by AFP | 23.Aug 2022 | Fact check
Multiple social media posts shared hundreds of times claim that the latest outbreak of monkeypox is only occurring in countries that have administered Pfizer-BioNTech’s Covid-19 vaccine. The posts go on to claim the World Health Organization (WHO) “has not received a single report” of monkeypox from countries not administering the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. Medical experts, however, told the AFP there is no evidence linking the virus, which has existed for decades, to the Covid vaccine. As of August 9, 2022, most countries that were administering the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine had not recorded cases of monkeypox. Conversely, several countries — including India, Russia and Venezuela — where the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine has not been distributed had reported monkeypox cases
by AFP | 16.Aug 2022 | Fact check
A video has been viewed more than one million times on social media alongside a claim it shows an exorcism at a NATO meeting. This is false. The footage shows a dance performance at a Belgium university in 2017. Both the university and the theatre group told AFP that the performance had nothing to do with NATO.
by AFP | 09.Aug 2022 | Fact check
Social media posts claim electric vehicle (EV) batteries would “completely die” in cold or hot weather. This is misleading; while extreme temperatures do negatively affect the performance of electric cars, they still run properly — and tests show battery life does last for hours.
by AFP | 02.Aug 2022 | Fact check
A graphic shared over a thousand times on Facebook claims the concentration of carbon dioxide (CO2) released by humans into Earth’s atmosphere is too small to cause climate change. This is misleading: the claim miscalculates the human input and scientists agree that CO2 has a big impact on the planet’s temperature. The level of CO2 in the atmosphere has grown sharply due to humans burning fossil fuels and is driving global heating.
by AFP | 26.Jul 2022 | Fact check
A photo of a littered street has been shared hundreds of times in multiple Dutch and Chinese social media posts that claim it shows the aftermath of a climate march in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, on June 19, 2022. However, the claim is false. The photo was taken in Amsterdam outside the Johan Cruyff Arena, before a performance by US singer Billie Eilish on June 18 at the adjacent Ziggo Dome.
by AFP | 19.Jul 2022 | Fact check
A video of a railway track being removed has been viewed hundreds of thousands of times after it circulated in posts that claim it shows Lithuania cutting off transit with a Russian exclave after the EU sanctioned certain goods in response to Russia’s invasion of neighbouring Ukraine in 2022. Although Lithuania did follow the EU sanctions in blocking certain goods to Kaliningrad, the video has been shared in a false context. It was uploaded in a 2017 post about railway repairs in Estonia, years before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Keyword searches found no official reports about Lithuania removing the railway track.
