Latest Stories By Daniel Funke

If you’ve been on social media in the past two days, there’s a good chance you’ve seen someone share “Plandemic: The Hidden Agenda Behind COVID-19,”  a 26-minute video about the coronavirus pandemic. The video is a deep dive into conspiracy theories about COVID-19, public health and the pharmaceutical industry. It discusses Dr. Anthony Fauci’s efforts […]

President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign is digging up old footage of Joe Biden’s past misstatements to make a point about the presumptive Democratic nominee’s current accuracy. On May 5, Brad Parscale, Trump’s 2020 campaign manager, published a video on Facebook that includes an old clip of Biden talking with voters about his academic record. It’s […]

Companies that make cleaning products, state agencies and public health experts are warning Americans not to ingest disinfectants to treat the coronavirus after President Donald Trump floated the idea. During the April 23 White House coronavirus briefing, William Bryan, undersecretary for science and technology at the Department of Homeland Security, outlined a new DHS study […]

President Donald Trump is walking back what he said during an April 23 coronavirus press briefing about using disinfectants to treat COVID-19 patients.  “I was asking a very sarcastic question to the reporters in the room about disinfectant on the inside,” he said during a briefing in the Oval Office on April 24. “But it […]

Since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, theories have swirled online about its source. Many early posts claimed the virus originated in a Chinese lab as a bioweapon. PolitiFact and other fact-checkers debunked those conspiracies. Now, there is new reporting that suggests the virus could have come from a lab in Wuhan, China, the epicenter […]

Contact tracing is a key step toward slowing the spread of the coronavirus. It means tacking the movements of patients and who they’ve interacted with — possibly by using their cell phones.  Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said that some states could start seeing a “rolling re-entry” […]

Recent surveys show that Dr. Anthony Fauci is one of the federal officials most trusted by Americans to handle the country’s coronavirus response. But not on Facebook. One post published April 6 lays out a more than 2,000-word conspiracy theory about the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and his connection […]

The hunt for drugs to rein in the coronavirus is, like so much else in this crisis, filled with uncertainty. President Donald Trump sees great promise in a compound called hydroxychloroquine. That’s based on a couple of early trials in China and France that showed remarkable results after just a handful of days. Some medical […]

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 outbreak, public health officials have advised healthy Americans not to wear face masks. The reason: There’s a shortage of masks, and they should be reserved for health care workers. That guidance may change soon. “When we get in a situation where we have enough masks, I believe there will […]

There is no known treatment or cure for COVID-19, but some people are hitting their pantry to create their own false remedies. Since January, we’ve fact-checked more than 100 claims about the coronavirus pandemic, the majority of which are inaccurate or misleading. From taking large amounts of vitamin C to drinking silver solution, some of the […]

During the day-to-day coverage of the coronavirus pandemic, it can sometimes feel like there are more questions than answers. So in this edition of Ask PolitiFact, we answered more of our readers’ questions about the virus. We read the latest research on how long the coronavirus can live on different surfaces and consulted with experts […]

In this edition of Ask PolitiFact, we tracked down answers to your questions about the federal government’s response to the coronavirus pandemic.  We spoke to experts and answered reader questions about government control of test kits, the rationale behind travel bans, what martial law is, and more.  Here’s how to submit your questions for our […]