Questions tagged [public-health]

Use this tag for questions about the health of people on a community or population level. Do not use this tag for questions about the health of individuals or biological mechanisms.

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4 votes
0 answers
314 views

Are fat people who intentionally lose weight at a greater risk of dying from cardiovascular disease?

The Health at Any Size movement, which promotes "body positivity" and de-emphasizes body weight and obesity (among other things), claims that intentionally losing weight increases risk of ...
42 votes
2 answers
5k views

Has the time available to escape a house fire decreased significantly due to "modern furniture"?

The Facebook page QI - Quite Interesting has approximately 390 thousand followers. It posted a claim in December 2022 about the time available to escape a house on fire. It claims a dramatic decrease ...
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7 votes
1 answer
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Has PrEP caused a decrease in condom use amongst men who have sex with men?

In this article of the Financial Times, the existence of a sexual health crisis is reported. Here is a statement from the article: But others say condom use has fallen sharply among high-risk groups, ...
25 votes
3 answers
8k views

Is gonorrhea "on the brink of becoming untreatable"?

In this article of the Financial Times about a "sexual health crisis" in the US, the following claim is made: The study showed doxycycline was less effective for preventing gonorrhoea, ...
6 votes
1 answer
458 views

Is the number of syphilis cases in the US the highest in 70 years?

In this article of the Financial Times about a "sexual health crisis" in the US, the following claim is made: The number of syphilis cases in the US jumped more than a quarter last year to ...
3 votes
2 answers
812 views

Do 1 in 4 of us experience mental health problems each year?

I have seen this quote before but today I received an internal company email with this quote. The ratio is also cited on page 7 of this 2014 report by Boris Johnson, then Mayor of London: In any ...
26 votes
3 answers
13k views

Has there been a 1101% increase in excess deaths among children aged 0-14 across Europe in 2022?

According to the blogger Peter Sweden: If we take a look at the excess deaths among children aged 0-14 across Europe, there has been a HORRIFYING 1101% increase in excess deaths so far this year ...
8 votes
0 answers
658 views

Does the Swiss law say that international health law supercedes national law?

In this video, starting at about 28:40, Dr. Astrid Stuckelberger says Even the constitution of Switzerland there is a little line they have added without asking us, which says that international law ...
31 votes
2 answers
11k views

Did Henry Kissinger say this about forced vaccinations?

I found a quote online in the form of a photo from what looks like some newspaper: The photo contains an alleged quote from Henry Kissinger's speech to the WHO Council on Eugenics on February 25, ...
8 votes
1 answer
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Is COVID-vaccine-caused myocarditis milder than myocarditis in general?

Dr. Robert Malone is an American immunologist and virologist who has made controversial claims about the COVID-19 vaccines. He was interviewed on the Joe Rogan podcast, in an interview that was (...
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12 votes
1 answer
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Do we unknowingly eat 5 grams of plastic per week?

I just saw a DW (Deutsche Welle the German public state own international broadcaster) short documentary on You-Tube named "How to avoid micro plastic in your food" and is about how much ...
4 votes
0 answers
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Does playing slower music in gyms reduce the risk of COVID-19 infections?

I read (mirror 1, mirror 2) that South Korean authorites have introduced some rules to enforce slower (in terms of BPM) music in gyms to reduce the risk of COVID-19 infections: Music with more than ...
6 votes
1 answer
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Did NIH ask the EcoHealth Alliance to provide information about the “apparent disappearance” of a Wuhan Institute of Virology researcher?

In a long story in Vanity Fair that has some interesting twists it's claimed at one point that At a White House COVID-19 press briefing on April 17, 2020, a reporter from the conspiratorial right-...
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-1 votes
1 answer
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Is soybean oil the most hazardous oil? [closed]

The 2 minute video by Dr Berg states that soya oil is the most hazardous oil and most hazardous soya product. Does this also apy to raw soya oil in canned tun? https://www.google.com/search?q=Dr+berg+...
9 votes
1 answer
480 views

Did Oxford University pledge to make its vaccine open license?

There are numerous news stories circulating that claim that before signing an exclusive deal with AstraZeneca to manufacture their COVID-19 vaccine, they had previously pledged to donate the license ...
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4 votes
3 answers
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Is Lyme disease a global pandemic?

Avril Lavigne posted a video on Facebook featuring some celebrities talking about Lyme Disease. At the 0:13 mark, American singer/song-writer, Bebe Rexha, claims: Lyme disease is a global pandemic, ...
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4 votes
0 answers
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Are the lockdown methods implemented for COVID-19 unprecedented? [closed]

The The Great Barrington Declaration and it's FAQ make several claims that fly in the face of our approach to this pandemic. The declaration, when read in it's entirety, states lockdowns are not a ...
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17 votes
1 answer
829 views

Is there a dramatic decrease in the number of diagnoses of noninfectious diseases?

According to an article in the Swiss newspaper Tagesanzeiger, the CEO of Novartis (one of the world's largest pharmaceutical companies) stated in a phone conference on quarterly financials that "...
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6 votes
1 answer
569 views

Do heavier people need to drink more water?

A 2013 article by Yuri Elkaim, a holistic nutritionist, in the health section of U.S. News & World Report says: if you weigh 200 pounds [90 kg], you would need 100 ounces [3 l] of water per day ...
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9 votes
1 answer
375 views

Was Dr. Birx personally responsible for the decision to change the COVID-19 data reporting from the CDC to the HHS?

An opinion piece about Dr. Birx published on CNN says: Unfortunately, in my view, she truly has made a real hash out of the entire effort, with a series of poor decisions -- changing hospital data ...
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6 votes
0 answers
227 views

Did several countries have very low Coronavirus deaths thanks to inhaled steroids?

A West Texas physician named Richard Bartlett has been making the rounds on social media, claiming that Taiwan, Japan and Iceland have been using inhaled steroids such as budesonide to treat ...
4 votes
0 answers
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Does milk worsen the amount of mucus in the lungs for Cystic Fibrosis?

For those that are not aware, Cystic Fibrosis is a genetic disorder that affects cardic and digestive ability by damaging internal organs such as the liver and stomach (by removing the ability to ...
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110 votes
2 answers
20k views

Do facemasks cause CO2 poisoning?

I came across this video on BitChute purporting to test the CO2 levels of what appears to be a KN95 (a Non-NIOSH Approved Respirator) whilst the mask is in use. The video shows a device displaying CO2 ...
53 votes
2 answers
11k views

Does Lincoln County, Oregon require only white people to wear masks?

According to the New York Post: Oregon county issues face mask order that exempts non-white people Lincoln County, Oregon, has exempted non-white people from a new order requiring that face coverings ...
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4 votes
0 answers
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Did the US Federal government take 3 months from the warning its BARDA chief to require more production of N95 masks?

This exchange from a Congressional hearing was mentioned on Twitter and cited by some news Q: "It took 3 months from your initial warnings...for the federal government to...require the ...
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43 votes
1 answer
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Did the Trump administration propose new cuts to the health budget in February 2020?

As quoted in an interview: Chomsky described the Trump administration’s approach to the problem as “surreal.” “So in February, the pandemic is already raging. Everyone outside the United States ...
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4 votes
2 answers
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Are there artificially created viruses that are both deadly like Ebola and transmissible like the common cold?

A popular YouTube personality, Dr. John Campbell, a retired nurse teacher, makes a claim in a May 4th video around the 4m27s mark: Now let's be quite clear. No-one is saying [SARS-CoV-2] is a ...
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7 votes
0 answers
522 views

Is there "almost no science" behind social/physical distancing to fight the spread of an epidemic?

On the UnHerd youtube channel, they interviewed "Swedish expert Prof. Johan Giesecke" who said (around 3 minutes in) that while there's science behind hand washing to prevent the spread of disease, ...
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15 votes
1 answer
701 views

Did health authorities receive a significant number of calls about the use of disinfectants (or drinking bleach) after president Trump mentioned it?

Fox News reported on one hand that public health agencies (in Los Angeles and Maryland) were "inundated" with calls about "drinking bleach" after Trump discussed disinfectants in re Covid-19, but a ...
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1 vote
1 answer
165 views

Are wild animals more dangerous to us zoonosis-wise, than domesticated animals?

A Vox article says: Many people conflate all these under the heading “wet market.” But there are gradations here, and they represent different levels of risk for zoonotic diseases (those ...
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28 votes
2 answers
6k views

Did the WHO have evidence of significant human-to-human transmission of SARS-CoV-2 prior to January 14, 2020?

On January 5th 2020, the World Health Organisation published a "Disease Outbreak News" article about a disease that was later to be called COVID-19. It states: Based on the preliminary ...
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4 votes
1 answer
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Do young people with no previous pathologies, end up admitted with bilateral pneumonia and serious breathing difficulties due Covid-19?

In this link https://actualidad.rt.com/actualidad/347806-fuese-segunda-guerra-mundial-doctora (Spanish) which also contains the YouTube video (where she says basically all of the text mentioned in the ...
18 votes
1 answer
5k views

Were international travellers kept waiting in densely packed queues at US airports due to COVID-19 screenings?

There are several claims online that international travelers returning from Europe were kept waiting in densely packed queues at JKF and O'Hare airports, due to COVID-19 screenings, on the weekend of ...
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0 votes
1 answer
1k views

Why is the estimated fatality rate of the 2019-nCoV virus so low?

I have seen multiple sources claiming that the fatality rate of the 2019-nCoV virus is around 2% to 10%. At the same time, as of February 3rd 2020, 362 patients were reported to have died from the ...
7 votes
0 answers
272 views

Do some people take several weeks to adjust to the spring DST clock change?

In this proposal on the European Parliament website about Daylight Savings Time (DST), it is claimed that (emphasis mine): Some studies indicate that summer-time arrangements could ...
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2 votes
1 answer
261 views

Did UNAIDS and the CDC recommend circumcision for African countries?

In this article in the Israeli daily, Ha'aretz (Hebrew; may be paywalled), Prof' Bentowicz, head of the Center for Tropical Diseases and AIDS in the faculty of Health Science in the Ben-Gurion ...
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55 votes
1 answer
10k views

Was a four year-old forced to sleep on the floor of Leeds General Infirmary?

I'm referring to this article, where a four year old with suspected pneumonia was, due to overcrowding after the NHS cuts, forced to sleep on the floor of the hospital. Numerous Twitter accounts, all ...
3 votes
0 answers
269 views

Is plant-based food healthier for humans than animal-based food? [duplicate]

The website attached to the film "The Game Changers" says: The preponderance of scientific evidence suggests that a standard animal-based diet — where foods like meat, eggs and dairy are at the ...
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7 votes
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Is climate change already killing people and costing billions in the USA?

According to Gizmodo: Climate change will make our lives worse in the years to come, but a new report out last week highlights the stark costs people are already paying across the Atlantic. In 2012 ...
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11 votes
1 answer
736 views

Do obese adults use 42% more health care than healthy-weight adults?

In a New York Post Opinion piece the following claim was made: An obese adult uses 42 percent more health care than a healthy-weight adult, and a morbidly obese adult uses a staggering 81 percent ...
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1 vote
3 answers
713 views

Have few, if any, studies on the health effects of particulate air pollution measured the actual exposure to particulates?

Air pollution is a major health concern worldwide. One of the major problems is the emissions caused by traffic such as nitrogen dioxide and the small particulates known as PM 2.5 (which are very ...
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50 votes
2 answers
12k views

Do ibuprofen or paracetamol cause hearing loss?

This 2016 Express article gives a rather disturbing warning that two common pain killers might cause the risk of hearing loss. PARACETAMOL or ibuprofen could cause long-term deafness, experts have ...
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6 votes
2 answers
681 views

Did a series of PSAs about surveillance culture lead to schools in New Mexico getting Ritalin eliminated as a behavior-modifying drug?

I was reading up on Godfrey Reggio’s film, Koyaanisqatsi (1982) when I came across this claim on Wikipedia regarding some PSAs (public service announcements) he made for the ACLU in New Mexico in the ...
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12 votes
3 answers
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Do humans need high-protein foods?

Dr. John McDougall writes: People commonly believe: the more protein consumed the better. This faulty thinking dates back to the late 1800s, and was established without any real scientific ...
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12 votes
1 answer
5k views

Do people with ADHD have a college graduation rate of 5%?

I have been seeing people on social media say that the college/university graduation rate of people with ADHD is around only 5%. According to this Medscape article, ADHD: Recent Advances in ...
4 votes
2 answers
930 views

Does bodybuilding at early age stunt growth?

Can excessive bodybuilding at an early age inhibit or stop growth (height increase)? I am getting mixed answers; some say several selective exercises can do so and some say it is not a problem at all. ...
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20 votes
5 answers
3k views

Is food becoming less nutritious because of depletion of soil minerals and nutrients?

Over and over, I have heard and read claims that the soil growing much of the planet's crops is "depleted" and thus our foods do not have sufficient minerals, vitamins, and other nutrients. Five ...
6 votes
1 answer
1k views

Do ice cubes with holes in them come from a purified water source?

Water in generally considered unsafe to drink in a number of South American countries, for example Ecuador. Even locals regularly buy bottled water. Ice also risks transmitting the contaminants. ...
16 votes
2 answers
2k views

Is the rate of food poisoning in the USA much worse than the rate in the UK?

One part of the interminable debate in the UK about leaving the EU has been a debate about what the UK would have to agree to if they do trade deals with other countries. In an interview with BBC ...
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8 votes
2 answers
2k views

Have the UK official alcohol limits been reduced to a quarter of the levels recommended in 1979?

Before answering the question of whether we can trust health advice we must first ask: ‘Which health advice?’ It varies so much over time and between countries. In 1979, the government advised men to ...
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