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.

261 questions
51
votes
4 answers

Have more deaths occurred after Covid-19 vaccines than from vaccine injuries in the previous 15 years in total?

Health Impact News claims that many people are dying of COVID-19 vaccine injuries. Side by side comparison of 15 years of recorded vaccine injuries and deaths vs. 4 months of recorded COVID vaccine injuries and deaths.[...] It says that more…
user1721135
  • 2,706
  • 4
  • 17
  • 24
50
votes
6 answers

Does the third dose of a COVID-19 vaccine "boost antibody levels"?

On June 30, 2021, the Turkey Health Ministry announced the availability of a 3rd dose of the COVID-19 vaccine for certain categories of people (namely, medical workers and those older than 50). The announcement says: Third doses are recommended…
Be Brave Be Like Ukraine
  • 2,329
  • 2
  • 21
  • 30
50
votes
2 answers

Are unusually many people dying after being vaccinated for COVID-19?

On May 6, 2021, Fox News host Tucker Carlson said: We all assume the risks are negligible. Vaccines aren’t dangerous...Every flu season, we give influenza shots to more than 160 million Americans. Every year, a relatively small number of people…
Paul Draper
  • 6,717
  • 4
  • 37
  • 49
50
votes
3 answers

As of August 2020, was the weekly mortality rate in the US the lowest in a decade and the second lowest in the 21st century so far?

There is an article, that has been circulating the past two days, entitled: Is There a Pandemic? In the abstract the author gives her method: However, only 32 weeks have elapsed in 2020. For each previous year, 52 weeks have already elapsed. How…
Mou某
  • 1,985
  • 4
  • 16
  • 21
48
votes
1 answer

Was Donald Trump treated with pharmaceuticals derived from fetal stem cells?

A post on www.twitter.com [link] has garnered over 100K retweets and 345K likes which states: So it turns out the monoclonal antibodies that Trump is on are from fetal stem cells. So Trump is being treated/saved with dead babies. Republicans? Amy…
Phoenix
  • 2,077
  • 5
  • 16
  • 20
47
votes
1 answer

Did the CDC say the RT-PCR test cannot distinguish between SARS-CoV-2 and influenza viruses?

American economist and author Paul Craig Roberts wrote in a blog article, CDC Admits that the Covid Pandemic Was the Product of an Inappropriate Test: Quietly without media attention, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has…
Martín-Blas Pérez Pinilla
  • 1,911
  • 1
  • 17
  • 23
47
votes
2 answers

As of May 2020, are there twice as many deaths from Covid-19 in New York City as there are on a usual day from all other causes combined?

From CNN Dr. Tom Frieden, the former director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, laid out "10 plain truths" about Covid-19 on Wednesday as he spoke at a House Appropriations Committee hearing on the pandemic response. [...] "Even…
Fizz
  • 57,051
  • 18
  • 175
  • 291
47
votes
8 answers

Is COVID-19 more dangerous than typical annual coronavirus variants?

I have heard many people claim in private that COVID-19 is not worse than flu and that the reaction is overblown. As a poster-child example of this, I want to analyze the claims made by the German pulmonologist Dr. Wolfgang Wodarg in this video.…
Nobody moving away from SE
  • 869
  • 1
  • 7
  • 10
44
votes
1 answer

Is vodka (or alcohol solutions with less than 60% concentration) an effective hand sanitizer against Covid-19?

There has been a lot of insistence in some quarters that hand sanitizers need to have > 60% alcohol contents, even against the new coronavirus and so that e.g. vodka (which typically has lower concentration) would not be effective, e.g. Almost as…
Fizz
  • 57,051
  • 18
  • 175
  • 291
41
votes
6 answers

Are the mRNA vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna vegan?

The mRNA vaccines from both Pfizer and Moderna contain cholesterol. On the website for the UK National Health System NHS we may read: The COVID-19 vaccines do not contain egg or animal products. Another report indicates it contains no…
LangLаngС
  • 44,005
  • 14
  • 173
  • 172
41
votes
3 answers

Is the flu more deadly than COVID-19 for children?

Dr. Jay Bhattacharya was quoted in this recent Foundation for Economic Education article: In a debate last week with pro-lockdown Harvard epidemiologist, Marc Lipsitch, Dr. Bhattacharya acknowledged that COVID-19 “is an absolutely deadly disease…
Graviton
  • 3,359
  • 4
  • 27
  • 41
41
votes
3 answers

Did French police fine homeless persons for not being confined at home?

As mentioned in this question, in France, people need to stay at home, and carry the paper if not. The paper will basically explain why we are briefly outside home and that should avoid us being fined. It has been reported on social media that…
Bebs V
  • 521
  • 1
  • 5
  • 8
40
votes
1 answer

Is asymptomatic spread of SARS-CoV-2 rare?

On 2020-06-08, Maria Van Kerkhove (WHO COVID-19 technical lead) stated: From the data we have, it still seems to be rare that an asymptomatic person actually transmits onward to a secondary individual. We have a number of reports from countries who…
user55766
40
votes
7 answers

Are deaths of patients with, but not because of, COVID-19 recorded as COVID-19 deaths in the USA?

A long Mises Institute article questions the US COVID-19 metrics. It ends with this claim, quoted from a Daily Caller reporter's Twitter feed: Here is Dr. Birx saying that the government is recording anyone who dies with coronavirus in the United…
Fizz
  • 57,051
  • 18
  • 175
  • 291
40
votes
5 answers

Has the number of pneumonia deaths in the US dramatically dropped in 2020?

A widely-commented upon post on reddit claims that pneumonia deaths in the US have "fallen off a cliff this year": In the conversation I saw several links to CDC data, but they are unclear overviews. The diagram includes a link to the raw data…
FluidCode
  • 740
  • 1
  • 5
  • 10
1
2
3
…
17 18