A conspiracy theory circulating in English and Spanish claims without evidence that a recent assassination attempt on Slovakia’s prime minister is related to his opposition to COVID-19 vaccines and the WHO pandemic treaty. A U.S. congressperson and other high-profile figures shared a viral post that falsely claims that...
A new JAMA study found that COVID-19 remains deadlier than the flu, with 35 percent higher mortality in hospitalized patients between October 2023 and March 2024. Although the overall risk of death from COVID-19 has declined over time, it is still “substantially higher” than the risk of death from the...
A recent viral social media post from psychologist and author Jordan Peterson falsely claimed that gender-affirming health care causes children to die by suicide. As of May 16, the post received 941,800 views, 34,000 likes, and 6,700 shares. Recommendation: Trending conversations about gender-affirming health care for transgender...
This week, Louisiana legislators introduced a bill that would criminalize giving abortion pills to a pregnant person without the pregnant person’s consent. The bill also categorizes abortion pills as controlled dangerous substances, a class of drugs that includes narcotics, steroids, and depressants. A group of Louisiana doctors sent a...
On a recent episode of the late-night television show Last Week Tonight, host John Oliver discussed opioid settlement funds. Oliver argued that local governments are not using these funds in the most effective ways and said the funds should be used to support harm reduction services such as overdose prevention...
Last week, a school board in Cypress, Texas, voted to remove a list of “controversial” topics from textbooks. Banned topics include vaccines, human development, climate and conservation, and diversity and culture. The decision gained widespread attention across social media platforms, with some social media users expressing support for the school...
A recent viral social media post included a video of a Colorado representative who said that the state is monitoring dairy farmers who were exposed to bird flu. The author of the post claims that Pfizer representatives are “working closely with political leaders to develop a cure,” and questioning, “what...
Last week, a news anchor said on a podcast that he has been taking ivermectin daily to treat long COVID, despite having spoken out against ivermectin in the past. A video clip from the podcast sparked widespread conversation on social media, with some social media users promoting ivermectin as a...
An Ohio doctor whose medical license was suspended last year after she promoted false claims about vaccine safety had her medical license reinstated last week. Some social media users are celebrating the reinstatement of the doctor’s license and stating that she was falsely accused of being a “conspiracy theorist....
A team of researchers from Cambridge, Oxford, and CalTech universities has developed an experimental vaccine that may have the potential to protect against a wide range of coronaviruses. The vaccine uses nanoparticles to train the immune system to recognize multiple proteins from various coronaviruses, inducing a broader immune response that...
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