Daily Archives: November 24, 2021
Hand gel safety alerts only apply to certain brands
A Facebook post claims that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), says that hand gel “causes cancer”. The post uses what appears to be a code for the FDA, by writing F/D/apple symbol. The post also says that this has followed “daily obsessive use for nearly two years by the masses”. Although it is… Read More »
Claims about changes to Pfizer vaccine for children miss important details
An article, shared on Facebook, claims Pfizer has changed the formula of a Covid-19 vaccine for children to include a medication that “stabilises people suffering a heart attack”. The article says the vaccine for five to 11-year-olds includes tromethamine, which is associated with a number of potentially serious side effects. Tromethamine was recently added to… Read More »
‘Vienna protest picture’ actually old photo of Moscow
A photo on Facebook purporting to show a protest in Vienna is going viral. The caption says: “Go Vienna! Vaccinated and unvaccinated standing together for what is right!” Although there have been protests in Vienna against new Covid-19 restrictions recently, the photo in the post is actually a snippet of a larger one taken in… Read More »
No-one was arrested for creating a labyrinth in Ikea using fake social distancing signs
Facebook posts claim that a man was arrested for putting fake social distancing arrows in an Ikea to create a “labyrinth” with no exit. While Ikea did ask customers to socially distance when it reopened after lockdowns in 2020 and 2021, this story (unsurprisingly) is meant as a joke. Other versions of the same joke… Read More »
The holes in face masks don’t mean they’re useless
A post on Instagram claims a Stanford study has shown face masks are ineffective at blocking Covid-19 viral particles. We have written about the study cited before. The author was not affiliated with Stanford University and the paper was strewn with basic errors, misrepresenting legitimate research on the effect of face masks. The study has… Read More »
Viral ‘shark’ picture isn’t a shark at all
A post on Facebook, showing a screenshot of a tweet, says: “Today I learnt that there is such a thing as the tasselled wobbegong shark and I need to share it with you all”, accompanied by a picture of a peculiar-looking sea creature. Several marine biologists tweeted in response that the picture did not show… Read More »