Coronavirus: The Infodemic - April 1

Daily Debunk Claim: The large-scale Covid-19 vaccination drives currently underway around the world should cease before they produce the catastrophic appearance of more deadly variants of the coronavirus and increased risk for younger people. Verdict: False Read the full story at: Agence France-Presse Social Media Disinfo Circulating on social media: Claim that it’s safer to skip the COVID-19 vaccine to avoid permanent side effects. Verdict: False Read the full story at: PolitiFact Factual Reads on Coronavirus COVID Antibodies May Last Days to Years, Depending on Severity of Infection Antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 are likely to wane at different rates depending on the severity of the infection, new research suggests. -- Reuters Health Information, via Medscape, March 31 Moderna and Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines may block infection as well as disease Studies suggest fully vaccinated people pose a low risk for transmitting the coronavirus. -- ScienceNews, March 30 A rare clotting disorder may cloud the world's hopes for AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine [T]he vaccine faces new concerns about safety as an explanation gains ground for the unusual strokes and clotting disorders recorded in at least 30 recipients. -- Science, March 27 The Coronavirus Variants Don't Seem to Be Highly Variable So Far SARS-CoV-2 may be settling into a limited set of mutations. -- Scientific American, March 24 U.S. health body questions AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine trial data AstraZeneca may have released outdated information on its latest COVID-19 vaccine trial, giving an “incomplete” picture of its efficacy, a leading U.S. health agency said on Tuesday, casting doubt on the shot’s potential U.S. rollout and plunging its developers, once again, into controversy. -- Reuters, March 23 AstraZeneca: US data shows vaccine effective for all ages AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine provided strong protection against sickness and eliminated hospitalizations and deaths from the disease across all age groups in a late-stage study in the United States, the company announced Monday. -- Associated Press, March 22 One Year In: How COVID's Toll Compares With Other Causes of Death Covid has become the country’s third-leading cause of death, and could be on its way to outpacing cancer. -- PolitiFact, via Kaiser Health News, March 11 Five-Day Course of Oral Antiviral Appears to Stop SARS-CoV-2 in Its Tracks A single pill of the investigational drug molnupiravir taken twice a day for 5 days eliminated SARS-CoV-2 from the nasopharynx of 49 participants. -- Medscape, March 8 The Impact of COVID-19 on Pediatric Mental Health: A Study of Private Healthcare Claims The COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound impact on mental health, particularly on that of young people. -- FAIR Health, March 2 The Best Coronavirus Myth-Busting Collections   HealthCheck COVID19 Infodemics Observatory Agence France Presse Snopes BuzzFeed Factcheck.org Associated Press Washington Post TruthOrFiction Mapping COVID-19 Casualties   Reliable Coronavirus Information World Health Organization U.S. Centers for Disease Control Federation of American Scientists Emergency Physicians Johns Hopkins University & Medicine​ Pan American Health Organization Google COVID‑19 Information & Resources