227
votes
Accepted
Do facemasks cause CO2 poisoning?
This is the meter used in the video:
Note that the sensor is situated at the top, pointing upward. When the person in the video breathes out, the exhaled air will be directed into the sensor, but ...
- 5,550
117
votes
Accepted
Does the US spend more public money (i.e. tax/capita) on Health Care than other developed countries?
Based on data published by the OECD, the claim that the United States spend more public money on health resources than other developed countries is true. The figures given there for the 35 OECD member ...
- 9,539
103
votes
Accepted
Was a four year-old forced to sleep on the floor of Leeds General Infirmary?
The hospital says it happened:
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-leeds-50713236
The hospital apologised and said it had had its busiest week since 2016.
Dr Yvette Oade, chief medical officer at ...
90
votes
Accepted
Does Lincoln County, Oregon require only white people to wear masks?
Lincoln county has published this statement:
In this Directive there were several exceptions identified recognizing that not everyone could or should wear a face covering: ...
People of color who ...
- 2,147
90
votes
Accepted
Did Henry Kissinger say this about forced vaccinations?
No, there is no evidence this is an actual quote
Reuters has investigated this issue and came to conclusion:
Henry Kissinger’s speeches are archived on his website and only two are listed for 2009 ( ...
- 6,478
77
votes
Do ibuprofen or paracetamol cause hearing loss?
Yes.
That is: They can cause hearing loss. They are properly classified as ototoxic agents.
Paracetamol/Acetaminophen is certainly not entirely harmless. In fact it is properly classified as an ...
- 44k
70
votes
Accepted
Did the Trump administration propose new cuts to the health budget in February 2020?
The Trump budget in February proposed a 10% cut to Health and Human Services and specifically a 16% cut to the CDC (which is part of the HHS). From the Washington Post:
The 2021 budget request ...
- 676
69
votes
Does Lincoln County, Oregon require only white people to wear masks?
No, there is currently no such requirement or exception to that requirement. For one week the health guidelines related to masks in Lincoln County, OR included an exception for people of color who ...
- 11.4k
61
votes
Accepted
Is gonorrhea "on the brink of becoming untreatable"?
"Untreatable" in this context is used to mean "resistant to all available antibiotics".
Quotes from some recent reviews, editorials, and research papers:
Unemo, M., & Nicholas, ...
- 2,131
55
votes
Is austerity in the UK responsible for "120,000" extra deaths?
That new report (Effects of health and social care spending constraints on mortality in England: a time trend analysis) is absolutely in line of prior research. The mortality rises across the board ...
- 44k
54
votes
Were 25% of newly-infected HIV-positive gay men actively seeking infection in 2003?
The number originates from a Rolling Stone article titled Bug Chasers by Gregory Freeman:
Cabaj estimates that at least twenty-five percent of all newly infected gay men fall into that category.
...
tim♦
- 51.4k
48
votes
Does the US spend more public money (i.e. tax/capita) on Health Care than other developed countries?
The level of state funded healthcare spending in the USA is similar to the levels of spend in comparable countries despite not covering the majority of the population
Britain's Office of National ...
- 56.2k
42
votes
Accepted
Has there been a 1101% increase in excess deaths among children aged 0-14 across Europe in 2022?
"Caveat percentor"
You can DL the dataset from EuroMOMO and do the simple arithmetic yourself. (Sorry no direct link to the dataset seems possible; they use some AJAX or stuff like that.) It'...
- 57.1k
41
votes
Accepted
Did the WHO have evidence of significant human-to-human transmission of SARS-CoV-2 prior to January 14, 2020?
The answer to this is going to opinion based to some extent. The WHO like everyone else was largely dependent on China for information at that point. Here's for example what the ECDC reported/...
- 57.1k
40
votes
Has the time available to escape a house fire decreased significantly due to "modern furniture"?
This statement appears to be partially true.
The source of the claim is research conducted by Underwriters Laboratories. Underwriters Laboratories is approved by OSHA to perform safety testing, so ...
- 834
36
votes
Were many vaccine-preventable diseases almost gone before vaccines were introduced?
Cases of measles in the US, 1960-2001, CDC, via Science Based Medicine
"Measles Elimination in Canada", from Journal of Infectious Diseases (2004)
As you can see from the curve the number ...
- 2,354
34
votes
Does staying indoors protect you from wildfire smoke?
Yes, for some time.
Your home acts as gas-reservoir for a time.
International Energy Agency’s information centre on energy efficient ventilation. writes
Summary
Evacuation of people from their homes ...
- 6,478
33
votes
Accepted
Were many vaccine-preventable diseases almost gone before vaccines were introduced?
Summary:
The main point of these claims is that the death rate for some diseases was declining before vaccines. While that is true, it misses the fact that even though the death rate was declining, ...
- 30.2k
32
votes
Accepted
Are electronic cigarettes a healthier alternative to regular cigarettes?
Electronic cigarettes may not be harmless but they are clearly much less harmful than cigarettes
Public Health England (PHE) produced a review of e-cigs in the middle of 2015 which came to this ...
- 56.2k
29
votes
Accepted
Were international travellers kept waiting in densely packed queues at US airports due to COVID-19 screenings?
tl;dr: I have found plenty of references to unusually long lines, and a complete absence of "social distancing" in these lines. O'Hare Intl. Airport's Twitter account and The Washington Post ...
- 1,407
29
votes
Did Henry Kissinger say this about forced vaccinations?
This image is not of a newspaper. It is, rather bizarrely: a photo of a black-and-white printout, of a low-quality photo, of a glossy printout, of a screenshot, of a Facebook "meme" image ...
- 8,079
28
votes
Has there been a 1101% increase in excess deaths among children aged 0-14 across Europe in 2022?
These are the graphs for mortality from EuroMOMO which are the source for the claim as far as I can determine:
There is also this article fact checking the claims of the blogger: Viral claims are ...
- 43.7k
22
votes
Did France ban wifi in schools and daycares in 2015 because of health concerns?
EDIT: Used much more explicit reference to health concerns in the discussions made which led to the statute.
Has Wifi been banned in schools/daycares?
Wifi has only been banned in some cases, ...
- 2,344
21
votes
Accepted
Do hand dryers in public bathrooms spread bacteria?
Cleaning your hands
The UK NHS has a write up of a 2012 review of the evidence in Mayo Clinic Proceedings. They note that the papers reviewed reported different results, probably due to factors such ...
- 326
21
votes
Do ibuprofen or paracetamol cause hearing loss?
The referenced study is likely "Analgesic Use and the Risk of Hearing Loss in Women" in the American Journal of Epidemiology. The conclusion states
In conclusion, this prospective study ...
- 43.7k
20
votes
Accepted
Was a male birth control trial cancelled due to symptoms that were no worse than female birth control?
The study of male birth control is publicly available and lists the reasons for the cancellation:
[The decision to cancel] was based on RP2’s review of study AEs [adverse events] and conclusion that ...
tim♦
- 51.4k
20
votes
Accepted
Has the time available to escape a house fire decreased significantly due to "modern furniture"?
TLDR: Not quite accurate, since the canonical source was referring to furnishings, or all the possessions in a home not just furniture.
Understanding how the USA crafts fire-safety rules
This may seem ...
19
votes
Accepted
Is the USA “not even in the top 10 when one compares international death rates resulting from mass shootings”?
This NPR article puts it in perspective. Indeed, the US is not among the top gun-death countries in the world. However, when you look at the countries with higher death rates, you do not find any of ...
- 5,846
19
votes
Accepted
Is there a dramatic decrease in the number of diagnoses of noninfectious diseases?
That's true.
It is of course difficult to pinpoint any number for all diseases and all countries, but is not just an anecdotal observation from your local oncology section:
In France, "the delay ...
- 44k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible