Health

Health

|

News

by Dr Orna YOUNG (11 December 2020) Any discussion of COVID-19 and the development and introduction of vaccines to combat it invariably gives rise to

Explainer

|

Health

EXPLAINER: Is there any truth to the rumours that circulate online about COVID-19 vaccines containing microchips?

Back in June 2020, Kanye West revealed that he had contracted coronavirus in February. He expressed reservations about possible vaccines, encompassing many frequently shared claims:

Explainer

|

Health

EXPLAINER: How has the COVID-19 mRNA vaccine been developed so quickly?

The Pfizer/BioNTech coronavirus vaccine has been approved for use in the UK from the week commencing 6 December 2020. This means that the UK has

Health

CLAIM: COVID-19 is being put on death certificates fraudulently, without a test having been carried out and when the patient died of something else.

Rating

INACCURATE

This claim is inaccurate. While it is true that not everyone who was suspected of dying from COVID-19 was positively tested, it is legal and

Health

CLAIM: The death rate in Northern Ireland is no higher in 2020 than in previous years.

Rating

UNSUBSTANTIATED

This claim is not substantiated. The imprecision of “death rates” and “a bad flu season” makes it difficult to prove or disprove. However, the overall

Health

CLAIM: The UK Government downgraded COVID-19 from being classified as a high-consequence infectious disease (HCID).

Rating

ACCURATE WITH CONSIDERATION

COVID-19 was downgraded by the UK Government on 19 March 2020 because it was deemed to be better understood, testing was available, and clinical awareness

Explainer

|

Health

EXPLAINER: How complete are the abortion figures for Northern Ireland?

In 2019, available figures estimate that 4.4% of pregnancies of Northern Ireland residents ended in abortion. This compares to an estimated 24% of pregnancies in

Health

CLAIM: There is a greater chance of dying in a bus collision than by COVID-19.

Rating

INACCURATE

This claim is not accurate. The probability of a randomly selected resident of Great Britain dying from January to October 2020, with COVID-19 mentioned on

Health

|

Law

CLAIM: The PSNI are to pilot a Snapchat social media platform initiative to monitor social mitigation compliance in Northern Ireland.

Rating

INACCURATE

The PSNI have no plans to introduce any monitoring scheme on any social media platform. Complaints about social mitigation compliance can be registered on the

Economy

|

Health

|

Law

CLAIM: Social media posts are circulating showing supermarket shelves that have been covered over or taped off to prevent customers purchasing certain items. Reference is made to this happening in Belfast and Northern Ireland.

Rating

INACCURATE

At the time of writing, Wales is the only part of the UK that has restricted the sale of non-essential items in supermarkets. There is

Health

CLAIM: Wearing face masks can cause harmful levels of reduced oxygen.

Rating

INACCURATE

This claim is not accurate. Face masks have no impact on oxygen levels. On social media, a posting repeats a claim that wearing a face

Health

EXPLAINER about the three different types of COVID-19 statistics, their accuracy and timeliness

In summary: Three sets of figures regarding numbers of deaths attributed to COVID-19 are collated which crucially vary in their timeliness.  We now know that