsets at 7pm, but it may be an early circadian dinner for those whose biological night starts at 1am,” it says.So is there any chance that food consumed after 8pm can become a poison?Not according to Dunedin-based dietitian and author Jennifer Douglas, who told AAP FactCheck that since not everyone needed to worry about their weight, it could hardly be considered “poison” if healthy food was consumed late at night.“Overall intake of food is important for the maintenance of healthy body weight, but how food is distributed over the day can be quite individual and calories are calories no matter what time of day you have them,” Ms Douglas said in an email.Dr Nancy Snyderman came to a similar conclusion in an article for Time Magazine, writing: “It doesn’t matter what time of day you eat. It is what and how much you eat and how much physical activity you do during the whole day that determines whether you gain, lose, or maintain your weight. No matter when you eat, your body will store extra calories as fat. If you want a snack before bedtime, think first about how many calories you’ve eaten that day.”For the claim that people who don’t eat breakfast will have lower blood sugar levels, guidance by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) states the opposite: “Going without that morning meal can increase blood sugar after both lunch and dinner.”Studies have also linked skipping breakfast to higher blood sugar levels. Ms Douglas said the post contradicts itself on the claim.“They encourage people to have breakfast and then say if you don’t have breakfast then you have lower blood sugar level. Well, if you have diabetes or pre-diabetes (which is common in the Pacific nations), a lower blood sugar level is going to be desirable.”A 2019 systematic review and meta-analysis of studies into skipping breakfast concluded the practice was linked with an increased risk of type 2 diabetes. But when it came to weight loss and breakfast, a 2018 review of controlled trials concluded: “Caution is needed when recommending breakfast for weight loss in adults, as it could have the opposite effect.”Ms Douglas told AAP FactCheck: “There are also plenty of studies showing positive relationships between eating breakfast and achieving weight loss. So the jury is out! Therefore telling people that they should eat breakfast when they never have may not actually lead to better outcomes.”For the claim that drinking water only when thirsty can cause liver damage, a 2010 review on water, hydration and health found that thirst is not the only way water intake is controlled in healthy people. However, it does note that it may be beneficial for the elderly to learn to drink regularly when not thirsty as their thirst responses may be weaker than those of younger adults.Toby Mündel, a senior lecturer in Massey University’s School of Sport, Exercise and Nutrition, wrote for The Conversation that by the time you feel thirsty your body is already dehydrated, because our thirst mechanism lags behind our actual level of hydration.However, dehydration is most closely linked with kidney rather than liver damage. Kidney Health Australia advises: “Your body will tell you when you are thirsty. Dehydration means your body does not have enough water and being thirsty is often a sign of already being dehydrated.”Some health experts argue we don’t need to aim for eight glasses of water per day – and that the best gauge of hydration level is our urine colour, which should be light yellow.Ms Douglas noted that drinking excess water could cause its own health problems, such as kidney damage, however to do so one would have to consume around five times the standard daily intake. The Mayo Clinic notes that drinking excess water could lead to life-threatening sodium deficiency, but this was rarely a problem for healthy adults.Ms Douglas also dismissed the post’s claim that “for every bottle of soft drink and/or beer you consume, you have just taken nine cubes and 44 cubes of sugar respectively, and it takes seven days or more for it to wash off your body; men increase their likelihood of having a heart attack by 20 per cent”.“Sugar does not ‘wash off your body’ … as for increasing heart attack in men, well yes, excess sugar leads to weight gain and this increases cardiovascular risk, but every bottle you drink does not increase your risk by 20 per cent.”Ms Douglas said the post showed a lack of knowledge and confusion that many people feel around food.“Using words such as ‘poison’ certainly helps with ‘click bait’ but it does not help people feel empowered to make behaviour changes and makes people feel guilty that the current way they are eating is harmful,” she said.Going without breakfast can increase blood sugar after lunch and dinner, according to CDC advice.","http://archive.today/mNpuz,https://archive.ph/axIvP,https://africacheck.org/fact-checks/fbchecks/no-food-eaten-after-8-pm-not-poisonous,https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6669101/,https://www.nature.com/articles/ijo2012229.,https://www.nbcnews.com/better/pop-culture/meal-timing-weight-loss-does-it-matter-when-you-eat-ncna907091,https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4396539/,https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK430900/,https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6893547/#:~:text=Summary%20of%20the%20main%20meal%20timing%20references.&text=Lunch%20timing%20(early%20eaters%20(lunch,lunch%20after%203%20p.m.))&text=78%25%20Women-,Lunch%20timing%20(early%20eaters%20(lunch%20before%203%20p.m.)%2C,lunch%20after%203%20p.m.))&text=Lunch%20timing%20(early%20eaters%20(lunch%20at%201%20p.m.)%2C,at%204%3A30%20p.m.),https://www.jumpstartnutrition.co.nz/home/about/,http://www.drnancysnyderman.com/,http://content.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,1896439_1896359_1896345,00.html,https://www.cdc.gov/diabetes/library/spotlights/blood-sugar.html,https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1871403X13000082,https://www.healthnavigator.org.nz/health-a-z/d/diabetes-overview/,https://academic.oup.com/jn/article/149/1/106/5167902?login=true,https://www.bmj.com/content/364/bmj.l42,https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2908954/,https://www.massey.ac.nz/massey/expertise/profile.cfm?stref=728930,https://theconversation.com/health-check-what-happens-to-your-body-when-youre-dehydrated-50462,https://www.kidney.org/newsletter/can-dehydration-affect-your-kidneys,https://kidney.org.au/uploads/resources/drink-water-instead-kidney-health-australia-fact-sheet.pdf,https://theconversation.com/do-i-have-to-drink-eight-glasses-of-water-per-day-we-asked-five-experts-93025,https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/nutrition-and-healthy-eating/in-depth/water/art-20044256#:~:text=When%20you%20drink%20too%20much,it%20can%20be%20life%2Dthreatening.",Some of these 12 healthy eating tips are hard to swallow,,,,,,
54,,,,False,,2021-05-05,,factcheck_aap,,https://www.aap.com.au/covid-19-false-positives-claim-is-positively-false/,,,factcheck_aap,,"The StatementA Brisbane-based naturopath has claimed on Facebook that 80 per cent of COVID-19 cases discovered by PCR laboratory tests are found to be negative in follow-up tests.Referring to Greater Brisbane’s three-day lockdown of March 29 to April 1, the post from the Ross Walter Nutritionist & Naturopath Facebook page – several false or misleading posts from which have previously been scrutinised by AAP FactCheck (see here, here and here) – goes on to claim “government and media” are using these false positives as a reason to impose lockdowns and other emergency measures.“I will repeat – the more people get tested for the coronavirus, the more cases they will find, from people who have no symptoms (and who never get any) because the PCR test is inaccurate and up to 80% of positive results are found to be negative on a retest,” the March 30 post says.It goes on to urge people to stop getting tested and “stop believing what the government and media are telling you”.At the time of writing, the post had been shared more than 400 times and received more than 800 reactions and 170 comments. 80% of COVID-19 cases discovered by PCR tests are found to be negative after a retest, a post says. The AnalysisThe claim that 80 per cent of positive COVID-19 PCR tests are false positives is “rubbish”, one virologist told AAP FactCheck, with recent test data in Australia showing the number is closer to zero.International studies also show the proportion of PCR tests that turn up a false positive result is small. In addition, there is no credible evidence that false positive COVID-19 tests have been used to impose emergency measures in Australia.PCR (polymerase chain reaction) tests are considered by health experts in Australia to be the gold standard of COVID-19 diagnoses. The tests work by detecting nucleic acid sequences that are specific to the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes COVID-19. Results typically take several hours to be produced in a laboratory setting.False-positive results – a test showing that a person is infected when they are not – are “uncommon”, the Australian Department of Health told AAP FactCheck in a statement.When they do occur, this is usually due to mistakes at the specimen collection stage, mishandling of specimens, contamination in laboratories or “off-target reactivity”, meaning the test wrongly responds to genetic material other than the COVID-19 virus, it said.False positives are more likely to occur in non-laboratory rapid COVID-19 tests, such as antigen tests, which can produce results in half an hour or less but are generally used in situations where there are large-scale outbreaks.Australia’s national guidelines for public health units dealing with COVID-19 recommend laboratory testing for SARS-CoV-2 and include a five-step process to catch suspected false positives, which it says may be suspected when “there is a lack of an epidemiological risk factor for acquisition of COVID-19” (page 20).The process includes a review of the test subject’s clinical history to ascertain other possible reasons for the result such as shedding a previous infection; collecting further test samples; and, where feasible, additional testing of close contacts.The guidelines say if a second test shows up positive during this process, the person should be classified as a confirmed case of COVID-19. However, if further investigations provide “convincing evidence” that the case is negative, it can be considered a false positive (page 21).At this stage, “all public health interventions can be ceased, and the case and contacts should be made aware of the outcome”, while any reporting of the case locally and nationally should be reversed, the guidelines add.CQ University immunology lecturer Jason Steel told the ABC in August that positive tests were almost always re-tested in order for any false positives to be caught.While the exact rate of false positives is unknown due to variations in how tests are conducted across different regions and countries, there is no evidence that the figure is anywhere near the 80 per cent claimed in the post.A Public Health Ontario analysis of test results, published in September 2020, found a false positive rate of less than 0.01 per cent.Paul Birrell, a statistician at the Medical Research Council’s Biostatistics Unit at the University of Cambridge, told the BBC in October 2020 that the number of false positives may depend on the test setting.“The false positive rate is not well understood and could potentially vary according to where and why the test is being taken. A figure of 0.5% for the false positive rate is often assumed.”Experts have noted the rate may tend to be higher in regions where there is a low incidence of COVID-19, although efforts to measure and improve have tended to focus on reducing false negatives in order to avoid missing potentially serious cases and outbreaks.University of Auckland professor Shaun Hendy, who led COVID-19 modelling that informed the New Zealand government’s response to the pandemic, previously told AAP FactCheck the false positive rate is thought to be “well below one per cent if the tests are conducted properly” and “more like 0.1 per cent”.Ian Mackay, a virologist from the University of Queensland, described the post’s 80 per cent false positives claim as “rubbish”, adding the rate in Australia under current test conditions is probably very near to zero.Pointing to COVID-19 testing data from Queensland as an example, Dr Mackay told AAP FactCheck: “During the recent cluster in Queensland over eight days (March 28 to April 4), Queensland tested 180,887 specimens and found 46 positives. If all of those were false (they weren’t), that would still only be a maximum false positive rate of 0.025 per cent.“And of course, none were false positives because they were either checked and confirmed as part of known chains of transmission or as travellers from overseas countries in which transmission is widespread … The real rate is likely well below this figure of 1 in 180,887.”Queensland Health declined to provide data on the rate of false positives in the state but told AAP FactCheck they were “very uncommon”.“In almost all cases, these results have features which alert the laboratory… and the test would be repeated by the treating doctor to ensure accuracy of the test. If it is revealed the result was a false positive, the case is removed from the state tally,” a spokesperson for Queensland Health said in an email. A group of negative COVID-19 rapid tests are displayed.","https://archive.ph/pouv0,https://statements.qld.gov.au/statements/91825,https://www.aap.com.au/vitamin-d-claim-for-covid-19-fails-to-shine-light-on-evidence/,https://www.aap.com.au/no-bill-gates-isnt-partnering-with-id-companies-to-implant-microchips-in-humans/,https://www.aap.com.au/the-2019-coronavirus-is-not-a-man-made-combination-of-hiv-and-sars-viruses/,https://www.tga.gov.au/covid-19-testing-australia-information-health-professionals,https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/neuroscience/nucleic-acid-sequence#:~:text=A%20nucleic%20acid%20sequence%2C%20the,each%20specifying%20one%20amino%20acid.,https://www.health.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/2020/07/phln-guidance-on-nucleic-acid-test-result-interpretation-for-sars-cov-2.docx,https://www.fda.gov/medical-devices/letters-health-care-providers/potential-false-positive-results-antigen-tests-rapid-detection-sars-cov-2-letter-clinical-laboratory,https://www1.health.gov.au/internet/main/publishing.nsf/Content/7A8654A8CB144F5FCA2584F8001F91E2/$File/COVID-19-SoNG-v4.3.pdf,https://staff-profiles.cqu.edu.au/home/view/23824,https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2020-08-12/coronavirus-reliability-of-covid-19-testing/12545688,https://www.publichealthontario.ca/-/media/documents/ncov/main/2020/09/cycle-threshold-values-sars-cov2-pcr.pdf?la=en,https://www.infectiousdisease.cam.ac.uk/directory/pjb51@cam.ac.uk,https://www.bbc.com/news/54270373,https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanres/article/PIIS2213-2600(20)30453-7/fulltext#%20,https://unidirectory.auckland.ac.nz/profile/shaun-hendy,https://www.aap.com.au/covid-19-false-positives-dont-make-case-figures-meaningless/,https://researchers.uq.edu.au/researcher/4428",COVID-19 false positives claim is positively false,,,,,,
55,,,,Partly False,,2021-05-04,,factcheck_aap,,https://www.aap.com.au/child-hunger-and-covid-19-deaths-a-flawed-comparison/,,,factcheck_aap,,"The StatementA social media post compares the number of people who purportedly died from COVID-19 over the preceding two months with the number of children who it claims died from starvation.The April 13 post by a New Zealand-based Facebook page features a meme showing an image of a man blowing his nose below the text, “In the last 2 months 3,000 people died from coronavirus.”A second image, of a group of dark-skinned children gathered around what appears to be food, is included under the words, “But 500,000 children died of starvation.”The post text states: “Our perception of reality has been warped and contrived!” At the time of writing, it had generated more than 250 interactions. A meme shared on Facebook claims only 3000 people died from COVID-19 in the past two months. The AnalysisThe post may draw valid attention to the plight of impoverished children – whose outcomes are expected to worsen due to the socio-economic impacts of the coronavirus pandemic – but it misleadingly cites drastically wrong COVID-19 death figures to make its point.The claim that 3000 people died from the coronavirus over the preceding two months can’t be squared with the data; in fact, on the single day before the post, April 12, 11,854 people were recorded as dying from COVID-19, according to World Health Organization figures.In the two-month period from February 13 to April 12, the same data showed there were more than 570,000 COVID-19 deaths recorded worldwide. As of May 4, nearly 3.2 million fatal cases had been reported globally.When it comes to the number of “children who died of starvation”, however, the meme is closer to the mark – although the source of its figure is unclear.Before the COVID-19 pandemic, child mortality rates had been trending down. In 1990, the median estimate of under-five deaths globally was 12.494 million.In 2019, it was 5.189 million, according to UNICEF data released in September 2020, although the UN agency described these 14,000 under-five deaths a day as “an intolerably high number of largely preventable child deaths”.The annual figure equates to around 864,000 deaths every two months. UNICEF says that nearly half of all deaths of children aged under five are attributable to malnutrition – not far from the post’s claimed 500,000 figure.WHO provided a similar figure in 2014, when it said that “poor nutrition causes nearly half (45 per cent) of deaths in children under five – 3.1 million children each year”. That equates to 517,000 deaths every two months.However, it should be noted that while the Facebook post says “starvation” causes 500,000 child deaths each year, this is not the same as malnutrition. A 2020 UNICEF summary of trends in child malnutrition says malnutrition includes stunting, which results from poor nutrition in utero and early childhood; wasting, the life-threatening result of poor nutrient intake and disease; and childhood obesity.A UN World Food Programme representative, Jane Howard, told the BBC in 2013 that attributing figures like the three million child deaths to “hunger’ – as some campaigns did – was misleading as only a small proportion of these children actually “starve to death”.“But the truth is that the vast majority of those numbers that we’re talking about, are children who, because they haven’t had the right nutrition in the very earliest parts of their lives, are really very susceptible to infectious diseases, like measles,” Ms Howard said at the time.The UNICEF data also focuses on children under five, while the post refers only to “children”. AAP FactCheck asked UNICEF for data on deaths from malnutrition among children aged five and older, and any information on deaths just from “starvation” or wasting. The UN agency had not provided further data at the time of publication.UNICEF predicted last year that COVID-19 could also have a severe impact on child health and nutrition, with an extra 6.7 million extra children worldwide at risk of suffering from wasting due to the pandemic’s effect on household incomes, food supply and services like health and social protection (page 25).It estimated that an additional 128,605 deaths could occur in children under the age of five over the year due to increases in wasting due to the pandemic. UNICEF says the COVID-19 pandemic could lead to millions more children going hungry.","https://archive.ph/G0ZDr,https://covid19.who.int/,https://data.unicef.org/topic/child-survival/under-five-mortality/,https://data.unicef.org/topic/nutrition/malnutrition/,https://un.org.au/2014/05/14/who-hunger-statistics/#:~:text=Poor%20nutrition%20causes%20nearly%20half,rise%20to%20one%20in%20three,https://data.unicef.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Joint-Malnutrition-Estimates-2020-brochure.pdf,https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-22935692,https://data.unicef.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Levels-and-trends-in-child-mortality-IGME-English_2020.pdf,https://www.unicef.org/press-releases/unicef-additional-67-million-children-under-5-could-suffer-wasting-year-due-covid-19",Child hunger and COVID-19 deaths a flawed comparison,,,,,,
56,,,,Partly False,,2021-05-03,,factcheck_aap,,https://www.aap.com.au/tale-of-the-unsinkable-hugh-williams-a-little-too-good-to-be-true/,,,factcheck_aap,,"The StatementA Facebook post claims that three people with the same name were the sole survivors of three Welsh shipwrecks that occurred on the same date.The April 20 post included an image of a rusted ship above the text: “Over a period of 200 years, 3 ships perished at the same location off the coast of Wales, all on the same day (5th December) and all 3 had only one survivor, with the same name: Hugh Williams (1664, 1785, 1820).”At the time of writing, the post, from an Australian user, had been shared more than 760 times, attracting more than 100 comments and 1400 reactions.The meme has been shared elsewhere multiple times. A similar post was shared on The Knowledge Factory Facebook page on May 14, 2017, attracting more than 6000 shares and 58,000 reactions. The story was also featured in a YouTube video with more than 460,000 views, while the image is also on an online meme library. Three people with the same name were the sole survivors of shipwrecks off Wales, a post claims. The AnalysisThe story of Hugh Williams shipwrecks have been published with varying details for nearly 200 years, but the facts of the tale are somewhat at sea.Multiple sources claim the maritime accidents occurred in the Menai Strait, a 24km-long channel in North Wales separating the island of Anglesey from the mainland where shipwrecks and other deadly maritime incidents frequently occurred.According to a Welsh history website, the strait was dangerous to cross, with two opposing tides creating strong currents and whirlpools and ferries “would often capsize, or sink, and lives were frequently lost”.The website notes that the worst incident occurred in 1785 when a boat carrying 55 people ran aground on a sandbank. It says only one person survived – but the sole survivor is not named and the date is not included.A Google Books search lists the earliest published reference to the Hugh Williams story as 1822 in the Philological Society of London’s European Magazine and London Review’s “Provincial Occurrences” section (page 190). However, unlike the Facebook post, it claims the 1820 incident occurred on August 5, not December 5.“In the year 1664, on the 5th of December, a boat on the Menai crossing that strait, with eighty-one passengers, was upset, and only one passenger named Hugh Williams, was saved,” the article said.“On the same day, in the year 1785, was upset another boat, containing about sixty persons, and every soul perished with the exception of one, whose name also was Hugh Williams; and on the 5th of August, 1820, a third boat met the same disaster, but the passengers of this were no more than twenty-five, and, singular to relate, the whole perished, with the exception of one, whose name was Hugh Williams.”In the same year, the Brighton Gleaner published the story with the same details (page 391). In 1824, a publication titled, The Cabinet of Curiosities, published the story and attributed it to the Bristol Mercury (page 33). However, the archives of the newspaper do not appear to contain a record of the incident until 1841.A book, Leigh’s Guide to Wales and Monmouthshire, also published the story in 1831, but claimed there were 87 passengers on the boat in 1664, not 81. Another book, Scenes in North Wales (1833), includes different figures and dates again, and only mentions two of the incidents – 1783 involving 69 deaths and the second maritime accident on August 5, 1820.The tale is mentioned in the Book of North Wales (1850), although its version also notes a fourth incident in the Menai Strait, on 20 May, 1842, involving a sole survivor – this time named Richard Thomas.The Williams story also features in the Guide to North Wales (1860), which states “this extraordinary coincidence can only be explained by the circumstance that the name of Hugh Williams is very common in these parts”. By 1888, the tale appears to have gone global, and it is included in newspapers in the US.It is not clear whether any of these sources are accurate; they don’t include any primary sources for the information and the details are inconsistent.Welsh journalist Iolo Wyn Griffiths has written multiple works on local history, including about the ferries and bridges of the Menai Strait and the Hugh Williams tale in the History of Newborough.In an email, Griffiths told AAP FactCheck the 1664 incident may be true but lacks evidence, while the details of the 1785 incident appear to be accurate; however, the date for the 1820 incident in the meme is false.The History of Newborough states the 1664 and 1785 events occurred on the Caernarfon to Abermenai ferry and the sole survivor of the 1785 sinking was “Hugh Williams of Din Llwyden” who survived by lashing an oar to the mast of the ferry.The book also notes the 1820 sinking was said to have occurred on December 5, and Hugh Williams of Bodowyr was the sole survivor. However it notes other versions of the legend list the date of the second sinking as September 5, 1785 and the third sinking as August 5, 1820.“The legend puts the 1820 (sinking) as December 5, but the newspaper article that I found through Welsh Newspapers Online gives the date as August 5, and the entries for Llanidan parish register in the month after that date certainly indicates that some kind of ferry disaster had happened then,” Griffiths told AAP FactCheck.“I can understand the temptation to try to fit all three disasters into December 5, and the way the story has developed, that is indeed what has happened to make the August 1820 disaster into a December one.”He said one guidebook claimed that the survivor of the 1785 and the 1820 disaster was the same man, which is “not at all likely when he had died in 1808”.“If nothing else, it illustrates that the best stories are often only partly true.”Griffths added that Hugh Williams is a common name “so it is not impossible (but highly improbable) for there to be three sinkings, among the many that have happened, where there is only one survivor, with the same name”.Multiple websites that delved into the claim of the “unsinkable Hugh Williams” note early versions of the story give the date of the first sinking as August. They also identify that Hugh Williams is a common Welsh name and the Menai Strait is a dangerous body of water, making the coincidence not quite as unlikely as it first seems (see also here and here).Beaumaris on the island of Anglesey, which is separated from the Welsh mainland by the Menai Strait.","https://archive.is/kbFHv,https://archive.ph/9UYK8,https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m29PQBLwF4E&ab_channel=JeffHix,https://ifunny.co/picture/over-a-period-of-200-years-3-ships-perished-at-kKMeqOKw7,https://www.britannica.com/place/Menai-Strait,https://www.peoplescollection.wales/content/crossing-menai-strait,https://www.google.co.nz/search?q=1664+1785+1820+%22hugh+williams%22&biw=873&bih=745&tbs=cdr%3A1%2Ccd_min%3A1%2F1%2F1700%2Ccd_max%3A12%2F31%2F1830&tbm=bks&sxsrf=ALeKk00C9mHXvBG31g_FKNfMUYQPvqt-OQ%3A1619409536232&ei=gDqGYMLQDc31juMPg9m2wAg&oq=1664+1785+1820+%22hugh+williams%22&gs_l=psy-ab.3...26025.26745.0.27013.5.5.0.0.0.0.0.0..0.0....0...1c.1.64.psy-ab..5.0.0....0.wZeIGxhrqSA,https://www.google.co.nz/books/edition/The_European_Magazine_and_London_Review/BNgPAAAAQAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1,https://www.google.co.nz/books/edition/The_Brighton_gleaner_or_General_reposito/O3oEAAAAQAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=menai+strait+%22hugh+williams%22&pg=PA390&printsec=frontcover,https://www.google.co.nz/books/edition/The_Cabinet_of_Curiosities/2Y4AAAAAYAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=menai+strait+%22hugh+williams%22&pg=PA32&printsec=frontcover,https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/titles/bristol-mercury,https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/viewer/bl/0000034/18410417/027/0007,https://books.google.co.nz/books?redir_esc=y&id=BpNeAAAAcAAJ&q=%22hugh+Williams%22#v=snippet&q=%22hugh%20Williams%22&f=false,https://books.google.co.nz/books?redir_esc=y&id=QFVUAAAAcAAJ&q=%22hugh+williams%22#v=snippet&q=%22hugh%20williams%22&f=false,https://www.google.co.nz/books/edition/The_Book_of_North_Wales_Scenery_Antiquit/alO1KHN1R5sC?hl=en&gbpv=1,https://www.google.co.nz/books/edition/Guide_to_north_Wales/LLcHAAAAQAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1,https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/?a=d&d=CFT18880525-01.2.83&e=-------en-20--1--img-txIN%7ctxCO%7ctxTA--------0------,https://twitter.com/griffithsiolo?lang=en,https://www.amazon.com/Iolo-Wyn-Griffiths/e/B00DXL9XQK,https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07XBNRR45/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i3,https://www.amazon.com/History-Newborough-Iolo-Griffiths/dp/1393710743,https://newspapers.library.wales/,https://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/place/6485,http://www.oldsaltblog.com/2012/07/the-unsinkable-hugh-williams-truth-behind-the-legend/,http://thescuttlefish.com/2010/12/hms-friday-the-legend-of-hugh-williams/,http://www.hoaxorfact.com/miscellaneous/the-strangest-coincidence-ever-recorded-facts-analysis.html",Tale of the ‘unsinkable Hugh Williams’ a little too good to be true,,,,,,
57,,,,False,,2021-04-30,,factcheck_aap,,https://www.aap.com.au/did-julian-assange-say-theres-no-dirt-on-donald-trump/,,,factcheck_aap,,"The StatementAn Instagram meme claims WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange admitted his organisation never posted “dirt” on Donald Trump because no such material existed.The meme, posted by an Australian account on April 17, includes a screenshot of Assange alongside former Fox News host Megyn Kelly. According to the meme, Kelly asked Assange: “Why doesn’t WikiLeaks report dirt on Trump?”In response to the question, Assange is said to have replied: “There isn’t any.” The meme’s text ends with the words: “I love America.”At the time of writing, the post had been liked more than 1150 times and viewed more than 9400 times. Other examples of the meme, dating back as far as late 2018, have been shared thousands of times on social media (see here and here). A meme claims WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said there was no “dirt” on Donald Trump. The AnalysisWikiLeaks played a central and controversial role in the 2016 US presidential election, publishing hacked emails from the Democratic campaign and Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman.But while the organisation was later revealed to be in contact with Trump affiliates during the successful presidential bid, the meme misquotes Julian Assange – and misrepresents the reasons for WikiLeaks’ relative silence on Donald Trump.The meme is drawn from an interview with Assange on the Fox News show The Kelly File in August 2016, three months before the presidential election. Both Assange and host Megyn Kelly’s clothes and the backdrops visible behind both speakers match the meme’s screenshot.However, the interview includes no references from Kelly to “dirt” on Mr Trump, nor does Assange say “there isn’t any”.The closest exchange to that referred to in the meme takes place at the 3min 15sec mark in the video, when Kelly says: “I gotta ask you about the US election. As you point out, you’re not an American citizen, you’re an Australian. You’re clearly not rooting for Hillary, but are you rooting for Trump?”Assange answers: “No. If we have good information on Trump, we publish that. If we have good information on Hillary or Democrats, we publish that.”At no time in the interview does Assange say that no compromising material on Mr Trump exists.At one point, after suggesting Ms Clinton had latched onto “hysteria” about Russian election interference, Assange says: “The Trump campaign has all sorts of things wrong with it, but as far as we can see being a Russian agent isn’t one of them.” (video mark 4:25)He adds: “Some people have asked us when will you release information on Donald Trump, and of course we are very interested in all countries to reveal information about different candidates … but actually it’s really hard for us to release anything worse than what comes out of Donald Trump’s mouth every second day.”The oldest versions AAP FactCheck found of the meme’s text were in text-only posts, such as this one on Facebook, from November 2016. However, the misleading claim that Assange said no “dirt” on Mr Trump existed spread rapidly in memes from 2018 onwards.One Facebook post including the meme, from a page called Donald Trump Fan Club, has been shared more than 6600 times, while another, from The New American Patriot page, has been shared more than 4900 times.Assange repeated similar comments to those included in the interview in subsequent public statements. In a press release on November 8, 2016, Assange said WikiLeaks could not publish what it did not have, adding: “To date, we have not received information on Donald Trump’s campaign.”WikiLeaks publicly solicited for potentially compromising information on Mr Trump, asking followers on Twitter in 2017 to leak the then president’s tax returns after his office said they would not be released.However, the organisation never released any leaked material that was directly damaging to Mr Trump. WikiLeaks did publish documents relating to the CIA and to US embassies during the Trump administration, whose Department of Justice in May 2019 upgraded criminal charges against Assange.Mr Trump notably cooled on WikiLeaks during the term of his presidency after famously saying during the 2016 election campaign: “I love WikiLeaks.” In 2017, then CIA director Mike Pompeo – who later became secretary of state – called WikiLeaks a “hostile intelligence service”.In 2019, UK police arrested Assange at the Ecuadorian embassy to face extradition on US conspiracy charges. His lawyer later claimed in court that a Trump ally had offered Assange a pardon in return for information that would “benefit president Trump politically”.No such pardon was forthcoming, despite pleas to Mr Trump by Assange’s partner Stella Moris for clemency before the president departed the White House. Assange remains in London’s Belmarsh Prison despite the US extradition request being rejected by a British judge. WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange remains in London’s Belmarsh Prison.","https://www.instagram.com/p/CNviSULAvs3/,https://www.britannica.com/biography/Julian-Assange,https://www.facebook.com/791939017574708/posts/1628553490579919,https://www.facebook.com/448327105245979/posts/2037223793022961,https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-russia-wikileaks-idUSKBN1E12J2,https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/11/the-secret-correspondence-between-donald-trump-jr-and-wikileaks/545738/,https://www.foxnews.com/transcript/assange-talks-revealing-the-truth-through-wikileaks-ramos-neutrality-not-always-an-option-for-journalists,https://www.britannica.com/topic/United-States-presidential-election-of-2016,https://twitter.com/megynkelly,https://www.facebook.com/527976870638082/posts/810753459027087,https://archive.ph/tGmzY,https://archive.ph/uI1AF,https://wikileaks.org/Assange-Statement-on-the-US-Election.html,https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/823212055322853382,https://wikileaks.org//vault8/#Hive,https://web.archive.org/web/20210417192242/https://shoppinglist.wikileaks.org/,https://www.reuters.com/article/us-wikileaks-assange-usa-idUSKCN1ST2L4,https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-04-12/donald-trump-administration-pressing-charges-julian-assange/10995934,https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/cia-director-pompeo-calls-wikileaks-hostile-intelligence-service-n746311,https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-47891737,https://www.reuters.com/article/us-britain-assange-idUSKBN2691VW,https://twitter.com/StellaMoris1/status/1350807232699629568,https://www.theguardian.com/media/2021/apr/11/britain-risks-damaging-reputation-by-keeping-julian-assange-in-jail-says-partner-stella-moris",Did Julian Assange say there’s no ‘dirt’ on Donald Trump?,,,,,,
58,,,,False,,2021-04-30,,factcheck_aap,,https://www.aap.com.au/radio-ga-ga-there-is-no-nz-government-gag-on-rnz-comments/,,,factcheck_aap,,"The StatementA Facebook post claims the New Zealand Labour administration told the country’s public radio broadcaster, RNZ, to remove comments on social media that were critical of government policy.The April 28 post from a New Zealand-based page includes a picture of RNZ’s logo and a swastika alongside the words “Third Reich” and an image of NZ Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern. The text reads: “And so it begins. The Labour government have told RadioNZ to remove any comments from its social media platform that criticise government policy.”The post had been shared more than 270 times, attracting more than 150 comments, 190 reactions and 20,000 views at the time of writing. RNZ has been told to remove social media criticism of NZ government policy, a post claims. The AnalysisDespite the post’s claims, comments criticising New Zealand government policy continue to be published on Radio NZ’s Facebook page. The government said it had issued no instructions to RNZ about removing or moderating comments, and the public broadcaster confirmed no such requests had been received.The Facebook post does not include a source for its claim, however it appears to be in response to RNZ updating its Facebook comments policy on April 27. The policy said RNZ would not tolerate harmful communications, including abusive posts on social media, and it would proactively disable comments on Facebook posts that may attract abusive comments.“Comments may be deleted, and accounts banned or referred under the Harmful Digital Communications legislation,” the policy said, referring to laws introduced under the National Party government in 2015.RNZ said it would remove comments that were “obviously illegal, defamatory, ‘fake news’, or trolling the page or other commenters”. Other rules included: “No personal attacks, name calling, comments about someone’s parentage, hate speech, or ad-hominem attack … Anything that could be taken as threatening, harassing, bullying, obscene, offensive, pornographic, sexist, racist, homophobic (or any other ~ist) is unacceptable and will be removed.”The policy did not say that posts critical of New Zealand’s Labour government would be removed.Since the policy was adopted, RNZ has limited comments on some posts about COVID-19 and vaccinations – see examples here, here and here – and stories involving legal issues.However, multiple stories and comments have been posted that are critical of the Ardern government. For example, on a post on April 28 about the rising cost of housing, one commenter said: “Thanks Labour for creating the greatest housing crisis in history. Greatest homelessness and child poverty rates NZ has ever had. Greatest unaffordability of living and greatest Government dependency while we keep moving closer to communism.”For an April 29 post about calls for more support services for those in emergency accommodation, one comment said: “whats (sic) happened to this govt ending child poverty? Another failure lack of accountability and achievement (sic)”.Another post on April 30 covered criticisms of the government’s bowel screening program, with a comment adding: “LIEBOUR will make this 1000% worse than what it was 4yrs ago”.A spokesperson for the NZ prime minister’s office said the Facebook post’s claims had “no basis in fact”.“The government has made no request to RNZ to moderate their comments in any way,” the spokesperson told AAP FactCheck in an email.An RNZ spokesperson also told AAP FactCheck the post’s claim is false, adding: “There has been no request from the government to restrict comments on our social media posts.”NZ Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern speaks to RNZ during a press conference in Christchurch.","https://archive.ph/5cgOJ,https://www.facebook.com/RadioNewZealand/posts/10158530458908731,https://www.rnz.co.nz/harmful-communications?fbclid=IwAR2DwAZlOZcxPhoR1jhX6O6EjsN4UzqOlf0s-X61Ic3cqr5xCKIaPZxtFNk,https://www.netsafe.org.nz/what-is-the-hdca/,https://www.facebook.com/RadioNewZealand/posts/10158531780413731,https://www.facebook.com/RadioNewZealand/posts/10158530688653731,https://www.facebook.com/RadioNewZealand/posts/10158534490178731,https://www.facebook.com/RadioNewZealand/posts/10158532636968731,https://www.facebook.com/RadioNewZealand/posts/10158532190553731,https://www.facebook.com/RadioNewZealand/posts/10158532190553731?comment_id=10158534413158731&__cft__[0]=AZUM0RnYndfmSwoO0M4PpN9Y0RfXvLVr-DGB_r4euTxlNn3oMVFj8EIu1ZhpyJp7udbPc0-H3D2utkU5LW6bk3xh7XTkP9F47s9Z__hcBdEQF7gAp-W9NSC_HdX0QCO87nrPEX5tzPQ5EcbpORXH-bLg&__tn__=R]-R,https://www.facebook.com/RadioNewZealand/posts/10158534731703731,https://www.facebook.com/RadioNewZealand/posts/10158534731703731?comment_id=10158534753033731&__cft__[0]=AZX0WS9ZiBUaB_od5EpTyX31PAW1SIMWfxo2H48UrDgJV9KZBa8ijY0mvpEYkLjJ37dBKYRvTojSxHhT2E1Uv4MvH3OFlUuY2yOQ37j6jzCNjD4sEKuMIbk2A2ttQ91LMfr2gi_6zS6P4-nCu7xQejHH&__tn__=R]-R,https://www.facebook.com/RadioNewZealand/posts/10158536263488731,https://www.facebook.com/RadioNewZealand/posts/10158536263488731?comment_id=10158536282023731&__cft__[0]=AZUUsezpXrh5Z2cZScGAKXIhh7GexwjwLz1oFVEKxjshoSeEHx22cbZWmkxWcq5-apMISTYzWtbbw6nJar6Tl8vxMF8xxMcf-6bwAHBICIqOHUvZ_sydmNuK_AavsLfm0MfkSbzTFlG63Jvzmn3nnUxN&__tn__=R]-R",Radio ga ga: There is no NZ government gag on RNZ comments,,,,,,
59,,,,False,,2021-04-29,,factcheck_aap,,https://www.aap.com.au/covid-19-vaccine-gene-therapy-suggestion-diagnosed-as-false/,,,factcheck_aap,,"The StatementA social media post asserts that COVID-19 vaccines are “gene therapy”, presenting as evidence their apparent need to be approved by Australia’s gene technology authority.The Instagram post, shared by an Australian user on April 19, includes the caption: “Please read this and circulate it to ANYONE who doesn’t believe that these experimental biological injections are gene therapy.”“These injections needed to be approved as gene technology!!!” the caption adds.The post features a screenshot of text relating to the Office of the Gene Technology Regulator (OGTR) and its responsibilities. The text states the authority “will be required to approve and license any COVID-19 vaccines being administered in Australia that use GMOs (genetically modified organisms)”.The Instagram post, which had been viewed more than 10,000 times at the time of writing, is among several examples of users in Australia suggesting COVID-19 vaccines are “gene therapy” (see here and here). A post claims COVID-19 vaccines are “gene therapy” and need to be approved as “gene technology”. The AnalysisThe COVID-19 vaccines approved for use in Australia do not constitute “gene therapy” as they do not alter humans’ genetic code, experts say. The false claim echoes misinformation, previously debunked by AAP FactCheck, that mRNA vaccines can change people’s DNA.In addition, the involvement of the Office of the Gene Technology Regulator in approving some vaccines does not show the treatments involve gene therapy. Rather, its role is to assess the potential wider impact of genetically modified organisms incorporated into any of the immunisations.The Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA), which regulates medicines, vaccines and medical devices in Australia, has provisionally approved two COVID-19 vaccines for use: AstraZeneca’s adenovirus vaccine and Pfizer’s mRNA vaccine.However, neither of these vaccines could be considered a form of gene therapy, according to Professor Michael Wallach, an infectious diseases and vaccines expert from the University of Technology Sydney.The federal government’s HealthDirect website defines gene therapy as the process of “replacing a person’s faulty genes or introducing new genes in order to treat diseases”.Prof Wallach told AAP FactCheck the COVID-19 vaccines “do not modify the genome … they do not get incorporated into the genome in any way.”“(These vaccines) are intended solely for the purpose of eliciting an immune response against the virus, and once the immune response is elicited, it disappears from our body,” he said in a phone interview.The Pfizer vaccine uses an mRNA strand to train the body’s cells to produce a spike protein contained in SARS-CoV-2 – the virus that causes COVID-19. The body’s immune system then recognises the protein as a foreign body and produces antibodies in response, which helps protect the body from future infection.In response to previous false claims that mRNA vaccines could alter recipients’ DNA or genomes, experts told AAP FactCheck this was a “biologicial impossiblity”. mRNA from vaccines never enters the nucleus of a cell, where DNA is kept, the CDC says. DNA sequences make up a person’s genes, the unique combination of which forms their genotype.In contrast, the AstraZeneca vaccine involves the use of a weakened chimpanzee cold virus, or adenovirus, modified to contain a genetic sequence from a SARS-CoV-2 spike protein. This induces an immune response against the virus in recipients.Oxford University’s Vaccine Knowledge Project says there is also no possibility of viral DNA from the AstraZeneca vaccine integrating with DNA due to cells’ natural protection measures, as well as the short-lived nature of the viral DNA and spike protein material from the vaccine.The text relating to the OGTR included in the screenshot can be found in an Australian government COVID-19 vaccine policy document. Both the document and the screenshot include the caveat that its oversight extends to any vaccines that incorporate GMOs, including “all adenovirus vaccines and some of the mRNA vaccines”. Only the AstraZeneca and Janssen vaccines (search: “COVID”) are covered under this remit.The AstraZeneca vaccine is considered a GMO because its adenovirus genes have been modified to stop it from replicating, and the spike protein sequence has been added.Associate professor Karinne Ludlow, a biotechnology and genetic technologies researcher from Monash University, told AAP FactCheck the OGTR’s job is primarily to assess environmental risks from vaccines or other products that involve GMOs.“In theory, there could be a risk a vial could drop, and it could get into the ground – (the regulator looks at) those sorts of risks for vaccines,” Dr Ludlow said in a phone interview.Dr Ludlow added that the AstraZeneca vaccine is regulated as a GMO, however it wasn’t considered gene therapy.In its assessment of the AstraZeneca vaccine, the OGTR found there were “negligible” risks attached to the treatment. Its analysis focused on any dangers to the environment and people other than the intended vaccine recipient, the report’s summary said (page II).A spokeswoman for the Department of Health also told AAP FactCheck that COVID-19 vaccines do not alter an individual’s DNA or genetics.She said the OGTR’s role “does not include patient safety, efficacy or quality of the vaccine which are the aspects assessed by the TGA as part of the registration of the vaccines”. AstraZeneca’s vaccine has been provisionally approved for use in Australia.","https://www.instagram.com/p/CN2KXkkJQzW/,https://www.facebook.com/100063464899593/posts/145717560887073,https://archive.ph/VhFJ6,http://www.ogtr.gov.au/internet/ogtr/publishing.nsf/Content/about-regulator-1,https://www.tga.gov.au/tga-basics,https://www.tga.gov.au/media-release/tga-provisionally-approves-astrazenecas-covid-19-vaccine,https://www.tga.gov.au/media-release/tga-provisionally-approves-pfizer-covid-19-vaccine,https://profiles.uts.edu.au/Michael.Wallach,https://www.healthdirect.gov.au/gene-therapy,https://www.britannica.com/science/human-genome,https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/different-vaccines/mrna.html#:~:text=First%2C%20COVID%2D19%20mRNA%20vaccines,protein%20piece%20on%20its%20surface.,https://www.aap.com.au/chill-out-cold-storage-mrna-covid-19-vaccines-are-legitimate/,https://www.genome.gov/genetics-glossary/genotype,https://www.research.ox.ac.uk/Article/2020-07-19-the-oxford-covid-19-vaccine,https://vk.ovg.ox.ac.uk/vk/covid-19-vaccines,https://www.health.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/2020/11/australian-covid-19-vaccination-policy.docx#:~:text=The%20Office%20of%20the%20Gene%20Technology%20Regulator%20(OGTR)&text=The%20OGTR%20will%20be%20required,not%20generally%20require%20OGTR%20approval.,https://www.sbs.com.au/news/government-decides-against-using-johnson-johnson-s-one-dose-covid-19-vaccine-in-australia,http://www.ogtr.gov.au/internet/ogtr/publishing.nsf/Content/ir-1,https://allianceforscience.cornell.edu/blog/2020/12/yes-some-covid-vaccines-use-genetic-engineering-get-over-it/,https://research.monash.edu/en/persons/karinne-ludlow,http://www.ogtr.gov.au/internet/ogtr/publishing.nsf/Content/dir180/$FILE/Full%20Risk%20Assessment%20and%20Risk%20Management%20Plan.pdf",COVID-19 vaccine ‘gene therapy’ suggestion diagnosed as false,,,,,,
60,,,,False,,2021-04-28,,factcheck_aap,,https://www.aap.com.au/no-this-photo-doesnt-show-scott-morrison-wearing-a-30000-rolex/,,,factcheck_aap,,"The StatementA photo of Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison wearing a watch in parliament has lit up social media, with several posts claiming the timepiece is a Rolex worth more than $30,000.One of the posts was shared to a Facebook group called “We Loathe Dutton & Morrison” on April 17. It features a close-up photo of Mr Morrison sitting in the House of Representatives with his hand raised to his forehead, revealing a silver watch on his wrist.An arrow points to the watch, while text below says: “Rolex Cosmograph Daytona White Gold $30,000+.”The post’s caption reads, “Something noone (sic) seems to have mentioned.”At the time of writing, the post had been viewed more than 180,000 times and attracted more than 625 shares. Slight variations of the same post have also been shared online, generating hundreds more shares (see here and here). An image shared on Facebook is said to show Prime Minister Scott Morrison wearing a $30,000 Rolex. The AnalysisWhile Prime Minister Scott Morrison has been in the headlines in relation to pricey watches, the one depicted on his wrist is neither a Daytona nor any other model of Rolex, according to experts.The social media posts follow controversy surrounding Mr Morrison’s call for Australia Post CEO Christine Holgate to stand aside during an investigation into her office giving four Cartier watches worth a combined $20,000 to senior employees as a reward.Ms Holgate eventually resigned, later claiming she was “humiliated” by the prime minister despite committing no offence.The posts claiming Mr Morrison was sporting a Rolex began circulating four days after Ms Holgate’s explosive Senate appearance, during which she made the comments.However, the AAP image used in the posts dates back to May 2016, when Mr Morrison was treasurer. Images from Question Time on the same and other dates from 2015 and 2016 also show him wearing what appears to be the same watch.Comparing Mr Morrison’s watch, as seen in another photo taken on the same date as the image included in the posts, with pictures of the Rolex Cosmograph Daytona shows a number of visible differences.For example, Rolex’s large crown logo and branding cannot be seen on Mr Morrison’s watch. All Rolex models carry the branding, although the size of the logo and text varies.Similarly, Mr Morrison’s watch features a black bezel – the circular part of the watch surrounding the face – with large silver or white arrow markings and no visible numbers, whereas all Daytona models feature numbers around the bezel above small arrows. Other Rolex models feature either numbers on the bezel or no markings at all.Karl Braunsteiner, the owner of Master Watchmaking in Sydney with more than 30 years’ experience as a watchmaker and repairer, told AAP FactCheck in a phone interview the watch Mr Morrison was photographed wearing is not a Rolex.“Rolexes do not have (the same type of) bracelet like the watch Scott Morrison is wearing. It’s not an Oyster bracelet, nor is it a Jubilee bracelet,” Mr Braunsteiner said.“The design of the bezel, the case, and the bracelet does not correspond to a Rolex model.”While Mr Braunsteiner said the watch could be a Tag Heuer, he said pictures of the watch were not clear enough to identify the brand.Michael Woods, a horologist and former head watchmaker at Rolex’s Melbourne service centre, told AAP FactCheck in an email the prime minister’s watch did not match any Rolex Cosmograph Daytona that he had seen.“First of all, the Rolex Daytona would have contrasting sub dials (the three smaller dials on the watch face), and in this case you should see some black rings on the dial,” Mr Woods said.“Also, the black bezel wasn’t available on a white gold Daytona back then, and even now it is only available on one with a rubber strap.”Mr Woods said the watch bracelet is “completely different” to Rolex’s style “because of its thinner, cheaper-looking construction”.Nick Hacko, a third-generation watchmaker, also told AAP FactCheck in an email the watch Mr Morrison is wearing in the photo is not a Rolex Daytona.“Actually, it is not even a Swiss-made watch but rather an inexpensive ‘fashion’ watch that retails for a couple hundred dollars or so,” he said.In an emailed statement, a spokeswoman for Mr Morrison told AAP FactCheck: “The prime minister does not own a Rolex or a luxury watch.” Then treasurer Scott Morrison during Question Time in the Australian parliament in May 2016.","https://archive.ph/nqZkd,https://archive.ph/7YJlM,https://archive.ph/T4dJ4,https://7news.com.au/business/australia-post/australia-post-board-set-to-face-senators-c-2693601,https://www.sbs.com.au/news/christine-holgate-says-she-was-bullied-out-of-australia-post-and-humiliated-by-scott-morrison,https://www.rolex.com/,https://photos.aap.com.au/search/20160502001252775840,https://photos.aap.com.au/search/20160502001252775870%20or%2020160502001252775840%20or%2020160505001253652696%20or%2020160505001253653381%20or%2020160505001253651811%20or%2020160505001253651760%20or%2020160505001253651585%20or%2020160504001253356685%20or%2020160504001253356452%20or%2020151123001202207700%20or%2020151124001202545173,https://photos.aap.com.au/search/20160502001252775870,https://www.rolex.com/watches/cosmograph-daytona/all-models.html#p=1,https://s3.ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/aap-nw-aap.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/28142859/20160502001252775870-original-2-1.jpg,https://www.rolex.com/watches.html,https://www.masterwatchmaking.com.au/the-team/,https://www.rolex.com/about-rolex-watches/bracelets.html,https://www.tagheuer.com/,https://woodswatchmaking.com.au/,https://assets.rolex.com/watches/cosmograph-daytona/m116519ln-0038.pdf,https://www.rolex.com/watches/cosmograph-daytona/m116519ln-0038.html,https://www.nicholashacko.com.au/about","No, this photo doesn’t show Scott Morrison wearing a $30,000 Rolex",,,,,,
61,,,,False,,2021-04-27,,factcheck_aap,,https://www.aap.com.au/more-than-meets-the-eye-to-phoney-london-lockdown-protest-photo/,,,factcheck_aap,,"The StatementA photo shared on both Instagram and Facebook is claimed to show massive crowds at an anti-lockdown protest in London on April 24.The image shows hordes of people near one end of London’s Hyde Park, as viewed from the air.The April 25 Instagram post, from an Australian account, includes the caption: “UK Anti Lockdown 24.04.21. Aerial view, My word, that is some Epic amount of Conspiracy Theorists. Long Live Freedom.”At the time of writing, the post had been liked more than 1,200 times and viewed more than 67,000 times. One commenter on the Instagram post claimed “approx numbers” at the anti-lockdown protest were 750,000 people. An Instagram post claims to show a huge crowd protesting lockdowns in London. The AnalysisAn anti-lockdown protest was held in London on April 24, but it drew only a fraction of the crowd seen in the photo – which actually shows hundreds of thousands of people demonstrating more than two years ago for a new Brexit referendum.The same image as seen in the social media posts appears uncropped in an ITV article on the October 2018 protest alongside other aerial images of people massed in London streets. The earliest archived version of the ITV article includes the image.The aerial photo was featured in other news coverage at the time, while additional footage from that protest shows matching images of crowds milling around Apsley House at the edge of Hyde Park with buses and other vehicles also visible in front of the building.Social media and blog posts from 2018 include the same aerial image claimed to be from the recent anti-lockdown protest.Some news reports from the time claimed the anti-Brexit protest drew more than 700,000 people, making it the largest demonstration in the UK since the Iraq war in 2003. FullFact said its “crude estimate” of the crowd was around 450,000, while the Greater London Authority estimated the headcount at 250,000, according to the UK Sunday Telegraph.In comparison, the anti-lockdown protests on April 24 drew crowds of around 10,000 according to Reuters and Sky News reports. Images from the protests show crowds of a similar magnitude to the size identified in reports.The same anti-Brexit protest photo was previously falsely claimed to show a pro-Donald Trump demonstration in November 2020. Police detain a demonstrator during the anti-lockdown protest in London on April 24.","https://www.instagram.com/p/COFaGwlgPN6/,https://www.facebook.com/461615744005443/posts/1872701879563482,https://www.google.com/maps/place/Hyde+Park/@51.5001992,-0.15357,520a,35y,39.32t/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x4876054929181a85:0xd1af6c4f49b4bd0c!8m2!3d51.5072682!4d-0.1657303,https://www.itv.com/news/2018-10-20/peoples-vote-brexit-march-london-referendum-final-deal-eu,https://web.archive.org/web/20181020140417/http://www.itv.com/news/2018-10-20/peoples-vote-brexit-march-london-referendum-final-deal-eu/,https://www.kentlive.news/news/kent-news/live-peoples-vote-march-updates-2129635,https://metro.co.uk/video/aerial-footage-shows-scale-anti-brexit-march-london-1786598/,https://www.google.com/maps/place/Apsley+House/@51.5034719,-0.1538595,428m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x487604d6997dfddb:0xf52cf1b7e6c4d269!8m2!3d51.5033691!4d-0.1516157,https://twitter.com/pedromakee/status/1056192081234923521,https://hellenjc.wordpress.com/2018/10/24/the-peoples-vote-march-in-london/,https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/people-s-vote-march-more-than-700-000-protesters-call-for-second-referendum-on-brexit-in-largest-demonstration-since-iraq-war-a3967361.html,http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/2765041.stm,https://fullfact.org/news/did-670000-march-peoples-vote-brexit/,https://www.pressreader.com/uk/the-sunday-telegraph/20190106/281767040359018,https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/anti-lockdown-protesters-defy-restrictions-central-london-march-2021-04-24/,https://news.sky.com/story/oxford-street-shoppers-heckled-over-face-masks-as-thousands-protest-covid-rules-in-london-12285712,https://www.gettyimages.co.nz/photos/london-protests-april-24-unite-for-freedom?family=editorial&phrase=london%20protests%20april%2024%20unite%20for%20freedom&sort=mostpopular#license,https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&u=https://facta.news/fuori-contesto/2020/11/17/quattro-di-queste-cinque-foto-non-mostrano-la-manifestazione-a-favore-di-donald-trump-del-14-novembre-2020/",More than meets the eye to phoney London ‘lockdown protest’ photo,,,,,,
62,,,,Partly False,,2021-04-26,,factcheck_aap,,https://www.aap.com.au/dubai-sheikhs-words-lost-in-translation-with-viral-quote/,,,factcheck_aap,,"The StatementA Facebook post features a quote that is attributed to the late ruler of Dubai, Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum.The post by a Papua New Guinea page features a picture of a sheikh sitting outdoors. The accompanying text says that when Sheikh Rashid was once asked about the future of his country, he replied: “My grandfather rode a camel, my father rode a camel, I ride a Mercedes, my son rides a Land Rover, and my grandson is going to ride a Land Rover, but my great-grandson is going to have to ride a camel again.”The text continues: “‘Why is that’, he was asked? And his reply was — ‘Hard times create strong men, strong men create easy times. Easy times create weak men, weak men create difficult times. Many will not understand it but you have to raise warriors, not parasites.'”At the time of writing, the April 14 post had generated more than 1400 shares and 2.3 million views. The much-repeated text has also been shared and viewed thousands of times by other Facebook users. A post features quotes that it claims are by Dubai’s founder, Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum. The AnalysisParts of the purported quote have been widely attributed to Dubai’s late ruler but that phrasing has been mixed with a passage from a science fiction novel to distort its meaning in the viral post.Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum (1912-1990) was the former prime minister of the United Arab Emirates who ruled the emirate of Dubai until his death. He has been called the “father of modern Dubai” and is credited with leading development of the city.The first half of the post’s quote, beginning with “my grandfather rode a camel”, has often been attributed to the sheikh.Graeme Wilson, who has written several books on prominent Middle Eastern figures including a biography of Sheikh Rashid, told AAP FactCheck the sheikh’s son, Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum, who died last month, had confirmed that his father told the anecdote about the camel.“This was first relayed to me by Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum about 1988, and many years later I heard the same thing from George Chapman, who was Sheikh Rashid’s shipping adviser,” Wilson said in an email.“Sheikh Hamdan’s telling was in the context of his father telling the ‘Camelot’ Majlis (advisory meetings), this is what we are trying to avoid, going back to a camel, so this is why we have to plough everything we have and more into development.”The quote is often cited in articles, profiles and books in reference to the sheikh’s desire to diversify Dubai’s economy as the emirate’s wealth was built on dwindling oil reserves. While the United Arab Emirates is among the world’s 10 largest oil producers, the vast majority is found in Abu Dhabi.However, the same quote about grandparents and camels was also attributed to the late Saudi Arabian politician Sheikh Ahmed Zaki Yamani as early as 1986, according to Oxford Essential Quotations.The photo that appears alongside the post’s text is not of the late Sheikh Rashid but of his son and current ruler of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum.The same quotes as those appearing in the post have previously been wrongly attributed in other viral posts to Sheikh Mohammed, who was falsely said to have made the comments in a 2014 BBC interview.The second half of the quote, beginning “hard times create strong men”, has no identifiable connection to the sheikh and instead can be traced to the 2016 science fiction title Those Who Remain: A Postapocalyptic Novel by G. Michael Hopf.The quote, found on page 20 of the print edition, is by the character “Gordon” and reads in full: “I’ve lived a long time and seen a lot of s***. In my latter years, I’ve become somewhat of a philosopher and this is one truth that is undisputable. Hard times create strong men, strong men create good times, good times create weak men, and weak men create hard times.”The “hard times” quote has been cited in several articles (here, here and here) as being by Hopf and not Sheikh Rashid. The quote has also been used unattributed in memes since at least 2016, while the earliest examples linked to Sheikh Rashid appear to be in social media posts from early 2021.According to Wilson, the “hard times” part of the quote does not sound like the late sheikh.“I never met him, but my understanding is Sheikh Rashid did not speak like that,” he told AAP FactCheck.The final line of the post’s quote, “Many will not understand it but you have to raise warriors, not parasites”, surfaces in social media posts from January attributing the words to Sheikh Rashid or his son. There is no evidence to link either man to that section of the quote. Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum is the son of the late Sheikh Rashid.","https://archive.ph/HY7ub,https://www.facebook.com/984666304991572/posts/2756129744511877%C2%A0,https://www.facebook.com/1405932802981831/posts/2855673461341084%C2%A0,https://www.na.ae/en/ourtresure/ff_rashid.aspx,https://www.britannica.com/place/United-Arab-Emirates,https://gulfnews.com/uae/government/shaikh-rashid-the-father-of-modern-dubai-1.2130665,https://www.amazon.com/Graeme-Wilson/e/B00AFEKUDI%3Fref=dbs_a_mng_rwt_scns_share,http://www.media-prima.com/component/virtuemart/?page=shop.browse&category_id=1,https://www.google.co.nz/books/edition/Father_of_Dubai/enXGGwAACAAJ?hl=en,https://nsjonline.com/article/2021/03/dubais-deputy-ruler-sheikh-hamdan-bin-rashid-dies-at-75/,http://www.dubaiasitusedtobe.net/PortRashid1959-2008.shtml,https://www.alshindagah.com/mayjun2006/camelot.html,https://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/travel/long-haul/sultans-of-bling-1.764529,https://gulfnews.com/uae/sheikh-rashid-bin-saeed-al-maktoum-the-engineer-and-architect-of-dubai-1.1570439177934,https://www.google.com.au/books/edition/The_Report_Dubai_2008/tw6DedF0Hq4C?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%22My+grandfather+rode+a+camel%22+mercedes+%22land+rover%22&pg=PA35&printsec=frontcover,https://www.google.com.au/books/edition/The_Final_Call/cHAQHo3mMeMC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%22My+grandfather+rode+a+camel%22+mercedes+%22land+rover%22&pg=PA36&printsec=frontcover,https://sheikhmohammed.ae/en-us/rulingfamilydubai,https://gulfnews.com/business/energy/oil-in-dubai-history--timeline-1.578333,https://www.eia.gov/international/content/analysis/countries_long/United_Arab_Emirates/uae_2020.pdf,https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780191843730.001.0001/q-oro-ed5-00017466,https://archive.ph/HY7ub/22bede4cf262bd5b8f4c5967d75d48c5a2571b4e.jpg,https://media.gettyimages.com/photos/sheikh-rashid-bin-saeed-al-maktoum-and-his-sons-sheikh-handan-and-picture-id834756776?k=6&m=834756776&s=612x612&w=0&h=I5SykLQ4PzB70dUj0YUks4SopmqPeM2a7_M2ckylnus=,https://media.gettyimages.com/photos/emir-of-dubai-rashid-bin-saeed-al-maktoum-arrives-at-heathrow-airport-picture-id912612698?k=6&m=912612698&s=612x612&w=0&h=4t0kcaYyv5o37Ta9P5GBfP1fEHJK1tRtv449eeJHBHc=,https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-51762543,https://www.gettyimages.co.nz/photos/mohammed-bin-rashid-al-maktoum?family=editorial&phrase=mohammed%20bin%20rashid%20al%20maktoum&sort=mostpopular,https://sheikhmohammed.ae/ar-ae/Pages/Home.aspx,https://factcheck.afp.com/sheikh-mohammed-did-not-say-great-grandson-will-be-back-camel-2014-interview,https://www.google.co.nz/books/edition/Those_Who_Remain/55w1MQAACAAJ?hl=en,https://www.gmichaelhopf.com/,https://www.google.com.au/books/edition/_/_UfEDwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1,https://www.spectator.com.au/2020/06/weak-men-hard-times/,https://unearnedwisdom.com/strong-men-create-good-times-analysis/,https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/05/02/hard-times-dont-make-strong-soldiers-warrior-myth/,https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/8751435-hard-times-create-strong-men-strong-men-create-good-times,https://9gag.com/gag/agGQy66,https://www.facebook.com/1030830900452219/posts/1615582085310428,https://www.facebook.com/411465175620602/posts/3190011987765893",Dubai sheikh’s words lost in translation with viral quote,,,,,,
63,,,,False,,2021-04-26,,factcheck_aap,,https://www.aap.com.au/barely-a-kernel-of-truth-in-pakistans-hunza-beating-cancer-with-apricot-seeds/,,,factcheck_aap,,"The StatementA Facebook meme claims that people from Pakistan’s Hunza Valley are the only cancer-free population in the world, putting the remarkable health outcome down to their consumption of apricot seeds.The April 13 post shows a woman holding a large tray of pitted apricots beneath the statement: “The people of Hunza Valley are ‘the only people in the world without cancer’ because they use & eat apricot seeds, which contain vitamin B17, that kill cancer cells & strengthen the immune system.”The meme was posted by the page Nikola Tesla Cause, which has over one million followers. The post had been shared more than 140 times, including by New Zealand users, attracting more than 43,000 views and 420 reactions at the time of writing.Similar memes using the same image have appeared online for several years and it has circulated on social media since at least 2016, attracting thousands of reactions. The image also features in an online meme library. A meme claims people in Pakistan’s Hunza Valley are without cancer because they eat apricot seeds. The AnalysisClaims that the people of Pakistan’s Hunza Valley live exceptionally long lives and enjoy unusually good health have been made for decades. However, there’s no credible evidence that those living in the area are cancer-free, and multiple reports found they were not especially long-lived.The health of the Hunza people has been the subject of multiple books since at least 1948, and their diet has also been used to market products that claim to promote longevity.Nevertheless, AAP FactCheck was unable to find any studies on the presence of cancer in people from the valley.An article by public health professor Dr William Jarvis, titled HelpingYour Patients Deal with Questionable Cancer Treatments and published in an American Cancer Society journal in 1986, said it was a myth that there were “cancer-free societies living in the world” (page 294).The article said the Hunza people were “usually referred to by proponents of this myth” but early reports of the absence of cancer in the valley could not be verified due to the lack of medical facilities in the area. However, it said a team from Kyoto University visited the valley in the mid-1950s and found some inhabitants had cancer.It also said that Pakistan’s embassy confirmed cancer was present in the population. “It is a fact that all living things — both plant and animal — get cancer,” Dr Jarvis wrote at the time.A 2012 article in Smithsonian Magazine also said claims of the longevity of the Hunza people “contradicted the truth” and “remain apocryphal”. Some of the claim’s most vocal proponents had never visited the valley, while a Japanese doctor who attended the region reported rampant signs of malnutrition and poor health among inhabitants, the article noted.The claim that apricot seeds contain “vitamin B17”, which kills cancer cells and strengthens the immune system, is not supported by medical evidence — and eating the seeds can cause serious harm.According to the US National Cancer Institute (NCI), the pits of some fruit, including apricots, contain a chemical called amygdalin – also called laetrile when in a purified form – which has been marketed as “vitamin B-17” but it is not an approved supplement.The NCI said laetrile gained popularity as an anti-cancer treatment in the 1970s, but it has “shown little anti-cancer activity in animal studies and no anti-cancer activity in human clinical trials”.It said there have been no reported controlled clinical trials of laetrile and anecdotal and case reports had provided “little evidence to support (it) as an anti-cancer treatment”.Laetrile was banned from interstate sale by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the 1970s. The organisation has since taken repeated court action to stop laetrile being sold as a cancer treatment.Cancer Research UK says “claims that laetrile or amygdalin can treat cancer are not backed up by research”.“Although, more recent studies have shown that laetrile can kill cancer cells in certain cancer types, there is not enough reliable scientific evidence to show that laetrile or amygdalin can treat cancer,” its website says.A 2015 review, published by the Cochrane Library, examined studies that looked at the efficacy of laetrile and amygdalin for cancer treatment and found “claims that laetrile or amygdalin have beneficial effects for cancer patients are not currently supported by sound clinical data”.However, it said taking amygdalin or laetrile involved “a considerable risk of serious adverse effects from cyanide poisoning” as some chemicals converted to cyanide when digested.“The risk-benefit balance of laetrile or amygdalin as a treatment for cancer is therefore unambiguously negative.”The sale of raw apricot kernels was banned under the Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code in 2015 after they reportedly caused cyanide poisoning in Australia, New Zealand, Canada, the United Kingdom and Europe.New Zealand’s Ministry for Primary Industries says apricot seeds are unsafe to eat due to the presence of amygdalin. Three people in NZ were admitted to hospital as a precaution after eating raw apricot kernels in 2020. Similarly, a 67-year-old Australian man was taken to hospital with cyanide poisoning after taking the kernel extract to beat cancer.University of Adelaide health and medicine professor Ian Olver, a former CEO of the Cancer Council Australia, told AAP FactCheck there had been anecdotes about the benefit of “B17” for decades, but there was no robust research to back up the claims.“How it is said to work is that it is broken down to cyanide which may be able to kill some cancer cells,” Prof Olver said in an email.“Animal studies showed no effects or a slight effect on some cancer cells. However, there are no randomised studies which show benefit, and yet people who ingest too much can get cyanide poisoning which may be fatal.“So in summary, B17 isn’t a vitamin, has no documented randomised trials of anti-cancer activity and can cause cyanide poisoning.”Jenelle Loeliger, head of nutrition at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, said in an email “there is no evidence to support the consumption of vitamin B17” to treat or prevent cancer.She directed AAP FactCheck to a Cancer Council website, which says there is no evidence that chemicals found in apricot kernels, including amygdalin or laetrile, can cure cancer.“Despite decades of research, dating back to the 1950s, there is no evidence that laetrile can treat tumours in animals,” the website says. “Clinical trials in humans have also failed to find any benefits.”Surrounded by peaks, Pakistan’s Hunza Valley is a region noted for claims of remarkable longevity.","https://archive.is/ZsOjY,https://www.facebook.com/NikolaTeslaCause/,https://steemit.com/life/@ghannibhai/cancer-free-people-in-the-world,https://www.instagram.com/p/BLhm2zJAkTx,https://me.me/i/the-people-of-hunza-valley-are-the-only-people-in-6880106,https://www.amazon.com/s?k=hunza&ref=nb_sb_noss,https://www.amazon.com/healthy-Hunzas-J-I-Rodale/dp/B0007DRXS2,https://www.amazon.com/Longevity-Immunity-Live-Vegetarian-100Plus/dp/B086H9F2ZS,https://www.acsh.org/news/2016/03/15/acsh-advisor-william-jarvis-passes-away-at-80,https://acsjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.3322/canjclin.36.5.293,https://acsjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/15424863,https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/the-shangri-la-of-health-food-77334459/,https://www.cancer.gov/about-nci/overview,https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/treatment/cam/patient/laetrile-pdq,https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/treatment/cam/hp/laetrile-pdq,https://www.nytimes.com/1977/04/17/archives/banned-cancer-drug-gains-in-some-states-growing-number-of.html#:~:text=A%20small%20but%20steadily%20growing,banned%20it%20from%20interstate%20commerce.,https://abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=117990,https://www.cancerresearchuk.org/about-us/our-organisation,https://www.cancerresearchuk.org/about-cancer/cancer-in-general/treatment/complementary-alternative-therapies/individual-therapies/laetrile,https://www.cochranelibrary.com/cdsr/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD005476.pub4/full,https://www.foodstandards.gov.au/consumer/safety/pages/apricot-kernels-raw.aspx,https://www.mpi.govt.nz/food-safety-home/safe-eat/apricot-and-peach-kernels-and-apple-and-pear-seeds-are-unsafe-to-eat/,https://www.mpi.govt.nz/news/media-releases/recall-to-manage-poisoning-risk-linked-to-raw-apricot-kernels/,https://www.theverge.com/2017/9/11/16288104/apricot-kernels-cancer-cyanide-poisoning-case-study,https://researchers.adelaide.edu.au/profile/ian.olver,https://www.cancer.org.au/about-us,https://www.petermac.org/users/ms-jenelle-loeliger,https://www.petermac.org/about,https://www.cancer.org.au/iheard/can-eating-apricot-kernels-cure-cancer",Barely a kernel of truth in Pakistan’s Hunza beating cancer with apricot seeds,,,,,,
64,,,,False,,2021-04-23,,factcheck_aap,,https://www.aap.com.au/hidden-covid-19-vaccine-reactions-data-is-far-from-secret/,,,factcheck_aap,,"The StatementA video shared on social media claims the federal government is trying to hide reports of adverse reactions to COVID-19 vaccines. The video also makes a number of claims about the meaning of data published by a government-funded organisation that monitors vaccine safety.The video was shared to Facebook on April 14 by multiple pages linked to Reignite Democracy Australia, which describes itself as an “advocacy group” and “alternative to the mainstream media”. In the video, the group’s founder, Monica Smit, claims the federal government is “trying to hide adverse reactions” from COVID-19 vaccines.The video features information published on the website of AusVaxSafety, an organisation which monitors adverse events following immunisation. Ms Smit cites data from the website as evidence that the adverse reaction rate to COVID-19 vaccination is “not a good sign for something that is completely safe” and that 1.6 to 1.8 per cent of people “have ended up in hospital”.At the time of writing, two posts from the group featuring the video had been shared more than 2100 times and viewed more than 50,000 times. A Facebook video suggests the Australian government is hiding COVID-19 vaccine adverse reactions. The AnalysisWhile the video claims the Australian government is “trying to hide adverse reactions” to COVID-19 vaccines, the data used to support other claims included in the segment is based on published information from a government-funded organisation.In addition to the work of that entity, AusVaxSafety, government agency the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) also releases a weekly safety report on COVID-19 vaccines as part of its remit of monitoring vaccine safety.The TGA has also reported publicly in detail on cases where blood clotting and a death were potentially linked to the AstraZeneca vaccine.In the video post, Ms Smit refers to the AusVaxSafety COVID-19 Vaccine Safety Surveillance page. Archived versions of the page show the data on reported adverse reactions has been published since the beginning of Australia’s vaccine rollout, while the TGA’s reports begin at a similar date.The page visible in the video shows data based on voluntary survey responses from people who have received the Pfizer Comirnaty vaccine as of April 11. According to the data, 63.3 per cent of 84,439 people reported no adverse event from their first dose and 36.7 per cent reported an adverse event.AusVaxSafety gathers data via text message or email survey questions sent to people who have received vaccinations from certain providers. Responses are voluntary, and the organisation repeatedly warns on its website against assuming the self-reported events, which were not clinically verified, are all causally related to the vaccine.Commenting on the data in the video, Ms Smit says (1:43 mark): “36 per cent of people reported some sort of adverse event from the first dose. That’s 36 per cent of people that had some sort of reaction. Now it could have been minor, could have just felt like fatigue and so forth, but still that’s not a good sign for something that is completely safe as (federal health minister) Greg Hunt says”.However, the types of reported reaction are clearly outlined. A graph on the page shows frequently occurring events, including “injection site pain” the most common at 29.9 per cent, “fatigue” at 19.3 per cent and “headache” at 14.5 per cent.These are acknowledged on the page as symptoms that are “generally mild and short-lived” and known to occur after vaccination.“The profile of reported events from AusVaxSafety surveillance for both Comirnaty and COVID-19 Vaccine AstraZeneca is similar to that reported in clinical trials and from post-marketing surveillance overseas, ” an AusVaxSafety spokeswoman told AAP FactCheck in an emailed statement.“These expected adverse events are related to the immune response to vaccination and are expected to resolve within 1-3 days after vaccination.”Data from a large-scale clinical trial of the Pfizer vaccine showed 27 per cent of recipients reported an adverse event, although some of these were deemed unrelated to the vaccine. Only four serious adverse events related to the vaccine were reported among more than 20,000 recipients.AusVaxSafety’s spokeswoman also told AAP FactCheck that the published date only represents information from vaccine recipients who responded to the survey.“Approximately 30 per cent of vaccinated people who were sent a survey did not complete the survey,” she said.“The data provides some indication of the rate of events commonly occurring amongst people who have received vaccines, although rates of adverse events may not be a precise estimate of the true rate of adverse events.”The TGA website states: “AusVaxSafety findings support the TGA’s assessment that the COVID-19 vaccines used in Australia meet safety standards.”The video contains other statements that misrepresent information on the AusVaxSafety web page. At the 2:13 mark, Ms Smit says that the number of reports on the AusVaxSafety site went up by 13,000 overnight, saying: “This number was 31,000 yesterday, it’s now up to 44,000 in one day”. However text at the top of the AusVaxSafety page, under the “COVID-19 vaccine safety surveillance” headline, clearly states that data is updated weekly.Referring to a statistic that 21.9 per cent of respondents reported missing work, study or other duties for a short period after a second vaccine dose, Ms Smit says (2:40 mark) that “almost 22 per cent of people have had to miss a day of work or study or some of their duties”.However, the description beneath that statistic says it actually represents those who missed work, study or duties “for a short period”, adding that the majority of that cohort missed less than one day.The video also includes a claim (3:30 mark) that 1.6 per cent of AstraZeneca first dose recipients and 1.8 per cent of Pfizer second dose recipients “ended up in hospital”. However the data referred to states that 1.6 per cent of AstraZeneca dose recipients and 1.8 per cent of Pfizer recipients “reported seeing a doctor or going to emergency department in the days after vaccination”. There is no indication as to whether any of the cases were admitted to hospital.Associate Professor Paul Griffin, an infectious diseases physician and microbiologist from the University of Queensland, reiterated to AAP FactCheck in a phone interview that while the AusVaxSafety system is useful to alert experts of any “safety signals” relating to vaccines, reported symptoms may be unrelated to the vaccine itself. He added that there is also a risk of biases in self-reporting systems.“We do know that the more significant adverse events are more likely to be reported, particularly if they require medical intervention, for example,” he said.AAP FactCheck has previously debunked claims regarding the misinterpretation of COVID-19 vaccine adverse events in overseas surveillance systems. Reports of adverse reactions from the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine in Australia are published weekly.","https://archive.ph/dMWru,https://archive.ph/L2wxE,https://web.archive.org/save/https://www.reignitedemocracyaustralia.com.au/about/,https://www.ausvaxsafety.org.au/about-us/funding-and-governance,https://www.tga.gov.au/reporting-problems,https://www.tga.gov.au/communicating-covid-19-safety-information,https://www.tga.gov.au/alert/astrazeneca-chadox1-s-covid-19-vaccine-2,https://archive.is/kRWiF,https://web.archive.org/web/20210303093853/https://www.ausvaxsafety.org.au/safety-data/covid-19-vaccines,https://www.tga.gov.au/periodic/covid-19-vaccine-weekly-safety-report-1-03-03-2021,https://www.health.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/2021/02/covid-19-vaccination-information-on-covid-19-pfizer-comirnaty-vaccine_2.pdf,https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2034577,https://www.tga.gov.au/periodic/covid-19-vaccine-weekly-safety-report-14-04-2021,https://researchers.uq.edu.au/researcher/5596,https://www.aap.com.au/video-misuses-data-to-level-flawed-claims-of-vaccine-deaths/",‘Hidden’ COVID-19 vaccine reactions data is far from secret,,,,,,
65,,,,False,,2021-04-23,,factcheck_aap,,https://www.aap.com.au/no-easter-wasnt-named-after-a-mesopotamian-goddess/,,,factcheck_aap,,"The StatementA Facebook post by a user in Papua New Guinea user has resurrected a claim that the name of the Christian festival Easter is derived from an ancient Mesopotamian goddess.“The word Easter was derived from the word Ishtar,” the post says.“She was worshipped by the ancient Arameans but later it was subtly Christianized by Vatican. This is cargo cult and Satanism because Jesus’ DOD is not in the Bible. Under the pretext of Jesus’ resurrection the world is worshipping this woman.”Accompanying the post is an image of the Burney relief, otherwise known as the Queen of the Night, a fired clay figure excavated in southern Iraq and dated to the 19th-18th Century BC.The April 1 post had generated more than 75 shares and 130,000 views at the time of writing. It’s just one example of a claim that has circulated for years; similar posts can be seen here and here. A post claims the word “Easter” has been “Christianized” and is derived from the goddess Ishtar. The AnalysisThe attempt to link Easter to the goddess Ishtar has circulated online since at least 2013, when a meme was posted to the Facebook page of the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason & Science, generating more than 220,000 shares. But the claim is much older, and is based on questionable historical methods.According to the Encyclopaedia Britannica, Ishtar — an Akkadian name — was the Mesopotamian goddess of war and sexual love. In the Akkadian tradition, Ishtar is an astral deity associated with the planet Venus who delighted in bodily love and was also the “protectress of prostitutes and patroness of the ale house”. In the Sumerian tradition, Ishtar’s legacy was as a fertility figure, although she was also linked in myths to deaths and disaster.Britannica addressed the post’s claim in a 2018 tweet: “No, Easter isn’t named after the Mesopotamian goddess Ishtar.”The origin of that claim can be traced as far back as the 1853 book, The Two Babylons, written by Free Church of Scotland minister, the Rev Alexander Hislop. The book traced the practices of the Roman Catholic Church to pagan practices originating in ancient Babylon in order to show that the church is the “Whore of Babylon” as prophesied in Revelation 17.At the beginning of Chapter III, Section II, he writes: “Then look at Easter. What means the term Easter itself? It is not a Christian name. It bears its Chaldean origin on its very forehead. Easter is nothing else than Astarte, one of the titles of Beltis, the queen of heaven, whose name, as pronounced by the people Nineveh, was evidently identical with that now in common use in this country. That name, as found by Layard on the Assyrian monuments, is Ishtar.”The Assyrian monuments Hislop refers to are in the British Museum. One tablet, dating back to the 7th century BC, is inscribed with the legend of the Descent of Ishtar to the Underworld. It was discovered by archaeologist Sir Austen Henry Layard during excavations in Assyria between 1845 and 1851, just a few years before the publication of The Two Babylons.Church historian and emeritus professor of history at Massey University in Auckland, Peter Lineham, told AAP FactCheck: “Hislop’s tendency was to think if it sounds the same it must be connected. That was the logic he used. It’s a wonderful book because it’s full of imagination and nonsense. It’s fantastic but utterly misconceived.”In many countries, Easter is derived from the Jewish festival of Passover, known as Pesach in Hebrew. The word Easter is used only in the English-speaking world, while other cultures referred to it by words originating from the Latin and Greek word Pascha, referring to the Passover.Experts have linked the timer of Easter to long-standing pagan celebrations of spring, noting that the same period later became associated with the resurrection of Christ with the rise of Christianity.“For Easter in England, they used an existing festival, so the name comes certainly from a female goddess of England (Eostre). But there is zero connection with Ishtar,” Dr Lineham said.Dr Bruce Forbes, a US author and religious studies scholar, also linked the English Easter tradition to Eostre, whose name appears in the writings of St Bede the Venerable. However, he told AAP FactCheck that this was based “totally on two sentences” from Bede in his book The Reckoning of Time from the eighth century.“Here are the sentences: ‘Eosturmonath has a name which is now translated “Pascal month” and which was once called after a goddess of theirs named Eostre, in whose honour feasts were celebrated in that month. Now they designate that Pascal season by her name, calling the joys of the new rite by the time-honoured name of the old observance.’“That is all the evidence we have. I understand Bede to be saying that the month in which English Christians were celebrating the resurrection of Jesus had been called Eosturmonath in Old English, referring to a goddess named Eostre. And even though Christians had begun affirming the Christian meaning of the celebration, they continued to use the name of the goddess to designate the season.”Dr Forbes noted that Bede did not write that Eostre was a fertility goddess.“What is most striking for me is that, as far as I know, there is no other evidence about such a goddess and celebration, not in other writings of the time, nor archaeological objects, no art, no carvings,” he said.“Because of the lack of any corroborating evidence, some scholars are sceptical about the claim, but others find it credible, asking why a Christian monk would make up a non-Christian detail like this if it were not true.”Several posts linking Ishtar to Easter have been widely debunked (see here, here and here). Chocolate Easter bunnies are a symbol now synonymous with Easter celebrations.","http://archive.today/M1Wiv,https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/W_2003-0718-1,https://archive.ph/6jEoq,https://archive.ph/iPAwK,https://archive.is/YCm6f,https://www.britannica.com/topic/Ishtar-Mesopotamian-goddess,https://twitter.com/Britannica/status/980191778887348225,http://ldolphin.org/PDFs/The_Two_Babylons-Alexander_Hislop.pdf,https://www.britannica.com/topic/whore-of-Babylon,https://www.britannica.com/topic/Astarte-ancient-deity,https://www.biblicalcyclopedia.com/Q/queen-of-heaven.html,https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/W_K-162,https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-Descent-of-Ishtar-to-the-Underworld,https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/term/BIOG35061,http://sierc.massey.ac.nz/plineham.html,https://www.britannica.com/topic/Passover,https://theconversation.com/why-easter-is-called-easter-and-other-little-known-facts-about-the-holiday-75025,https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-04-15/the-origins-of-easter-from-pagan-roots-to-chocolate-eggs/8440134,https://www.morningside.edu/news/bruce-forbes-receives-award-from-national-leadership-honor-society/,https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-04-15/the-origins-of-easter-from-pagan-roots-to-chocolate-eggs/8440134,https://www.britannica.com/biography/Saint-Bede-the-Venerable,https://www.bl.uk/collection-items/the-reckoning-of-time,https://factcheck.afp.com/easter-not-derived-name-ancient-mesopotamian-goddess,https://www.earnthenecklace.com/fact-check-easter-ishtar/,https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/easter-lore-superstitions/","No, Easter wasn’t named after a Mesopotamian goddess",,,,,,
66,,,,Partly False,,2021-04-22,,factcheck_aap,,https://www.aap.com.au/misleading-claims-on-political-pensions-are-overdue-for-retirement/,,,factcheck_aap,,"The StatementA Facebook meme claims Australian politicians have changed the age of retirement to 70 but left the age at which they can collect their own “fat pension” as 60. The meme invites people to share the post “if you think it should be the same rules for everyone”.The meme was posted by the “I Grew Up in Australia” Facebook page in July 2017, but it remains popular nearly four years later. At the time of writing, the meme is still being shared hundreds of times daily and has been viewed more than 200,000 times in the past three months.The 2017 post has been shared more than 59,000 times since it was published, while it has since been posted to several other Australian Facebook pages, generating hundreds more shares (see examples here and here). A meme claims politicians get access to their “fat pensions” at the age of 60. The AnalysisThe claim that politicians raised the retirement age to 70 was partly true when the meme was first published in 2017 but is now outdated. However, the claim about politicians keeping their own pension age at 60 is incorrect.Under a now-closed parliamentary pension scheme, politicians could access a payment on retirement regardless of their age, while the current parliamentary superannuation scheme — in place since 2004 — is subject to the same rules as apply to all retirees, meaning politicians can access their retirement savings at between 55 and 60 years of age.The meme’s first claim is based on a plan announced by the federal government in 2014. As part of the 2014 budget, then treasurer Joe Hockey announced the government’s intention to raise the qualifying age of the age pension to 70 by 2035. However, Prime Minister Scott Morrison scrapped the plan in 2018 before it came into law.The current qualification age for an age pension is between 66 and 67 depending on when the recipient was born. The pension is also subject to an income and asset test.The meme’s second claim, about politicians keeping their own “pensions” eligibility age at 60, is inaccurate. As previously explained by AAP FactCheck, federal politicians are covered by two distinct retirement schemes. The age at which they can access those funds depends on when they were elected to parliament and their age.MPs who took their seats before the 2004 election and have served at least eight years in parliament qualify for a now-discontinued parliamentary contributory pension scheme that offers generous lifelong pensions to retired politicians.Under that scheme, most pension holders are entitled to payments immediately upon retirement, whatever their age. The exception is for retired MPs who were first elected between the 2001 election and the day before the 2004 election; they cannot begin receiving pension payments before the age of 55.The old parliamentary pension scheme still applies for sitting and retired MPs elected before 9 October 2004, but it is closed to new entrants. It has since been replaced by a superannuation contribution scheme for MPs elected at the 2004 federal election or later. That scheme operates in line with regular Australian superannuation rules.The Commonwealth pays 15.4 per cent of an MP’s salary into a superannuation fund, which MPs can top up with additional contributions. Superannuation rules are the same for all Australians, regardless of their job. All superannuation holders can begin accessing their fund at between 55 and 60 years of age, known as the “preservation age”, depending on their date of birth.The meme includes a picture of Malcolm Turnbull and Bill Shorten, the prime minister and federal opposition leader at the time the meme was published. Both men were elected too late to qualify for the old parliamentary pension scheme, meaning they will instead be enrolled in parliament’s current superannuation scheme. Neither Malcolm Turnbull nor Bill Shorten, who are seen in the meme, qualify for lifelong pensions.","https://archive.ph/igHwh,https://archive.ph/ZPpSn,https://archive.ph/mkLfE,https://archive.budget.gov.au/2014-15/speech/Budget_speech.pdf,https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-09-05/scott-morrison-scraps-plans-to-raise-pension-age-to-70/10202678,https://www.servicesaustralia.gov.au/individuals/services/centrelink/age-pension/who-can-get-it,https://www.aap.com.au/do-australias-politicians-enjoy-lavish-pension-perks/,https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C2020C00052,https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C2018C00009,https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Library/Publications_Archive/archive/Super,https://www.ato.gov.au/individuals/super/in-detail/withdrawing-and-using-your-super/withdrawing-your-super-and-paying-tax/?page=2",Misleading claims on political pensions are overdue for retirement,,,,,,
67,,,,False,,2021-04-21,,factcheck_aap,,https://www.aap.com.au/covid-hot-tea-cure-of-lemon-and-bicarb-doesnt-hold-water/,,,factcheck_aap,,"The StatementSocial media users in Fiji and Vanuatu continue to share a year-old Facebook post claiming there have been no COVID-19 deaths in Israel because residents drink a “tea” concocted from hot water, lemon juice and baking soda.The March 2020 post, shared as recently as April 10, 2021, is headed: “IN ISRAEL NO DEATH (sic) FROM C-19!*” It goes on to claim that the “cure” for COVID-19 and the way to “eliminate it” comes from Israel, where “this virus did not cause any death”.It says the “simple” cure involves mixing lemon and bicarbonate to “drink as hot tea every afternoon”, adding: “The action of the lemon with hotter baking soda immediately kills the virus completely eliminates it from the body. These two components alkalize the immune system, since when night falls the system becomes acidic and defenses lower”.“That is why the People of Israel is (sic) relaxed about this virus,” the post continues.“Everyone in Israel drinks a cup of hot water with lemon and a little baking soda at night, as this is proven to kill the virus. I share it with all my family and friends so that none of us get the virus.” The post claims a recipe of lemon and bicarbonate is a cure for COVID-19. The AnalysisAs COVID-19 immunisations continue to be rolled out globally, rare side effects linked to the AstraZeneca vaccine have spooked some Pacific Island residents into rejecting the treatment.However, there is no evidence to support the use of the post’s recommended “hot tea” cocktail — while its claim of no coronavirus deaths in Israel is demonstrably false.As of April 19, data from the World Health Organisation (WHO) showed 6,338 COVID-19 deaths in Israel, while Johns Hopkins University of Medicine provided a similar tally.The claim was also not correct on the date the post was first circulated, March 28, 2020. WHO figures showed 12 COVID-19 deaths had been recorded in Israel at that time.Similar “cures” involving hot water and lemon to treat COVID-19 have been widely debunked, including here, here, here and here, while the WHO says there is no scientific evidence that lemon prevents COVID-19.But what if baking soda, also known as sodium bicarbonate, is added to the mix? A related concoction involving baking soda and lemon but no hot water was also floated as a treatment in March 2020. As in the post, it was tied to the wider theory that raising the alkalinity of a person’s diet could help with conditions such as arthritis and cancer.However, the theory has been given short shrift by organisations such as the American Institute for Cancer Research.The institute told Reuters: “The studies finding that cancer cells thrive in an acidic environment were done in a laboratory setting. It would be nearly impossible to alter the cell environment to create a less-acidic environment in our bodies. For example, the stomach is very acidic for proper digestion, so we wouldn’t want it more alkaline.”A 2013 Cambridge University article said that “advocating the consumption of alkalinising foods or supplements and/or removing animal protein from the human diet is not justified by the evidence accumulated over the last several decades”.AAP FactCheck asked an expert in pharmaceutical chemistry to assess the claims of the Facebook post regarding a baking soda-lemon “hot tea” mix, as well as the theories around diet alkalinity.Nial Wheate, an associate professor at the University of Sydney’s Pharmacy School, said it was impossible for a lemon and bicarbonate drink to prevent or cure COVID-19.“The explanations provided for how such a drink is meant to work is a mish-mash of scientific terms that contradict each other and doesn’t make logical sense,” he said.“The premise is that our immune system becomes acidic at night and when that happens we are susceptible to the virus. Fixing the acidity therefore is meant to boost our immune system so it can effectively fight off the virus.”But Dr Wheate said the science did not back up this claim.“Lemon and lemon juice is itself acidic, so drinking it can only increase the acidity of something, not lower it,” he said.“The pH of lemon juice is around 2 (neutral is a pH of 7). If you dilute lemon juice, as you would in the drink described, then the pH would come closer to neutral but still stay acidic.”The pH of the stomach was already around 2-3, so lemon juice would have little effect, he explained.“Drinking any acidic drink (or basic/alkaline drink) can’t affect the pH of blood serum unless the person drinks huge quantities (litres and litres of it),” Dr Wheate said.He also pointed out that bicarbonate was likely to react with lemon juice to neutralise it.“Depending on how much lemon you add to bicarbonate and which one is in excess, the drink could be acidic, neutral, or alkaline (basic). It would only be alkaline if the bicarbonate were in excess to the lemon juice,” he said.Dr Wheate said rather than helping people, drinking the mixture was likely to put them more at risk.“Overall, there is no scientific basis to lemon and bicarbonate being able to protect people from COVID-19, and people should stop spreading this misinformation on the internet,” he said. Drinking lemon juice does not reduce the acidity of the body, an expert told AAP FactCheck.","https://www.facebook.com/akamawe/posts/3212734042084391,https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-04-13/png-people-are-hesitant-to-take-astrazeneca-vaccine/100063694,https://covid19.who.int/region/euro/country/il/,https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/region/israel,https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/situation-reports/20200328-sitrep-68-covid-19.pdf?sfvrsn=384bc74c_8,https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2020/mar/24/chain-message/facebook-messenger-video-falsely-claims-hot-lemon-/,https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/lemons-coronavirus/,https://factcheck.afp.com/false-claims-drinking-water-lemon-can-prevent-covid-19-circulate-online,https://checkyourfact.com/2020/03/26/fact-check-hot-water-lemon-kill-coronavirus/,https://www.who.int/southeastasia/outbreaks-and-emergencies/novel-coronavirus-2019/fact-or-fiction,https://www.chemicalsafetyfacts.org/sodium-bicarbonate-baking-soda/,https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-factcheck-coronavirus-alkaline/false-claim-bicarbonate-soda-and-lemon-juice-can-help-prevent-coronavirus-infection-idUSKBN20X2BV,https://www.aicr.org/resources/blog/breaking-down-the-association-between-alkaline-diet-and-cancer/,https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-factcheck-coronavirus-alkaline/false-claim-bicarbonate-soda-and-lemon-juice-can-help-prevent-coronavirus-infection-idUSKBN20X2BV,https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3828631/,https://www.sydney.edu.au/medicine-health/about/our-people/academic-staff/nial-wheate.html",COVID ‘hot tea’ cure of lemon and bicarb doesn’t hold water,,,,,,
68,,,,Partly False,,2021-04-20,,factcheck_aap,,https://www.aap.com.au/no-pcr-tests-for-covid-19-wont-give-you-cancer/,,,factcheck_aap,,"The StatementA number of social media posts claim the PCR tests widely used to diagnose COVID-19 contain ethylene oxide, which can cause cancer.A Facebook post shared by an Australian user on April 5 begins by saying PCR tests are the reason “we are all losing our Freedom!”The post then claims PCR tests contain “ethyl (sic) oxide which is carcinogenic and mutogenic (sic)”.Variations of the post have been shared widely, including by Australian pages, as well as in Canada. Collectively the Facebook posts have been viewed tens of thousands of times. A post claims PCR tests contain ethylene oxide, which has been linked to cancer. The AnalysisThe Facebook posts misleadingly suggests that COVID-19 tests contain the known carcinogen ethylene oxide, which is commonly used to sterilise medical equipment.Experts told AAP FactCheck that any amounts of the chemical remaining on test swabs after cleansing would be barely detectable and pose no risk to human health.Since the first COVID-19 case was reported in Australia in January 2020, more than 16 million COVID-19 tests have been conducted, according to the Department of Health.There are three main types of tests used to diagnose COVID-19 infection: rapid antigen tests, serology tests and nucleic acid detection tests. The latter category includes polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests, considered the “gold standard” of testing in Australia.PCR tests commonly involve the insertion of a long nasal swab into the nose to reach the back of the throat in order to obtain a fluid sample. The swab is then analysed by lab technicians to detect the presence of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes COVID-19.Dr Gaetan Burgio, an expert in genetics and infectious diseases from the Australian National University, told AAP FactCheck that ethylene oxide is used to sterilise PCR swabs in COVID-19 tests to ensure no contaminants are present, but it is not part of the PCR test itself.Ethylene oxide is a man-made chemical that is often used in gaseous form as a sterilising agent in healthcare and as an ingredient in the manufacturing of industrial products such as polyester.The World Health Organization (WHO) identifies the chemical as a “known human carcinogen”, while an International Organization for Standardization (ISO) document states it is “mutagenic” or potentially harmful under many conditions (page 5).The Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) says about 50 per cent of all sterile medical devices in the US are sterilised with ethylene oxide.Dr Burgio said the sterilisation process consists of vaporising ethylene oxide and using the gas mixture to kill microorganisms.“The amount of ethylene oxide delivered in the chamber and the residual quantity after sterilisation is tightly monitored as a work health and safety procedure to ensure there is no residual substance left after sterilisation procedure,” he said in an email.“It means the risk of cancer and DNA mutations from a COVID-19 PCR test is (non-existent).”Professor Bill Rawlinson, a senior medical virologist from UNSW, told AAP FactCheck in an interview that any residual amounts of ethylene oxide in PCR test swabs would be so tiny they were almost immeasurable.“There’s just not enough left over; and if it were left over, time and exposure means that any residual ethylene oxide becomes denatured and becomes non-reactive,” he said.A spokeswoman for the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) told AAP FactCheck the medical regulator assesses products based on standards set by the ISO for health products sterilised using ethylene oxide.“The manufacturer must show that the final product is safe and does not exceed the limit of ethylene oxide residue in accordance with the international standards,” she said in an email.“Whilst there is evidence that long-term and/or occupational exposure to ethylene oxide has been linked to cancer, there is a lack of evidence to suggest that residual ethylene oxide exposure from the transient use of ethylene oxide sterilised COVID-19 PCR test swabs causes cancer or DNA mutations.”The FDA told fact checkers Snopes that it was also important to differentiate between collection swabs and the PCR test itself — which the post wrongly contains ethylene oxide.“The use of sterilised swabs for collection is not the use of (ethylene oxide) in the test itself… (However), ‘EO’ written on the swab package does indicate sterilisation of the collection swab with ethylene oxide,” a spokesperson said.“Ethylene oxide is a commonly used method of medical device sterilisation. It’s considered a safe and effective method that helps ensure the safety of medical devices and helps deliver quality patient care.”Variations of the ethylene oxide claim have been debunked here, here and here. A nurse carries out a PCR COVID-19 test on a patient.","https://s3.ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/aap-nw-aap.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/09150406/Screen-Shot-2021-04-09-at-3.02.32-pm.png,https://archive.ph/OeLKj,https://archive.ph/74usC,https://www.health.gov.au/news/health-alerts/novel-coronavirus-2019-ncov-health-alert/coronavirus-covid-19-current-situation-and-case-numbers#tests-conducted-and-results,https://www.tga.gov.au/covid-19-testing-australia-information-health-professionals,https://www.mayoclinic.org/tests-procedures/covid-19-diagnostic-test/about/pac-20488900,https://jcsmr.anu.edu.au/people/academics/dr-ga%C3%A9tan-burgio#acton-tabs-link--tabs-person_tabs-middle-1,https://www.foodstandards.gov.au/consumer/chemicals/Pages/Ethylene-oxide.aspx,https://www.who.int/medical_devices/innovation/hospt_equip_31.pdf,http://nhiso.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/ISO-10993-7-2008.pdf,https://www.cancer.gov/publications/dictionaries/cancer-terms/def/mutagen,https://www.fda.gov/medical-devices/general-hospital-devices-and-supplies/ethylene-oxide-sterilization-medical-devices#why,https://www.who.int/medical_devices/innovation/hospt_equip_31.pdf,https://research.unsw.edu.au/people/professor-william-rawlinson,https://www.iso.org/standard/56137.html,http://nhiso.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/ISO-10993-7-2008.pdf,https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/covid-19-tests-chemical-cancer/,https://apnews.com/article/fact-checking-afs:Content:10038432007,https://observers.france24.com/en/tv-shows/truth-or-fake/20210331-truth-or-fake-are-pcr-test-swabs-carcinogenic?fbclid=IwAR0LqD5Hsr-WLuOMTsSTb5JNIFKy8fTGpcSv30zqpzucFxPx6xid6noFQ6k,https://www.reuters.com/article/factcheck-ethylene-oxide/fact-check-lateral-flow-tests-do-not-cause-cancer-ethylene-oxide-sterilisation-is-a-widely-used-process-that-is-regulated-by-international-safety-standards-idUSL1N2LO1YM?fbclid=IwAR0nNEIRfsipIUL7vBsIyD3iVngCAush8l7ZqFBjYkESUmBK1eeT9luCA4E","No, PCR tests for COVID-19 won’t give you cancer",,,,,,
69,,,,Partly False,,2021-04-19,,factcheck_aap,,https://www.aap.com.au/red-cross-given-tick-for-bushfire-relief-despite-social-media-carping/,,,factcheck_aap,,"The StatementA social media post claims the Australian Red Cross asked the federal government for additional funding after “fleecing Australians to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars during the bushfire disaster” only to distribute “a mere fraction of the money they took from us”.The Facebook post from April 13, 2020, continues to be shared multiple times daily. At the time of writing, it had been shared more than 36,000 times and generated over 1500 reactions.It claims the Red Cross was among the organisations that asked for financial aid from the federal government despite purportedly only giving out a small share of the funds it raised for relief following Australia’s deadly 2019-20 bushfires.“… the very same RED CROSS that fleeced Australians to the tune of hundreds of millions during the bushfire disaster. The very same RED CROSS that has given out a mere fraction of the money they took from us, Aussie battlers,” the post says. The Red Cross “fleeced” Australians of millions from bushfire disaster donations, a post claims. The AnalysisWhile the Red Cross was criticised following the bushfires for the pace of its emergency response, the charity did not “fleece” donors. Later reports show it has distributed the vast majority of the money, which it says was always earmarked for both short- and long-term recovery and relief.The 2019-20 bushfire season led to the deaths of at least 33 people, as well as the destruction of thousands of homes and the burning of millions of hectares across five Australian states.By February 3, 2020, the Australian Red Cross said it had raised more than $127 million for its disaster relief and recovery fund from donations. Of this, $61.5 million was available for immediate cash relief, it said, however it also said some of the funds would be distributed over a longer period.For example, it said $18 million had been committed to recovery programs that would run for at least three years.The Red Cross was among the charities criticised in the preceding months for its slow distribution of grants, however the organisation said it was putting some funding aside for communities where there would be a “long-term need.”It was also accused of earmarking some of the bushfire relief funding to cover the impact of future disasters, a charge it denied at the time, as well as spending too large a share of the money on its own costs.The Red Cross released a report in April identifying that it had distributed just over a third of the by then $200 million it had raised to affected communities. The bulk of the remainder was set aside for the cost of rebuilding homes and to cover future grants for those who were yet to apply.According to its most recent figures, published on March 24, 2021, the Red Cross had distributed or spent $213 million from the $241 million eventually raised for bushfire-related recovery. The charity expected all of the funds to be spent by the end of 2022, according to its full report (page 9). It said four per cent of funding had gone towards its administrative costs.A Red Cross spokesman told AAP FactCheck that experience showed financial relief was needed over the long-term rather than just in the weeks or months following a disaster.Between April and December 2020, more than 3000 people affected by the bushfires lodged their first grant applications, he added.The spokesman said the organisation’s administrative costs went towards  operational requirements such as communications, grant distribution and fraud prevention.An October 2020 review by the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission into the handling of funding from bushfire appeals found the Australian Red Cross had taken “a strategic and reasonable approach to the disbursement of funds”, noting the organisation had “allocated all donations it received for the bushfires to bushfire-related activities”.On the claim that the Red Cross asked for financial assistance from the government, it is true that the organisation was among the recipients of a $100 million federal funding pool in April 2020.However, the money was not provided to “help” the charity, as claimed in the post. Rather, a $7 million grant was provided for the Red Cross to deliver emergency relief to vulnerable people on temporary visas during COVID-19-related shutdowns.The Red Cross spokesman said the charity submitted a proposal to the government early in the pandemic after seeing a “significant spike in requests for support”.The spokesman said that as of March 2021 the Red Cross had received a total of $16 million to provide the emergency relief.In March 2020, AAP FactCheck debunked claims about the Red Cross’s distribution of bushfire donations and allegations it had fraudulently spent relief funds on other causes. A burnt home on the NSW South Coast following deadly bushfires in January 2020.","https://s3.ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/aap-nw-aap.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/19141813/Screenshot-2021-04-19-141739.jpg,https://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Library/pubs/rp/rp1920/Quick_Guides/AustralianBushfires,https://www.redcross.org.au/news-and-media/media-centre/media-releases/red-cross-extends-financial-assistance,https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-01-23/bushfire-aid-row-continues-as-red-cross-attacked-again/11892062,https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/jan/24/australian-red-cross-defends-spending-10-of-bushfire-donations-on-office-costs,https://www.redcross.org.au/getmedia/00f3ca23-8955-4c44-aab8-3026f3158cdc/Report-Australian-Bushfires-Jan-Apr20-23-4-20.pdf.aspx,https://archive.ph/6C7QG,https://www.redcross.org.au/getmedia/bdda13bc-e567-40b6-8171-628356120531/BushfireReport12mth-1-3-21.pdf.aspx,https://www.acnc.gov.au/,https://www.acnc.gov.au/tools/reports/bushfire-response-2019-20-reviews-three-australian-charities,https://ministers.dss.gov.au/media-releases/5726,https://www.aap.com.au/australian-bushfire-donations-post-leaves-charity-cross/",Red Cross given tick for bushfire relief despite social media carping,,,,,,
70,,,,False,,2021-04-16,,factcheck_aap,,https://www.aap.com.au/open-letter-to-png-pm-on-vaccine-rollout-recycles-misinformation/,,,factcheck_aap,,"The StatementA “concerned citizen” claiming to be worried about the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines in Papua New Guinea has addressed the country’s prime minister, James Marape, in a widely shared “open letter”.The text, included in a March 25 Facebook post, calls on Mr Marape to rescind the government’s decision “to bring in the vaccines and get them transported back to Australia where they can use it themselves and later bring them to PNG if the results are good”.The post had been shared more than 200 times and viewed more than 18,000 times at the time of writing. The same “open letter” has also been shared by other users in PNG (see example here).It makes several unsubstantiated claims, including that Australia and America have joined other countries in Europe to “say no to the covid-19 vaccine”, adding that the disease can be treated at home like the common flu. It also says that China and India have managed the pandemic through “simple steaming and drinking hot water every day” and have almost zero COVID-19 cases as a result. A Facebook post features an “open letter” from a “concerned citizen” to PNG’s prime minister. The AnalysisWith immunisation programs well underway worldwide – including in the US, Europe and Australia – there is no basis to the claim that developed countries have said “no” to the COVID-19 vaccine.As of mid-April, the US was administering 3.3 million vaccine doses per day. More than 76 million people had been fully vaccinated by April 14, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).In Europe, nearly 100 million vaccine doses had been administered as of April 11, according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, while in Australia, a relative laggard in administering COVID-19 vaccines, more than 1.3 million doses had been administered by April 15.Meanwhile, Papua New Guinea received its first major batch of the AstraZeneca vaccine on April 13. The 132,000 doses, arranged through the Covax facility, were in addition to 8000 doses from Australia that arrived in March.The post does not specify a particular vaccine other countries had supposedly rejected, however evidence from overseas that the AstraZeneca vaccine may lead to rare but serious cases of blood clots in recipients had reportedly fuelled hesitancy surrounding the COVID-19 jab in PNG.Australia has not stopped use of the AstraZeneca vaccine, however authorities declared on April 8 that the Pfizer vaccine was the “preferred” option for people aged under 50. Only one European country, Denmark, had stopped using the AstraZeneca vaccine altogether at the time of writing, while in the United States it has been going through the emergency approval process.Globally, the World Health Organization (WHO) has advised that “everyone, everywhere who could benefit from safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines should have access as quickly as possible, starting with those at highest risk of serious disease or death”.The Facebook post also makes several questionable secondary claims, including that China and India have controlled the virus through “simple steaming and drinking hot water every day” rather than vaccines.While it is true that China has reported relatively few COVID-19 cases since experiencing a severe outbreak at the start of the pandemic, its control of the virus has been credited to tough controls such as a 76-day lockdown in Wuhan and thousands of health checkpoints, mass testing and contact tracing. As of April 4, the WHO said more than 142 million vaccine doses had been administered.In India, the virus has been rampant. There have been more than 14 million confirmed COVID-19 cases – the second highest tally in the world after the United States – including a record 200,000 new daily cases on April 15. More than 104 million vaccine doses have been administered in the country.Other posts advocating for so-called steam therapy to kill the coronavirus have previously been debunked. A CDC representative told Reuters they were not aware of any studies that showed the approach was effective for the virus.The claim that drinking hot water will prevent the virus has also been debunked. One expert in respiratory diseases told the BBC that hot drinks might ease some flu symptoms but they did nothing to get rid of the underlying virus.Johns Hopkins University has also dispelled the myth that drinking or gargling warm water eliminates the virus.The post further claims that COVID-19 can be treated at home as easily as the common flu. AAP FactCheck has previously investigated similar false comparisons between the diseases. While COVID-19 shares some symptoms with influenza, it is caused by a different virus, SARS-CoV-2, and induces more serious health effects in many patients.The CDC recommends that people experiencing mild symptoms from COVID-19 isolate at home, taking care to rest and stay hydrated. Symptoms can be eased with over-the-counter medicines. Those suffering more serious symptoms such as difficulty breathing or chest pain are advised to seek immediate medical care.AAP FactCheck has debunked earlier posts from Papua New Guinea that called on locals to approach the virus like influenza and follow home remedies for treatment. PNG Prime Minister James Marape was addressed in a widely shared Facebook post.","http://archive.ph/S6PTn,https://archive.ph/7xYTd,https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/03/04/world/covid-19-coronavirus,https://web.archive.org/web/20210415103217/https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#vaccinations,https://archive.ph/7CVKE,https://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2021/apr/14/how-australias-coronavirus-vaccine-rollout-really-compares-with-other-countries,https://archive.ph/zEjfK,https://covid19.info.gov.pg/index.php/2021/04/13/papua-new-guinea-receives-first-batch-of-astrazeneca-vaccines/,https://www.gavi.org/covax-facility,https://covid19.info.gov.pg/index.php/2021/03/24/australia-gifts-8000-covid-19-vaccines-to-png/,https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-04-13/png-people-are-hesitant-to-take-astrazeneca-vaccine/100063694,https://www.health.gov.au/news/atagi-statement-on-astrazeneca-vaccine-in-response-to-new-vaccine-safety-concerns,https://www.euronews.com/2021/04/15/european-countries-express-interest-in-purchasing-denmark-s-astrazeneca-vaccines,https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-56521166,https://www.who.int/news-room/q-a-detail/coronavirus-disease-(covid-19)-vaccine-access-and-allocation,https://covid19.who.int/region/wpro/country/cn,https://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS1473-3099(20)30800-8/fulltext#%20,https://covid19.who.int/region/searo/country/in,https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-04-15/india-breaches-200-000-daily-covid-19-cases/100072816,https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-factcheck-steam-kills-coronavirus-idUSKBN21H2LK,https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20200403-coronavirus-will-hot-drinks-protect-you-from-covid-19,https://www.jhsph.edu/covid-19/articles/coronavirus-facts-vs-myths.html,https://www.aap.com.au/no-covid-19-isnt-just-the-flu-with-a-makeover/,https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/if-you-are-sick/steps-when-sick.html,https://www.aap.com.au/png-covid-19-outbreak-not-helped-by-viral-advice/",‘Open letter’ to PNG PM on vaccine rollout recycles misinformation,,,,,,
71,,,,False,,2021-04-16,,factcheck_aap,,https://www.aap.com.au/post-tying-nz-vaccine-program-to-dire-population-warning-full-of-falsehoods/,,,factcheck_aap,,"The StatementA post from a New Zealand-based Facebook page makes several claims about the safety of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine before linking the suggestions to a dire population forecast for the country.It features a screenshot that reads: “New analysis from the Israeli Health Ministry concluded Pfizer’s COVID vaccine killed ‘about 40 times more (elderly) people than the disease itself would have killed’ during a recent five-week vaccination period, and 260 times more younger people than would have died from the virus.”Next to the screenshot, the post’s text says: “NZ just gave away the 5 million doses of the other types of covid vac it purchased and ordered Pfizer ones only. Ardern did this after the news came out that the Pfizer vac kills 260 x more young people than covid itself does.“While you process this, consider that the UNs (sic) population projection group, Deagle, is predicting 2 million LESS people to live in NZ by 2025. This is looking more and more like genocide in action!”At the time of writing, the March 9 post had been viewed more than 3000 times and shared more than 50 times. Another example of the post’s claims, also from a New Zealand user, is here. A post lists a death toll estimate for the elderly in Israel to warn about the Pfizer vaccine. The AnalysisThe post’s claims about the safety of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine are based on a misleading analysis of Israeli health data. In addition, it includes baseless claims that New Zealand gave away five million alternate immunisation doses as well as an alarming population forecast unsupported by any credible evidence.The screenshot’s text, stating that the Israeli Health Ministry concluded that the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine “killed about 40 times more elderly people than the disease itself”, is from a now-deleted article on the Children’s Health Defense website. The site was founded by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an anti-vaccine activist who has been banned from Instagram for sharing misinformation.The article was in turn based on a post on a Hebrew-language message board analysing data from the Israeli Ministry of Health that featured in a report from news site Ynet. The Ynet report, from February 11, describes the effectiveness of the Pfizer vaccine, noting early data showed much higher rates of illness and hospitalisation among those who had not been vaccinated. It does not include any mention of the vaccine leading to deaths.Fact-checkers Health Feedback noted the message board post was based on an “unsound” analysis that included “several flawed and misleading assumptions that render the calculations meaningless”. For example, the post focused on deaths among people aged over 60 who had received one dose of the vaccine within the past 13 days.However, the same data shows a significant drop in hospitalisations and deaths from COVID-19 among those who received one dose of the vaccine more than 13 days earlier, and a further decline among those who had received two doses.Following drug trials, Pfizer reported its vaccine had 52 per cent efficacy after one dose, rising to around 95 per cent after the second dose. A more recent report from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna vaccines were 90 per cent effective for prevention of infection after both doses and 80 per cent effective with a single dose after 14 or more days.The CDC says people are only considered fully vaccinated two weeks after the second dose in their two-dose series.John Hopkins Medicine notes in a guide to COVID-19 vaccines that recipients were “not considered appropriately protected after the first shot”, adding: “It takes up to two weeks after the second shot for your immune system to fully respond to a vaccine and provide protection against an infectious disease.”Around four weeks after Israel began its national vaccination program, the country began to see a steep decline in new hospitalisations for severe COVID-19, according to an analysis from Our World In Data.Helen Petousis-Harris, a vaccinologist and associate professor at the University of Auckland and co-leader of the Global Vaccine Data network, says the Facebook post features false information.“Pfizer vaccine does not kill people. This is an absurd claim,” Dr Petousis-Harris told AAP FactCheck in an email.“As of writing, there are no deaths that have been causally linked to the Pfizer vaccine. So far there have been around 100 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine administered, across many countries. At this stage, global safety surveillance supports that the Pfizer vaccine is very safe. It continues to be monitored closely.”AAP FactCheck has previously investigated numerous false claims about the Pfizer vaccine and other COVID-19 inoculations leading to deaths (see examples here, here and here), while various claims attempting to link Israel’s vaccination program to deaths have also been debunked (see here, here, here and here).There is no evidence to support the post’s claim that New Zealand “gave away” 5 million doses of alternative vaccines in favour of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine. The country has previously announced pre-purchase agreements with AstraZeneca, Novavax and Janssen Pharmaceutica.However, those agreements are subject to the inoculations successfully completing all clinical trials and passing regulatory approvals, the New Zealand government has stated. Only the Pfizer/BioNTech had been approved for use at the time of writing.The country’s medicines regulator, Medsafe, has been weighing up approval of the single-shot Janssen vaccine, but it has requested more information from the drug provider in response to reports the vaccine had been linked to rare cases of blood clots.Dr Petousis-Harris, who is also a member of the government’s COVID-19 Immunisation Implementation Advisory Group, said New Zealand had not “given away” alternative vaccines because it had neither purchased nor received them.“At the moment NZ has ordered sufficient Pfizer vaccine to cover the population,” she said.AAP FactCheck sought comment from the Ministry of Health but had received no reply at the time of publication.New Zealand provisionally approved use of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine in February, and has since ordered 10 million doses. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced on March 8 that Pfizer would be NZ’s “primary vaccine provider”. The country has begun immunising border and quarantine workers, and high-risk frontline staff.The post also claims the “UNs population projection group, Deagle, is predicting 2 million LESS people to live in NZ by 2025” before claiming it appeared to be “genocide in action”.While it is true that the Deagel website — the name for which is incorrectly spelled in the post — forecasts New Zealand’s population will be 3.3 million by 2025, the analysis is predicated on the collapse of the Western financial system and a major world war, according to its disclaimer. It also predicts the US population will plunge from more than 300 million people to 99 million within the same period.There is no evidence the website is in any way connected with the United Nations or any other international body, with the disclaimer also stating: “We are not linked to any government. Take into account that the forecast is nothing more than a game of numbers whether flawed or correct based upon some speculative assumptions.”The site’s past doomsday forecasts have also proved inaccurate. For example, in February 2012 it predicted the US population would fall to 248 million by 2020. According to the US Census, the population in April 2020 in the US was more than 329 million.Stats NZ’s most recent population projection said there was a 90 per cent chance the number of residents would grow from 5.09 million people to between 5.13 million and 5.51 million in 2025.James Weir, a senior communications adviser for Stats NZ, told AAP FactCheck in an email: “Even at the fifth percentile (low population growth), the population is still projected to increase slightly, not fall.” NZ is not predicted to suffer a population decline, despite the impact of COVID-19.","https://archive.is/zbBrs,https://archive.is/VUuUF,https://www.health.govt.nz/our-work/diseases-and-conditions/covid-19-novel-coronavirus/covid-19-vaccines/covid-19-types-vaccines/covid-19-pfizer-vaccine,https://archive.ph/Cexxc,https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-robert-f-kennedy-jr-distorted-vaccine-science1/,https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-56021904,https://archive.vn/jiIVR,https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&u=https://www.ynet.co.il/news/article/rJ9Bs0zW00,https://healthfeedback.org/claimreview/data-from-israel-showed-that-the-pfizer-biontech-vaccine-reduces-the-likelihood-of-dying-from-covid-19-analysis-in-a-forum-post-claiming-the-opposite-is-flawed/?fbclid=IwAR1z7gk1oEfwdYqWfNlv9fOixi34sRg0DDBtVAiOc0d3Ece9jC3PWgIf3_c,https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/08/health/covid-vaccine-pfizer.html,https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/70/wr/mm7013e3.htm,https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/different-vaccines/Moderna.html,https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/fully-vaccinated.html,https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/conditions-and-diseases/coronavirus/getting-the-covid-19-vaccine-what-to-expect,https://www.gov.il/en/departments/news/27122020-01,https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/israel-severe-hospitalizations-age?country=~ISR,https://unidirectory.auckland.ac.nz/profile/hpet002,https://www.globalvaccinedatanetwork.org/,https://www.aap.com.au/reports-spread-misinformation-on-pfizer-vaccine-trial-deaths/,https://www.aap.com.au/video-misuses-data-to-level-flawed-claims-of-vaccine-deaths/,https://www.aap.com.au/no-evidence-of-delayed-killswitch-in-mrna-vaccines/,https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-factcheck-israel-idUSKBN2AA2TS,https://www.timesofisrael.com/defying-rules-anti-vaccine-accounts-thrive-on-social-media/,https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/pfizer-vaccine-israel/,https://leadstories.com/hoax-alert/2021/03/fact-check-vaccination-data-in-israel-do-not-reveal-frightening-death-rates.html,https://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/two-new-vaccines-secured-enough-every-new-zealander,https://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/agreement-advanced-purchase-5-million-covid-19-vaccines,https://www.mbie.govt.nz/science-and-technology/science-and-innovation/international-opportunities/covid-19-vaccine-strategy/,https://web.archive.org/save/https://www.immune.org.nz/covid-19-vaccines,https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/coronavirus/300277989/covid19-medsafe-seeks-additional-data-on-janssen-vaccine-amid-blood-clot-reports,https://www.health.govt.nz/our-work/diseases-and-conditions/covid-19-novel-coronavirus/covid-19-response-planning/covid-19-vaccine-strategy/covid-19-vaccine-planning-and-delivery-groups,https://covid19.govt.nz/updates-and-resources/latest-updates/first-covid-19-vaccine-approved-in-new-zealand/,https://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/govt-purchases-enough-pfizer-vaccines-whole-country,https://www.health.govt.nz/our-work/diseases-and-conditions/covid-19-novel-coronavirus/covid-19-vaccines/covid-19-getting-vaccine/covid-19-when-you-can-get-vaccine,https://web.archive.org/web/20210415073420/https://www.deagel.com/forecast,https://www.google.com/search?q=deagel+site%3Aun.org&ei=i-13YNqaGdK9rQHO47ewDw&oq=deagel+site%3Aun.org&gs_lcp=Cgdnd3Mtd2l6EAM6BwgAEEcQsANQ_-YGWK_pBmCH7AZoAXACeACAAZABiAGMBZIBAzAuNZgBAKABAaoBB2d3cy13aXrIAQjAAQE&sclient=gws-wiz&ved=0ahUKEwiajJKj3__vAhXSXisKHc7xDfYQ4dUDCA4&uact=5,https://web.archive.org/web/20120205065317/http://www.deagel.com/country/United-States-of-America_c0001.aspx,https://www.census.gov/popclock/,https://www.stats.govt.nz/information-releases/national-population-projections-2020base2073,https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-weir-0a86aa1b5/?originalSubdomain=nz",Post tying NZ vaccine program to dire population warning full of falsehoods,,,,,,
72,,,,False,,2021-04-15,,factcheck_aap,,https://www.aap.com.au/claim-covid-19-vaccine-will-void-life-insurance-is-dead-wrong/,,,factcheck_aap,,"The StatementA social media post claims people who “consent” to receiving a COVID-19 vaccine risk losing life insurance benefits because any side effects from the immunisation would be considered “self-inflicted”.A Facebook post shared on March 30 by an Australian user features a purported photo of the “product disclosure statement and policy document” for Allianz’s life insurance policy.The document, dated 31 July 2020, includes a list of scenarios in which a life insurance benefit would not be payable. The following point is highlighted: “We will not pay Critical Illness or Permanently Unable to Work benefit where the condition is intentionally self-inflicted”.At the bottom, a section of red italicised text has been circled. It reads: “If you CONSENT to taking a COVID-19 ‘vaccine’ your consent is ‘self-inflicted’, it was your choice to have the experimental medical procedure and therefore insurance WILL NOT COVER ANY DAMAGE OR DEATH.”“All injuries for insurance must not be ACCIDENTAL and a treatment by consent is not an accident.”The post had been viewed more than 46,000 times and attracted more than 550 interactions before it was removed. Similar claims have appeared on Twitter and elsewhere on Facebook. A Facebook post wrongly claims COVID-19 vaccines will void life insurance policies. The AnalysisChoosing to receive a COVID-19 vaccination will not void a person’s life insurance policy or exclude them from receiving benefits, according to Australia’s peak body for financial services. In addition, the Allianz document has been selectively edited with text added to include false claims about “self-inflicted” vaccine side effects.In Australia, the AstraZeneca and Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines have been provisionally approved for use by the health regulator, the Therapeutic Goods Administration.While it is normal for people to experience some side effects relating to the vaccines, the majority of cases are mild. Two instances of a rare and potentially fatal blood-clotting disorder likely linked to the AstraZeneca vaccine had been identified in Australia as of April 13 out of around 700,000 administered doses.However, an Allianz spokeswoman told AAP FactCheck the Facebook post about its life insurance policies was “fraudulent and contains false information”. She referred to the company’s life insurance “frequently asked questions” page, which says Allianz policies do not contain specific exclusions for COVID-19 – although people who ignored government advice on travelling overseas would not be entitled to benefits.The image of the purported Allianz life insurance document in the post shows edited sections of the company’s product disclosure statement. The majority of the original document’s sections titled “when is a benefit not payable (policy exclusions?” (page 8) and the definitions for “accidental death” and “injury” (page 12) have been cut and pasted together.The edited sections of text have not been altered, however the italicised red text and other emphases have been added.Elsewhere, Allianz lists information encouraging people to get COVID-19 vaccines on its health insurance website, which states the insurer will cover the cost of treatment for COVID-19 as well as private vaccination costs when applicable.In Australia, the Financial Services Council (FSC) is the peak body which represents insurers and other financial firms and sets mandatory standards for the industry. Its senior policy manager for life insurance, Nick Kirwan, told AAP FactCheck in an email the claims in the post were “just scaremongering nonsense”.“Taking the COVID-19 vaccine will not impact your life insurance policy in any way. Also we do not believe it is correct to describe an approved vaccine as ‘experimental medical treatment’,” he said.Similar false claims have circulated overseas, leading the American Council Of Life Insurers and Canadian Life and Health Insurance Association to release statements stating that life insurance policies would not be affected in those countries if people received COVID-19 vaccines. Claims COVID-19 vaccines will void life insurance policies have been dismissed as “nonsense”.","https://archive.ph/kBIu3,https://archive.ph/cd6xO,https://archive.ph/pOhKS,https://www.tga.gov.au/covid-19-vaccine-astrazeneca-chadox1-s,https://www.tga.gov.au/covid-19-vaccine-pfizer-australia-comirnaty-bnt162b2-mrna,https://www.health.gov.au/initiatives-and-programs/covid-19-vaccines/getting-vaccinated-for-covid-19/what-happens-after-i-am-vaccinated-for-covid-19#what-if-i-have-a-reaction-to-the-vaccine,https://www.tga.gov.au/alert/astrazeneca-chadox1-s-covid-19-vaccine-1,https://web.archive.org/web/20210401154317/https://www.allianz.com.au/life-insurance/frequently-asked-questions/,https://www.einsure.com.au/wb/public/openPolicyDocument/POL268LIF072020200731/$FILE/POL268LIF.pdf#_ga=2.81109079.1782956375.1617600770-1936559773.1617600770,https://www.allianzcare.com/en/about-us/news/2020/01/coronaviruses.html#vaccine,https://www.fsc.org.au/about,https://www.fsc.org.au/about/fsc-people/policy-research/nick-kirwan,https://www.acli.com/Posting/NR21-012,https://www.clhia.ca/web/CLHIA_LP4W_LND_Webstation.nsf/page/CFFB22AA8524D58385258692004DDFFC!OpenDocument",Claim COVID-19 vaccine will void life insurance is dead wrong,,,,,,
73,,,,Satire,,2021-04-14,,factcheck_aap,,https://www.aap.com.au/did-the-simpsons-predict-prince-philips-death-years-ago/,,,factcheck_aap,,"The StatementA Facebook post from an Australian page claims to show an image and quote from a 1990s episode of The Simpsons that predicted the exact time and date of Prince Philip’s death.The meme, which includes two screenshots overlaid with purported text from the show, features Homer Simpson and another character talking in a bar. The other man is depicted as telling Homer, “Prince Philip died at 9am, 9th of April, the 99th Day of the Year, at age 99…”The following scene shows an armed duo taking hold of the man, telling him: “You’re under arrest for attempted conspiracy.”The post’s text reads: “Holy f***, that’s actually true, look it up.”At the time of writing, the post had been viewed more than six million times and shared more than 19,000 times. A Simpsons meme includes a purported prediction of Prince Philip’s death. The AnalysisDespite The Simpsons’ record in making eerily accurate predictions during its long run, the TV show did not make a royal divination in the case of Prince Philip’s passing.As correctly described in the meme, the Duke of Edinburgh, husband of Queen Elizabeth II, died on April 9 at the age of 99. The date was also the 99th day of 2021.However, the palace’s announcement did not specify any time for Prince Philip’s death, only noting: “His Royal Highness passed away peacefully this morning at Windsor Castle.” The news was posted to the royal family’s Twitter account just after midday GMT.While the details about the prince’s death included in the meme may be largely correct, it is not an actual quote from an episode of The Simpsons.The screenshots both come from the 1998 episode The Trouble With Trillions. A transcript of the episode captures the depicted exchange, which takes place in Moe’s Tavern between Homer Simpson and a character named Charlie.Simpson is acting as an informant for the FBI, and Charlie tells him: “My militia has a secret plan… to beat up all sorts of government officials. That’ll teach them to drag their feet on high-definition TV.”It is then that the agents burst in and grab him, saying: “You’re under arrest for conspiracy!”AAP FactCheck confirmed the transcript is accurate. The exchange takes place 8min 53sec into the episode, according to the timestamp on streaming platform Disney+.The Facebook page clarified in the comments that the post was a joke, telling followers: “This is a Simpson’s meme, this wasn’t said in an episode you dumb f***s.”But several commenters criticised the post for containing false information. One wrote: “I saw this episode recently, this is bulls***. He was talking about the government dragging their feet on HD TVs.”Another wrote: “Amazing how the Simpsons get all this right before it happens.”The meme was not the only false Simpsons claim to emerge following the prince’s death.A gif, featuring footage from the 1995 episode Home Sweet Homediddly-Dum-Doodily, shows the youngest Simpson child, Maggie, spinning her head around to face siblings Bart and Lisa. The gif is overlaid with the text, “Prince Philip will die on April 9, 2021.”A blog post claims the line was “replaced in subsequent airings, but not before causing much consternation on the newsgroups, where Simpsons dorks expressed bafflement at the reference and its complete irrelevancy to the episode’s plot”. The blog post and gif were also referred to in a Who Magazine article about the purported Simpsons quote.However, the real scene (timestamp 19min 8sec in the Disney+ streamed episode) features a silent Maggie facing her siblings. References to Prince Philip do not appear either in the episode transcript or other Simpsons online guides, while a Google search for references to “Maggie Simpson” and “Prince Philip death” from before the royal announcement produce no relevant results.A spokeswoman for the show told Check Your Fact the claim that the Prince Philip line was replaced in later versions of the episode was “fabricated”.The Simpsons has been on air for more than 30 years, making it the world’s longest-running animated sitcom, and many of its satirical predictions and plotlines have come to pass.One of the most notable examples was the show foreshadowing the presidency of Donald Trump. In the episode Bart To The Future, from March 2000, Lisa Simpson becomes president of the United States and notes after taking office: “As you know, we’ve inherited quite a budget crunch from president Trump.”But The Simpsons has also been the subject of numerous false claims about its predictions, including that it foresaw the fire at Notre Dame and last year’s Beirut explosion.In a 2018 interview with the New York Times, writer and executive producer Al Jean said: “I predict people will make too much of our great predictions.” Prince Philip died at Windsor Castle on April 9 aged 99.","https://archive.is/ah8ey,https://www.royal.uk/life-duke-edinburgh,https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-11437314,https://apnews.com/article/today-in-history-world-war-ii-coronavirus-pandemic-courts-7670d648bb32154f8dc835d696992ecf,https://www.royal.uk/announcement-death-duke-edinburgh,https://twitter.com/RoyalFamily/status/1380475865323212800,https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0701265/?ref_=ttep_ep20,https://transcripts.foreverdreaming.org/viewtopic.php?f=431&t=22058,https://www.disneyplus.com/,https://inthenews.rubbercat.net/2021/04/called-it-the-simpsons-eerily-predicted-the-exact-date-of-prince-philips-death/,https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0701108/?ref_=ttep_ep3,https://inthenews.rubbercat.net/2021/04/called-it-the-simpsons-eerily-predicted-the-exact-date-of-prince-philips-death/,https://www.who.com.au/the-simpsons-prince-phillip,https://transcripts.foreverdreaming.org/viewtopic.php?f=431&t=21991,https://www.simpsonsarchive.com/episodes/3F01.html,https://simpsons.fandom.com/wiki/Home_Sweet_Homediddly-Dum-Doodily,https://www.google.com/search?q=maggie+simpson+prince+philip+death&rlz=1C1GCEV_enAU918AU918&tbs=cdr%3A1%2Ccd_max%3A4%2F8%2F2021&ei=qnZ2YNiiNpT0rQHRtZXoBw&oq=maggie+simpson+prince+philip+death&gs_lcp=Cgdnd3Mtd2l6EAM6BQghEKABOgQIIRAVOgcIIRAKEKABUJ7UAViN9wFgr_kBaAJwAHgAgAGyAogB_xOSAQgwLjExLjIuMZgBAKABAaoBB2d3cy13aXrAAQE&sclient=gws-wiz&ved=0ahUKEwjYn-Th-fzvAhUUeisKHdFaBX0Q4dUDCA4&uact=5,https://checkyourfact.com/2021/04/19/fact-check-the-simpsons-predict-prince-philip-death/,https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/records/hall-of-fame/the-simpsons-longest-running-animated-sitcom-number-of-episodes,https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/simpsons-30-times-fox-comedy-successfully-predicted-future-1140775,https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0767439/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1,https://youtu.be/VXcYMvzZ7jk,https://www.snopes.com/collections/the-simpsons-didnt-predict-that/,https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/02/arts/television/simpsons-prediction-future.html,https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0419830/",Did The Simpsons predict Prince Philip’s death years ago?,,,,,,
74,,,,False,,2021-04-09,,factcheck_aap,,https://www.aap.com.au/no-weight-to-claims-exercise-doesnt-contribute-to-longevity/,,,factcheck_aap,,"The StatementA viral Facebook post questions the benefits of exercise and a good diet, suggesting as evidence that a series of famous figures who led active lives died earlier than those associated with bad habits.“Eat whatever you like,” the meme’s text states, before adding: “The inventor of the treadmill died at the age of 54, the inventor of gymnastics died at 57, the world bodybuilding champion died at 41 (and) the best footballer in the world, Maradona, died at 60.”In contrast, it then points to the creators of junk food products, cigarette companies and alcohol brands as examples of people who lived to a ripe old age.“The KFC inventor died at 94. The inventor of Nutella died at 88. The cigarette maker Winston died at 102. The inventor of opium died at 116 in an earthquake. The inventor of Hennessy died at 98,” the meme says. “How did doctors come to the conclusion that exercise prolongs life?”It goes on to say, “The rabbit is always jumping but it lives for around two years, and the turtle that doesn’t exercise at all lives over 200 years.” The post’s conclusion is that we should all “rest, chill, eat, drink and enjoy life”.The viral meme was posted on 19 March by a UK user but has since been widely shared by Facebook users in Australia and elsewhere. At the time of writing, it had been viewed more than 9.8 million times and shared more than 15,000 times. A viral meme questions how doctors came to the conclusion that exercise leads to a long life. The AnalysisThe author of the meme may be relaxed about life — but unfortunately they are also a little too relaxed about the facts. Nearly every age of death quoted in the post is wrong and some of the people referred to in the meme don’t even exist.Regrettably for those of us who prefer late-night snacks to early morning yoga, it is also incorrect to suggest that regular exercise and healthy eating do not contribute to a longer life. Numerous studies show they do.AAP Factcheck investigated each of the claims in the post and found almost all to be inaccurate.The pioneer of the modern exercise treadmill, William Staub, died in 2012 at 96 years of age, not 54, reportedly after a long life centred on exercise and a controlled diet.The inventors of earlier iterations of the treadmill also had long lives. Wayne Quinton developed an automated, lightweight treadmill as a medical device in the early 1950s and died decades later aged 94, while English engineer Sir William Cubitt pioneered a crude treadmill in 1818 as a means of reforming prisoners. He died aged 76.Friedrich Ludwig Jahn is credited as being the “father of gymnastics” after founding the turnverein (gymnastics club) movement in Germany in the early 1800s, although the concept of gymnazein — meaning ‘naked exercise’ — goes back to ancient Greece. Friedrich Ludwig Jahn died at 74, not 57.The post claims “the world bodybuilding champion died at 44” but the subject of that claim is not named. Many well-known bodybuilders have been reported to have died at an early age and scientific studies are littered with examples of bodybuilders dying young, often linked to anabolic steroid use. But there is no evidence of any “world champion” dying at 41.The only correct age of death mentioned in the post is for Argentinian soccer legend Maradona, who died in 2020 aged 60. However, the footballer was hardly a poster child for clean living, achieving notoriety for his ongoing alcohol and drug use.The meme goes on to make the case that certain people associated with unhealthy products lived well into their 80s, 90s or even longer. Every one of the numbers used is wrong.KFC inventor Harland Sanders died in 1980 aged 90, not 94.Nutella was created by Italian confectionery tycoon Michele Ferrero, who died in 2015 aged 89 — a near-miss for the meme, which has the figure wrongly pegged at 88.The post is further off the mark with its claim that “the cigarette maker Winston died at 102”. Winston is an American brand of cigarettes founded by Richard Joshua “R. J.” Reynolds, who died at 68. The Winston brand is not named after a person but the North Carolina town where Mr Reynolds built his tobacco factory. His grandson, Patrick Reynolds, is now a prominent anti-smoking campaigner.The claim that “the inventor of opium died at 116 in an earthquake” is a curious one given that poppy opium is thought to have been cultivated by humans for more than 5,000 years going back to the Sumerians, who lived in modern-day Iraq. AAP FactCheck could find no evidence of any “inventor” of opium dying in an earthquake at 116.Guinness World Records states the longest confirmed lifespan for a man to date is 116 years. However, that record belongs to a Japanese postal worker who died in hospital of natural causes in 2013. He is not credited with inventing opium.The creator of cognac brand Hennessy was Irishman Richard Hennessy. He was born in 1724 and died in 1800, making him either 75 or 76 at the time of death — definitely not 98, as the Facebook meme says.And how did doctors come to the conclusion that exercise prolongs life? By looking at the science.Professor Remco Polman, head of QUT’s School of Exercise and Nutrition Sciences, told AAP FactCheck there is a lot of data showing that people who stay fit and healthy are less likely to have chronic diseases leading to premature death.“You should definitely engage in regular, moderate exercise and eat well but in moderation,” Prof Polman said. “There is quite a bit of evidence that people who exercise live longer.”Thousands of studies have been undertaken into the effects of exercise on human health, and there is little doubt about its benefits for life expectancy.A highly cited US data study of 122,007 patients undertaking treadmill testing between 1991 and 2014 concluded that people with high levels of cardiorespiratory fitness lived longer than those who were less fit. The results held true across all age groups, the researchers found, and had no ‘upper limit’, meaning the fitter the person the higher their chances of living a long life.Many, many other studies have come to similar conclusions, including this research review which makes a “conservative estimate” that the net increase in life expectancy for physically active people is 2–4 years “but presumably even greater” due to the positive influence of activity on the major risk factors for mortality.The Australian Department of Health recommends adults complete 150 to 300 minutes of moderate physical activity or 75 to 150 minutes of vigorous exercise each week.Even the post’s characterisation of turtles as living a long life without exercise was challenged by an Australian turtle expert. Graham Stockfeld, president of Turtles Australia, a turtle conservation and public education group, told AAP FactCheck.: “They’re all muscle, basically. So, I think if you look closely at that argument (made in the Facebook meme) it will probably fall apart. They’re very fit animals in their own right. They’re not lying around being slobs.”So, if the advice provided in the Facebook post isn’t very useful, what is the easiest way for us to improve our health and live to old age? Prof Polman said people should start by cutting down on unhealthy foods.“You should probably only go to the outside aisles in the supermarket,” he suggests. “So you start with the fruit and the vegetables, and then go maybe to dairy products and then maybe some bread. Then all the middle aisles, you probably can skip.” Many studies have shown an active lifestyle does contribute to a longer, healthier life.","https://archive.ph/xNVex,https://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/29/business/william-staub-pioneer-of-affordable-treadmill-dies-at-96.html,https://web.archive.org/web/20130818224930/http://www.northjersey.com/clifton/William_Staub_of_Clifton_developer_of_first_home_treadmill_dies_at_96.html?page=all,https://www.engr.washington.edu/alumni/profiles/quinton,https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/obituaries/wayne-quinton-medical-device-pioneer-dies-94/,https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/19th-century-you-wouldnt-want-be-put-treadmill-180964716/#:~:text=Its%20inventor%2C%20English%20engineer%20Sir,habits%20of%20industry%E2%80%9D%20in%20prison.,https://www.britannica.com/biography/Friedrich-Ludwig-Jahn,https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/articles/teaching-content/history-gymnastics-ancient-greece-modern-times/,https://physicalculturestudy.com/2018/10/27/bodybuilders-who-passed-away-too-young/,https://scholar.google.com.au/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C5&q=bodybuilder+death&btnG=,https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-11-26/diego-maradona-dies-of-heart-attack-age-60/12921884,https://www.yarrawongachronicle.com.au/soccer/2020/12/24/2425272/maradona-autopsy-no-drink-illegal-drugs,https://global.kfc.com/our-heritage/,https://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/16/business/michele-ferrero-pioneer-who-gave-the-world-nutella-dies-at-89.html#:~:text=Michele%20Ferrero%2C%20widely%20regarded%20as,He%20was%2089,https://www.ncpedia.org/biography/reynolds-richard-joshua,https://www.thefreelibrary.com/The+Gilded+Leaf%3A+Triumph%2C+Tragedy%2C+and+Tobacco%2C+Three+Generations+of...-a07939781,https://tobaccofree.org/bio/,https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC46725/?page=1,https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/news/2020/10/the-worlds-oldest-people-and-their-secrets-to-a-long-life-632895,https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/news/2013/6/world%E2%80%99s-oldest-man-ever-passes-away-aged-116-49080,https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/news/2012/12/japans-jiroemon-kimura-confirmed-as-oldest-living-person-at-115-years-253-days-46484/,https://www.geni.com/people/Richard-Hennessy/6000000021391188949,https://staff.qut.edu.au/staff/remco.polman,https://scholar.google.com.au/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C5&q=exercise+health+benefits&oq=exercise+health+,https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2707428,https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378512212003015?casa_token=1yHq7y7S3dIAAAAA:XR4XMrANb-GyUduFKKzH_fJ6Q5ybAUfrKeOpF3mtXoGr7LwMGaf72wn6idalgypVzNjzFOmLFFrI,https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/article-abstract/387973?casa_token=aMHcVVfynHkAAAAA:e-xfJkUZs0B4-8INmHGB2hqOQvC58m9Iy6P281xdZR-oJLbeuYiulY_oxIv8mibio1aYW1C59hJv,https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3395188/,https://www1.health.gov.au/internet/main/publishing.nsf/Content/health-pubhlth-strateg-phys-act-guidelines,http://www.turtlesaustralia.org.au/",No weight to claims exercise doesn’t contribute to longevity,,,,,,
75,,,,Missing Context,,2021-04-09,,factcheck_aap,,https://www.aap.com.au/professors-vaccine-sterilisation-comment-used-out-of-context-to-mislead/,,,factcheck_aap,,"The StatementMultiple social media posts are using excerpts of a UK TV interview with Canadian immunologist Sir John Bell to imply COVID-19 vaccines may cause infertility.One Facebook post, shared more than 300 times since December 10, suggests in its caption that Prof Bell “blurts out” the truth about the vaccine in the video: “Jon Snow, interviewing Sir John Bell … Bell blurts out that this vaccine will sterilise about 70% of the population and Snow, realising what Bell has just said live on air, immediately cuts him off.”A similar clip of the interview was posted on YouTube on November 30 by a user who also promotes moon landing conspiracy theories. At the time of writing, it had been viewed more than 264,000 times.The video’s description reads: “Believe him, someone who has these levels of credentials doesn’t misspeak without correcting himself … I am sure any infertility will be blamed on the virus.”Clips of the interview segment have also been posted by social media users in Australia and New Zealand, including by Advance NZ, a political party whose page was previously suspended by Facebook for repeatedly sharing COVID-19 misinformation. In its version, the word “sterilise” is emphasised and the comment “Freudian slip?” added. Multiple social media posts feature videos of an interview with immunologist Sir John Bell. The AnalysisWhen Prof Bell used the word sterilise in the interview, it was not in relation to fertility. The regius professor of medicine at Oxford University and former president of the UK Academy of Medical Sciences told AAP FactCheck he was instead discussing how vaccines “sterilise” a community from COVID-19 by preventing the virus from spreading.“I was referring to the ability of the vaccines to completely eliminate viral replication (ie sterilise) and (it) had no relevance to fertility,” Prof Bell told AAP FactCheck via email.There is currently no evidence any COVID-19 vaccines cause infertility. AAP FactCheck previously debunked the false suggestion, which was based on the claim that a key protein for placenta formulation was also targeted by the immunisations.The clip of Prof Bell is taken from an interview broadcast on Britain’s Channel 4 News on August 24, 2020, prior to COVID-19 vaccines being approved for emergency use by UK regulators. The interviewer is renowned journalist and presenter Jon Snow.In answer to a question about when COVID-19 vaccines will become available, Prof Bell talks about the likely effectiveness of vaccines and the need for a robust regulatory approval process (from 7min 45sec in this version of the video from Channel 4):“A lot of this depends on the intensity of infection. So, in order to get a readout, you have to have a certain number of incident cases in the control vaccine population. And that then tells you that you can look at the real vaccinated population and see whether they’ve been protected. So, I’m hoping that’s going to happen pretty smartly this Autumn.“But then don’t forget, these vaccines are unlikely to completely sterilise the population. They’re very likely to have an effect which works in a percentage, say 60 or 70 per cent. We’ll have to look quite carefully, and the regulators will have to look quite carefully, to make sure that it’s done what we need it to do before it gets approved. So, there will be a delay between the outcome of the trial and a decision whether it can be approved as a vaccine.”At no point in the interview does Prof Bell or the interviewer refer to fertility.The post falsely suggests Snow “immediately” cut off Prof Bell; in reality, the interview continues for around 30 seconds after the “sterilise” comment before the veteran broadcaster moves to wrap up the item.The idea that COVID-19 vaccines may cause infertility was advanced by German physician Wolfgang Wodarg and Michael Yeadon, a former Pfizer employee, who asked Europe’s health regulator to delay clinical trials and approval of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine.The pair incorrectly claimed the vaccine would cause the formation of antibodies against the protein syncytin-1, which is involved in the development of the placenta.However, as numerous fact checks and many experts have pointed out (see examples here, here and here), mRNA vaccines such as those from Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna elicit immune responses to “spike proteins” from the SARS-CoV-2 virus that bear little relation to syncytin-1.To help clear up the misunderstanding, a group of US reproductive health experts published an a journal article in January comparing the vaccine protein and syncytin-1. The study confirmed there is “little homology between the two proteins”.They noted the body naturally produced antibodies to the virus protein when people became infected with COVID-19, however there was no indication of increased risk of miscarriage among pregnant women who were diagnosed with the illness.The researchers concluded: “To make such a baseless claim without any scientific evidence to support this theory elicits unfounded fear in our patient population, and creates an unnecessary sense of hesitancy to receive the COVID-19 vaccine.”Data from clinical trials undertaken for three major COVID-19 vaccines — from Pfizer/BioNTech, Moderna and AstraZeneca — show there was no significant difference in the rate of pregnancies or miscarriages among vaccinated participants compared with the control groups. Claims that COVID-19 vaccines can cause infertility have been repeatedly debunked.","https://archive.ph/zY0V4,https://archive.ph/zww9Z,https://archive.ph/uprR3,https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/428424/advance-nz-party-s-facebook-account-closed-after-breaches,https://acmedsci.ac.uk/about/governance/academy-president/professor-sir-john-bell,https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/sterilize,https://www.aap.com.au/no-covid-19-vaccines-dont-cause-sterility/,https://www.channel4.com/news/im-hopeful-were-going-to-start-to-get-readout-early-in-autumn-as-to-whether-this-thing-works-or-not-prof-sir-john-bell-on-oxford-vaccine,https://www.bmj.com/content/372/bmj.n421,https://www.channel4.com/news/by/jon-snow,https://www.channel4.com/news/im-hopeful-were-going-to-start-to-get-readout-early-in-autumn-as-to-whether-this-thing-works-or-not-prof-sir-john-bell-on-oxford-vaccine,https://www.wodarg.com/,https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:6KRy4L1ujfYJ:https://s56fbd84d0e131e9b.jimcontent.com/download/version/1606870652/module/9033912514/name/Wodarg_Yeadon_EMA_Petition_Pfizer_Trial_FINAL_01DEC2020_signed_with_Exhibits_geschw%25C3%25A4rzt.pdf+&cd=9&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=au,https://www.webmd.com/vaccines/covid-19-vaccine/news/20210112/why-covid-vaccines-are-falsely-linked-to-infertility,https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23333240/,https://toolbox.google.com/factcheck/explorer/search/syncytin-1%20vaccine;hl=en,https://theconversation.com/covid-19-vaccines-do-not-make-women-infertile-153550,https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7927763/,https://www.icsi.org/covid-19-vaccine-faq/do-the-mrna-vaccines-cause-infertility/,https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/different-vaccines/mrna.html#:~:text=COVID%2D19%20mRNA%20vaccines%20give,in%20the%20upper%20arm%20muscle.,https://www.fertstertdialog.com/posts/covid-19-vaccine-and-infertility-baseless-claims-and-unfounded-social-media-panic?utm_source=user_mailer&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=send_content_share_for_existing_user,https://www.nature.com/articles/s41577-021-00525-y/tables/1",Professor’s vaccine ‘sterilisation’ comment used out of context to mislead,,,,,,
76,,,,Partly False,,2021-04-07,,factcheck_aap,,https://www.aap.com.au/astrazeneca-latin-meaning-loses-something-in-translation/,,,factcheck_aap,,"The StatementAn Instagram post claims the Latin meaning of AstraZeneca is to “kill the stars” before implying a sinister motive behind the rollout of the pharmaceutical giant’s COVID-19 vaccines.The March 19 post from an Australia-based account includes a meme that reads: “Astra Ze Neca in Latin means to kill the Stars, they tell you right in your face that the purpose of the Shot is to prevent your Connection with Source.”The same meme has been shared to a Dutch Facebook page, while a similar meme claiming AstraZeneca is composed of words originating in Sanskrit, Polish and Latin that mean “weapon that kills” have generated thousands of shares (see examples here, here, here and here). An Instagram post claims the Latin meaning of AstraZeneca is to “kill the stars”. The AnalysisAstraZeneca‘s name may bear a literal resemblance to the Latin featured in the meme, but the true origins of the brand owe as much to marketing as the classical language.The company is one of several to have produced successful COVID-19 vaccines, partnering with Oxford University to develop and distribute the university’s candidate.The meme claiming that AstraZeneca means “weapon that kills” has already been widely debunked (here, here and here) on the basis that it randomly chooses definitions from different languages using a selective methodology for translation.To investigate the suggestion that the name means “kill the stars” in Latin, AAP FactCheck queried its translation with Latin expert Robert Griffiths, head of languages at St Cuthbert’s College in Auckland. Mr Griffiths said the claims made in the post were partially correct.“Neca in Latin means ‘kill’ as an imperative, or order,” he said via email.“Astra does indeed mean ‘stars’ and, in these forms, the two words could indeed mean ‘kill the stars’ – whatever that actually means? But it is grammatically correct.”However, he noted that the word “ze” did not exist in Latin, adding that he did not support the post’s “bizarre claims”.In a Twitter thread from October 2019, before the novel coronavirus became known, AstraZeneca explained the more benign origins behind its name – which was cemented in a 1999 merger between Astra AB and Zeneca Group.The company tweeted that Astra AB had been founded in 1913 in Södertälje, Sweden, and that “Astra” had its roots in the Greek astron, meaning “star”.In a history of Astra AB, published in January 2002, Swedish pharmaceuticals journal Läkemedelsvärlden tracked the company’s origin back to news of its formation, although it said the name was taken from Latin not the similar word in Greek.The UK-based Zeneca was formed in 1993 with the demerger of the pharmaceuticals and agrochemicals businesses of Imperial Chemical Industries.In its Twitter thread, AstraZeneca said the name “Zeneca” was created by an agency instructed to find a name beginning with a letter from either the start or the end of the alphabet. The name was to be short, memorable and with no offensive meaning in any language.The former CEO of Zeneca, Sir David Barnes, earlier provided a similar story about the origins of the company’s name, telling the UK’s The Daily Telegraph in 2001:“There is an advantage in being alphabetically at the top or bottom of lists, A or Z. I asked Interbrand to find a name that was phonetically memorable, of no more than three syllables and didn’t mean anything stupid, funny or rude in other languages. A new name also allowed us to instil a new company culture.” AstraZeneca was created in a 1999 merger between Astra AB and Zeneca.","https://www.instagram.com/p/CMmNnS3AGJQ/,https://www.facebook.com/130782353669244/posts/3906051436142298,http://archive.today/kGq33,https://perma.cc/3SV9-XLNW?type=image,https://perma.cc/QG6Z-3767?type=image,https://perma.cc/2ZT3-ZQS2,https://www.astrazeneca.com/our-company.html,https://www.astrazeneca.com/media-centre/press-releases/2020/astrazeneca-and-oxford-university-announce-landmark-agreement-for-covid-19-vaccine.html,https://factcheck.afp.com/facebook-posts-mislead-meaning-astrazeneca?fbclid=IwAR1eMG1tQbQcAjFBYWzk224DgNNuZ2DUgramtc_EoUaNNXERoI3RETxRCc4,https://checkyourfact.com/2021/03/31/fact-check-astrazeneca-mean-weapon-that-kill/,https://fullfact.org/online/Astrazeneca-name-translation/,https://www.isnz.org.nz/about-us/our-outstanding-teachers/profile-rob-griffiths-head-of-faculty-languages-and-classics-teacher-st-cuthberts-college/,https://web.archive.org/web/20210310081335/https://twitter.com/AstraZeneca/status/1184743333605847040,https://news.cision.com/astra/r/astrazeneca-merger---closing-timetable-etc,e7685,https://www.etymonline.com/word/astro-,https://web.archive.org/web/20100827163153/http://www.lakemedelsvarlden.se/zino.aspx?articleID=464,https://www.bbc.com/news/business-27391124,https://twitter.com/AstraZeneca/status/1184743483904610304,https://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/comment/4478124/The-name-game.html",AstraZeneca Latin ‘meaning’ loses something in translation,,,,,,
77,,,,Partly False,,2021-04-06,,factcheck_aap,,https://www.aap.com.au/vaccine-qa-checklist-misses-the-mark-on-numerous-claims/,,,factcheck_aap,,"The StatementA widely shared meme features a “COVID-19 Vaccine Q&A” that includes a series of claims, including that the inoculations skipped crucial testing stages, contain cells from foreign sources and cause serious harm to human health.The meme, included in a March 15 Facebook post, shows a checklist of 12 questions with either a “yes” or “no” box ticked for each under a banner which reads, “Facts to help you make a decision”.Among the claims are that COVID-19 vaccines have not been “safety tested on animals”, the “Astra-Zeneka (sic) and Johnson & Johnson vaccines contain aborted human or monkey cells”, “doctors have concerns about the mRNA vaccines’ long term effect on fertility”, “the vaccines increased the risk of auto immune diseases” and that the vaccines have “caused deaths or injuries”.The meme has been shared by several Australian users and across a range of platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, Telegram, Reddit and Instagram. A post featuring a Q&A on COVID-19 vaccines claims they skipped crucial testing stages. The AnalysisWhile some of the checklist’s entries are based in fact, it also contains significant misinformation – wrongly claiming, for example, that COVID-19 vaccines did not undergo animal trials and that they contain monkey or aborted human cells.In the US, the Food and Drug Administration has authorised the Pfizer/BioNTech, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson Janssen COVID-19 vaccines for emergency use, while the European Medicines Agency has also authorised use of AstraZeneca’s vaccine. In Australia, the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) has provisionally approved the Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines for use.As stated in the meme, AstraZeneca’s vaccine does contain genetically modified organisms (GMOs), while mRNA-based vaccines – such as those from Pfizer and Moderna – have been described as “experimental” in trials, although researchers have been studying the technology for decades.In addition, AAP FactCheck investigated a number of the posts’s questionable claims:Have the vaccines been safety tested on animals? The meme states the COVID-19 vaccines have not been safety tested on animals, however this is false. Vaccines go through multiple stages of trials to assess their safety and efficacy, and each of the four aforementioned companies tested their candidates on animals before they were approved for human use.The Pfizer mRNA vaccine was tested on mice and rhesus macaque monkeys, Moderna’s vaccine was also tested on rhesus macaques, the AstraZeneca vaccine undertook preclinical trials in rhesus macaques and mice and Janssen’s candidate was tested on macaque monkeys and golden hamsters.All the animal trials found the vaccine candidates demonstrated protection against the SARS-CoV-2 virus.Do the AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson vaccines contain monkey or aborted human cells? As previously explained by AAP FactCheck, laboratory-made cell lines derived from a single aborted fetus in the 1970s were used during the development of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine. However, the final vaccine formulation does not contain cells of any kind.The Janssen vaccine also uses laboratory-made cells descended from a fetus that was electively aborted in 1985, however, the vaccine then goes through several purification steps. A Janssen ANZ spokeswoman told AAP FactCheck in an email there is “no fetal tissue of either animal or human origin in the vaccine”.Both the Pfizer and Moderna mRNA-based vaccines use fetal cell lines for confirmation tests to ensure the inoculations function correctly, however neither use these cells for manufacturing nor do the inoculations contain fetal cells.Regarding monkey cells, the University of Oxford says AstraZeneca’s vaccine uses a weakened common cold virus which usually infects chimpanzees as its vector. A spokeswoman for AstraZeneca told AAP FactCheck via email the vaccine uses “virus cells which can’t replicate in humans”, but there is “nothing from another species” in the formulation.Do doctors have concerns about mRNA vaccines’ long-term effect on fertility?AAP FactCheck has previously debunked claims that mRNA vaccines could lead to recipients becoming infertile. The claim was advanced by a former Pfizer employee and a German physician who said the vaccine would induce antibodies against proteins such as syncytin-1, which is involved in the development of the placenta in humans.However, an article published in the British Medical Journal in February detailed advice from the Association of Reproductive and Clinical Scientists and the British Fertility Society which “refutes any link between the vaccines and fertility”.A spokeswoman for Pfizer told AAP FactCheck in an email “there is no data to suggest that the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine causes infertility” and pointed to advice from the Australian government’s Department of Health, a TGA Assessment Report (page 15) and the CDC.Pregnancies were reported by participants who received the vaccine during both the Pfizer (page 41) and Moderna (page 45) clinical trials.Is there a risk of autoimmune disease, strokes, seizures, convulsions or other side effects?There is no data available on the safety of COVID-19 vaccines for people already experiencing autoimmune conditions such as arthritis and multiple sclerosis, as highlighted by the CDC.Nevertheless, as explained by health authorities, such as the Department of Health, there is no evidence to suggest the vaccines can cause these conditions.University of Western Australia associate professor Archa Fox, an expert in RNA biology, wrote in The Conversation that it wasn’t clear where the myth linking autoimmune diseases to mRNA vaccines came from. But the short-lived nature of mRNA made an autoimmune trigger from these vaccines “highly unlikely”, she said.A TGA spokesperson told AAP FactCheck in an email that autoimmune diseases, stroke, seizures and convulsions are “not recognised adverse effects of either of the COVID-19 vaccines approved for use in Australia”.However, authorities have highlighted evidence that the AstraZeneca vaccine may cause rare but serious cases of blood clotting in the brain, leading countries such as Australia and the UK to limit its use among younger recipients. The exact relationship between the vaccine and condition was not known as of April 8.Have the vaccines caused deaths or injuries? National and international drug regulators have found no conclusive evidence of any deaths caused by COVID-19 vaccines. These include the CDC, European Medicines Agency, UK government and TGA.Meanwhile, a WHO update on March 11 stated “no cases of deaths have been found to have been caused by COVID-19 vaccines” as of March 9, 2021 after more than 268 million doses of the vaccines were administered.A TGA spokesperson told AAP FactCheck in a March 25 statement: “None of the deaths reported to us to date are thought to be caused by vaccination.“Many people vaccinated so far in Australia have been older, with pre-existing medical conditions. Older age and underlying illnesses make it more likely that coincidental adverse events, including deaths, will occur.”Nevertheless, European regulators have indicated a small number of deaths among AstraZeneca vaccine recipients due to blood clots may be linked to the vaccine (see here and here), although the casual connection remains unproven. COVID-19 vaccines have been extensively tested for safety before being approved for human use.","https://archive.ph/KruZO,https://archive.is/hQQUr,https://twitter.com/Cynner691/status/1371436780113788932,https://t.me/maskfreesociety/384,https://www.reddit.com/r/NoNewNormal/comments/m49knw/covid_vaccine_fact_check/,https://www.instagram.com/p/CNGVl1zjT8N/?utm_source=ig_embed,https://www.fda.gov/emergency-preparedness-and-response/coronavirus-disease-2019-covid-19/covid-19-vaccines,https://www.ema.europa.eu/en/human-regulatory/overview/public-health-threats/coronavirus-disease-covid-19/treatments-vaccines/vaccines-covid-19/covid-19-vaccines-authorised#authorised-covid-19-vaccines-section,https://www.tga.gov.au/media-release/tga-provisionally-approves-pfizer-covid-19-vaccine,https://www.tga.gov.au/media-release/tga-provisionally-approves-astrazenecas-covid-19-vaccine,https://www.tga.gov.au/sites/default/files/auspar-chadox1-s-covid-19-vaccine-astrazeneca-210215-pi.pdf,https://www.nih.gov/news-events/nih-research-matters/experimental-coronavirus-vaccine-highly-effective,https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/covid-19/hcp/mrna-vaccine-basics.html,https://www.health.gov.au/initiatives-and-programs/covid-19-vaccines/learn-about-covid-19-vaccines/how-covid-19-vaccines-are-tested-and-approved,https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-03275-y?proof=t,https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2024671,https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2608-y,https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2607-z,https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-020-1070-6,https://www.aap.com.au/are-aborted-babies-being-used-for-a-covid-19-vaccine/,https://www.nebraskamed.com/COVID/you-asked-we-answered-do-the-covid-19-vaccines-contain-aborted-fetal-cells,https://www.slu.edu/medicine/diversity/building-public-confidence-presentation.pdf,https://www.research.ox.ac.uk/Article/2020-07-19-the-oxford-covid-19-vaccine,https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/different-vaccines/viralvector.html#:~:text=Viral%20vector%20vaccines%20use%20a,important%20instructions%20to%20our%20cells.,https://vk.ovg.ox.ac.uk/vk/COVID19-FAQs#Q16,https://www.aap.com.au/no-covid-19-vaccines-dont-cause-sterility/,https://www.webmd.com/vaccines/covid-19-vaccine/news/20210112/why-covid-vaccines-are-falsely-linked-to-infertility,https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4644426/,https://www.bmj.com/content/372/bmj.n509,http://www.britishfertilitysociety.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Covid19-Vaccines-FAQ-1_3.pdf,https://www.health.gov.au/initiatives-and-programs/covid-19-vaccines/covid-19-vaccines-is-it-true/is-it-true-do-covid-19-vaccines-cause-infertility,https://www.tga.gov.au/sites/default/files/auspar-bnt162b2-mrna-210125.pdf,https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/recommendations/pregnancy.html,https://www.fda.gov/media/144416/download,https://www.fda.gov/media/144434/download,https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/recommendations/underlying-conditions.html,https://www.health.gov.au/initiatives-and-programs/covid-19-vaccines/is-it-true/is-it-true-do-covid-19-vaccines-cause-autoimmune-diseases?gclid=CjwKCAjw6qqDBhB-EiwACBs6x8zrhIjzMWm51addmtvI11qEb_0fW-CLjZiqGRL8VlwTjR9HU179ihoCawkQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds,https://research-repository.uwa.edu.au/en/persons/archa-fox,https://theconversation.com/not-sure-about-the-pfizer-vaccine-now-its-been-approved-in-australia-you-can-scratch-these-4-concerns-straight-off-your-list-153719,https://www.pm.gov.au/sites/default/files/files/atagi-advice.pdf,https://www.health.gov.au/news/atagi-statement-on-astrazeneca-vaccine-in-response-to-new-vaccine-safety-concerns,https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/apr/07/under-30s-in-uk-should-be-offered-alternative-covid-vaccine-to-astrazeneca-jab-says-regulator,https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/safety/adverse-events.html,https://www.ema.europa.eu/en/documents/covid-19-vaccine-safety-update/covid-19-vaccine-safety-update-comirnaty-march-2021_en.pdf,https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-vaccine-adverse-reactions/coronavirus-vaccine-summary-of-yellow-card-reporting,https://www.tga.gov.au/alert/covid-19-vaccines-safety-and-effectiveness-older-adults,https://archive.ph/dSdBu,https://www.gov.uk/government/news/mhra-issues-new-advice-concluding-a-possible-link-between-covid-19-vaccine-astrazeneca-and-extremely-rare-unlikely-to-occur-blood-clots,https://www.ema.europa.eu/en/news/astrazenecas-covid-19-vaccine-ema-finds-possible-link-very-rare-cases-unusual-blood-clots-low-blood?mc_cid=06dd54ebb0&mc_eid=0234712e25",‘Vaccine Q&A’ checklist misses the mark on numerous claims,,,,,,
78,,,,False,,2021-03-31,,factcheck_aap,,https://www.aap.com.au/png-covid-19-outbreak-not-helped-by-viral-advice/,,,factcheck_aap,,"The StatementA Facebook post from Papua New Guinea offers advice on dealing with COVID-19 amid surging case numbers in the Pacific nation.“We don’t need a lock down, covid is here to stay as any other disease so follow simple rules,” the March 18 post begins.It goes on to advise people to “treat covid as influenza and do your own remedies if you are tested positive, it is not a killer disease”. The post adds: “I believe people who have died had some other underlying disease as well, don’t panic follow simple rules…”At the time of writing, the post had been shared more than 70 times, with another example, also from PNG, attracting nearly 19,000 views and more than 70 shares. A Facebook post, being shared in PNG, makes a string of broad claims about the COVID-19 pandemic. The AnalysisThe post makes several claims about COVID-19 that are false and have been debunked by medical experts and health authorities.Papua New Guinea is currently experiencing a spike in COVID-19 cases that has “stretched” the island nation’s medical capacity. As of March 30, PNG had recorded 5620 cases of the virus and 56 deaths.The country’s prime minister, James Marape, said there was “rampant community transmission” of COVID-19 across PNG and he appealed to “rumour-mongers” to stop spreading misinformation about the coronavirus.The Facebook post advises people to “treat covid as influenza”, however while the diseases share some similar symptoms they are caused by different viruses and can result in dramatically different outcomes.As previously explained by AAP FactCheck, COVID-19 has a much higher mortality rate than influenza and other dangerous characteristics such as the potential for long incubation and contagion periods.Wellington epidemiologist Lucy Telfar-Barnard told AAP FactCheck: “The (COVID-19) virus is a different virus, and while there are some overlaps, the two diseases present in different ways. The claim is absolutely false.”Shane Fairlie, a communications consultant for the World Health Organization (WHO) Western Pacific region told AAP FactCheck in an email: “Comparisons have been drawn between COVID-19 and influenza. Both cause respiratory disease, yet there are significant differences between the two viruses. This has important implications, including for health care, diagnostics, vaccinations, patient care and virus spread.”The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention notes that COVID-19 appears to spread more easily than influenza and causes more serious illness in some people.The post also recommends doing “your own remedies” should anyone test positive.The WHO’s official advice on dealing with the virus is to isolate sick people within a household and monitor their symptoms, paying special attention if the person is at high risk for serious illness. The WHO also recommends contacting a medical provider immediately if a patient shows any signs of difficulty breathing, confusion, chest pain or loss of speech or mobility.The WHO’s COVID-19 mythbusters page debunks popular “home remedies” that can purportedly be used for curing or preventing coronavirus such as drinking alcohol or bleach, eating garlic or adding hot peppers to food. A range of medical treatments are commonly used to treat those with serious cases of the illness.The PNG health ministry’s COVID-19 awareness page also provides a variety of videos and information on best practices for prevention and treatment.The post’s statement that COVID-19 “is not a killer disease” is untrue.As of March 31, there have more than 2.75 million deaths worldwide attributed to the pandemic, according to a Johns Hopkins University tally. Similarly, the WHO’s dashboard counted more than 2.78 million deaths from 127 million confirmed cases as of March 30.Mr Fairlie noted that the figures represented a fatality rate of around 2.2 per cent, based on the reported cases.“As a comparison, the mortality rate for seasonal influenza is usually well below 0.1 per cent. However, mortality for both viruses is determined by a number of factors, including underlying conditions and access to and quality of health care,” he said.The post also claims that people who died of COVID-19 had “some other underlying disease as well”. AAP FactCheck has previously debunked suggestions that high rates of comorbidities – when another disease or condition is also present in a patient – caused the vast majority of COVID-19 deaths (see here and here). PNG is experiencing a spike in COVID-19 cases that has “stretched” the Pacific island nation.","https://archive.is/CkNab,https://archive.is/SJiWP,https://covid19.info.gov.pg/index.php/2021/03/28/six-new-covid-19-deaths-on-friday-26-march-png-total-deaths-now-at-45/,https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/25/world/australia/papua-new-guinea-coronavirus.html,https://web.archive.org/web/20210331043344if_/https://covid19.who.int/region/wpro/country/pg,http://www.pmnec.gov.pg/index.php/secretariats/current-pm-hon-james-marape,https://covid19.info.gov.pg/index.php/2021/03/26/pm-marape-png-records-highest-number-of-covid-19-cases-over-last-24-hours/,https://www.aap.com.au/no-covid-19-isnt-just-the-flu-with-a-makeover/,https://www.otago.ac.nz/wellington/departments/publichealth/staff/otago075073.html,https://www.monash.edu/alumni/your-alumni-community/alumni-postcards/shane-fairlie,https://www.who.int/westernpacific,https://www.cdc.gov/flu/symptoms/flu-vs-covid19.htm,https://www.who.int/docs/default-source/coronaviruse/who_risk-management_if-someone-gets-sick.pdf?sfvrsn=9907c946_7,https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/advice-for-public/myth-busters,https://www.who.int/images/default-source/health-topics/coronavirus/myth-busters/web-mythbusters/26-revised.png?sfvrsn=7d5199ac_2,https://www.who.int/images/default-source/health-topics/coronavirus/myth-busters/19.png,https://www.who.int/images/default-source/health-topics/coronavirus/myth-busters/web-mythbusters/7.tmb-1920v.png,https://www.covid19treatmentguidelines.nih.gov/therapeutic-management/,https://covid19.info.gov.pg/index.php/covid-19-awareness/,https://web.archive.org/web/20210331011334/https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html,https://covid19.who.int/,https://www.cdc.gov/arthritis/data_statistics/comorbidities.htm?_ga=2.134983857.193382579.1599546487-204804053.1596095459,https://www.aap.com.au/claims-on-cdc-data-for-covid-19-incorrect-say-experts/,https://www.aap.com.au/post-misleads-on-australian-covid-19-death-data/",PNG COVID-19 outbreak not helped by viral ‘advice’,,,,,,
79,,,,False,,2021-03-31,,factcheck_aap,,https://www.aap.com.au/tony-robbins-covid-19-death-toll-claims-are-fatally-flawed/,,,factcheck_aap,,"The StatementA video shared on Facebook features motivational speaker Tony Robbins claiming total deaths across the United States had not increased in 2020 despite the COVID-19 pandemic.In the edited clip, posted to an Australian page on March 7, Robbins can be heard saying, “The same number of people have died this year, 2020, as died in 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016 and 2015 – 2.8 million people. It’s within 10 to 15,000 people every year.”Robbins goes on to claim that “the same number of old people died in 2020”, with the only difference being that “heart disease, for the first time in 30 years, has come down, cancer has come down” while COVID-19 deaths increased.At the time of writing, the post’s video had been viewed more than 300,000 times and shared more than 1100 times. The video was also shared to the Instagram page of another Australian user. The same edited version of the video had been circulating since March 5, while another version dates back to January. A video claims the number of deaths in 2020 in the US hasn’t risen dramatically despite COVID-19. The AnalysisContrary to the video’s claims, the number of deaths in the United States in 2020 increased by more than half a million on the previous year’s tally, according to official data.Deaths among older residents also increased, as did the number of fatalities attributed to heart disease.As of March 31, more than 550,000 people were recorded as having died with COVID-19 in the US – the highest tally of any country in the world.However, in the video, Tony Robbins, a US self-help author who has previously questioned the accuracy of COVID-19 death figures and authorities’ response to the virus, expresses his scepticism about the severity of the pandemic.He claims the overall number of deaths in the US in 2020 was around the same as the mortality figure for each of the past five years.It is not clear exactly when the video was recorded, and Robbins did not respond to a request for comment when contacted by AAP FactCheck via a spokesperson.However, a longer version of the same Robbins video shows the death figures are a reference to a “John Hopkins report” he said was published two weeks earlier before it was taken down.This appears to be a reference to an article published in the John Hopkins News-Letter, the university’s student newspaper, which drew on a webinar from applied economics lecturer Genevieve Briand.The article was retracted four days after publication after it was noted that it included false claims that COVID-19 had not led to any excess deaths in the US. A subsequent FactCheck.org analysis noted Briand had misleadingly compared different points in time for two years which failed to account for the seasonal nature of mortality.The latest provisional data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) showed 3,369,731 deaths had been recorded from all causes in 2020.The figure is an 18 per cent increase on the 2,854,838 deaths recorded in 2019, and an even-greater rise when compared to mortality figures for the other years cited by Robbins. Official data shows there were 2,839,205 deaths in the US in 2018, 2,813,503 deaths in 2017, 2,744,248 deaths in 2016 and 2,712,630 deaths in 2015.The CDC notes the 2020 data is continually being revised as new death certificate data is provided by states. A spokesman confirmed to AAP FactCheck in an email that the total number of deaths in the US in 2020 was higher than the total deaths recorded each year in the previous five years.The CDC is expected to officially announce that COVID-19 deaths made 2020 “the deadliest year in recorded US history”, according to a Politico report from 10 March.The same pattern of a high number of “excess deaths” in 2020 due to the pandemic has also played out across many other countries.Robbins also wrongly claims that there had been no change in deaths among the elderly in 2020, and that deaths from heart disease had declined.A CDC analysis found deaths between January 26 and October 3, 2020 were higher than the average for 2015-2019 in every age group except for those aged under 25. Deaths among those aged 65-74, 75-84 and 85 and older were up 24.1 per cent, 21.5 per cent and 14.7 per cent respectively.Provisional CDC data for 2020 also shows deaths due to “diseases of heart” increased to around 686,000 from 659,051 the previous year. Deaths from “malignant neoplasms” – or cancer – were slightly down, at around 595,000 in 2020 compared to 599,601 in 2019.AAP FactCheck previously fact-checked a post that wrongly predicted the US was headed for fewer deaths in 2020 despite the pandemic. A woman walks among white flags planted in remembrance of Americans who have died of COVID-19.","https://archive.ph/EVIqF,https://archive.ph/mih1O,https://www.instagram.com/p/CMAkxXaHrnt/,https://www.facebook.com/nikos.fakaro/posts/3826398504048813,https://web.archive.org/web/20210331013552/https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/data/mortality,https://www.tonyrobbins.com/biography/,https://youtu.be/YgP_Au5RZVw, https://www.facebook.com/nikos.fakaro/posts/3826398504048813,https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Tnb1a8TXHj_jJCM2BDfGSriUgdn-2gec/view,https://advanced.jhu.edu/directory/genevieve-briand/,https://www.jhunewsletter.com/article/2020/11/a-closer-look-at-u-s-deaths-due-to-covid-19,https://www.factcheck.org/2020/12/flawed-analysis-leads-to-false-claim-of-no-excess-deaths-in-2020/,https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nvss/vsrr/covid19/index.htm,https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/databriefs/db395.htm#:~:text=In%202019%2C%20a%20total%20of,at%20birth%20increased%200.1%20year,https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/databriefs/db355.htm#Summary,https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/databriefs/db328.htm#:~:text=In%202017%2C%20a%20total%20of,at%20birth%20decreased%200.1%20year,https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/databriefs/db293.htm#:~:text=NOTES%3A%20A%20total%20of%202%2C744%2C248,according%20to%20number%20of%20deaths,https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/databriefs/db267.htm#:~:text=NOTES%3A%20A%20total%20of%202%2C712%2C630,according%20to%20number%20of%20deaths,https://www.politico.com/news/2021/03/10/cdc-finds-covid-19-drove-15-percent-spike-in-death-rate-475219,https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2771758,https://www.cebm.net/covid-19/excess-mortality-across-countries-in-2020/,https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/mm6942e2.htm,https://data.cdc.gov/NCHS/Weekly-Counts-of-Deaths-by-State-and-Select-Causes/muzy-jte6/data,https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/databriefs/db395-tables-508.pdf#page=4,https://www.cancer.gov/publications/dictionaries/cancer-terms/def/neoplasm,https://www.aap.com.au/the-us-isnt-headed-for-fewer-deaths-in-2020-with-covid-19/",Tony Robbins’ COVID-19 death toll claims are fatally flawed,,,,,,
80,,,,False,,2021-03-29,,factcheck_aap,,https://www.aap.com.au/no-link-between-gates-vaccines-and-microcephaly-in-brazil/,,,factcheck_aap,,"The StatementA social media post claims a spate of birth abnormalities in Brazil have been linked to vaccinations provided to pregnant women with “Australian researchers” supposedly responsible for discovering the “true cause” of the problem.A Facebook user in Australia shared a meme on March 11 that states: “BRAZIL. IN JUST A FEW MONTHS OVER 3000 BABIES WERE BORN WITH MICROCEPHALIA. WITHOUT ANY SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE THE GOVERNMENT ASSUMED THE DISEASE WAS CAUSED BY THE ‘ZIKA VIRUS’.”Microcephaly – misspelled in the post as “microcephalia” – is a condition in which babies are born with a small head or the head stops growing after birth.The meme continues: “Australian researchers has (sic) now revealed that the true cause of the disease was the toxity (sic) of the mandatory DTPa vaccine given to pregnant women the year before”.The meme goes on to claim the DPTa vaccine – used to immunise children against tetanus, diphtheria, and pertussis – was funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.In an accompanying caption on the post, the Australian Facebook user who shared the meme also accuses Bill and Melinda Gates of “damaging 3,000 children in Brazil and 47,000 children in India” with vaccines.At the time of writing, the March 11 post has been viewed around 134,000 times and shared more than 500 times. A meme with very similar wording was earlier posted on a website called “America’s best pics and videos”. A post claims Australian researchers discovered the “true cause” of Brazil babies with microcephaly. The AnalysisThere is no basis for the post’s central claim that researchers, either in Australia or elsewhere, have discovered a link between the DTPa vaccine and microcephaly.Nor is there any basis for the suggestion that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation funded the vaccines in Brazil, or that the philanthropist duo are responsible for harming children there and in India through inoculations.Combination tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis vaccines are administered to children in many countries, including Australia, with proven benefits.A form of the vaccine known as dTpa was introduced into Brazil’s national immunisation program for pregnant women in November 2013 with the goal of reducing the incidence of pertussis, commonly known as whooping cough, in newborns.Very young children are particularly susceptible to the effects of pertussis, which can be deadly. Brazil had previously used another form of the vaccine in its national immunisation program since the 1970s. The capitalisation and order of letters in the vaccine’s name varies depending on how it is formulated.There was a significant increase in microcephaly in Brazil in 2015, during which 4180 suspected cases were reported to authorities. However, researchers have linked the spike in cases to the Brazilian Zika virus epidemic, not vaccines.Malini DeSilva, from US non-profit healthcare provider HealthPartners Institute, has studied the alleged vaccine connection says the introduction of the inoculation program and a rise in microcephaly cases in Brazil was purely coincidental.“During 2015–2016, there was an increase in microcephaly cases in Brazil, which, while likely associated with maternal Zika virus infections, also temporally overlapped with Brazil’s introduction of a tetanus, diphtheria, and acellular pertussis (Tdap) maternal immunization program.” Dr DeSilva told AAP FactCheck.“We believe this was the beginning of the (claimed) association between Tdap and microcephaly. I do not know of any evidence to support the information included in the meme.”Multiple studies have similarly concluded there is no evidence dTpa vaccines cause harm to the fetus or newborn babies.A 2018 study led by researchers from the University of Pernambuco, Brazil, investigated the cause of microcephaly in 91 babies born in the city of Recife between January 15 and November 30, 2016.After testing the blood of newborns with microcephaly and comparing the results with a control group, the researchers confirmed an association between microcephaly and congenital Zika virus infection but found no evidence microcephaly was linked to dTpa vaccines.A 2019 study of 1462 new mothers in Brazil also found no increased risk of abnormalities in babies born to women who received the dTpa vaccine.Health experts have previously rebutted claims by Australian anti-vaccination activists that the dTpa vaccine causes birth defects. In 2016, social media posts suggesting a link between the vaccine and microcephaly were dismissed by Australian researchers as “absurd” and with “no scientific basis”.AAP FactCheck asked immunology specialists in Australia if they were aware of any local researchers finding a link between the DTPa vaccine and microcephaly, as claimed in the social media post.Professor Cheryl Jones, a paediatric infectious disease expert at the University of Sydney and former president of the Australasian Society for Infectious Diseases, dismissed the claim as false.“There is no credible Australian research or evidence from anywhere else that (maternal) DTPa or any other vaccine causes microcephaly in Brazil or elsewhere,” she said.Professor Terry Nolan, head of the Vaccine and Immunisation Research Group based at the Doherty Institute in Melbourne, called the Facebook post “strange stuff”.“I’m not aware of any Australian research linking Tdap vaccine to microcephaly, nor of any other link or credible biological mechanism,” he told AAP FactCheck in an email.AAP FactCheck also examined the claim that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation funded the Brazilian dTpa vaccines.While the foundation has previously funded various projects relating to diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis, including research into dTpa vaccinations for pregnant women, the dTpa vaccination program in Brazil is provided by the Brazilian Ministry of Health, not the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.A foundation spokesperson confirmed to AAP FactCheck that the Gates organisation has not funded any DTPa vaccine studies in Brazil.There is no evidence Bill and Melinda Gates have caused harm to “3,000 children in Brazil”, an accusation that seems to be based solely on false claims about the dTpa vaccine and secondary misinformation that these vaccines were funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.Similarly, there is no evidence Bill and Melinda Gates have harmed “47,000 children in India” with vaccines, a claim that stems from a 2012 report published in the Indian Journal of Medical Ethics about a rise in cases of “non-polio acute flaccid paralysis” (NPAFP).Full Fact found that while it is true observed cases of NPAFP increased in the mid-2000s in areas where the vaccination work was concentrated, there is no proof polio vaccines were to blame. A 2013 BBC article pointed to better monitoring of NPAFP as one possible reason for the reported increase.Claims that Bill Gates has paralysed Indian children with polio vaccines have been debunked many times, including previously by AAP FactCheck, as well as by India Today and PolitiFact. A mother with her baby girl born with microcephaly in Lagoa do Carro, Pernambuco, Brazil.","https://archive.ph/fgeiq,https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/microcephaly,https://meteor.aihw.gov.au/content/index.phtml/itemId/523497#:~:text=A%20vaccine%20that%20protects%20against,made%20of%20refined%20pertussis%20extracts,https://archive.ph/Eidwm,https://www.health.gov.au/resources/publications/adolescent-booster-dose-of-diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis-dtpa-vaccine-brochure,https://www1.health.gov.au/internet/main/publishing.nsf/content/cda-cdi3803-pdf-cnt.htm/$FILE/cdi3803b.pdf,https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6986709/,https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264410X20316364,http://dhss.alaska.gov/dph/VaccinateAlaska/Documents/VACFACT_%20DTandP.pdf,https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4816003/,https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4816003/,https://www.healthpartners.com/care/find/doctor/111306/,https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2576582,https://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/wk/aog/2017/00000129/00000003/art00029,https://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS1473-3099(17)30727-2/fulltext#%20,https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/21645515.2019.1627161,https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/real-life/news-life/health-experts-slam-antivaxxers-zika-virus-conspiracy-theory-as-absurd/news-story/a53d0aaa03cc73922916cd63143bff6e,https://www.sydney.edu.au/medicine-health/about/our-people/academic-staff/cheryl-jones.html,https://www.asid.net.au/,https://www.mcri.edu.au/users/professor-terry-nolan,https://www.mcri.edu.au/research/themes/infection-and-immunity/vaccine-and-immunisation-research-group-virgo,https://www.gatesfoundation.org/about/committed-grants?q=diphtheria,https://www.gatesfoundation.org/about/committed-grants?q=tetanus%20,https://www.gatesfoundation.org/about/committed-grants?q=pertussis,https://news.vumc.org/2015/07/09/gates-grant-bolsters-study-of-tdap-boosters-in-pregnant-women/,http://www.blog.saude.gov.br/34736-ministerio-da-saude-disponibiliza-no-sus-vacina-contra-coqueluche-para-gestantes.html,http://ijme.in/articles/polio-programme-let-us-declare-victory-and-move-on/?galley=html,https://fullfact.org/online/gates-polio-vaccine/,https://www.bbc.com/news/health-21207601,https://www.aap.com.au/false-claims-of-gates-vaccine-paralysing-girls-in-india-resurrected/,https://www.indiatoday.in/fact-check/story/conspiracy-theory-bill-gates-backed-polio-vaccine-disabled-kids-1707666-2020-08-04,https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2020/apr/23/facebook-posts/anti-vaxxers-spread-conspiracy-about-bill-gates-an/","No link between Gates, vaccines and microcephaly in Brazil",,,,,,
81,,,,False,,2021-03-26,,factcheck_aap,,https://www.aap.com.au/nz-activists-covid-claims-fall-apart-under-scrutiny/,,,factcheck_aap,,"The StatementA Facebook post by New Zealand activist Billy Te Kahika makes several claims about COVID-19 government responses to the pandemic in that country.The post details a protest organised by Te Kahika outside an event held to discuss COVID-19 communications attended by the NZ Ministry of Health Director-General and Chief Executive, Dr Ashley Bloomfield. Photos and a video show Te Kahika and his supporters protesting outside the venue where Bloomfield spoke at the February event.Among the claims in his post, Te Kahika says “we know the virus has a 99.7% survival rate and yet he (Bloomfield), Arden (sic) and his Ministry have decimated our economy and democratic and free society,” and that “we know the ‘vaccine’ by definition of the term is not one”.Te Kahika also asks “what was the procurement process followed by ARDEN and his Ministry for the acquisition from Bill Gates’ companies of these non vaccines?”At the time of publication, the post had been shared more than 300 times and received more than 1600 reactions and 290 comments. A post by activist Billy Te Kahika makes several claims about COVID-19 pandemic in New Zealand. The AnalysisBilly Te Kahika Junior, a musician, activist and politician, has been regularly covered in New Zealand’s media (examples here, here and here) for spreading conspiracy theories and his Facebook post also makes several false statements about COVID-19.Te Kahika’s now-defunct New Zealand Public Party joined with another small party, Advance New Zealand to stand in the 2020 election. Te Kahika’s Advance NZ Party received one per cent of the vote in NZ’s 2020 election, and he later announced that he was quitting politics.Te Kahika claims that “the virus has a 99.7% survival rate,” or only .3% of its victims die from it is not correct.Death rates vary widely between countries but Johns Hopkins University of Medicine’s mortality analysis placed the death rate of observed COVID-19 cases at 1.8 per cent in the United States and 2.9 per cent in the United Kingdom as of March 18. NZ, which has only recorded 26 deaths and praised for its response to the virus, had a death rate of 1.1 per cent. The figures do not allow for undiagnosed cases or uncounted deaths.The World Health Organization (WHO) has provided a briefing about the difficulty of pinning down the death rates from COVID-19, which has claimed more than 2.7 million lives worldwide since the pandemic began. The precise COVID-19 mortality rate is still uncertain and some experts say it may never be known as the full scope of asymptomatic cases is difficult to measure.AAP FactCheck has debunked similar claims regarding virus survival rates before (here, here and here) as have other fact-checking organisations  (here, here and here).Te Kahika also claims that “the ‘vaccine’ by definition of the term is not one”. While the reason for making the claim is not given, the claim is not supported by the facts.The WHO says vaccines “reduce risks of getting a disease by working with your body’s natural defences to build protection” while the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) describes a vaccine as “a product that stimulates a person’s immune system to produce immunity to a specific disease”.False claims have circulated online that the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna vaccines are being called “biological agents,” and have been debunked.Dr Helen Petousis-Harris, a member of NZ’s Vaccine Safety Expert Advisory Group and director of the University of Auckland’s Vaccine Datalink and Research Group, spoke to AAP FactCheck in December 2020 about claims the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine “wasn’t a vaccine”.“It is very much a vaccine in that it is a biological agent used to induce immunity to a disease in those to whom it is administered,” Dr Petousis-Harris said in an email.The post also claims that New Zealand has received its vaccines from “Bill Gates’ companies”.New Zealand ordered 10 million doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, which it began rolling out on February 19. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation details its investment in Pfizer here.In recent years the foundation has given a multi-million dollar grant to Pfizer for research into pneumonia and also BioNTech to develop HIV and tuberculosis programs.While Gates has financial interests in several drugmakers including Pfizer and BioNTech, it is not correct to say they are his companies. A list of Pfizer’s major owners can be found here and the tech billionaire is not among the major shareholders. For BioNTech, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation held a 0.43 per cent stake as at December 30, 2020. NZ Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield address the media on COVID-19.","https://archive.is/IC1ex, https://www.eventbrite.co.nz/e/mis-information-dr-ashley-bloomfield-on-covid-19-communications-tickets-140021878207#,https://www.health.govt.nz/about-ministry/leadership-ministry/executive-leadership-team#ashley,https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/politics/2020/09/fears-billy-te-kahika-s-covid-19-conspiracy-theories-will-have-devastating-consequences-for-m-ori.html,https://interactives.stuff.co.nz/2020/10/false-profit-down-the-rabbit-hole-of-billy-tk-jr/,https://thespinoff.co.nz/politics/14-09-2020/how-billy-tk-plunged-down-the-covid-conspiracy-rabbit-hole/,https://web.archive.org/web/20201114033040/https://www.nzpublicparty.org.nz/,https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/election-2020-advance-nz-jami-lee-ross-joins-forces-with-controversial-nz-public-party/3PSJTFC2VUF4LEOG3L5XAEP5XQ/, https://elections.nz/media-and-news/2020/2020-general-election-official-results/,https://amp.rnz.co.nz/article/d8ae5021-ca58-4c01-90e9-c7f81501c892,https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-75848-2,https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/data/mortality,https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpub/article/PIIS2468-2667(20)30237-1/fulltext,https://www.who.int/news-room/commentaries/detail/estimating-mortality-from-covid-19,https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html,https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/09/death-rate-fatality-covid-19-coronavirus-disease-pandemic-science/,https://www.aap.com.au/survival-rates-claim-isnt-part-of-the-covid-19-equation/,https://www.aap.com.au/false-claims-resurface-about-tests-for-covid-19-and-its-survival-rate/,https://www.aap.com.au/covid-19-facts101-marked-d-for-deceptive/,https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2020/05/05/covid-19-fact-check-coronavirus-mortality-rate-misleading/3019503001/,https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2020/may/07/facebook-posts/facebook-post-shares-flawed-covid-19-survival-stat/,https://factcheck.afp.com/coronavirus-survival-rates-remain-unknown-experts-say,https://www.who.int/news-room/q-a-detail/vaccines-and-immunization-what-is-vaccination,https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vac-gen/imz-basics.htm,https://www.pfizer.com/products/product-detail/pfizer-biontech-covid-19-vaccine,https://investors.modernatx.com/news-releases/news-release-details/modernas-covid-19-vaccine-candidate-meets-its-primary-efficacy,https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-factcheck-vaccine-naming-idUSKBN2AA2CB,https://unidirectory.auckland.ac.nz/profile/hpet002,https://www.immune.org.nz/research/vaccine-safety-expert-advisory-group,https://www.fmhs.auckland.ac.nz/en/soph/about/our-departments/general-practice-and-primary-health-care/our-research/vaccine-datalink-and-research-group.html,https://www.aap.com.au/chill-out-cold-storage-mrna-covid-19-vaccines-are-legitimate/,https://www.beehive.govt.nz/release/govt-purchases-enough-pfizer-vaccines-whole-country,https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/coronavirus/300234379/covid19-first-batch-of-vaccines-given-in-nz-with-25-health-workers-getting-jabs,https://connect.aap.com.au/https/sif.gatesfoundation.org/investments/pfizer/,https://connect.aap.com.au/https/www.gatesfoundation.org/about/committed-grants?q=pfizer,https://connect.aap.com.au/https/www.businesswire.com/news/home/20190904005403/en,https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB1021577629748680000,https://endpts.com/biontech-partners-with-bill-and-melinda-gates-foundation-scoring-55m-equity-investment-novartis-sells-china-unit/,https://www.nasdaq.com/market-activity/stocks/pfe/institutional-holdings,https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/BNTX/holders/?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAACiROWVdmIdVoPGuet4D1Pb3qyxNwBJRUIfNqHWlx53HI7YwWBeSNT4yaYknGYrvvE0A44SLPe0moCaW0w96_oCl3g27xSrXl2mDxP7iJ_VLKR8paubXzf7dK-GZ64TzLKtPH7mznTvTTnFxb-1FOggdXC_KLzWNDCAb1EqvAEgI",NZ activist’s COVID claims fall apart under scrutiny,,,,,,
82,,,,False,,2021-03-25,,factcheck_aap,,https://www.aap.com.au/photographic-evidence-of-ancient-giants-a-long-running-tall-tale/,,,factcheck_aap,,"The StatementA Facebook post claims to show the existence of biblical giants through 10 images.The post, shared by an Australian user, is captioned “our past GIANTS ON earth” and accompanied by a gallery of photos including skeletons at various archaeological sites, reproductions of Egyptian iconography and pictures of extremely tall people.At the time of writing, the November 15, 2020 post had been viewed more than 92,000 times and shared more than 400 times. A Facebook post claims there is evidence of biblical giants on Earth. The AnalysisThe post claims the photos are evidence of ancient giants, or “Nephilim”, however, the images are either altered or taken out of context. The post continues a long-running photo hoax which was exposed by National Geographic back in 2007.It’s true that Greek and Norse mythology, in particular, are peppered with tales of giants and some passages in the Bible contain references interpreted as referring to giants, however there’s no evidence that such huge mythical beings existed.Four of the post’s 10 images show large skeletons claiming to be evidence of “the Nephilim”.Nephilim is a Hebrew word that appears in some versions of the Bible. Nephilim are “a group of mysterious beings or people of unusually large size and strength who lived both before and after the Flood”, according to Encyclopedia Britannica. In the Bible (New International Version) the name comes up in Genesis chapter 6, verse 4: “The Nephilim were on the earth in those days – and also afterward – when the sons of God went to the daughters of humans and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown.”The first image used in the post shows two skeletons at an excavation site with two men in the background. The photo appears to be taken at a site documented by Polish photographer Jakub Śliwa on a trip to Saqqara, Egypt. Photos from that trip were first archived in April 2001 including one that clearly shows the same skeletons and the same two men. The “giant” skeletons are just an issue of perspective – the men pictured are standing on lower ground below and behind the skeletons, which are close to the camera and above them on the edge of an excavated section.The second image shows a man kneeling by a skeleton with a type of helmet. The photo is of a sculpture at the Atlantis water park in Yalta, Crimea, which was designed by theme park design company ART Stepanov, and is part of an online catalogue.The third skeletal image comes from 2017 news reports (here, here and here) of an excavation of a Neolithic settlement in Shandong province, China. The source image is credited to Imaginechina via AP images . A 2017 Xinhua news report said the tallest person found measured up to 1.9 metres (six foot two inches) – tall for that time but not quite a giant by modern standards.The fourth skeleton image appears to be a manipulation of a photo taken of an excavation at Cliffs End Farm in Ramsgate, England in 2004-2005. The skeleton in the altered image is in the same position and features the same markings as the photo taken at Cliffs End. The men in the manipulated image seem to be lit from different light sources and don’t match the background.Another photo shows Russian model Ekaterina Lisina, who is 2.05m tall, appearing on the UK talk show This Morning in 2017. The post’s image has been altered from the original to make Lisina appear even taller.The post also includes several images of Egyptian statues and iconography. One photo is sourced from an Assassin’s Creed video game and another is from an Egyptian documentary DVD. A third is simply a photograph of one of the ancient temples at Abu Simbel in Egypt, a popular tourist attraction.Another image carries the title “Annunaki”, and text says Annunaki were “a god-like race from the planet Nibiru” who used technology to “genetically alter life on Earth.” This claim is from a fringe theory propounded by the late author Zecharia Sitchin, who claimed to have learned of the aliens from ancient clay tablets. Sitchin’s theory has been discredited, including by a NASA scientist.On the matter of giants, it’s considered scientifically implausible for humans to be truly gigantic thanks to Italian astronomer and mathematician Galileo Galilei’s square-cube law, which states that as a shape grows in size, its volume grows faster than its surface area.In the 1926 essay On Being The Right Size, British scientist J.B.S. Haldane describes how such ideas apply to giant humans: “Consider a giant man sixty feet high. … every square inch of giant bone had to support 10 times the weight borne by a square inch of human bone. As the human thigh-bone breaks under about ten times the human weight, (giants) would have broken their thighs every time they took a step.”The tallest human who ever lived was Robert Wadlow of Alton, Illinois (1918-1940), who measured 2.7m in height. according to Guiness World Records. He died at age 22 as the result of an infected blister on one of his feet.Regarding the Nephilim legend, Dr David J Cohen, an author and lecturer in the Hebrew Bible at Morling College (formerly Vose Seminary) in Perth, told AAP FactCheck Nephilim are only mentioned on two occasions – Genesis and Numbers – in biblical text.“The Nephilim are characterised as intimidating giants who were ‘warriors of renown’ (Gen. 6:4). The Hebrew meaning of the word is ‘the fallen ones.’ Nephilim is not so much a name as it is a description,” he said in an email.Dr Cohen said the existence of the Nephilim in the Bible could be viewed as more of an explanation for other beings, such as large, fierce warriors.“Whatever the reason for their inclusion in the story we ought to be tentative in drawing conclusions about where they originated from, whether they existed and, by extension, whether material evidence for their existence might ever be discovered,” he said.Similar posts making big claims about giants have been debunked multiple times including here, here and here. The world’s tallest man, Sultan Kosen of Turkey and shortest woman pose near the pyramids in Egypt.","https://archive.ph/TP7J4,https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/skeleton-giant-photo-hoax,https://www.britannica.com/topic/Nephilim,https://www.bible.com/bible/111/GEN.6.NIV,https://scontent.fakl1-3.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/125117522_1068944550233319_9190929829449293703_n.jpg?_nc_cat=105&ccb=1-3&_nc_sid=730e14&_nc_ohc=75Wqs9PZ2ggAX8IPCx4&_nc_ht=scontent.fakl1-3.fna&oh=96a62725b46c2390b66974eaa136f5ad&oe=6075BDD2,https://www.jakubsliwa.com/,https://web.archive.org/web/20010415160535/http://www.egiptologia.pl/galeria3.html,https://web.archive.org/web/20050117050205/http://www.egiptologia.pl/gal3/12sakd.jpg,https://scontent.fakl1-2.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/125447095_1068953243565783_2141314959620260646_n.jpg?_nc_cat=102&ccb=1-3&_nc_sid=730e14&_nc_ohc=6OMIw_R88AwAX9iVDND&_nc_ht=scontent.fakl1-2.fna&oh=2d7c63b15446ba7c0b60bb5a394af738&oe=60752215,http://artstepanov.com/en.html,https://http://artstepanov.com/images/projects/big/atlantida/30.jpg?gp-1,https://archive.is/bRtrZ,https://www.origo.hu/tudomany/20170706-otezer-evvel-ezelott-elt-oriasok-maradvanyaira-bukkantak-kinaban.html,https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2017-07/04/content_29985498.htm,https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/graveyard-giants-found-china-180963976/,http://www.imageplus.com.br/imagedetails/105813565/AP951519032538-ImageplusRM--FILE-View-of-a-skeleton-reaching-19-meters-from-a.html,http://www.xinhuanet.com//english/2017-07/03/c_136414214.htm,https://scontent.fakl1-3.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/124766774_1068957310232043_3356913206497419202_n.jpg?_nc_cat=108&ccb=1-3&_nc_sid=730e14&_nc_ohc=xtPcpvnTklIAX-mAr92&_nc_ht=scontent.fakl1-3.fna&oh=bd408a2291c48789c25c7a97f2d19b24&oe=60728B44,https://www.wessexarch.co.uk/our-work/cliffs-end-farm,https://www.wessexarch.co.uk/our-work/cliffs-end-farm,https://www.flickriver.com/photos/wessexarchaeology/118766025/,https://scontent.fakl1-2.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/147126360_1127673821027058_9099010018105607014_n.jpg?_nc_cat=101&ccb=1-3&_nc_sid=730e14&_nc_ohc=hGSQJ_uk9qMAX9Lj2EG&_nc_ht=scontent.fakl1-2.fna&oh=df620a1fc47e0b68b6bd06c0df595a30&oe=6072908F,https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/news/2017/9/video-meet-the-69-russian-model-with-the-worlds-longest-legs,https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/weird-news/phillip-schofield-holly-willoughby-stand-11127457,https://www.rexfeatures.com/search/?kw=Ekaterina+Lisina&js-site-search_submit=Go&order=newest&iso=GBR&lkw=&viah=Y&stk=N&sft=&timer=N&requester=&iprs=f,https://scontent.fakl1-3.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/125769282_1068953736899067_4811637153839985548_n.jpg?_nc_cat=107&ccb=1-3&_nc_sid=730e14&_nc_ohc=AzdoPEajDpcAX-5xyJo&_nc_ht=scontent.fakl1-3.fna&oh=f4fe8c9c11606e31ee0574ecad60e6f4&oe=60764D8E,http://wallpaperswide.com/assassins_creed_origins_rameses_ii_the_curse_of_the_pharaohs-wallpapers.html,https://scontent.fakl1-2.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/124688403_1068951650232609_6618988646738808727_n.jpg?_nc_cat=100&ccb=1-3&_nc_sid=730e14&_nc_ohc=YynsU0l5EgAAX9JddGr&_nc_ht=scontent.fakl1-2.fna&oh=6036510580968c7cdcba404a72019b44&oe=60750469,https://www.amazon.co.uk/Swallowed-Sea-Ancient-Egypts-Greatest/dp/B01FPBSNLG,http://www.unesco.org/archives/multimedia/document-59,https://scontent.fakl1-2.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/125571358_1069212050206569_1539245960474819628_n.jpg?_nc_cat=104&ccb=1-3&_nc_sid=730e14&_nc_ohc=tt8wt25Drx8AX9ozkOg&_nc_ht=scontent.fakl1-2.fna&oh=94910ca2c5f7c4d6faa866c96bc5cc1c&oe=6073F613,http://www.sitchin.com,https://u.osu.edu/vanzandt/2019/03/01/zecharia-sitchin-and-our-alien-anecestors/comment-page-1/,https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2017/11/18/please-stop-annoying-this-nasa-scientist-with-your-ridiculous-planet-x-doomsday-theories/,https://www.britannica.com/biography/Galileo-Galilei,https://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2012/01/18/3410634.htm,http://www.phys.ufl.edu/courses/phy3221/spring10/HaldaneRightSize.pdf,https://www.britannica.com/biography/J-B-S-Haldan,https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/records/hall-of-fame/robert-wadlow-tallest-man-ever,https://www.riverbender.com/articles/details/the-final-hours-of-robert-wadlows-life-remembered-8105.cfm,https://connect.aap.com.au/https/vose.academia.edu/DavidJCohen,https://books.google.co.nz/books?id=OoNHmwEACAAJ&source=gbs_book_other_versions_r&redir_esc=y,https://www.morling.edu.au,https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-factcheck-giant-skeletons-hoax/fact-check-images-of-alleged-giant-human-skeletons-are-altered-idUSKCN2AV20V,https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/giant-human-skeleton-photographs/,https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/factcheck/2020/09/08/fact-check-post-showing-giant-human-skeletons-old-hoax/5534909002/",Photographic evidence of ancient giants a long-running tall tale,,,,,,
83,,,,False,,2021-03-24,,factcheck_aap,,https://www.aap.com.au/metadata-does-not-prove-victorian-premier-pic-was-taken-in-2017/,,,factcheck_aap,,"The StatementA video post claims an image of Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews in hospital posted to his social media accounts this month was actually taken in 2017.The video, shared to Instagram by an Australian account on March 15, trawls the photo’s metadata using the website, FotoForensics. The clip highlights the “Profile Date Time” field showing 2017:07:07.“Photo forensics of the photo that Premier Daniel Andrews released online shows that it’s an image dated 07/07/2017. Enjoy the show 🍿,” the caption reads.At the time of writing, the post had attracted more than 16,000 views and more than 460 likes. A post claims an image of Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews in hospital was taken in 2017. The AnalysisPhotos taken on digital devices contain metadata, which is text information about the image and its production. The metadata highlighted in the video appears under the sub-heading ICC, which refers to the device’s International Color Consortium (ICC).FotoForensics explains ICC is a system used to ensure colours are displayed uniformly regardless of the device on which they are viewed.“Within the ICC Profile is the “Profile Date Time” field. This indicates when the ICC profile was initially generated… In most cases, the ICC Profile’s date predates the photo by years since it was generated long before the photo was captured,” the website explains.Experts independently confirmed to AAP FactCheck that ICC metadata has nothing to do with the date of when a photo was taken.Timestamps are typically contained in Exif (Exchangeable Image File) data along with other information about camera settings, the make/model, lens and more.Social media sites such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter generally strip Exif data from a photo when it is uploaded as a way to help protect users’ privacy.Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews was admitted to hospital on March 9. In a statement, he said he had fallen on “wet and slippery stairs”, resulting in “several broken ribs and vertebrae damage”.Mr Andrews subsequently released updates on social media, including on his condition, his recovery timeline and a photo of him moving out of the intensive care unit which was shared on his Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts on March 13, 2021.The same photo was published widely in the media on the same date, including The Age, SBS News and the Herald Sun. It also appears in AAP’s photo library, credited to: Twitter, @DanielAndrewsMP.Esther Chan, the Australian bureau editor at First Draft, a non-profit organisation collaborating in the research and verification of misinformation, said the date in the video does not relate to when the photo was taken.“The ‘profile date time’ highlighted in the video (i.e. 2017) is the date and time when the ICC profile (colour display) used by the image was first created, so it has nothing to do with the time when the Daniel Andrews’ photo was taken,” Ms Chan told AAP FactCheck by email.Dr Manoranjan Mohanty, a UTS Sydney lecturer at the Centre for Forensic Science, told AAP FactCheck the ICC profile was developed to standardise colour displays for screens of different devices.“To understand what the ICC_Profile is, we have to understand that all devices are not manufactured the same,” Dr Mohanty explained via email.“As a result, they do not treat a colour photo in the same way. For example, two monitors can display the colours of the same photo differently – one can display ‘red’ a bit more shiny whereas the other can display it as dull.”Nathan Ruser, a researcher with the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, told AAP FactCheck the metadata field in the video bears no relation to the photo itself.“These profiles are generally developed years before the image gets taken, and all it can tell you with certainty is that the photo was taken after that Profile Date Time field. In this case, it also tells us that the photo was processed on an Apple device,” he said in an email.“Any photo taken with that same device would have the same data profile for the ICC profile, irregardless of what date the image was actually taken.”Dr Mohanty also confirmed the ICC profile data of a photo and its Exif data are different.“But for popular social media sites like Facebook or Twitter, most of the Exif data, including the date when the photo was taken, is stripped for privacy reasons from an uploaded photo,” he said.Ms Chan added: “You would want to check the Exif data of the photo to find out when it was actually taken. However, that is usually only available with the original file, i.e. not a screenshot of the photo uploaded to (Mr) Andrews’ social (channels), or a version of that photo downloaded to your computer.”Solely relying on the Exif data of a specific item is also not a foolproof way to date an image, according to Dr Mohanty.“Exif metadata can be easily modified,” he said. “There are even some online tools to modify Exif data of an image.”AAP FactCheck requested a copy of the original photo from Mr Andrews’ office before it was shared on social media to verify its date of capture, but his office declined. The photo published on the official Twitter account of Daniel Andrews dated March 13, 2021.","https://www.instagram.com/p/CMbhs1SD8Hg/,http://fotoforensics.com/,http://www.color.org/iccprofile.xalter,http://fotoforensics.com/tutorial-meta.php,http://fotoforensics.com/tutorial-meta.php,http://fotoforensics.com/tutorial-meta.php,https://help.twitter.com/en/using-twitter/tweeting-gifs-and-pictures,https://www.premier.vic.gov.au/statement-premier-89,https://www.instagram.com/p/CMPFwKjrOso/,https://twitter.com/DanielAndrewsMP/status/1370582186991099912,https://www.facebook.com/DanielAndrewsMP/posts/3921260157938491,https://twitter.com/DanielAndrewsMP/status/1370669779590074371,https://www.instagram.com/p/CMWqMleLLum/,https://www.theage.com.au/politics/victoria/daniel-andrews-to-leave-intensive-care-but-expecting-very-long-recovery-path-20210313-p57afh.html,https://www.sbs.com.au/news/daniel-andrews-shares-photo-from-melbourne-hospital-bed-as-he-continues-his-slow-recovery,https://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victoria/daniel-andrews-says-long-journey-ahead-in-recovery-from-fall/news-story/a107579a534b01367a79494d7f30ae35,https://photos.aap.com.au/search/Daniel%20Andrews%20Hospital,https://connect.aap.com.au/https/firstdraftnews.org/latest/author/estherc/,https://firstdraftnews.org/about/,https://profiles.uts.edu.au/manoranjan.mohanty,http://www.color.org/iccprofile.xalter,https://www.aspi.org.au/bio/nathan-ruser",Metadata does not prove Victorian premier pic was taken in 2017,,,,,,
84,,,,False,,2021-03-19,,factcheck_aap,,https://www.aap.com.au/australian-navy-vaccine-side-effects-post-is-all-at-sea/,,,factcheck_aap,,"The StatementA social media post claims the overwhelming majority of Australian Navy personnel developed severe side effects following COVID-19 vaccinations, reducing the number of healthy staff by half.A Facebook post, shared on March 10, claims “80 per cent of Australian navy members who took the vaccine recently have experienced severe side effects, the other 20 per cent are mild”.The post also claims the Navy is “down about 50 per cent of their members from healthy men and women”.The post’s caption reads, “Just received this testimony from a wife of an Australian Navy member. I have also verified myself that the gentlemen is in fact a member of the Australian Navy, which most likely substantiates this statement. Now, you decide…”At the time of writing, the post had more than 30,000 views and more than 480 shares. Another post including similar claims had been shared more than 300 times. A post claims a number of Navy personnel developed severe side effects after COVID-19 vaccinations. The AnalysisApproximately 500 Australian Defence Force (ADF) members assisting with the country’s frontline pandemic response have received COVID-19 vaccinations, while the Navy crew of HMAS Sydney were also offered inoculations ahead of their deployment to North America.While some HMAS Sydney crew members who were vaccinated experienced mild side effects, a Department of Defence spokeswoman said none of those reactions were severe – and the ship’s personnel wasn’t reduced to half, as suggested by the post.Australia began its COVID-19 vaccination rollout in February with quarantine, border, frontline health care and aged care workers among the first to be offered the vaccine. The national health products regulator, the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA), provisionally approved both the Pfizer and AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines for use.According to the Department of Defence, approximately 500 ADF members, consisting of Army, Navy and Air Force personnel, have been vaccinated as part of the rollout. The breakdown of numbers from each service was unavailable.Those ADF members were prioritised to receive the vaccine as they were involved in frontline pandemic response tasks such as quarantine support to the states and territories.The ship’s company of HMAS Sydney were also offered vaccines ahead of their deployment to North America, “where the prevalence of COVID-19 is high”, a department spokeswoman told AAP FactCheck via email. That was in addition to the 500 other ADF members who received vaccinations.“In accordance with Department of Health guidelines, members of the ship’s company were encouraged to report to medical personnel if they were feeling unwell after their vaccination. Some members experienced mild side effects, which were resolved shortly after reporting,” the spokeswoman said.The department initially told AAP FactCheck that “no members of the ship’s company of HMAS Sydney are in hospital” but in a subsequent statement said: “Several members of HMAS Sydney’s crew did present to hospital after hours with mild side effects. They were assessed in the emergency department before being released – they were not admitted to hospital”.Media reporting at the time also suggested some HMAS Sydney crew members were “admitted to St Vincent’s hospital in Sydney as a precaution”.A spokesman for St Vincent’s Hospital Sydney said in an email the hospital was “not aware of any such (Navy) patients presenting to our emergency department for treatment in the period you describe (on or before March 11, 2021)”.In its statement on March 17, the department said the HMAS Sydney sailed to the United States on March 11 with a full crew and “no members of the ship’s company failed to deploy as a result of taking the COVID-19 vaccine”.“Social media commentary from 10 March 2021 asserting that members of HMAS Sydney who received the COVID-19 vaccine had experienced adverse reactions and were hospitalised in intensive care – and that 80 per cent of the Ship’s company were affected – is not true.”Various images of the ship’s departure on that day were shared on social media, while several days later posts showed the vessel in Suva, Fiji.On March 11, Australia’s Chief Medical Officer, Paul Kelly, appeared before a Senate committee on COVID-19 and was questioned about the reporting of adverse reactions related to the vaccine.Prof Kelly said he would be notified of every serious adverse event relating to COVID-19 vaccines, and there had only been a very small number Australia-wide.“We have seen three cases now of anaphylactic reactions – severe allergic reactions – each of which have been handled very expertly and quickly by the clinical teams on the ground, with no ongoing adverse effects,” he said.The TGA said on March 1 that early COVID-19 vaccine data showed around one-third of people who responded to a survey for Australia’s vaccine surveillance program reported at least one expected side effect, most commonly soreness at the injection site, headaches and fatigue.Reports of adverse events were in line with normal expectations for any vaccine, it said. Most were mild and lasted only one or two days.As of March 14, Australia had administered more than 164,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines, according to the Department of Health. On March 17, Queensland reported four cases of anaphylaxis in people who received the AstraZeneca vaccine. These cases were referred to the TGA for investigation.About 500 ADF members, as well as the HMAS Sydney crew, have received COVID-19 vaccines.","https://archive.ph/jGZLM,https://archive.ph/LTPB6,https://www.health.gov.au/initiatives-and-programs/covid-19-vaccines/getting-vaccinated-for-covid-19/when-will-i-get-a-covid-19-vaccine,https://www.tga.gov.au/covid-19-vaccine-pfizer-australia-comirnaty-bnt162b2-mrna,https://www.tga.gov.au/covid-19-vaccine-astrazeneca-chadox1-s,https://www.health.gov.au/initiatives-and-programs/covid-19-vaccines/getting-vaccinated-for-covid-19/when-will-i-get-a-covid-19-vaccine,https://news.defence.gov.au/media/on-the-record/statement-incorrect-social-media-commentary-regarding-adf-vaccinations,https://archive.ph/LCt3b,https://news.defence.gov.au/media/on-the-record/statement-incorrect-social-media-commentary-regarding-adf-vaccinations,https://www.facebook.com/HMASSydneyV/posts/5425990960745153?__cft__[0]=AZW6Rftq1wpRG4Q8dgGaNEsEPxGruNI22fTKqP_SjiTqVhJgOY2Fa0-sl1cPpSiBfWqLl57372p6YvQjjHseDrxQ78ohkjwdHoHi3BX5tToxQ6h8CMAvzxMkwYDh5ha2SGK9DdpwC5OWWs2L5HYSdovv&__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R,https://www.facebook.com/australiainfiji/posts/2826959187521934,https://www.health.gov.au/news/health-alerts/novel-coronavirus-2019-ncov-health-alert/government-response-to-the-covid-19-outbreak/our-medical-experts#professor-paul-kelly,https://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;db=COMMITTEES;id=committees%2Fcommsen%2F7084e73d-aa46-470f-8993-2aaf96cc935d%2F0001;query=Id%3A%22committees%2Fcommsen%2F7084e73d-aa46-470f-8993-2aaf96cc935d%2F0000%22,https://www.tga.gov.au/alert/tga-collecting-covid-19-vaccine-side-effect-reports,https://archive.ph/A1CFw,https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/queensland/2021/03/17/vaccine-anaphylaxis-queensland/,https://www.tga.gov.au/alert/astrazeneca-chadox1-s-covid-19",Australian Navy vaccine side-effects post is all at sea,,,,,,
85,,,,False,,2021-03-18,,factcheck_aap,,https://www.aap.com.au/no-evidence-of-delayed-killswitch-in-mrna-vaccines/,,,factcheck_aap,,"The StatementA social media video falsely likens COVID-19 mRNA vaccines to a “delayed killswitch”, claiming they will cause the immune system to attack a person’s cells and organs should they encounter the coronavirus.An Instagram video, shared on March 6 by an Australian account, features osteopath Carrie Madej, who claims that in the past 20 years researchers experimented with mRNA vaccines on animals and had “terrible results”. She claims initially the animals elicited a robust immune response but when challenged by the virus or bacteria they got “sicker or died”.She says the immune response is called a “cytokine storm”, adding that people who received mRNA COVID-19 vaccines could expect a similar response. She also claims researchers “skipped animal trials with (the COVID-19 mRNA) vaccines” because “they don’t want anyone to know that”.At the time of writing, the video had been viewed more than 27,000 times and has attracted more than 550 likes. Another post, which included the same video, had attracted more than 38,000 views and more than 980 likes.Madej has previously pushed debunked claims that mRNA vaccines can alter the human genome. A video posted on Instagram has likened COVID-19 mRNA vaccines to a “delayed killswitch”. The AnalysisDespite the video’s claims, experts say there is no evidence that suggests COVID-19 mRNA vaccines will cause a “cytokine storm” response in humans when they encounter the virus post-inoculation.The video also falsely claims that drug companies “skipped” animal studies because of earlier trials involving mRNA vaccines that led to test subjects becoming seriously ill or dying.Two COVID-19 vaccines based on messenger RNA – or mRNA – platforms have been approved for emergency use in the US. These vaccines, from Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna, cause the body to produce a protein that triggers an immune response, producing antibodies that can prevent SARS-CoV-2 infection.In the video, Carrie Madej, an osteopathic physician, makes a number of claims about the safety of mRNA vaccines, including that they will cause a delayed severe immune response called a cytokine storm when recipients later encounter the coronavirus.Markus Hofer, a senior lecturer at the University of Sydney researching cytokines and immune responses in the central nervous system, said a cytokine storm was essentially an “overshooting of the immune response” that could lead to organ failure.He told AAP FactCheck that cytokines were “molecular messengers” that help control how the immune system responds to pathogens. Their production was normally kept under tight control, but a cytokine storm could occur when the body produced too many in response to a situation like an infection.However, in relation to the video’s claims, Bali Pulendran, a professor of microbiology and immunology from Stanford University, said he was not aware of any reports of cytokine storms being associated with COVID-19 mRNA vaccines, noting that they had been tested in “tens of thousands of people in vaccine efficacy trials”.Prof Pulendra added that the use of modified mRNA was a relatively recent development in vaccine treatments.“Normally, the mRNA can be recognised by some receptors in the immune system and this can give rise to cytokine production and activation of the immune system,” he told AAP FactCheck in an interview.“But what these companies have done is chemically modify the mRNA so that it is unable to stimulate these (immune) receptors.”A global team infection experts at Meedan’s Digital Health Lab wrote in a January article that there is “no evidence to suggest that mRNA COVID-19 vaccines or non-mRNA COVID-19 vaccines would result in cytokine storms”.In the video, Madej refers to unspecified mRNA animal studies “in the past 20 years” which showed vaccinated animals died when later challenged with a virus. She also claimed these negative results were the reason why researchers “skipped the animal trials for (the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines)”.A 2012 study involving possible vaccines for the SARS coronavirus did highlight that some mice became ill after vaccination when challenged with the live virus. However, none were based on mRNA technology and the study’s lead author told Reuters in February that the COVID-19 inoculations were based on “very different vaccine platforms”. None of the mice died from the virus.Similarly, a 2016 study highlighted an increased risk of lung inflammation in mice treated with an inactivated vaccine for the MERS coronavirus. Again, the study did not relate to mRNA-based vaccines.Contrary to a claim in the video, Pfizer’s mRNA vaccine was tested on both mice and rhesus macaque monkeys, inducing “strong antigen-specific immune responses” with “no evidence of disease enhancement”. Moderna’s candidate was also tested on rhesus macaques, leading to the conclusion that it “induced robust SARS-CoV-2 neutralising activity, rapid protection in the upper and lower airways, and no pathologic changes in the lung”.Similar claims regarding cytokine reactions and COVID-19 mRNA vaccines have been debunked by Snopes and Reuters, while AAP FactCheck has previously addressed other misinformation relating to mRNA vaccines here and here.A woman is injected with a COVID-19 vaccine by a doctor at a vaccination centre.","https://archive.vn/kV39W,https://archive.ph/SCwmW,https://www.vice.com/en/article/88avy5/a-qanon-doctor-who-spoke-at-the-capitol-riots-said-the-covid-vaccine-is-a-witches-brew,https://www.aap.com.au/chill-out-cold-storage-mrna-covid-19-vaccines-are-legitimate/,https://www.genome.gov/genetics-glossary/messenger-rna,https://www.fda.gov/emergency-preparedness-and-response/coronavirus-disease-2019-covid-19/pfizer-biontech-covid-19-vaccine,https://www.fda.gov/emergency-preparedness-and-response/coronavirus-disease-2019-covid-19/moderna-covid-19-vaccine,https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/different-vaccines/mrna.html,https://www.healthgrades.com/physician/dr-carrie-madej-y7thx,https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3294426/,https://www.sydney.edu.au/science/about/our-people/academic-staff/markus-hofer.html,https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2785020/#:~:text=Cytokines%20are%20made%20by%20many,endothelial%20cells%2C%20and%20Schwann%20cells.,https://biox.stanford.edu/people/bali-pulendran,https://learnaboutcovid19.org/about/,https://connect.aap.com.au/https/learnaboutcovid19.org/questions/what-do-we-know-about-the-mrna-vaccine-and-cytokine-storm/,https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0035421,https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-factcheck-mice-idUSKBN2A22UW,https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5027702/,https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-021-03275-y?proof=t,https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2024671,https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/vaccine-lung-damage/,https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-factcheck-cytokine-idUSKBN29Q2UT,https://www.aap.com.au/vaccine-being-developed-for-covid-19-wont-alter-a-persons-dna/,https://www.aap.com.au/chill-out-cold-storage-mrna-covid-19-vaccines-are-legitimate/",No evidence of ‘delayed killswitch’ in mRNA vaccines,,,,,,
86,,,,False,,2021-03-16,,factcheck_aap,,https://www.aap.com.au/video-misuses-data-to-level-flawed-claims-of-vaccine-deaths/,,,factcheck_aap,,"The StatementA video being shared on social media has used data from a US vaccine reporting system in a misleading attempt to link COVID-19 vaccines to serious adverse health events including death.The clip, posted to Facebook on March 2 by an Australian user, features a female speaker trawling through the US Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) database for records purportedly relating to COVID-19 vaccinations.The speaker begins with a claim that “less than one per cent of vaccine injuries and deaths get reported” before scrolling through a list claimed to show people who have died within seven days of the inoculations.“Do you see why I say it’s not safe? Unfortunately these people did not survive the vaccine,” the woman can be heard saying.The video ends with a screenshot of the records sorted and a caption that claims “a healthy one-year-old died from a seizure after having the COVID-19 vaccine”.At the time of writing, the post had been shared more than 330 times and viewed more than 21,000 times. Similar posts have used entries in the reporting system to try to link COVID-19 vaccines to other negative health effects. A video wrongly claims US data shows many people didn’t survive COVID-19 shots. The AnalysisThe video shows records contained in the VAERS database, however this information is not proof of a causal link between reported events and vaccinations.The records are unverified and can be supplied by anyone, leaving open the possibility that some reports may be intentionally misleading, one expert says. To date, US health authorities have no confirmed reports of any deaths linked to COVID-19 vaccines.As of March 15, US officials had administered more than 107 million COVID-19 vaccine doses, with over 37 million people fully vaccinated with one of the three treatments – Pfizer/BioNTech, Moderna and Janssen – approved by the Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) for emergency use.The Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System was established in 1990 to monitor possible adverse events related to vaccinations. Anyone can lodge an incident report, including the general public.However, as noted in a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) factsheet, the system does not show that vaccines caused the reported events, rather it helps authorities determine where further investigation may be needed.In a guide to interpreting the data, the VAERS website says: “The report of an adverse event to VAERS is not documentation that a vaccine caused the event.” It also noted that VAERS “reports may contain information that is incomplete, inaccurate, coincidental, or unverifiable”.“In large part, reports to VAERS are voluntary, which means they are subject to biases. This creates specific limitations on how the data can be used scientifically. Data from VAERS reports should always be interpreted with these limitations in mind,” it reads.Dr Al Ozonoff, the associate director of the Precision Vaccine Program at Boston Children’s Hospital and an associate professor at Harvard Medical School, said while VAERS is useful due to its accessibility, he cautioned about drawing conclusions based on the data.“You can imagine it’s an open website so somebody can come in and there’s no way to verify their contact information,” Dr Ozonoff told AAP FactCheck in an interview.“There is some reliance on the good faith of the participants … and in principle, somebody could submit erroneous or even intentionally misleading information.“There may be some follow-up from CDC in certain cases but typically it’s not always possible to verify the information that’s provided in the report.”A spokeswoman for the CDC told AAP FactCheck in an email that “anyone can report to VAERS, however, healthcare providers are required to report all deaths that occur following COVID-19 vaccination”.There had been 1,637 deaths reported to VAERS by March 8 after the administration of more than 92 million COVID-19 vaccine doses, according to the CDC.It said experts reviewed each death report by assessing all available clinical information including death certificates, autopsies and medical records.The CDC spokeswoman said the organisation “has not received any confirmation of a COVID-19 vaccine-related death”.A 2015 scientific review of VAERS found that interpreting data from the system alone or out of context “can lead to erroneous conclusions about cause and effect as well as the risk of adverse events occurring following vaccination”.Another study assessing claims of deaths from vaccinations before the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted VAERS data as skewed, stating that it “is a voluntary system which accepts any submitted report of an adverse event without judging its clinical significance or whether it was caused by a vaccination”.“VAERS is a signal detection and hypothesis generating passive surveillance system and therefore any broad claim of cause and effect with respect to deaths following vaccination based on VAERS reports should not be interpreted as proof of causality,” the study said.It added that verified examples of deaths from any vaccinations were extraordinarily rare, pointing to a 2013 study which showed the US death rate one or two months after vaccinations were lower than among the general population.The video also misrepresents the nature of some of the individual reports included in the pictured database.In the case of the one-year-old boy, claimed in the video to have died after getting the inoculation, the related VAERS record shows he did not receive any COVID-19 vaccine shots (ID 0942246). CDC guidelines state children under the age of 16 should not receive the COVID-19 vaccine.Another sample entry is listed as dying age “1.08” after a COVID-19 vaccination however the VAERS entry notes the individual was killed by a self-inflicted gunshot wound (ID 0958443).A third example was recorded as dying 20 days after receiving a COVID-19 treatment, not within seven days as claimed in the video (ID 0936805).Similar false and deceptive claims that VAERS data shows the vaccinations have caused widespread deaths have been fact-checked here, here and here. AAP FactCheck previously examined potentially misleading posts using VAERS data to link COVID-19 vaccines to purported miscarriages.A woman receives a COVID-19 vaccine shot by a doctor in a mobile vaccination centre.","https://archive.ph/bVAqS,https://vaers.hhs.gov/,https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1624618661080286&set=a.287744618101037&type=3&theater,https://archive.ph/8xo8B,https://www.fda.gov/emergency-preparedness-and-response/coronavirus-disease-2019-covid-19/pfizer-biontech-covid-19-vaccine,https://www.fda.gov/emergency-preparedness-and-response/coronavirus-disease-2019-covid-19/moderna-covid-19-vaccine,https://www.fda.gov/emergency-preparedness-and-response/coronavirus-disease-2019-covid-19/janssen-covid-19-vaccine,https://vaers.hhs.gov/about.html,https://www.cdc.gov/vaccinesafety/pdf/vaers_factsheet1.pdf, https://www.cdc.gov/vaccinesafety/pdf/vaers_factsheet1.pdf,https://vaers.hhs.gov/data/dataguide.html,https://www.childrenshospital.org/research/researchers/o/alexander-ozonoff,https://www.childrenshospital.org/research/departments-divisions-programs/departments/pediatrics/precision-vaccines-program,https://archive.ph/BH9YV,https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4632204/,https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4599698/,https://wonder.cdc.gov/vaers.html,https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/covid-19/info-by-product/clinical-considerations.html,https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-factcheck-vaers-idUSKBN2AE0QQ,https://apnews.com/article/fact-checking-afs:Content:9957832237,https://www.factcheck.org/2021/02/scicheck-instagram-post-makes-invalid-comparison-between-covid-19-and-flu-vaccines/,https://www.aap.com.au/miscarriage-data-doesnt-prove-link-to-covid-19-vaccine/",Video misuses data to level flawed claims of vaccine deaths,,,,,,
87,,,,False,,2021-03-12,,factcheck_aap,,https://www.aap.com.au/those-viral-posts-are-just-no-use-no-one-is-cancelling-dr-seuss/,,,factcheck_aap,,"The StatementA Facebook post from a user in Australia claims that popular children’s author and illustrator Dr Seuss has been cancelled.It includes an image featuring the covers of several of the writer’s most famous books, such as The Cat In The Hat, Horton Hears A Who! and How The Grinch Stole Christmas!The post’s caption reads, “Ladies and gentlemen and other persons… Doctor Suess (sic) is no more he has been CANCELLED.”At the time of publication, the March 3 post had been viewed more than 64,000 times and shared more than 70 times. Related examples have been shared here, here and here. A post claims that popular children’s author Dr Seuss has been cancelled. The AnalysisWhile six Dr Seuss books will no longer be printed or sold, none of the books featured in the post’s meme are among those being withdrawn because of racist and insensitive imagery.Theodore Seuss Geisel (1904-1991), better known under his pen name of Dr Seuss, created some of the world’s best-known children’s books, including The Cat in the Hat and Green Eggs and Ham, which often feature the use of nonsense words, whimsical rhymes and fantastical creatures.In 2020, Forbes magazine named him the second highest earning “dead celebrity”, with his estate pulling in an estimated US$33 million that year.On the date of the late author’s birthday, March 2, estate manager Dr Seuss Enterprises, a division of publisher Penguin Random House, released a statement to announce it would cease the publication and licensing of six books: And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street (1937), McElligot’s Pool (1948), If I Ran the Zoo (1950), Scrambled Eggs Super! (1953), On Beyond Zebra! (1955), and The Cat’s Quizzer (1976).“Dr Seuss Enterprises celebrates reading and also our mission of supporting all children and families with messages of hope, inspiration, inclusion, and friendship,” the statement said.“Dr Seuss Enterprises, working with a panel of experts, including educators, reviewed our catalogue of titles and made the decision last year to cease publication and licensing of the (six titles listed).“These books portray people in ways that are hurtful and wrong. Ceasing sales of these books is only part of our commitment and our broader plan to ensure Dr Seuss Enterprises’s catalogue represents and supports all communities and families.”The books that were pulled from publication include several controversial images such as racist ape-like depictions of African natives.AAP FactCheck sought further comment from Dr Seuss Enterprises but was referred back to the organisation’s earlier statement.Following the decision, sales of Dr Seuss books temporarily skyrocketed – including for many titles that hadn’t been withdrawn, such as The Cat In the Hat.Conservative commentators seized on the announcement to claim that Seuss’s works were the latest victims of “cancel culture” that had become “out of control”.That suggestion partially stemmed from the earlier decision from one US public school system to remove the emphasis on Dr Seuss books for Read Across America Day, which falls on Seuss’s birthday, due to some of the works’ racial undertones. However, Seuss’s books were not banned or restricted in any way as part of the move.Commentators also pointed to US President Joe Biden’s proclamation on the day, which did not mention Seuss by name – a break with tradition. But moves to decouple the author from the national reading day had already begun well before Mr Biden took office.Meanwhile, in 2017, then-first lady Melania Trump offered a donation of 10 Dr Seuss books to a Cambridge, Massachusetts school. Its librarian turned down the gift, saying images criticised as “racist propaganda and harmful stereotypes” filled their pages.Philip Nel, a professor of children’s literature at Kansas State University and the author of Was The Cat In The Hat Black?, a look at racism in children’s literature, told AAP FactCheck in an email that the claim Seuss had been “cancelled” was wrong for several reasons.He noted that only six of the author’s more than 45 books had been withdrawn from publication. All others remained in print – including each of the titles featured in the Facebook post.“Those who use the term ‘cancel’ in this way refer to activists asking that a piece of culture be modified or withdrawn,” Prof Nel said.“In this case, the corporation has made the decision to withdraw six books from production. As Prof Ebony Elizabeth Thomas observed this week, ‘curation is not cancellation’.“Finally, there’s an implication in the term ‘cancelled’ that the books have been banned. They haven’t. They can be read. But they are no longer being produced.”It also is not the first time that Seuss’s works have been changed to downplay racial stereotypes. A “Chinese man” featuring in one of the discontinued books was previously depicted with yellow skin and a long pigtail, however these features were removed in editions from the late 1970s.Many other children’s titles have also been altered over the years in response to changing social views without the authors being “cancelled”. For example, as detailed by The Guardian, overtly racist characters and plotlines from the Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys series have been removed since before the 1960s, while from 1973 Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory no longer described Oompa-Loompas as being pygmies from Africa.Prof Nel said that many of Seuss’s portrayals of race in the withdrawn works were products of their time, telling Esquire magazine: “One of the themes across Seuss’ work is the use of exotic, national, racial, and ethnic others as sources of humour.“I think it’s important for people to understand that a lot of Seuss’ racism here is operating unconsciously. It’s something he learned from being steeped in a very racist American culture.”One of Seuss’s stepdaughters, Lark Grey Dimond-Cates, told the New York Post that the author did not have “a racist bone in (his) body”, however the removal of the six titles from publication was “a wise decision”.A Politico media column noted the withdrawn titles were already scarce and “largely forgotten” but added the publisher’s move would serve to shield the wider franchise from criticism after earlier controversies. Several Dr Seuss books that will no longer be published because of racist and insensitive imagery.","https://archive.is/uMAbU,https://archive.is/NJwl9,https://archive.is/dWxq7,https://archive.is/ru8z8,https://www.britannica.com/biography/Dr-Seuss,https://www.forbes.com/sites/maddieberg/2020/11/13/the-highest-paid-dead-celebrities-of-2020,https://www.seussville.com,https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/authors/2000585/dr-seuss/,https://www.seussville.com/statement-from-dr-seuss-enterprises/,https://www.cbc.ca/kidsnews/post/six-dr.-seuss-books-will-no-longer-be-published-due-to-racist-images,https://www.forbes.com/sites/maddieberg/2021/03/03/the-dr-seuss-empire-is-only-getting-bigger-after-discontinued-books-send-sales-soaring/?sh=177908f24e93,https://www.vox.com/2021/3/2/22309176/fox-news-dr-seuss-cancel-culture-fox-news-biden,https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/dr-seuss-canceled/,https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/biden-seuss-read-across-america/,https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/sep/29/melania-trump-dr-seuss-books-rejected-massachusetts-school-librarian,https://www.k-state.edu/english/people/nel.html,https://books.google.co.nz/books/about/The_Annotated_Cat.html?id=xh-1hOsUhWYC&redir_esc=y,https://www.gse.upenn.edu/academics/faculty-directory/thomas,https://theconversation.com/cat-in-a-spat-scrapping-dr-seuss-books-is-not-cancel-culture-156378,https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/mar/09/dr-seuss-cancelled-theres-nothing-new-about-cutting-racism-from-childrens-books,https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/books/a35738910/dr-seuss-racism-books-cancel-culture-interview/,https://nypost.com/2021/03/02/dr-seuss-didnt-have-a-racist-bone-in-his-body-stepdaughter/,https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2021/03/03/dr-seuss-publishing-problematic-racism-473373","Those viral posts are just no use, no one is cancelling Dr Seuss",,,,,,
88,,,,Missing Context,,2021-03-10,,factcheck_aap,,https://www.aap.com.au/miscarriage-data-doesnt-prove-link-to-covid-19-vaccine/,,,factcheck_aap,,"The StatementA Facebook post uses data about miscarriages to cast doubt on the safety of COVID-19 vaccinations, despite there presently being no evidence of a causal relationship.The February 23 post, shared by an Australian user, lists the details of women in the United States who had received a COVID-19 vaccine and also experienced a miscarriage. A screenshot details their ages, when they received the COVID-19 vaccination, the date of their miscarriage and how many weeks pregnant they were at the time, as well as the identification number for that miscarriage on the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS).The post’s caption reads, “Please if you’re pregnant do not get the c19 v a x – do your own research it’s all publicly available”.At the time of writing, the post had been viewed more than 17,000 times and shared more than 90 times. Variations of the post have also been shared here and here. A post links miscarriages in a number of pregnant women to when they received COVID-19 vaccines. The AnalysisThe post’s miscarriage data is from the VAERS reporting system used by both the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the US. VAERS is used to record adverse health events experienced after vaccinations, but as VAERS states, it is not designed to determine if a vaccine caused a health problem. Instead, it helps determine if further investigation is required.While authorities in Australia are not recommending pregnant women routinely receive the COVID-19 vaccine, medical experts told AAP FactCheck there is presently no evidence to suggest the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines cause miscarriages.As of February 2021, the FDA has approved two COVID-19 vaccines for emergency use in the United States – the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine and the Moderna vaccine. In Australia, the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) has also approved the Pfizer vaccine and AstraZeneca vaccine.At the time of writing, CDC records showed almost 94 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine had been administered in the US.To help monitor adverse events that may be related to any vaccination, the CDC and FDA established VAERS, where anyone who experiences a negative health event after a vaccination can report it. The system provides the CDC and FDA with information to “further assess a possible safety concern”.The cases listed in the social media post are from the VAERS database, however, the website states “VAERS reports alone cannot be used to determine if a vaccine caused or contributed to an adverse event or illness”.“The reports may contain information that is incomplete, inaccurate, coincidental, or unverifiable. Most reports to VAERS are voluntary, which means they are subject to biases,” it says.According to a scientific review of VAERS, interpreting data from the system alone or out of context “can lead to erroneous conclusions about cause and effect, as well as the risk of adverse events occurring following vaccination”.“Because VAERS data do not include an unvaccinated comparison group, it is not possible to calculate and compare rates of adverse events in vaccinated versus unvaccinated individuals and determine if vaccination is associated with an increased risk of an adverse event,” the review states.Associate Professor Paul Griffin, an infectious diseases physician and microbiologist from the University of Queensland, says currently there isn’t the same level of data for COVID-19 vaccines as for other vaccines but there’s nothing to suggest adverse outcomes for pregnancy.“(Health authorities) haven’t yet, in many parts of the world, recommended the vaccine to (pregnant women) just as we wait for more data, but that’s not because of any safety concerns or any suspicion that there’s any adverse effects in that group. It’s just that, as is with all populations, we want to make sure we have ample data to support use in that group,” he told AAP FactCheck.Nikolai Petrovsky, a professor of medicine from Flinders University in Adelaide, said it was usual to base recommendations about vaccine use on data and evidence.“Normally, we would never recommend a vaccine or drug be used in pregnancy until it has been shown to be safe and approved for this use,” he told AAP FactCheck in an email.“Although I understand clinical trials have commenced for the Pfizer vaccine in pregnant women, I am not aware any data has been made available from this as yet.”Recommendations on whether pregnant women should receive the COVID-19 vaccines differ between countries but most health authorities advise pregnant women to speak to their doctors first.With the US recording more than 500,000 deaths due to COVID-19, the CDC and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (ACOG) recommend pregnant women discuss with their doctors and if they choose, be offered the vaccination if they are part of the priority group recommended to receive the COVID-19 vaccine.In a TV briefing, Dr Anthony Fauci, the Director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, said since the emergency use approval (EUA) of COVID-19 vaccines “approximately 20,000 pregnant women have been vaccinated with no red flags, and this is being monitored by the CDC and the FDA”.In Australia, the Department of Health’s vaccination decision guide does not explicitly recommend pregnant women receive the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccination, instead it recommends they discuss the option with their doctors.“We do not routinely recommend COVID-19 vaccine in pregnancy. You and your health professional can consider it if the potential benefits of vaccination outweigh any potential risks,” it states.The Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RANZCOG) said on February 22 there is currently no evidence of an increased risk of miscarriage or birth defects linked to COVID-19 vaccines.“Although the available data do not indicate any safety concern or harm to pregnancy, there is insufficient evidence to recommend routine use of COVID-19 vaccines during pregnancy,” RANZCOG says.“However, if a pregnant woman meets the definition of being particularly vulnerable, then she should discuss the option of COVID-19 vaccination with her obstetrician, GP and/or midwife.”Posts regarding the miscarriages and VAERS data have been fact checked here, here, here and here while AAP FactCheck has previously debunked related claims that COVID-19 vaccinations cause people to become sterile. There is no evidence the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines cause miscarriages, health authorities say.","https://archive.vn/j04N9,https://vaers.hhs.gov/,https://www.facebook.com/sara.campagna.50/posts/10220534205557883,https://www.facebook.com/barbara.p.rivera/posts/10219869642186468,https://connect.aap.com.au/https/www.cdc.gov/vaccinesafety/pdf/vaers_factsheet1.pdf,https://www.health.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/2021/02/covid-19-vaccination-covid-19-vaccination-decision-guide-for-women-who-are-pregnant-breastfeeding-or-planning-pregnancy.pdf,https://www.fda.gov/emergency-preparedness-and-response/coronavirus-disease-2019-covid-19/pfizer-biontech-covid-19-vaccine,https://www.fda.gov/emergency-preparedness-and-response/coronavirus-disease-2019-covid-19/moderna-covid-19-vaccine,https://www.tga.gov.au/covid-19-vaccine-pfizer-australia-comirnaty-bnt162b2-mrna,https://www.tga.gov.au/covid-19-vaccine-astrazeneca-chadox1-s,https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#vaccinations,https://vaers.hhs.gov/about.html,https://connect.aap.com.au/https/vaers.hhs.gov/about.html,https://wonder.cdc.gov/controller/saved/D8/D122F133,https://connect.aap.com.au/https/vaers.hhs.gov/data.html,https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4632204/,https://researchers.uq.edu.au/researcher/5596,https://www.flinders.edu.au/people/nikolai.petrovsky,https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#cases_totaldeaths,https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/recommendations/pregnancy.html,https://www.acog.org/clinical/clinical-guidance/practice-advisory/articles/2020/12/vaccinating-pregnant-and-lactating-patients-against-covid-19,https://www.politico.com/video/2021/02/10/fauci-20-000-pregnant-women-vaccinated-with-no-red-flags-127024,https://www.niaid.nih.gov/about/director,https://www.health.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/2021/02/covid-19-vaccination-covid-19-vaccination-decision-guide-for-women-who-are-pregnant-breastfeeding-or-planning-pregnancy.pdf,https://archive.vn/aK8kp,https://healthfeedback.org/claimreview/covid-19-vaccines-dont-increase-the-incidence-of-poor-outcomes-during-pregnancy-according-to-current-safety-data-on-covid-19-vaccines/?fbclid=IwAR3qApQ6eVkQSslYg-O5NuT1g6EpHZdO5Pgc23yMXP3yL4nWr_7wd9jN5w8,https://factcheck.afp.com/miscarriage-reports-are-not-proof-covid-19-vaccine-danger-pregnancy,https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-factcheck-vaers-idUSKBN2AE0QQ,https://apnews.com/article/fact-checking-afs:Content:9957832237,https://www.aap.com.au/no-covid-19-vaccines-dont-cause-sterility/",Miscarriage data doesn’t prove link to COVID-19 vaccines,,,,,,
89,,,,Altered Image,,2021-03-05,,factcheck_aap,,https://www.aap.com.au/fake-pyramids-photo-is-the-ultimate-snow-job/,,,factcheck_aap,,"The StatementA meme shows a photo of Egypt’s famed Giza pyramids near Cairo purportedly covered in snow.The image, posted to a Facebook page managed from Australia, includes the text: “Wow! It snowed in Egypt! The first time in a hundred and 18 years!” The post includes the caption text: “Global warming sure can be a bitch.”At the time of publication, the February 28 post had been viewed more than 18,000 times. Another example of the image, accompanied by similar text, can be found here. A Facebook post shows a photo of Egypt’s famed Giza Pyramids purportedly covered in snow. The AnalysisEgypt’s pyramids may be one of the wonders of the ancient world, but the image in the viral posts is less of a marvel – the snow has been artificially added to a long-used aerial photo of the 4,500-year-old tombs in their desert surrounds.A reverse image search shows the unaltered image, including identical shadows, which was used on the cover of an Insight Guides tourism map for Cairo published as far back as 2000. The appearance of snow can be easily added to photos using editing software, or by simply manipulating the colour balance of an image, as appears to have been done with the pyramids picture.A rare winter storm did hit Egypt in December 2013, leading to reports of snow in Cairo – although images of internationally renowned sights like the Sphinx coated in powder that circulated at the time were fake.Some social media users claimed at the time it was first example of snow in the capital in 112 years, however that unverified suggestion was traced to a tweet from one user who admitted it was only a guess.There have been more recent instances of snow in Egypt’s mountains in January 2020, as well as in other Middle East countries such as Syria, Israel, Jordan and Lebanon in February 2021.Jim Andrews, a senior meteorologist with forecasting service AccuWeather, which specialises in global weather predictions, said snow is quite rare in Egypt.“Does it snow in Egypt? Yes, but rarely outside of interior uplands or mountains, such as those in the Sinai,” he told AAP FactCheck in an email.“I would guess that snow is unknown in much of Egypt. It is too dry and too mild for any more than rare falls of snow. In fact, I would say that south-central Sinai, with mountains rising to 7,000 or 8,000 feet, is likely the best place to see snow without leaving Egypt. Cairo is altogether another thing.”Cairo is considered a desert climate with “virtually no rainfall during the year”, typically receiving rain on only a handful of days during winter months, according to the World Meteorological Organization. A 2014 report from the Egypt Meteorological Authority notes that Cairo receives “a little more than one centimetre of precipitation each year” (page 1).Mr Andrews noted that at the time of the 2013 winter storms there were numerous photos and videos circulating showing “plausible snowfall”, although it was more likely they were “small hail, which can happen with significant accumulation more easily than true snow”. Tourists ride camels at the historical site of the Giza Pyramids near Cairo, Egypt.","https://www.facebook.com/politicsagenda21/photos/a.673847132726355/3531764996934540,https://archive.vn/6KyPi,https://kids.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/seven-wonders,https://tineye.com/search/383f6ac3b4e8224a878ecc51bcef61b9de749c2a?sort=crawl_date&order=asc&page=1,https://www.amazon.com/Cairo-Insight-Fleximap-Flexi-Maps/dp/9812344993,https://www.picturecorrect.com/tips/how-to-fake-a-snowy-landscape-in-photoshop/,https://english.alarabiya.net/life-style/2013/12/13/Cairo-sees-first-snow-in-years-as-cold-snap-hits-Egypt,https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/snow-job-2/,https://www.news.com.au/world/middle-east/snow-in-cairo-for-the-first-time-in-112-years/news-story/a8a5a0373abea25687e98b857519d197,https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2013/12/snow-in-cairo-for-first-time-in-over-100-years.html,https://egyptindependent.com/photos-snowfall-lures-more-tourists-to-sinais-st-catherine/,https://www.arabnews.com/node/1811281/middle-east,https://www.scientificamerican.com/author/jim-andrews/,https://www.accuweather.com/,https://worldweather.wmo.int/en/city.html?cityId=248,https://www.droughtmanagement.info/literature/UNW-DPC_NDMP_Country_Report_Egypt_2014.pdf",Fake pyramids photo is the ultimate snow job,,,,,,
90,,,,False,,2021-03-05,,factcheck_aap,,https://www.aap.com.au/no-the-strange-figurine-in-those-viral-posts-isnt-a-baby-platypus/,,,factcheck_aap,,"The StatementA viral image of a purported baby platypus being cradled in the palm of a human hand has been shared by a Facebook user in Christchurch, New Zealand.The February 19 post, from a self-proclaimed student of “quantum healing hypnosis therapy”, includes the text: “Baby platypus. Just because I knew you needed to see this.”At the time of publication, the post had been shared more than 250 times, drawing 400 engagements and more than 18,000 views. Other versions of the post have been shared thousands of times, see examples here and here. A viral image of a purported baby platypus has been shared by a Facebook user in New Zealand. The AnalysisThe platypus is a duck-billed animal only found in Australia. It belongs to a group of mammals called monotremes, of which the echidna is the only other member.While the animals are unique – so much so that some European naturalists first thought they were a hoax – baby platypuses bear little resemblance to the palm-sized figurine in the post, which is a sculpture.Platypuses live in a range of freshwater systems, from rainforests in Queensland to the Tasmanian highlands. Monotremes are the only mammals known to lay eggs; after hatching, young platypuses appear pink and hairless, but still with pronounced bills (see video, mark 1min 25sec).They spend several months living in burrows before emerging into the wild, at which point they closely resemble their adult brethren with fur-covered bodies and webbed feet (see examples here, here and here), unlike the figurine in the posts.The creator of the purported baby platypus has been identified as “fantasy artist” Vladimir Matić-Kuriljov, who writes of the sculpture on his Artstation page: “Sculpted in Super Sculpey, painted with acrylics. Probably the cutest thing I ever made.” Archived versions of the page suggest the listing was made in mid-2019.The photo is also posted on the artist’s Instagram account, dated November 7, 2019. The artist includes several photos of his sculpture along with a drawing showing a similar figure. In a higher resolution photo of the sculpture, it is possible to see the marks from the clay modelling knife on its ‘skin’.In February 2020, the image began to go viral, with several widely shared posts describing it as a baby platypus, for example here, despite the suggestion being repeatedly debunked (see here, here and here).While Matić-Kuriljov did not respond to AAP FactCheck, he previously told IFLScience that he had in mind “an invented fantasy species of ‘stone platypus'” when he created the work, adding: “I never considered how it might be misinterpreted.”Cesar Australia senior wildlife ecologist Josh Griffiths, whose specialty species is the platypus, told AAP FactCheck there were a number of reasons why the figurine in the image was clearly not a baby platypus.“We don’t see platypuses at this age – they are still confined to their maternal burrow,” he said.“By the time they emerge from the burrow at around three months old, they look like adult platypus but slightly smaller.”Griffiths noted that the figurine also had legs and feet that “resemble a dinosaur”, a human-like head that faced forward and “large eye’s like a child’s toy”, all unlike a real baby platypus. The figurine also appeared to be smiling, he added. A 500g male baby platypus is held after he was found injured near Mount Warning, NSW in 2014.","http://archive.vn/kBJhI,https://connect.aap.com.au/https/www.facebook.com/laron?__tn__=-UC*F,https://archive.vn/1VCNk,https://archive.vn/9efSb,https://australian.museum/learn/animals/mammals/platypus/,https://australian.museum/learn/species-identification/ask-an-expert/what-is-a-monotreme/,https://academic.oup.com/bioscience/article/49/3/211/242550,https://youtu.be/5ycejyi2t4A,https://www.australiangeographic.com.au/news/2016/03/twin-baby-platypuses-make-debut-in-victoria/,https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-11-09/platypus-baby-1/10480950,https://www.britannica.com/animal/platypus/Life-cycle-and-reproduction,https://www.artstation.com/shunkarion,https://www.artstation.com/artwork/k4KRB0,https://web.archive.org/web/20200228015803/https://www.artstation.com/artwork/k4KRB0,https://www.instagram.com/p/B4hkj_DFSuW/,https://cdna.artstation.com/p/assets/images/images/019/493/970/large/vladimir-matic-kuriljov-bebac03.jpg?1563762984,https://archive.vn/68AiW,https://www.sciencealert.com/the-incredibly-cute-baby-platypus-that-went-viral-has-a-dark-secret-you-ought-to-know,https://www.ndtv.com/offbeat/truth-behind-the-baby-platypus-pic-thats-going-viral-online-2182116,https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-factcheck-platypus-baby-idUSKCN20L20H,https://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/that-picture-of-a-platypus-everybody-is-sharing-again-is-still-just-a-rock/,https://cesaraustralia.com/about/,https://cesaraustralia.com/about/our-people/josh/","No, the strange figurine in those viral posts isn’t a baby platypus",,,,,,
91,,,,Partly False,,2021-03-05,,factcheck_aap,,https://www.aap.com.au/misleading-memes-in-the-dark-on-renewable-energy-fail-during-german-winter/,,,factcheck_aap,,"The StatementA meme, shared by an Australian Facebook user on February 16, claims Germany’s renewable energy networks recently foundered due to severe winter weather – forcing the nation to fall back on fossil fuel sources.“Germany’s green energy FAIL,” the text in the meme reads over an image of solar panels covered in ice and snow. “Country returns to coal and gas as millions of solar panels are blanketed in ice.”A similar meme, shared on February 15, goes further by claiming, “Germany’s millions of solar panels are blanketed in snow and ice…(not working)… Its 30,000 Wind Turbines are not turning in the Freezing, Windless Weather….Actually…..they need a constant INPUT of electricity from the grid so they dont (sic) freeze up & chew up their internal workings…. COAL plants to the RESCUE….!”At the time of publication, the two posts had been viewed more than 60,000 times and shared more than 1050 times. Multiple examples of the posts were found here, here, here and here. A meme claims Germany’s green energy power generation has collapsed due to severe winter weather. The AnalysisThe memes suggest that Germany was forced to “return” to coal and gas during a recent cold snap when in fact renewable energy production did not drop unexpectedly. Rather, reduced output from renewable sources during winter is a consistent but known issue in the country’s energy grid.In addition, the photo used in both memes to illustrate the country’s purported problems with ice-covered solar panels was not taken in Germany – in fact, it is a 2017 stock image from Russia.Germany was hit by a severe cold snap in February, causing disruption to transport networks and temperatures that dropped as low as -26.7C, according to the country’s meteorological service.However, AAP FactCheck found no local news reports identifying problems with the power grid or renewable energy sources in the context of the winter chill.The claim that thousands of wind turbines were “not turning” can be traced as far back as a January 28 report from climate change sceptic blog NoTricksZone, which said: “This winter there have been many long windless periods, and so Germany’s approx. 30,000 wind turbines have been largely out of operation. In a world 100% reliant on green energies, this would mean near 100% darkness at home.”It cited a TV report from German regional public broadcaster RBB titled “Energiewende im Winterstress”, a reference to the country’s Energiewende green energy transition. The report was broadcast on January 19 and referred to the power network’s reliance on coal in the winter months.The NoTricksZone post was in turn cited in a February 9 post on the anti-wind energy site Stop These Things before similar claims featured on Sky News Australia from conservative commentators Cory Bernardi on February 12 and Rowan Dean on February 14.Bernardi told viewers Germany was “in the grip of a reality check this week” as its solar panels were “blanketed in snow” while its “30,000 bird-killing wind turbines were statuesquely silent”, adding that the wind farms actually needed to draw current from the grid to stop them becoming “frozen solid”.However, while data from energy think tank Agora Energiewende shows significant fluctuations in renewable power generation during January and February, there were no periods in which either wind turbines or solar panels were delivering no electricity for the grid. Similar peaks and troughs can be seen during the same period in 2020.Rather than an unexpected “failure” in Germany’s power network, the phenomenon is a long-identified challenge during the so-called “dunkelflaute” – or “dark doldrums” – when a lack of sunlight and wind means the grid relies heavily on coal, gas and nuclear power.Craig Morris, the senior manager for international communications with Agora Energiewende, said darkness was more of an issue for solar panels than winter cold.“The problem is not solar panels covered in ice every few years; it is solar panels in the dark half of the time (it’s called ‘night’). Fortunately, this has been studied and studied and studied,” he told AAP FactCheck in an email.Solar panels, as featured in the meme, can produce power throughout all four seasons, according to US Department of Energy. The article noted heavy snow could stop them generating electricity, however even a slightly exposed panel was still effective.Mr Morris has previously written on how the “dark doldrums” of winter affects electricity generated from wind and solar.“The solution to all of this is ‘flexibility options’: first, all power plants that can ramp; second, demand that can react; and third, storage – in that order,” he wrote in 2017.“The Dunkelflaute (dark doldrums) is the central technical challenge of the Energiewende (energy transition) in the power sector.”Nevertheless, Mr Morris pointed to the fact that Germany’s overall reliance on green energy sources continued to rise – not fall.“Germany’s Renewable Energy Act of 2004 had a goal of 20 per cent green power as a share of demand by 2020. We hit 46.2 per cent last year,” he told AAP FactCheck.The Fraunhofer Institute for Wind Energy and Energy Systems reported that renewables share in Germany’s net electricity generation for 2020 exceeded 50 per cent while Bundesverband der Energie und Wasserwirtschaft (BDEW), the business association of energy and water industries, also said renewable energy generation rose last year.In its annual report, the BDEW said renewable energy went up three per cent in 2020, while coal usage went down approximately 18 per cent and natural gas 3.4 per cent (page 3).Dennis Kruse of Deutsche WindGuard, a consulting firm for technical services to wind farm developers, told Lead Stories that weather conditions in Germany generally don’t present a major problem when it comes to wind turbines’ operations.“In the winter months, during very particular weather conditions (especially when humidity is very high and temperatures are slightly below freezing), it can actually happen that ice forms on the rotor blades,” he said.“If that happens, the turbines turn off and someone has to go and check whether the ice actually presents a safety issue. In many cases, the turbines can be turned back on right after.”Wolfram Axthelm, managing director of Germany’s Wind Energy Association,  told AFP “the claim that weather conditions would cause thousands of wind turbines across the country to stand mostly idle is simply false.”Martin Green, Scientia Professor at the University of New South Wales, Sydney and director of the Australian Centre for Advanced Photovoltaics, told AAP FactCheck the claim that green energy “failed” in the freezing weather is incorrect.“Germany will not be returning to coal and gas but will continue steadily phasing them out,” he said in an email, although he acknowledged severe weather could impact all energy systems.“Extreme weather can disrupt both conventional and renewable energy systems, with the recent Texas freeze another example, where multiple gas and one nuclear plant were lost,” he said.The meme’s photo of snow-covered solar panels is a screenshot from a video on the stock photo sites, Shutterstock and iStock. Photographer Alexey Murzin confirmed to AFP FactCheck the location was not in Germany but near the Russian town of Orsk, and the photo was taken in 2017. Freezing temperatures and heavy snowfalls gripped much of Europe during mid-February.","https://archive.is/Xcv7y,https://archive.is/HObqP,https://archive.is/OWzeX,https://archive.is/xlNQN,https://archive.is/kFCrK,https://archive.is/NgGCs,https://www.dw.com/en/heavy-snowfall-paralyzes-northern-and-central-germany/a-56483641,https://www.dw.com/en/germany-winter-storm-wreaks-havoc-in-north-and-east/a-56494361,https://twitter.com/DWD_presse/status/1359407965011398656,https://notrickszone.com/2021/01/28/berlin-on-the-brink-blackouts-loom-as-coal-plants-running-at-100-capacity-struggle-to-keep-lights-on-in/,https://www.cleanenergywire.org/easyguide,https://programm-stage.ard.de/TV/Programm/Jetzt-im-TV/?sendung=282053973629820,https://stopthesethings.com/2021/02/09/coal-comfort-total-collapse-in-wind-solar-output-leaves-freezing-germans-desperate-for-coal-fired-power,https://www.skynews.com.au/details/_6231556213001,https://www.skynews.com.au/details/_6232075665001,https://www.agora-energiewende.de/en/service/recent-electricity-data/chart/power_generation/01.01.2021/28.02.2021/,https://www.agora-energiewende.de/en/service/recent-electricity-data/chart/power_generation/01.01.2020/29.02.2020/,https://www.dw.com/en/what-happens-with-german-renewables-in-the-dead-of-winter/a-37462540,https://www.agora-energiewende.de/en/about-us/team/craig/morris/,https://www.energy.gov/eere/articles/let-it-snow-how-solar-panels-can-thrive-winter-weather,https://energytransition.org/2017/01/the-end-of-the-energiewende-is-back/,https://www.agora-energiewende.de/en/press/news-archive/corona-year-2020-record-declines-in-carbon-emissions-and-coal-power-1/,https://www.iwes.fraunhofer.de/en.html,https://www.ise.fraunhofer.de/en/press-media/news/2020/public-net-electricity-generation-in-germany-2020-share-from-renewables-exceeds-50-percent.html,https://www.bdew.de,https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=&sl=de&tl=en&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bdew.de%2Fenergie%2Fdie-energieversorgung-2020-neuer-jahresbericht%2F,https://www.bdew.de/media/original_images/jahresbericht-2020-final-korr.pdf,https://www.windguard.de/politikberatung.html,https://leadstories.com/hoax-alert/2021/02/fact-check-germanys-wind-turbines-and-solar-panels-did-not-suddenly-stop-working-due-to-weather-conditions.html,https://www.wind-energie.de/,https://factcheck.afp.com/german-solar-wind-power-did-not-fail-cold-weather,https://www.unsw.edu.au/engineering/our-people/martin-green,https://www.statesman.com/story/news/politics/politifact/2021/02/19/texas-power-outage-energy-grid-wind-renewable-energy-greg-abbott-fact-check/4500251001/,https://www.shutterstock.com/video/clip-23905105-snow-covered-solar-panels-on-sunny-day-pan,https://www.istockphoto.com/video/snow-covered-solar-panels-on-a-sunny-day-pan-left-gm641559042-116295287,https://factcheck.afp.com/german-solar-wind-power-did-not-fail-cold-weather?fbclid=IwAR1WxJecUsBGwEWapbYXOfcou2a1hv3C2bDeULphof6lZO6bLw2P-lXRKV0",Misleading memes in the dark on renewable energy ‘fail’ during German winter,,,,,,
92,,,,True,,2021-03-03,,factcheck_aap,,https://www.aap.com.au/is-scott-morrison-right-that-australia-is-getting-on-with-cutting-emissions/,,,factcheck_aap,,"AAP FactCheck Investigation: Have Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions fallen 17 per cent since 2005 to their lowest levels since 1998?The Statement“Emissions fell by three per cent in the year to June 2020, to their lowest levels since 1998, meaning we are now nearly 17 per cent below 2005 levels.”Scott Morrison, Australian prime minister and Liberal Party leader, February 1, 2021.The AnalysisAustralian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has defended the country’s carbon-cutting track record, saying the country has been “getting on with it” amid debate about future emissions targets.Speaking to the National Press Club on February 1, Mr Morrison said the coalition government’s goal was to reach net zero emissions “preferably by 2050” on the back of new technology.“In Australia, we’re not waiting on this, we’re getting on with it,” he added.“Emissions fell by three per cent in the year to June 2020, to their lowest levels since 1998, meaning we are now nearly 17 per cent below 2005 levels. These are the facts.”AAP FactCheck examined the prime minister’s statement that Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions have fallen by 17 per cent since 2005 to their lowest levels since 1998.The year 2005 is relevant because it was the year the Kyoto protocol came into effect, and it is the base year for Australia’s commitments for the Paris Agreement. Under this agreement, Australia agreed to cut its net emissions by 26 to 28 per cent below 2005 levels by 2030.The prime minister’s office told AAP FactCheck that Mr Morrison’s statement was referring to a reduction in net emissions between 2005 and 2020 based on the government’s quarterly greenhouse gas inventory.The latest data available at the time – the June quarter of 2020 – shows he cited accurate figures. Interactive figures for the year to June show that net emissions fell 16.6 per cent between 2005 and 2020, from 615 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent (Mt CO2-e) to 513Mt CO2-e.A report accompanying the June data said emissions were at the lowest level since 1998 (page 3), when net emissions totalled 504Mt CO2-e. More recent figures, for the September quarter, show emissions continue to fall.The latest emissions update noted the impact of COVID-19 restrictions on transport, ongoing cuts to electricity emissions and the “lingering effect” of the previous year’s drought had all helped to drive down the total.However, greenhouse gas emissions can also be expressed on a gross basis – and these show a continued rising trend in Australia.Gross emissions show the total sources of greenhouse emissions from a country, while net emissions allow for the impact of carbon sinks from changes in land use and forestry. For example, the clearing of forests adds to net emissions, while planting more forests reduces the net figure.Other countries and international bodies routinely report on both net and gross emissions, including New Zealand, Canada, the US and the OECD, but Australia’s reporting focusses on net emissions.Excluding land-use, land-use change and forestry emissions (LULUCF) from Australia’s net figures for the June quarter shows that gross emissions increased 1.3 per cent between 2005 and 2020 (data table 1A, page 46).When broken down by major sources, emissions from electricity generation and agriculture declined over the period, while emissions from stationary energy excluding electricity and transport increased.CSIRO Climate Science Centre chief research scientist and Global Carbon Project executive director Pep Canadell said it was important to look at the trends in emissions from each sector when assessing a country’s true progress at reducing emissions.Dr Canadell said a reduction in land clearing and the regrowth and planting of vegetation, along with a decline in coal-fired power generation, had helped to bring down net emissions in Australia, but emissions from fossil fuels were still up on the whole.“Although it is correct that greenhouse gas emissions have declined since 2005, carbon emissions from the combustion of fossil fuels have grown and have only stabilised a bit in recent years,” he said.“Few people know that carbon emissions from the combustion of fossil fuels in Australia have grown by 45 per cent since 1990. Emissions from coal have declined thanks to the closure of a few coal power plants and the rapid replacement with, and growth of, renewable energy for electricity. However, the other energy carbon emissions, oil and gas, continue to grow very strongly.“Given the fossil fuels are harder to curve down than the land-use change sector, one could argue that we have done the easy things but we’re not yet curving down on the hardest components.”Dr Canadell also noted that the three per cent decline in emissions in the year to June was largely due to the country being in lockdown. Detailed figures for the quarter show emissions dropped 7.5 per cent compared to the same quarter in 2019 (table 1A).University of Melbourne earth sciences professor Peter Rayner said net emissions was the best metric to show the impact of emissions on the atmosphere, however he said the extent to which the land use changes acted as a carbon sink was “less robust and less certain”.He said reporting net emissions was the standard form of accounting set by the United Nations Framework Framework Convention on Climate Change, but added it also made Australia’s emissions “look much better”.Prof Rayner said LULUCF sinks were also “limited” because “we can’t plant the same forest twice”, adding: “My view is that in a hundred years only the change in gross will really matter.” Prime Minister Scott Morrison says Australia is “getting on” with cutting emissions.","https://www.pm.gov.au/media/address-national-press-club-barton-act,https://unfccc.int/kyoto_protocol,https://www.industry.gov.au/policies-and-initiatives/australias-climate-change-strategies/international-climate-change-commitments,https://unfccc.int/process-and-meetings/the-paris-agreement/the-paris-agreement,https://www.industry.gov.au/data-and-publications/national-greenhouse-gas-inventory-quarterly-updates,https://www.industry.gov.au/publications/national-greenhouse-gas-inventory-june-2020,https://www.industry.gov.au/publications/national-greenhouse-gas-inventory-june-2020,https://www.industry.gov.au/sites/default/files/2020-11/nggi-quarterly-update-june-2020.pdf,https://www.industry.gov.au/data-and-publications/national-greenhouse-gas-inventory-quarterly-update-september-2020,https://emissionstracker.mfe.govt.nz/#NrAMBoEYF12TwCIDiAnA9gZ042wBM4+okAHHqUrtEA,https://www.canada.ca/en/environment-climate-change/services/climate-change/greenhouse-gas-emissions/sources-sinks-executive-summary-2020.html,https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2020-04/documents/fastfacts-1990-2018.pdf,https://stats.oecd.org/Index.aspx?DataSetCode=AIR_GHG,https://unfccc.int/topics/land-use/workstreams/land-use--land-use-change-and-forestry-lulucf,https://www.industry.gov.au/sites/default/files/2020-11/nggi-quarterly-update-june-2020.pdf,https://www.csiro.au/en/Research/OandA/Areas/Assessing-our-climate/Climate-Science-Centre,https://www.globalcarbonproject.org/about/,https://people.csiro.au/C/P/Pep-Canadell,https://theconversation.com/global-emissions-are-down-by-an-unprecedented-7-but-dont-start-celebrating-just-yet-151757,https://www.industry.gov.au/sites/default/files/2020-11/nggi-quarterly-update-june-2020.pdf,https://findanexpert.unimelb.edu.au/profile/59812-peter-rayner,https://unfccc.int/about-us/about-the-secretariat",Is Scott Morrison right that Australia is ‘getting on’ with cutting emissions?,,,,,,
93,,,,Somewhat False,,2021-03-02,,factcheck_aap,,https://www.aap.com.au/does-europes-renewable-energy-mostly-come-from-burning-wood/,,,factcheck_aap,,"AAP FactCheck Investigation: Does 60 per cent of Europe’s renewable power come from burning wood?The Statement“Take for example in Europe, where they claim that they’re using more and more renewable power, 60 per cent of the renewable power used in Europe is from woodchips. I mean, burning wood is going backwards.”Gerard Rennick, Liberal Party senator, February 18, 2021.The AnalysisQueensland senator Gerard Rennick has questioned Europe’s green credentials, claiming the majority of the region’s renewable power comes from burning woodchips.The Liberal Party representative appeared on Sky News on February 18 advocating for the Australian government to repeal a ban on nuclear power. He said the reason he was “so against renewables” was that they had low energy density (video mark 6min 25sec).“Take for example in Europe, where they claim that they’re using more and more renewable power, 60 per cent of the renewable power used in Europe is from woodchips,” Mr Rennick said. “I mean, burning wood is going backwards.”AAP FactCheck examined the senator’s statement that 60 per cent of Europe’s renewable power comes from burning wood.When asked for the basis of his claim, Mr Rennick cited an article on biomass energy published in The Guardian in January.The article, which included criticism of an increasing reliance on forestry products for energy, said: “Biomass, of which wood from forests is the main source, now makes up almost 60 per cent of the EU’s (European Union’s) renewable energy supply, more than solar and wind combined.”Mr Rennick did not respond to further questions from AAP FactCheck on what he meant by “renewable power” in his statement. For that reason, this fact check will look at both total energy and electricity generation.Wood pellets are burned for heat and to generate electricity in Europe as part of bioenergy, or biomass energy, schemes, which include other sources such as agricultural byproducts and urban waste.According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), wood-based biomass energy is mostly the by-product of forestry, drawing on material like thinnings, diseased or low-quality trees, tops and branches, sawdust and bark.An EU report from October 2020 said around 60 per cent of all renewable energy in 2018 came from bioenergy (page 3).However, solid biofuels accounted for only around 68.4 per cent of the bioenergy total, while forestry made up approximately 91 per cent of solid biofuels. Other major biofuel sources include liquid biofuels, biogas and the renewable share of municipal waste.Based on the report’s figures, forestry produced 37 per cent of the bloc’s renewable energy that year.The Guardian article cited by Mr Rennick used figures from an older European Commission report, which said bioenergy accounted for around 59.2 per cent of the EU’s renewable energy in 2016 based on gross final consumption (figure 1, page 2).Of this, 60.7 per cent came from wood products, meaning around 36 per cent of the EU’s total renewable energy came from forestry and wood waste that year.Detailed figures from Eurostat show renewable energy accounted for 34 per cent of electricity generation in the EU in 2019. Solid biofuels such as wood were responsible for 9.6 per cent of the renewable electricity total.Data from the IEA, covering both EU and non-EU states, shows solid biofuels accounted for less than seven per cent of renewable electricity generation in Europe during 2018.The IEA’s figures also showed biofuels and waste produced around 58 per cent of Europe’s total renewable energy supply, however they did not say what proportion came from burning wood material. Based on the EU data, forestry products are likely to represent less than two-thirds of the total biofuel and waste amount.University of the Sunshine Coast Forest Industries Research Centre director Mark Brown, an expert on biomass energy, said data from the two sources showed Mr Rennick’s claim was incorrect.He said the suggestion that burning woodchips was “going backwards” was also wrong and ignored a large body of research showing the benefits of biomass energy.Prof Brown said burning wood pellets was considered renewable due to the carbon sequestration in sustainably managed forests and because the fuel was mainly derived from forestry waste.“It is about sourcing the carbon for energy from within the biogenic cycle rather than adding new carbon to the biogenic cycle when you extract fossil fuels and use them to produce energy,” he said.Prof Brown added that heating systems used to burn wood pellets in Europe were generally centralised and highly efficient, rather than inefficient individual wood fireplaces or stoves.However, he said there was debate about how forests are best managed to produce wood-based bioenergy to reduce emissions and how the level of carbon sequestration involved was calculated.There have been a number of media reports (see examples here, here and here) and experts highlighting issues with Europe’s reliance on wood-based bioenergy.A recent report from the EU’s Joint Research Centre said bioenergy sustainability was a “wicked problem” characterised by “uncertainty about consequences, diverse and multiple engaged interests, conflicting knowledge claims and high stakes” (page 6).It said there was a discrepancy between the reported sources of wood-based bioenergy and the quantity used in energy generation, with 20 per cent more biomass burned than officially produced (page 7).A 2018 report by London think tank Chatham House said if wood-based bioenergy resulted in more forest harvesting then this “will in almost all circumstances increase net carbon emissions very substantially compared to using fossil fuels”.However, a 2019 EU report said bioenergy could play a key role in meeting the EU’s renewable energy targets if the sector was managed sustainably.The IEA said while biomass emits more CO2 than coal per unit of energy, it is considered renewable as it does not increase the total emissions in the atmosphere if sustainably managed (pages 1 and 2). This was because the emissions from burning biofuels were reabsorbed in the forestry cycle. By contrast, emissions from burning fossil fuels were not considered part of the natural carbon cycle and were a net contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. Forestry products are likely to represent less than two-thirds of Europe’s total biofuel, data shows","https://youtu.be/JOqHPFXqoDU,https://energyeducation.ca/encyclopedia/Energy_density,https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jan/14/carbon-neutrality-is-a-fairy-tale-how-the-race-for-renewables-is-burning-europes-forests,https://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy13osti/56791.pdf,https://ec.europa.eu/energy/topics/renewable-energy/biomass_en,https://ec.europa.eu/info/food-farming-fisheries/sustainability/economic-sustainability/bioeconomy/agricultural-biomass_en,https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/biomass/waste-to-energy.php,https://www.ieabioenergy.com/iea-publications/faq/woodybiomass/,https://ec.europa.eu/energy/sites/ener/files/renewable_energy_progress_report_com_2020_952.pdf,https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/bitstream/JRC109354/biomass_4_energy_brief_online_1.pdf,https://www.eea.europa.eu/data-and-maps/indicators/renewable-gross-final-energy-consumption-4#:~:text=for%20wind%20power).-,%5B2%5D%20Gross%20final%20energy%20consumption%20refers%20to%20the%20energy%20commodities,electricity%20and%20heat%20production%2C%20and,https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/documents/38154/4956088/SUMMARY-results-SHARES-2019.xlsx/4e5eb100-822c-ec50-cf04-803e6ef9ad05?t=1607706049587,https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/home,https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1IQmRRdaz177XTuywtcuH-Cb8UcRZQl9Iqy7D0yyciDU/edit?usp=sharing,https://www.usc.edu.au/staff/professor-mark-brown,https://www.usgs.gov/faqs/what-carbon-sequestration,https://climatechange.ucdavis.edu/climate-change-definitions/biogenic-carbon/,https://climatechange.ucdavis.edu/science/carbon-sequestration/,https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2019/3/4/18216045/renewable-energy-wood-pellets-biomass,https://www.ft.com/content/b4be7ced-6871-48ff-9b84-57e7fb343fc1,https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jan/14/carbon-neutrality-is-a-fairy-tale-how-the-race-for-renewables-is-burning-europes-forests,https://ec.europa.eu/jrc/en/publication/eur-scientific-and-technical-research-reports/use-woody-biomass-energy-production-eu,https://ec.europa.eu/info/departments/joint-research-centre_en,https://www.chathamhouse.org/2018/06/woody-biomass-power-and-heat,https://www.chathamhouse.org/about-us,https://ec.europa.eu/jrc/en/publication/brochures-leaflets/brief-biomass-energy-european-union#:~:text=Biomass%20for%20energy%20(bioenergy)%20continues,about%2075%25%20of%20all%20bioenergy.&text=Bioenergy%20can%20play%20a%20key,targets%20for%202030%20and%20beyond,https://www.ieabioenergy.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/FAQ_WoodyBiomass-Climate_final-1.pdf",Does Europe’s renewable energy mostly come from burning wood?,,,,,,
94,,,,False,,2021-02-26,,factcheck_aap,,https://www.aap.com.au/infowars-video-on-australias-covid-vaccine-program-misfires/,,,factcheck_aap,,"The StatementUS conspiracy theorist Alex Jones has claimed that Australia shut down its COVID-19 vaccine program because the treatment “does not work and hurts people” in a video shared to the Australia-based “CBN Breaking News” Facebook page.The lengthy Infowars segment was streamed to the page on February 2 with a caption reading: “BOMBSHELL: MAJOR GOVERNMENTS SAY COVID-19 VACCINE A FRAUD.”In the first minute of the video, Jones makes multiple false claims including that mRNA vaccines are a “bioweapon” and “gene therapy”. Later in the footage, he says: “A month ago, Australia suspends, nationwide, their entire vaccine program, because it makes people deathly ill, killed a bunch of people, and they came up positive for HIV.”The Facebook video had been viewed more than 17,000 times and attracted more than 500 reactions and comments at the time of writing. It is not clear when the original Infowars segment was published. Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones claims that Australia has shut its COVID-19 vaccine program. The AnalysisThe footage in the post features multiple false statements, including that Australia stopped its vaccination program because the inoculations killed people.In the video, Jones claims Australia suspended its “entire vaccine program” a month earlier before showing a screenshot of a Fortune story headlined: “Why Australia just canceled an order for 51 million doses of a COVID-19 vaccine.” (video mark 9min 5sec)The December 11 article covers the federal government’s decision to cancel a planned order of a vaccine being developed by the University of Queensland (UQ) in partnership with Australian biotech company CSL.Clinical trials for the vaccine were cancelled before proceeding to phase three, it was announced on that date, after several phase one trial participants returned false positive HIV tests. However, there were no reports of deaths or major illnesses among those receiving the vaccine candidate.A UQ statement at the time stated: “There were no serious adverse events or safety concerns reported in the 216 trial participants.”Health Minister Greg Hunt issued a statement on the same day that said the decision to stop testing before a phase three trial had “not been based on the safety or effectiveness of the vaccine candidate”.The Department of Health said in a statement to AAP FactCheck that it had not been notified of any deaths occurring in clinical trials of COVID-19 vaccines in Australia.Jones’s claim that trial participants “came up positive for HIV” also misrepresents the facts.According to CSL, the vaccine generated antibodies that interfered with some human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) tests, causing false positives. The company added that this was unexpected, but there was no possibility that the vaccine caused infections and follow-up tests showed recipients did not have HIV.It is also incorrect to state that Australia suspended its entire vaccination program. More than 142,000 doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine arrived at Sydney airport on February 15 for the first stage of the national vaccination initiative, which began with initial doses being administered on February 21. The Australian government has said for months that it was planning a full-scale rollout from March.According to the Department of Health, Australia remains committed to four agreements for the supply of COVID-19 vaccines, with Pfizer-BioNTech, Oxford University-AstraZeneca, Novavax and the COVAX Facility.On Jones’s claim that mRNA vaccines are a form of “gene therapy” – a treatment that involves modifying or replacing genes to treat illness – AAP FactCheck has previously debunked suggestions that these treatments will modify human genetics or the underlying DNA. Australia began the rollout of its COVID-19 vaccination program on February 21.","https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/individual/alex-jones,http://archive.vn/7IYEw#,https://fortune.com/2020/12/10/covid-19-vaccine-australia-csl-order/,https://www.health.gov.au/ministers/the-hon-greg-hunt-mp/media/australia-secures-20-million-extra-astra-zeneca-vaccines,https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-12-11/how-the-uq-covid-19-vaccine-induces-false-positive-hiv-results/12975048,https://www.uq.edu.au/news/article/2020/12/update-uq-covid-19-vaccine,https://www.health.gov.au/ministers/the-hon-greg-hunt-mp/media/australia-secures-20-million-extra-astra-zeneca-vaccines,https://www.csl.com/news/2020/20201211-update-on-the-university-of-queensland-covid-19-vaccine,https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-02-15/pfizer-coronavirus-vaccine-doses-arrive-australia-rollout/13155726,https://www.pm.gov.au/media/first-covid-19-vaccinations,https://www.afr.com/politics/federal/first-australian-vaccines-may-be-ready-in-7-weeks-20201214-p56naa,https://www.health.gov.au/node/18777/australias-vaccine-agreements,https://www.fda.gov/consumers/consumer-updates/what-gene-therapy-how-does-it-work,https://www.aap.com.au/vaccine-being-developed-for-covid-19-wont-alter-a-persons-dna/",Infowars video on Australia’s COVID vaccine program misfires,,,,,,
95,,,,Mostly False,,2021-02-25,,factcheck_aap,,https://www.aap.com.au/will-cutting-emissions-create-250000-jobs-in-a-decade/,,,factcheck_aap,,"AAP FactCheck Investigation: Does modelling show that adopting a target of net zero emissions by 2050 will create 250,000 jobs in Australia over the next decade?The Statement“There was a report released by Deloitte just last week which shows that if we act then there’s 250,000 jobs that can be created in the Australian economy over the next decade by adopting that approach of net zero emissions by 2050.”Matt Thistlethwaite, Labor MP, February 9, 2021.The AnalysisLabor MP Matt Thistlethwaite has claimed a recent report found adopting a target of net zero emissions by 2050 will create 250,000 jobs in Australia over the next decade.During an interview on Sky News on February 9, the representative for Kingsford-Smith in Sydney’s eastern suburbs said the benefits of reaching net zero emissions outweighed the costs of inaction.“There was a report released by Deloitte just last week which shows that if we act then there’s 250,000 jobs that can be created in the Australian economy over the next decade by adopting that approach of net zero emissions by 2050,” he said (video mark 2min 30sec).“The cost of not acting, and basically doing nothing, as the government is, is about 800,000 jobs are lost. So there is a net benefit I think for Australia in taking that approach and acting.”AAP FactCheck examined Mr Thistlethwaite’s statement that modelling showed adopting a net zero target will create 250,000 jobs in Australia over the next decade.His office said the statement was based on a Deloitte Access Economics report from November 2020. The report included modelling on the economic effects of “unchecked” climate change and an alternate scenario of the globe reaching net zero emissions by 2050.It said that a “new growth recovery” post-COVID-19 – including limiting global warming to 1.5C and moving to net zero emissions worldwide – would add over 250,000 jobs by 2070 (page 6) compared to a scenario in which climate change was unchecked.The job gains would not come within a decade, as Mr Thistlethwaite claimed, nor was the prediction based on the effects of Australia adopting the net zero target. Rather, it relied on global action to reach that goal.The report also predicted there would be net job losses under the same “new growth recovery” scenario until at least the year 2050, when there would still be 22,000 fewer jobs (table A.5 and chart A.4, pages 69-70).The jobs that were added would partially be created by investment in renewable energy and other efforts to mitigate climate change (page 46). It said the modelling was also based on there being a global increase in productivity in line with the International Energy Agency’s (IEA) Sustainable Recovery Plan (page 66).The IEA plan, produced in collaboration with the International Monetary Fund, sets out policies to boost economic growth by reducing greenhouse gas emissions as part of government stimulus to recover from the COVID-19-induced recession (page 13). It said this would cost about US$3 trillion and create nine million jobs a year over three years (page 14).The Deloitte report predicted that if there was no global action on climate change and the earth warmed 3C by 2070 then 880,000 jobs would be lost in Australia (page 5) compared to a scenario in which there were no climate change effects.The figure was based on modelling the “physical damages” from climate change and their impact on productivity (page 59). These damages included climate change’s impact on capital, land, agriculture, tourism, health, energy demand and labour productivity.Deloitte Access Economics associate director Claire Atkinson said Mr Thistlethwaite’s interpretation would have been “broadly correct” if he had accurately quoted a 2070 date for the 250,000 jobs gained.However, University of Melbourne Richie chair of economics John Freebairn, one of Australia’s top economists, said the assumptions used in the modelling, including that the world would achieve net zero emissions by 2050, were “unlikely”.Prof Freebairn said reducing emissions and adapting to climate change would create and destroy jobs in various industries, and models based on alternate assumptions would reach different conclusions as there were many unknown parameters, such as the prevailing conditions in the global economy.He said efforts to reduce emissions were generally more costly than a business-as-usual scenario, “otherwise the less polluting options would have been adopted”. But this had to be weighed against the cost of climate change.“In aggregate, mitigation decisions that are more costly and less productive for the private sector decision-makers would reduce employment. These costs of mitigation have to be compared with the benefits of less climate change.”Prof Freebairn noted that Australia accounted for just over one per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions, which meant the country achieving net zero emissions by 2050 in isolation would have a negligible impact on the effects of climate change and lead to a net loss of employment.But he agreed worldwide action to reduce emissions and alleviate the impact of climate change would reduce the cost of climate change adaptation and boost employment and productivity.University of Canberra economics professor and director of the Centre for Labour Market Research Phil Lewis also said different assumptions on the impacts of climate change could produce contrasting results for its effect on the jobs market.“For instance, a major driver of the (Deloitte) model is the extent to which rising temperature reduces productivity such as through land degradation and employees getting too hot and reducing their effort,” he said.“There is no allowance for changes in technology, such as those that have taken place throughout history, in improving productivity of the land base or through air conditioning and improving building standards.”University of Queensland economics professor John Quiggin, who specialises in environmental economics, said climate change would harm the economy and reduce employment, but in the long run the main impact would likely be lower wages rather than job losses.However, he said shifting to renewable energy would employ more people as renewables were more employment-intensive over a full life cycle than fossil fuel generation.Prof Quiggin referred to a report published in November 2020 by Climate Action Tracker, a research consortium partly funded by the German Ministry for the Environment, which said accelerating the transition to renewable energy would create 46,000 jobs in Australia between 2021 and 2030 (page 3).The figure took into account job losses in industries linked to fossil fuel power generation (Figure 14, page 26). With policies to incentivise local manufacturing of components like solar panels and batteries, the number of jobs created could increase to 75,000.Other analysis into the impact on employment of reaching net zero emissions has led to a range of conclusions.A January report from conservative think-tank the Institute of Public Affairs said Australia targeting net zero emissions by 2050 would put 653,000 jobs “at risk” (page 4). It said this was calculated by adding together all positions in industries where the emissions per job were above average.It did not go into any further detail about what proportion of jobs in industries emissions-intensive industries would be lost, or over what time-frame, however it claimed the jobs created by a net zero target would not outweigh the job losses it caused (page 8).As evidence for this, the report said between 2009-10 and 2018-19 the number of people employed in “renewable activities” increased by 14,700, while the number of people employed in manufacturing declined by 76,200 (page 9). However, the report did not specify how the job losses in manufacturing were linked to renewable energy or emissions reductions.A report by the Beyond Zero Emissions think tank, which has a stated purpose of showing “how Australia can prosper in a zero-emissions economy”, said that if the government focused on encouraging low-carbon technology as part of a COVID-19 recovery plan it could create over 200,000 ongoing jobs within five years in sectors including renewable energy, buildings, transport and manufacturing (page 9).A report on the modelling used in the plan said it was based on the unemployment rate not returning to seven per cent until 2023 (page i) due to the pandemic, however the latest unemployment figures show the unemployment rate had already declined to 6.4 per cent in January.The job creation also relied on a significant increase in spending, including $35 billion to make buildings more energy efficient and $1.7 billion in government funding to upgrade the electricity transmission network (page v). A Deloitte report says unchecked climate change would cost Australia 880,000 jobs.","https://www.skynews.com.au/details/_6230271483001,https://www.aec.gov.au/profiles/nsw/kingsford-smith.htm,https://www2.deloitte.com/au/en/pages/economics/articles/new-choice-climate-growth.html,https://www.iea.org/about,https://www.iea.org/reports/sustainable-recovery,https://www.iea.org/reports/sustainable-recovery,https://www.imf.org/en/About,https://www2.deloitte.com/au/en/profiles/claire-atkinson.html,https://findanexpert.unimelb.edu.au/profile/14508-john-w-freebairn,https://fbe.unimelb.edu.au/newsroom/professor-john-freebairn-awarded-ao-for-achievements-in-economics,https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/annual-share-of-co2-emissions?tab=chart&stackMode=absolute&country=~AUS&region=World,https://www.canberra.edu.au/about-uc/faculties/busgovlaw/school-of-government-and-policy/prof-phil-lewis,https://economics.uq.edu.au/profile/2249/john-quiggin,https://climateactiontracker.org/documents/806/CAT_2020-11-10_ScalingUp_AUSTRALIA_FullReport.pdf,https://climateactiontracker.org/about/,https://www.bmu.de/en/,https://apo.org.au/sites/default/files/resource-files/2021-02/apo-nid310893.pdf,https://ipa.org.au/about-us,https://bze.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/BZE-The-Million-Jobs-Plan-Full-Report-2020.pdf,https://bze.org.au/about-us/,https://bze.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Million-Jobs-Plan-Economics-Summary.pdf,https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/labour/employment-and-unemployment/labour-force-australia/latest-release","Will cutting emissions create 250,000 jobs in a decade?",,,,,,
96,,,,False,,2021-02-25,,factcheck_aap,,https://www.aap.com.au/pms-purported-covid-jab-fraud-is-blunted-by-the-evidence/,,,factcheck_aap,,"The StatementA Facebook post claims Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s COVID-19 vaccination was faked, presenting as evidence that the needle involved was not typically used for inoculations.The February 21 post includes a screenshot of text above an image bearing the 9 News logo and showing Mr Morrison with an orange-capped needle pressed into his upper arm.Part of the text reads: “I have been a nurse for 16 years … Scott Morrison is a FRAUD. He is not getting the vaccine in this picture. The nurse is using a 25 gauge, 1 ml subcutaneous insulin syringe … For any intramuscular injections a 23-21 gauge needle – 3ml syringe combo is used. With a green or blue cap not orange … the joy of being a nurse! you don’t even have to SMELL the bullshit, you can SEE it from a distance!”At the time of publication, the post had been shared more than 440 times and attracted more than 25,000 views. It is one of many claims made about the prime minister’s vaccination in social media posts, including several that falsely suggested the cap was still on the syringe used for the jab (see examples here, here and here). A post claims PM Scott Morrison did not really receive the COVID-19 vaccination. The AnalysisDespite social media sceptics’ claims to the contrary, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison was among a small group of people who received the nation’s first COVID-19 vaccinations on February 21, 2021.Mr Morrison was inoculated alongside Australia’s chief medical officer, Paul Kelly, in an event covered on TV by ABC News, 7 News, 9 News and 10 News, as well as by various outlets online (examples here, here and here).The prime minister tweeted that he got the injection in order to “give further confidence to Australians these vaccines, which have been tested and approved by our medical experts, are safe and effective”.However, social media posts claimed the vaccination was faked, providing as supposed proof that the wrong syringe was used and that the safety cap was left on for the photo.A Department of Health spokesman confirmed in an email to AAP FactCheck that the prime minister was vaccinated on Sunday, February 21, along with several aged-care residents, nurses, doctors, disability care residents and hotel quarantine workers.Responding to claims that the wrong needle was used, he said: “The needles used were appropriate for the administration of the Pfizer vaccine and verified as appropriate against the clinical protocol.”The post’s picture and news footage of the vaccine administration shows Mr Morrison being injected with a needle featuring an orange tip. According to the International Standard, the colour code for a 25-gauge needle is orange.However, the text falsely states that this gauge of needle is not used for intramuscular vaccine injections. US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines for administering the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine say needles with gauges from 22-25 should be used for the injection, which is performed in the deltoid muscle of the arm.The Australian Immunisation Handbook also recommends the same range of needle sizes for adults for the administration of vaccines in general. News footage of the first COVID-19 vaccinations, for example from 7 News, show numerous other vaccine recipients being treated with similar orange-tipped needles.The department told AAP FactCheck the prime minister’s vaccination “was real, delivered and supervised by trained clinicians and any suggestion that it was not is completely untrue”.Claims that the safety cap was left on the syringe seen in media coverage of the vaccinations are also false. An AFP photo taken during Mr Morrison’s vaccination shows the needle against his upper arm, while the needle can also be seen going into his arm before being withdrawn in ABC footage (1min 46sec mark). The same events can be seen in 7 News footage (21min 30sec mark) and 10 News footage (1min 5sec mark). PM Scott Morrison received his COVID-19 vaccination at Castle Hill in Sydney on February 21.","https://archive.vn/le9mp,http://archive.vn/YXBVS,http://archive.vn/eUt5d,http://archive.vn/fW85U,https://twitter.com/ScottMorrisonMP/status/1363383198894288896/photo/1,https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6YH1e5X4u_U,https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=1232&v=RBFBqo74aug&feature=youtu.be,https://www.9news.com.au/videos/health/pm-receives-covid-19-vaccine/cklef48oh006t0gplvudws677,https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8FESAA08yo&t=64s,https://www.smh.com.au/national/where-are-you-in-the-vaccine-queue-our-calculator-shows-when-you-re-likely-to-get-the-jab-20210221-p574eq.html,https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/subscribe/news/1/?sourceCode=DTWEB_WRE170_a_GGL&dest=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.dailytelegraph.com.au%2Fcoronavirus%2Fprime-minister-scott-morrison-and-a-group-of-health-workers-will-get-a-covid19-vaccine-on-sunday%2Fnews-story%2F8a554be173f1f15d393ce146b9dd0a91&memtype=anonymous&mode=premium,https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-55579770,https://twitter.com/ScottMorrisonMP/status/1363383198894288896,http://archive.vn/YXBVS,https://perma.cc/HF63-CBYS?type=image,https://shop.standards.ie/preview/is/en/2016/i.s.eniso6009-2016.pdf?sku=1882513,https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/covid-19/info-by-product/pfizer/downloads/standing-orders.pdf,https://immunisationhandbook.health.gov.au/resources/handbook-tables/table-recommended-needle-size-length-and-angle-for-administering-vaccines,https://youtu.be/RBFBqo74aug,https://www.afpforum.com/AFPForum/Search/ViewMedia.aspx?mui=1&hid=E6EB94E27C387191C59195A88B29BC364A1083774B2CFB9AD120B09D8273279B,https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6YH1e5X4u_U,https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=1232&v=RBFBqo74aug&feature=youtu.be,https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8FESAA08yo&t=64s",PM’s purported COVID jab ‘fraud’ is blunted by the evidence,,,,,,
97,,,,Partly False,,2021-02-24,,factcheck_aap,,https://www.aap.com.au/claim-of-10000-year-old-tibet-library-find-not-worth-paper-its-written-on/,,,factcheck_aap,,"The StatementA Facebook post claims that secret manuscripts uncovered in a Tibetan monastery detail more than 10,000 years of human history.The February 8 post features an image of a man staring up at a wall of shelves stacked with piles of scrolls. The text reads, “Library found in Tibet with 84,000 secret manuscripts (books) which include the history of humanity of over 10,000 years!”The post goes on to claim the find at “Sakia (sic) Monastery” is “possibly the largest library in the world on the distant history of the planet. It was discovered behind a huge wall”.At the time of publication, the post had been viewed 7.5 million times and shared nearly 200 times, including by New Zealand users. A post claims that a library in Tibet contains “the history of humanity of over 10,000 years”. The AnalysisTibet’s Sakya monastery contains a library of international renown, but its works don’t date back 10,000 years – which would predate the earliest known writing and recorded history.The monastery was reportedly founded in 1073 by the Lama Khön Könchok Gyalpo. The initial temple, built to the north of a river, no longer remains, however a southern temple complex erected in 1268 still stands.Sakya is one of Tibet’s four major schools of Buddhism and the monastery’s library, as shown here in a video tour, is considered one of Tibet’s cultural treasures.It contains an enormous archive of texts including thousands of sacred Buddhist scriptures. Similar images to the one seen in the post can be found online (examples here, here and here).The post states that the library includes more than 84,000 scrolls that were discovered “behind a huge” wall.A 2010 Alamy photo caption contains matching details about the find, while a republished 2003 report from Chinese state media agency Xinhua includes many similar details, although it makes no mention of the manuscripts being “secret”.However, AAP FactCheck was unable to independently verify the size or nature of the find. Several articles, including from Chinese news service CGTN, and travel sites Lonely Planet and Rough Guides, list a different number of works or make no mention of the purported recent “discovery”.In addition, several experts said it was impossible that the most ancient works at the monastery could detail 10,000 years of human history as this would easily predate the oldest recorded writing.“The claim is false,” Joshua J. Mark, an editor and researcher for the Ancient History Encyclopedia website, said in an email.“The oldest known written literature of length is the Epic of Gilgamesh (c. 2150-1400 BCE) based on an earlier oral Sumerian tale or tales,” he said.While modern humans are thought to have existed for at least 300,000 years, the period of recorded history is much shorter and is tied to the development of text 5,000 years ago.Boyo Ockinga, an associate professor of ancient history at Macquarie University in Sydney, agreed that claims the library’s works dated back 10,000 years didn’t match with historical records.“The consensus of scholarly opinion is that writing was invented in Mesopotamia by the Sumerians in the late 4th to early 3rd millennium BC; there is some uncertainty about how much later the Egyptian hieroglyphic script was invented, but it will have been around the same time or a little later,” he said in an email.“These are the earliest scripts known, so the claim that these Tibetan texts are 10,000 years old is completely untenable.”The first forms of writing to develop were in cuneiform or hieroglyphics carved into hard surfaces like clay and stone. Cuneiform was used in Mesopotamia (now Iraq) between 3400 and 3300 BC, according to a British Library article on the history of writing.“Scholars generally agree that the earliest form of writing appeared almost 5500 years ago in Mesopotamia,” it says.Mr Mark told AAP FactCheck: “(Sumerian) cuneiform text is considered the oldest written work (along with a Sumerian temple hymn) extant. There is no evidence of earlier works anywhere in the world and certainly none dating back 10,000 years.”Regarding the reported library find, Mr Mark said it was possible the manuscripts predated the monastery being established in 1073.“Certainly, the 84,000 texts could have been composed elsewhere and brought to the monastery for safekeeping after that date .. but if they went back 10,000 years, by this time, we would have found some other evidence of writing going back that far,” he said.The scroll, made of papyrus, first emerged in Egypt around 5000 years ago, while early examples of paper from around 2000 years ago have been found in China. Buddhism was established approximately 2500 years ago.Similar posts shared on social media state that the library contains “the history of mankind over 1000 years”, while others include the 10,000-year-old claim. Tibet’s Buddhist monasteries form a key part of the country’s national identity.","https://archive.is/0pHzK,https://wondersoftibet.com/destinations/shigatse-and-gyantse/sakya-monastery/,http://www.sakyaheritage.org/DharmaLineage/sakyahistory.html,https://news.cgtn.com/news/3d3d514e34416a4d78457a6333566d54/share_p.html,https://www.sakya.org/about/sakya-history/,https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JQVD3y44jkIt,https://www.cecc.gov/publications/commission-analysis/centuries-old-buddhist-texts-at-sakya-monastery-to-be-relocated,https://www.tibettravel.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/second-dunhuang.jpg,https://c8.alamy.com/comp/GE35NB/geography-travel-china-tibet-sakya-monastery-interior-view-library-GE35NB.jpg,https://www.chrisrochephotographer.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/Tibet-1363-1024x684.jpg,https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-sakya-monastery-the-great-library-79524240.html,http://www.china.org.cn/english/2003/Nov/80109.htm,https://news.cgtn.com/news/3d3d514e34416a4d78457a6333566d54/share_p.html,https://www.lonelyplanet.com/china/tibet/sakya/attractions/sakya-monastery/a/poi-sig/1239844/356125,https://www.roughguides.com/china/tibet/,https://marist.academia.edu/JoshuaMark,https://www.ancient.eu/Illuminated_Manuscripts/,https://books.google.com.au/books?id=zB_cDQAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false,https://www.britannica.com/science/human-evolution,https://www.bl.uk/history-of-writing/articles/where-did-writing-begin#,https://researchers.mq.edu.au/en/persons/boyo-ockinga,https://blog.britishmuseum.org/how-to-write-cuneiform/,https://www.britannica.com/topic/hieroglyphic-writing,https://www.bl.uk/history-of-writing/articles/where-did-writing-begin#,https://sites.dartmouth.edu/ancientbooks/2016/05/23/67/,https://www.ancient.eu/article/1120/paper-in-ancient-china/,https://www.ancient.eu/buddhism/,https://archive.is/ZmpkQ,https://www.facebook.com/newsandpersonality/posts/132541842055646","Claim of 10,000-year-old Tibet library find not worth paper it’s written on",,,,,,
98,,,,Somewhat True,,2021-02-23,,factcheck_aap,,https://www.aap.com.au/did-scott-morrison-say-net-zero-emissions-by-2050-would-be-catastrophic-for-the-economy/,,,factcheck_aap,,"AAP FactCheck Investigation: Did Prime Minister Scott Morrison say adopting a target of net zero emissions by 2050 would be catastrophic for the economy?The Statement“Scott Morrison needs to explain how it is that his rhetoric when Labor adopted net zero by 2050, he said it would have catastrophic economic consequences.”Anthony Albanese, Labor Party leader, February 2, 2021.The AnalysisLabor leader Anthony Albanese has accused the Australian prime minister of backflipping on net zero emissions targets, claiming Scott Morrison previously implied a 2050 target would have “catastrophic economic consequences”.During a speech to the National Press Club on February 1, Mr Morrison said the government’s goal was to reach net zero emissions “as soon as possible, and preferably by 2050”.A few months earlier, he had only said the objective was to reach the target “as soon as possible” – while in September 2020 the stated goal was net zero in “the second half of this century”.The addition of the words “preferably by 2050” was widely interpreted by commentators as a significant shift towards the Australian government adopting the net zero target (examples here, here and here) already embraced by more than 100 countries worldwide in a bid to limit global warming, according to the United Nations.But the change in language drew criticism from the opposition leader, who claimed Mr Morrison had previously said adopting the target would cause dire harm to the economy.“In some of the papers today, I got up and I read ‘net zero emissions by 2050’, and I thought to myself: ‘There is an idea, why didn’t the whole world think about that?’ Well, it appears they have actually,” Mr Albanese said.“Scott Morrison needs to explain how it is that his rhetoric when Labor adopted net zero by 2050, he said it would have catastrophic economic consequences.”AAP FactCheck examined Mr Albanese’s statement that the prime minister suggested adopting a target of net zero emissions by 2050 would have “catastrophic economic consequences”.Mr Albanese’s office did not provide a source to support his statement when contacted, while the prime minister’s office did not respond when asked if he previously made the comments or words to that effect.The Labor Party first announced a policy of net zero emissions by 2050 in 2015, under then leader Bill Shorten, taking the same pledge to the 2019 election. The party recommitted to the policy in February 2020 under Mr Albanese.AAP FactCheck searched transcripts of Mr Morrison’s speeches and press conferences, as well as his press releases, media coverage and statements in parliament to establish his comments on the policy.One of the first examples of Mr Morrison referring to Labor’s net zero policy occurred in parliament in October 23, 2018, when the recently installed prime minister answered a question from Mr Shorten on energy policy.In his response, the prime minister cited comments from the Business Council of Australia about Labor’s interim target to reduce emissions by 45 per cent by 2030: “The Business Council says: The (coalition’s) emissions target of 26 per cent is appropriate and achievable. 45 per cent – that’s Labor’s target – is an economy wrecking target.”He went on to quote the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, another business lobby group, as saying that Labor’s proposal for deeper cuts by 2030 “with a long-term target of net zero emissions by 2050 was not backed by a credible plan that protects economic growth”.“If you elect the Labor Party at the next election, you will pay more for everything – your electricity, your taxes and your private health insurance – because they are their policies,” Mr Morrison added.The first example AAP FactCheck found of Mr Morrison being quizzed by the media on the net zero policy came at a press conference in September 2019, when he said he wouldn’t commit to further targets beyond Australia’s existing agreement to reduce emissions 26 per cent by 2030.At a press conference in January 2020, Mr Morrison said the government was reviewing its policy on a net zero target, but he wouldn’t agree to the plan until he knew the cost. He then proceeded to attack Labor for not having a strategy to meet the target – a line he would later repeat multiple times in response to similar questions.“We’re going to meet and beat our emissions reduction targets … And I’m going to do it without increasing people’s taxes with a carbon tax,” he said.“I’m going to do it without pushing up their electricity prices. And I’m going to do it without wiping out important sectors of our economy upon which this nation depends, and particularly in regional communities, for their very living.”At another press conference on February 18, 2020, Mr Morrison repeated that the government wouldn’t adopt a policy until it knew the cost – and again suggested it could cost jobs, particularly in regional areas, after saying the coalition favoured “technology over taxation”.“Currently no one can tell me that going down that path won’t cost jobs, won’t put up your electricity prices, and won’t impact negatively on jobs in the economies of rural and regional Australia. And my government is absolutely committed to the jobs of rural and regional Australians,” he said.At a press conference on February 21, 2020, after Mr Albanese announced Labor was retaining the net zero policy, Mr Morrison said the opposition didn’t have a plan to meet the target or know its costs and again implied there could be job losses and increased electricity prices.Three days later, in response to questions from Labor’s then climate spokesman Mark Butler in parliament, Mr Morrison suggested the target would lead to higher consumer prices, as well as other costs.“(Labor has) zero positive news for the Australian people, who would be hit by a policy, if those opposite were ever elected, with a higher price on electricity, a higher price on farming, a higher price at the check-out, and a higher price on transport and petrol,” he said.On the same day, in response to a question from Mr Albanese, Mr Morrison implied that Labor’s policy would result in Australians losing their jobs after taking aim at the former Labor government’s introduction of an emissions trading scheme.“I’ll tell you what I won’t do: I’m not going to make a promise to Australians; I’m not going to put a tax on them to get emissions down; I’m not going to take away their jobs in the way that the leader of the opposition wants to do.”On February 25, Mr Morrison was quoted by The Guardian as criticising Labor’s commitment to net zero emissions in the context of the rapidly unfolding coronavirus pandemic.“Given the economic challenge, Labor’s reckless approach on the economy is particularly troubling, signing up to a target with no knowledge of what it would cost,” he said.During an interview with 2GB host Alan Jones on February 28, 2020, the prime minister again questioned whether the policy would harm the economy.“The reason we haven’t embraced this target, Alan, is because no one can tell me how you can do it and at the same time protect jobs, keep electricity prices down and support industries, particularly those in rural and regional Australia,” he said.However, Mr Morrison’s rhetoric surrounding a net zero target softened later in the year.During an interview on ABC in September, when asked why he wouldn’t commit to a net zero target, the prime minister said he was focused on “technology that delivers lower emissions, lower costs and more jobs” before adding it was the government’s policy to achieve the goal “in the second half of this century”.In November 2020, Mr Morrison again emphasised that emissions reductions needed to be achieved through technology rather than taxes but said Australia “would like to get zero emission as soon as possible” (here and here). Prime Minister Scott Morrison has questioned the costs of Labor’s net-zero emissions pledge.","https://www.pm.gov.au/media/address-national-press-club-barton-act,https://www.pm.gov.au/media/address-pacific-islands-forum,https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-09-20/scott-morrison-refuses-to-commit-net-zero-carbon-emissions-2050/12682714,https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-02-07/government-climate-policy-fight-press-club-wasnt-a-peep/13126136,https://www.afr.com/politics/federal/pm-inches-closer-to-net-zero-by-2050-20210201-p56ybg,https://theconversation.com/scott-morrison-has-embraced-net-zero-emissions-now-its-time-to-walk-the-talk-154478,https://news.un.org/en/story/2020/12/1078612,https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/7108974/ministers-sharpen-climate-target-language/,https://billshorten.com.au/labor-commits-to-net-zero-pollution-by-2050,https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-05-07/climate-change-federal-election-morrison-shorten-policies-votes/11084580?nw=0,https://anthonyalbanese.com.au/anthony-albanese-speech-leadership-in-a-new-climate-melbourne-friday-21-february-2020,https://www.pm.gov.au/media,https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Hansard,https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Hansard/Hansard_Display?bid=chamber/hansardr/694b7f60-e5cc-4e71-b474-84579ad4876a/&sid=0072,https://www.naa.gov.au/explore-collection/australias-prime-ministers/scott-morrison/timeline,https://twitter.com/BCAcomau/status/1011414577702031361,https://www.bca.com.au/,https://www.australianchamber.com.au/,https://www.pm.gov.au/media/doorstop-interview-chicago-usa,https://www4.unfccc.int/sites/ndcstaging/PublishedDocuments/Australia%20First/Australias%20Intended%20Nationally%20Determined%20Contribution%20to%20a%20new%20Climate%20Change%20Agreement%20-%20August%202015.pdf,https://www.pm.gov.au/media/press-conference-australian-parliament-house-3,https://www.pm.gov.au/media/doorstop-melbourne-vic,https://www.pm.gov.au/media/doorstop-katherine-nt,https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Hansard/Hansard_Display?bid=chamber/hansardr/f3ed3760-e998-492f-9f3e-11b9802d8a98/&sid=0162,https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Hansard/Hansard_Display?bid=chamber/hansardr/f3ed3760-e998-492f-9f3e-11b9802d8a98/&sid=0151,http://www.cleanenergyregulator.gov.au/Infohub/CPM/About-the-mechanism,https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/feb/25/scott-morrison-praises-gladys-berejiklians-plan-for-zero-net-emissions,https://www.pm.gov.au/media/interview-alan-jones-2gb-3,https://www.pm.gov.au/media/interview-david-speers-abc-200920,https://www.pm.gov.au/media/doorstop-interview-tokyo-japan,https://www.pm.gov.au/media/virtual-address-nsw-state-council",Did Scott Morrison say net zero emissions by 2050 would be ‘catastrophic’ for the economy?,,,,,,
99,,,,Somewhat True,,2021-02-22,,factcheck_aap,,https://www.aap.com.au/does-growing-meat-consumption-doom-the-earth-to-severe-warming/,,,factcheck_aap,,"AAP FactCheck Investigation: Will rising beef and sheep consumption mean the earth inevitably warms by more than two degrees?The Statement“If global consumption of beef and sheep continues to rise, eliminating emissions from fossil fuels will not be enough to prevent the earth warming beyond the 2C outer boundary set by the Paris agreement on climate change.”Peter Singer, bioethics professor, January 31, 2021.The AnalysisRenowned Australian philosopher Peter Singer has claimed that if meat consumption continues to grow, it won’t be possible to limit global warming to two degrees – even if emissions from burning fossil fuels are stopped.In a column in the Sydney Morning Herald on January 31, the bioethics professor at Princeton’s University Center for Human Values said that he stopped eating meat 50 years ago and this brought environmental benefits beyond the ethical reasons for his decision.“Some years ago, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) reported that emissions from farmed animals contribute more to warming our planet than the entire transport sector,” Prof Singer, who is the author of multiple books on veganism and the ethics of food consumption, wrote in the article.“If global consumption of beef and sheep continues to rise, eliminating emissions from fossil fuels will not be enough to prevent the earth warming beyond the 2C outer boundary set by the Paris agreement on climate change.”AAP FactCheck examined Prof Singer’s statement that the earth will warm by more than 2C if beef and sheep consumption continues to rise, even if emissions from burning fossil fuels are eradicated.According to the most recent analysis by the FAO, from 2013, livestock account for 14.5 per cent of all greenhouse gas emissions linked to humans. The production of cattle for beef and milk accounted for 65 per cent of these animal emissions, while sheep and goat milk and meat accounted for six per cent.The FAO said feed production and processing, and methane emissions from ruminant digestion were the main causes of emissions from livestock. The analysis included emissions from the consumption of fossil fuels in livestock supply chains.In Australia, direct livestock emissions account for around 10 per cent of total greenhouse gas emissions, according to the Department of Agriculture.According to the FAO, meat production has been static in the developed world but has doubled since 1980 in developing countries.A 2012 FAO report said total meat production was expected to increase by 76 per cent between 2005/7 and 2050, with beef increasing by 66 per cent and mutton by 92 per cent (Table 4.18, page 137). Beef and mutton were expected to make up 29 per cent of meat production in 2050. These predicted increases far outpaced the expected rate of population growth.When contacted by AAP FactCheck, Prof Singer said his statement on rising sheep and beef consumption leading to inevitable warming was based on a 2015 report published by the independent think-tank Chatham House.The report said developing nations were eating more animal protein as they became wealthier and “these consumption trends are incompatible with the objective of avoiding dangerous climate change” (page vii).Without changes, the report said, it would be almost impossible to limit global warming to two degrees above pre-industrial temperatures (page 6).It said global greenhouse gas emissions needed to more than halve from 49GtCO2e (gigatonnes of CO2 equivalent) to around 23GtCO2e by 2050, however if meat and dairy consumption continued to rise at current rates it would “soak up” all but a small share the world’s annual carbon budget.“Even under the most ambitious of decarbonisation scenarios, it will be near impossible for emissions from other sectors to drop to (the required) levels by the middle of the century,” the report said.The analysis was partially based on a 2014 article in the journal Nature Climate Change, which estimated agriculture emissions would increase by 77 per cent from 2009 to 2050 if the population reached 9.6 billion and “dietary preferences change with socio-economic transitions” (page 3 and table 2, page 4).That would take global agriculture emissions to 20.2GtCO2e, just below the 21GtCO2e the report used as its central estimate for limiting warming to 2C (page 5).It did not provide a breakdown of how much sheep and beef consumption contributed to emissions, however it noted that as “the demand for inefficient pathways of food supply (that is, livestock products) disproportionately increases, the whole system becomes not only larger, but also less efficient” (page 2).But the article also said agriculture emissions could rise just two per cent to 11.7GtCO2e by 2050 without any change in diets if there was a 50 per cent reduction in food waste and “sustainable intensification” – an increase in crop yields with more efficient use of fertilisers, pesticides and irrigation.Other scenarios involving just an increase in crop yields or halving of food waste also brought agriculture emissions well under the 21GtCO2e level.However, the introduction of “healthy diets” in regions where there was a high consumption of sugars and saturated fats, including from livestock products, would cut emissions another 45 per cent, the article said.The main gains would come from a drop in emissions from enteric fermentation in ruminants, which include cattle, sheep and goats, and manure, and the return of crop and pasture lands to their natural states.Experts agreed that based on current trends of meat consumption it would be almost impossible to limit global warming to 2C. However, they also said it may be possible to significantly decrease agriculture emissions without cutting sheep and beef from the menu.Deakin University environmental science lecturer Michalis Hadjikakou, whose research is focused on the impact of diet, said if the production and consumption of sheep and beef continued to increase it would be very difficult to meet the 2C warming target, but eating meat would not necessarily lock in that outcome.“I would say that Peter Singer is not completely wrong but is not entirely accurate either,” he said.“Whether emissions from livestock alone would be enough to blow our whole carbon budget would depend on several factors: what other sectors in the economy are doing, whether there is land use change, and how much sequestration will be achieved.”Dr Hadjikakou cited a 2020 article in Science which said that even if fossil fuel emissions were rapidly reduced, food system emissions were “on a trajectory that would prevent achievement of the 1.5 and 2C targets before the end of the century”.But the article said it could be possible to limit warming by 2C by 2100 without moving to a plant-rich diet if yields increased and waste was reduced (Figure 2, page 3).Nevertheless, moving to a plant-rich diet would have the greatest impact on emissions, reducing them by 48 per cent compared to the business-as-usual scenario (figure 1, page 2).Dr Hadjikakou also co-authored a paper which found, based on current consumption trends and no future efficiency gains, livestock would account for 60 per cent of the 2C carbon budget by 2050 (page 131).But if efficiency increased, livestock would account for only 39 per cent of the carbon budget without a change in diets. The production of ruminant meat accounted for 48 per cent of livestock emissions in both scenarios.University of Melbourne sustainable agriculture professor and Primary Industries Climate Challenges Centre director Richard Eckard is an expert on carbon neutral agriculture and developed the first greenhouse gas accounting tools for the sector.He said that it was true that based on current trends agriculture emissions would take up the bulk of the carbon budget for limiting warming to 2C.Prof Eckard added that not eating meat would address the majority of these emissions, but this was a simplistic analysis as only a small portion of the population had the choice of a purely plant-based diet.He added there was also promising research in reducing livestock emissions and, in combination with changes in diet, carbon-neutral agriculture would likely emerge in future.“If you look at just two recent products (3-NOP and Asparagopsis/ seaweed) there is now potential to reduce methane emissions by up to 80 per cent, which completely changes the argument,” he said. If current meat-eating trends continue, it will be difficult to limit the world to 2C warming.","https://www.smh.com.au/national/give-up-the-meat-i-ve-been-doing-it-for-50-years-20210131-p56y57.html,https://uchv.princeton.edu/people/peter-singer,https://petersinger.info/writings,http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/197623/icode/#:~:text=Total%20emissions%20from%20global%20livestock,of%20all%20anthropogenic%20GHG%20emissions.&text=Cutting%20across%20all%20activities%20and,of%20the%20livestock%20sector's%20emissions.,http://www.fao.org/about/en/,https://www.agriculture.gov.au/ag-farm-food/climatechange/australias-farming-future/livestock-emissions,http://www.fao.org/ag/againfo/themes/en/meat/home.html#:~:text=Meat%20%26%20Meat%20Products,-Meat%20is%20the&text=While%20meat%20consumption%20has%20been,since%201980%20in%20developing%20countries.&text=World%20meat%20production%20is%20projected,is%20expected%20in%20developing%20countries.,http://www.fao.org/fileadmin/templates/esa/Global_persepctives/world_ag_2030_50_2012_rev.pdf,https://www.un.org/development/desa/en/news/population/world-population-prospects-2019.html,https://www.chathamhouse.org/sites/default/files/publications/research/CHHJ3820%20Diet%20and%20climate%20change%2018.11.15_WEB_NEW.pdf,https://www.chathamhouse.org/about-us,https://www.researchgate.net/publication/275118744_Importance_of_food-demand_management_for_climate_mitigation,http://www.fao.org/in-action/enteric-methane/background/what-is-enteric-methane/en/#:~:text=In%20ruminants%2C%20methane%20is%20produced,by%20the%20animal%20through%20burping.,https://www.britannica.com/animal/ruminant,https://www.deakin.edu.au/about-deakin/people/michalis-hadjikakou,https://carbontracker.org/carbon-budgets-where-are-we-now/,https://www.usgs.gov/faqs/what-carbon-sequestration?qt-news_science_products=0#qt-news_science_products,https://science.sciencemag.org/content/370/6517/705#BIBL,https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0921800918310498,https://findanexpert.unimelb.edu.au/profile/2680-richard-eckard,https://www.piccc.org.au/about-piccc/,https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022030218311111,https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-12-18/csiro-super-seaweed-cattle-supplement-wins-$1m-prize/12992888#:~:text=Like%20taking%20'100%20million%20cars,from%20the%20animals'%20bodily%20emissions.",Does growing meat consumption doom the earth to severe warming?,,,,,,