Daily Debunk
Claim: The West Virginia government is giving away a number of free guns through a series of lucky draws in a lottery for people who have received at least one COVID-19 vaccine shot.
Verdict: True
Read the full story at: Snopes
Social Media Disinfo
Circulating on social media: Claim that vaccination efforts against COVID-19 have caused new COVID-19 variants.
Verdict: False
Read the full story at: Reuters
Factual Reads on Coronavirus
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
A scientist adventurer and China’s ‘Bat Woman’ are under scrutiny as coronavirus lab-leak theory gets another look
The silencing of scientists, the blanket denials, the careful guarding of raw data and biological samples — these elements have been emblematic of the approach by Chinese authorities at every stage of the coronavirus outbreak. And they continue to obstruct the world’s ability to get answers.
-- Washington Post, June 3
Why Deadly ‘Black Fungus’ Is Ravaging COVID Patients in India
Standard treatments such as steroids, as well as illnesses such as diabetes, make the fungal infection worse.
-- Scientific American, May 28
As Covid dissipates in the U.S., cold and flu viruses may return with a vengeance
Some experts fear we’re in for a nasty cold-and-flu season or two, pointing to a combination of factors that could make for a rough re-entry to the mixed microbes world.
-- Stat, May 27
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
New report of illnesses at Wuhan lab raises questions about origins of COVID-19
Three researchers from China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology became sick enough in November 2019 that they sought hospital care, according to a previously undisclosed U.S. intelligence report that could add weight to growing calls for a fuller probe of whether the COVID-19 virus may have escaped from the laboratory.
-- Wall Street Journal (via MarketWatch), May 23
Why is the world’s largest COVID-19 vaccine campaign faltering?
India’s COVID-19 surge has become a tsunami, with hospitals overwhelmed and funeral pyres burning throughout the nights. Yet the country’s vaccination campaign is languishing, with less than 3% of Indians fully vaccinated as of 16 May.
-- Science, May 19
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
A Misleading C.D.C. Number
When the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released new guidelines last month for mask wearing, it announced that “less than 10 percent” of Covid-19 transmission was occurring outdoors. ... [T]he number is almost certainly misleading.
-- New York Times, May 11
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