The Conspiracy Debunk Feed

We’re so used to putting our entire lives online, but what if we just…didn’t?

Introduction Rumors and conspiracy theories, can contribute to vaccine hesitancy. Monitoring online data related to COVID-19 vaccine candidates can track vaccine misinformation in real-time and assist in negating its impact. This study aimed to examine COVID-19 vaccine rumors and conspiracy theories circulating on online platforms, understand their context, and then review interventions to manage this misinformation and increase vaccine acceptance. Method In June 2020, a multi-disciplinary team was formed to review and collect online rumors and conspiracy theories between 31 December 2019–30 November 2020. Sources included Google, Google Fact Check, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, fact-checking agency websites, and television and newspaper websites. Quantitative data were extracted, entered in an Excel spreadsheet, and analyzed descriptively using the statistical package R version 4.0.3. We conducted a content analysis of the qualitative information from news articles, online reports and blogs and compared with findings from quantitative data. Based on the fact-checking agency ratings, information was categorized as true, false, misleading, or exaggerated. Results We identified 637 COVID-19 vaccine-related items: 91% were rumors and 9% were conspiracy theories from 52 countries. Of the 578 rumors, 36% were related to vaccine development, availability, and access, 20% related to morbidity and mortality, 8% to safety, efficacy, and acceptance, and the rest were other categories. Of the 637 items, 5% (30/) were true, 83% (528/637) were false, 10% (66/637) were misleading, and 2% (13/637) were exaggerated. Conclusions Rumors and conspiracy theories may lead to mistrust contributing to vaccine hesitancy. Tracking COVID-19 vaccine misinformation in real-time and engaging with social media to disseminate correct information could help safeguard the public against misinformation.

BILL Gates’ divorce from his wife Melinda has sent anti-vaxxers, QAnon believers and a host of other conspiracy theorists into overdrive. Microsoft boss Gates and his wife have become a light…

Open Thread: Have You Lost a Loved One to a Conspiracy Theory? The past four years have transformed fringe theories into mainstream movements. How has it changed us? In a new investigation for GEN …

Don’t try to change someone else’s mind. Instead, help them find their own motivation to change.

If the authorities can’t satisfy the public’s desire to know more, others will fill the void with misinformation.

In the universe of false online information, Mr. Floyd remains alive and George Soros is to blame for the protests.

Despite evidence from infectious disease experts suggesting otherwise, nearly 30% of Americans in a new Pew poll said they believe the novel coronavirus was likely created in a lab.

The scientific community must take up cudgels in the battle against bunk.

Four ways to help those around you be better informed about the pandemic

Unseen villains. Top-secret cures. In their quest for reassurance during the pandemic, many people are worsening more than just their own anxiety.

Our “Swiss doctor” team provided the following information on the current situation in order to enable our readers to make a realistic risk assessment. (Below you will find regular, but not daily, updates on medical and political developments.) *** According to the latest data of the Italian National Health Institute ISS, the average age of …

Unseen villains. Top-secret cures. In their quest for reassurance during the pandemic, many people are worsening more than just their own anxiety.

The COVID-19 pandemic will almost certainly wind up being by far the worst pandemic we have experienced in a century. Given a huge pandemic with tragic death tolls, it's not surprising that conspiracy

Falsehoods about a new strain of the coronavirus spreading from China vary widely, from Facebook posts that take a paten

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President Trump has refused to concede the election while alleging widespread voter fraud, without evidence, and mounting legal challenges in several states. Here's what to know about these claims and the latest on lawsuits challenging election results.

This week Pfizer released a new stack of documents related to the Pfizer SARS-CoV-2 vaccine, with >80,000 pages of material released. Here is a link to the documents.In the past couple days there is a viral claim circulating social media that this data dump revealed the actual efficacy of this vaccine was 12%, not 95% as reported, purporting a massive conspiracy. Here are some active tweets repeating this claim:These tweets and accompanying threads lack documentation of where exactly in the do

Kulvinder Gill and Ashvinder Lamba sued over comments accusing them of spreading COVID-19 misinformation

A website called the Conservative Beaver claimed that Bourla was arrested on November 5 and that there was a "media blackout" of the event. But what's the evidence that this actually happened?

The latest antivax claim is that COVID-19 vaccines are not vaccines, but rather gene therapy or medical devices. The claim is, of course, nonsense.

In the era of the COVID-19 pandemic, to antivaxxers lipid nanoparticles are the new mercury.

A video shared over 8,300 times on Facebook makes false claims about the optional microchip that could be contained within the syringes label of the eventual COVID-19 vaccine. The video alleges that the microchip “would give officials information on who has and has not been vaccinated” and “track the location of the patient”. These claims are false.

But he has raised his estimate of the virus's reproduction number, which implies a lower fatality rate than his research group initially assumed.

A viral claim on social media says Bill Gates is planning to use microchip implants to fight the coronavirus. Most of the posts say Gates will “launch human-implantable capsules that have ‘digital certificates’ which can show who has been tested for the coronavirus and who has been vaccinated against it.” The claim has been shared at least 1,000 times on Facebook ( here , bit.ly/3aoVnIV , here ) and at least 3,600 times on Twitter, as of March 27, 2020 ( here , here , here ).