Skeptics Stack Exchange
Skeptics Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [covid-19]

For questions regarding the coronavirus disease and its causes called COVID-19 by the World Health Organisation (WHO). The WHO say the disease is caused by a virus that is itself called SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2) but also known as the 2019 Novel Coronavirus, 2019-nCov, the Wuhan Coronavirus and "the Corona virus".

For more information about the outbreak see Wikipedia. For more information about the naming, see the WHO Technical Guidance.

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Do COVID-19 vaccines cause two deaths for every three deaths they prevent?

There is this new study that came out, alleging, that COVID-19 vaccines cause two deaths for every three deaths they prevent, which sounds pretty bad. I was wondering how valid this analysis is and what other view points exist on the…
user1721135
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Did Donald Trump fire the entire pandemic response team in 2018?

This tweet claims Trump "fired the entire pandemic response team in 2018": Text: Just a reminder: it’s okay to blame the president for how bad things get with COVID-19 because he fired the entire pandemic response team in 2018. While another…
Say No To Censorship
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Does drinking diluted chlorine dioxide protect against COVID-19?

I read a bit about drinking diluted chlorine dioxide (e.g. 12mg/L) as a supposedly protective means against COVID-19. Apparently it is a widespread belief in Latin America, especially on social media, that this is a good alternative to getting…
oskros
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Has the US COVID-19 lockdown resulted in more years of life lost than COVID-19 itself?

Published in The Hill on May 25, 2020, an opinion piece by Scott W. Atlas, John R. Birge, Ralph L. Keeney, and Alexander Lipton claims that as of the time of writing, in the United States, COVID-19 was responsible for 800,000 lost years of life, but…
Charlie Crown
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Did COVID-19 take the lives of 3,100 Americans in a single day, making it the third deadliest day in American history?

This image is doing the rounds on Facebook: The image reads: Yes, people die everyday. Yes we know it's not you because you are reading this. Cancer takes approx. 1,600 Americans a day. Heart events take approx. 1,800 Americans a day. Suicides…
dsollen
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Did the Black Lives Matter protests fail to cause a spike in coronavirus cases?

Multiple reputable news organizations have been reporting on a study suggesting the 2020 "Black Lives Matter protests" did not contribute to the increase of the Covid-19 pandemic. Some have even suggested that it may have slowed down the spread of…
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Does a COVID-19 test in USA cost consumers more than $US3000?

Yesterday a famous Italian singer, Vasco Rossi, posted on Instagram saying that confirmed COVID-19 cases in USA are low because very few people are checked due to the test costing $3,200. (In Italy, the National Healthcare network is testing every…
Zucch
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Do the majority of doctors in the USA support hydroxychloroquine use for covid-19?

The Claim Scott Adams recently made the claim that the majority of doctors in the USA support the use of hydroxychloroquine. Normally a cartoonist's podcast would not be a notable source for a claim, so it is worth reviewing the background. Context…
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Were COVID-19 patients in Wuhan welded into their apartments to enforce the lockdown?

The Sun ran an article in Feburary 2020 covering viral social media videos purportedly showing citizens in Wuhan having their apartment doors welded shut during the COVID-19 lockdown. The wording of the article implies (without fully stating) that…
Aaron Rotenberg
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Is the COVID-19 vaccine 50 times more likely to kill young people than COVID-19 itself?

Michael Yeadon, a former vice president at Pfizer and lately known as, e.g., making unsubstantiated claims about COVID vaccinations, has made the claim in question in a video interview (archived version available here). Specifically, in the…
Kiro
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Did the WHO deliberately skip the letters Xi and Nu when naming the latest COVID-19 variant Omicron?

A tweet claims WHO skipped a letter of the Greek alphabet when designating new COVID-19 variants to avoid using "xi". News of new Nu variant, but WHO is jumping the alphabet to call it Omicron, so they can avoid Xi. Is there any information why it…
Ruslan Oblov
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Did Russia release lions onto the streets to keep people in isolation?

I've seen the below image circulating on Facebook: (source: pressablecdn.com) They are claiming lions are being used to keep Russians indoors during the Coronavirus pandemic.
Lio Elbammalf
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Do doctors "get more money if somebody dies from Covid”?

Source (one of many). At a rally in Michigan on Friday (Oct 30th, 2020), President Trump repeated an extraordinary and unfounded claim that American doctors were profiteering from coronavirus deaths. “You know our doctors get more money if somebody…
Mawg says reinstate Monica
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Do studies show that viruses are contagious?

An acquaintance of mine has been very adamant that viruses can't be caught and continues to link me things like this Ickonic video, where Jaymie Icke interviews Dr. Andrew Kaufman M.D. who claims: I lived my whole life believing we can pass these…
TheXenocide
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Did the Wuhan Institute of Virology engage in coronavirus gain-of-function research?

Hannity said on Foxnews: The Wuhan facility was experimenting with gain of function with coronaviruses NewsMedical defines the term "gain of function research" as: Gain-of-function research refers to the serial passaging of microorganisms to…
Christian
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