Health
Reopening universities will almost certainly not cause 50,000 deaths
This assumes that every student in the UK catches Covid-19 this autumn, and that nothing is done to stop it 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.
Figures for people seeking asylum in hotels and veterans sleeping rough are both wrong
It’s not true that 48,000 “illegals” are housed in hotels, and estimates of 6,000 veterans sleeping rough are likely to be too high. Read
Fact checks
Health
Flu isn’t the underlying cause of death for more people than Covid-19
Figures from the Office for National Statistics are being widely misunderstood. Flu isn’t the underlying cause of death for more people than Covid-19 at the moment, but pneumonia probably is. Read
Fact checks
Health
One in six may refuse the Covid-19 vaccine
New research suggests that people were not confused by the wording of a survey last summer Read
Fact checks
Health
We do not test 330,000 people a day for Covid-19
The true number of people tested for Covid-19 each day, under the Test and Trace programme for England, is about 52,000 Read
Fact checks
Health
Ordinary face masks are not harmful
Mask wearing is not harmful for most people, apart from rare instances involving tight-fitting N95 respirators. Read
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Crime
Many children have been the victims of grooming gangs, but there’s no evidence for a figure of one million
We can’t objectively compare the public response to grooming gangs with Black Lives Matter Read
Fact checks
Health
Layla Moran’s child malnutrition figures are wrong
Three hospitals say they had far fewer child malnutrition admissions than was reported. Other questions remain unresolved. Read
Fact checks
Mark Francois did not deny that there is a gender pay gap
This quote appears to be a fabrication. Read
Fact checks
Pressing ‘cancel’ does not prevent cash machine fraud
It is a common myth that pressing cancel before using a cash machine will prevent fraud Read
Fact checks
