Daily Debunk
Claim: COVID-19 vaccines’ spike protein is toxic or ‘cytotoxic’.
Verdict: False
Read the full story at: PolitiFact
Social Media Disinfo
Circulating on social media: Claim that Johns Hopkins University has confirmed you can be vaccinated with a PCR test, even without knowing.
Verdict: False
Read the full story at: Reuters
Factual Reads on Coronavirus
Former CDC director Redfield explains why he believes COVID-19 emerged from lab, WHO 'compromised'
Redfield argued COVID-19's efficient human-to-human spread contradicted behavior of other deadly coronaviruses with similar profiles.
-- Fox News, June 15
A Top Virologist in China, at Center of a Pandemic Storm, Speaks Out
The virologist, Shi Zhengli, said in a rare interview that speculation about her lab in Wuhan was baseless. But China’s habitual secrecy makes her claims hard to validate.
-- New York Times (via Todayonline.com), June 14
WHO Chief Urges China to Cooperate With Probe Into Covid-19 Origins
Group of Seven leaders conferring at summit in England discussed causes of the global pandemic.
-- Wall Street Journal (via Mint), June 12
Why India’s Second COVID Surge Is So Much Worse Than the First
Large gatherings and much more lenient restrictions have allowed the virus to spread at devastating levels.
-- Scientific American, June 9
The Science Suggests a Wuhan Lab Leak
The Covid-19 pathogen has a genetic footprint that has never been observed in a natural coronavirus.
-- Wall Street Journal (via BizNews), June 6
We may never know where the virus came from. But evidence still suggests nature.
Labs like the one in Wuhan are essential to preparing for future pandemics.
-- Washington Post, June 4
The Lab-Leak Theory: Inside the Fight to Uncover COVID-19’s Origins
Throughout 2020, the notion that the novel coronavirus leaked from a lab was off-limits. Those who dared to push for transparency say toxic politics and hidden agendas kept us in the dark.
-- Vanity Fair, June 3
Good news: Mild COVID-19 induces lasting antibody protection
People who have had mild illness develop antibody-producing cells that can last lifetime.
-- Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, May 24
Investigate the origins of COVID-19
As scientists with relevant expertise, we agree with the WHO director-general, the United States and 13 other countries, and the European Union that greater clarity about the origins of this pandemic is necessary and feasible to achieve.
-- Science, May 14
The origin of COVID: Did people or nature open Pandora’s box at Wuhan?
Neither the natural emergence nor the lab escape hypothesis can yet be ruled out. There is still no direct evidence for either. So no definitive conclusion can be reached. That said, the available evidence leans more strongly in one direction than the other.
-- Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, May 5
The Best Coronavirus Myth-Busting Collections
COVID19 Infodemics Observatory
Reliable Coronavirus Information
U.S. Centers for Disease Control
Federation of American Scientists
Johns Hopkins University & Medicine