Photo of Meryl Streep on the subway is not after King Kong audition
This picture was taken five years after King Kong came out, when Ms Streep was already a successful actress. Read
Fact checks
Leo Benedictus
Journalist
Leo joined Full Fact in January 2020. For 15 years, he worked freelance as a feature writer for the Guardian, Prospect, the New Scientist and others, making maps of immigration, explaining citizens’ assemblies and debunking superfoods. He has a fondness for science and statistics. He also writes novels.
Health
NHS video overstates the risk of Covid-19 to children
A doctor in the video said that one in 100 children with Covid-19 get sick enough to go to hospital. The real risk is probably a fraction of that. Read
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GP’s article overstates the number of Covid-19 deaths in children
An estimate of at least 133 deaths includes 18- and 19-year-olds, and some which may have had a different underlying cause. Read
Fact checks
Higher number of reported Covid-19 deaths down to backlog
The unusually high number came from a backlog in the death reporting system. The average number of daily Covid-19 deaths is currently around 243 and falling. Read
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A surgeon made several incorrect claims about Covid-19 vaccine on GB News
Ahmad Malik has misused various different sources to falsely suggest that the vaccines are dangerous. Read
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Covid-19 vaccines don’t make you a ‘ticking time bomb’
There is no evidence that they cause cancer. In very rare cases, there is a link to blood clots, but the benefits of vaccination generally far outweigh the risks. Read
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An Instagram post underestimates Covid-19 deaths among younger people
Just over 17,000 people under 65 died of the disease in England and Wales, up to the end of November 2021. Read
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The Covid-19 vaccines don’t have ‘negative efficacy’
Data from the UKHSA vaccine surveillance report cannot be used to estimate effectiveness correctly—as the report itself makes clear many times. Read
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A Covid-19 patient on BBC News is not a ‘crisis actor’
He was genuinely ill at the time of the interview, and later added the words “crisis actor” to his Instagram profile as a joke. Read
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Health
Boris Johnson misspoke about unvaccinated people in ICU
Around 90% of Covid ICU admissions have not received a booster, but only about 61% are not vaccinated at all. Read
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