MRC NewsBusters

Facebook fact-checks NewsBusters article about Johns Hopkins meta-analysis on the inefficacy of lockdowns for preventing viral illness: Health Feedback placed a fact-check on a NewsBusters article analyzing how Fox News reported on a Johns Hopkins meta-analysis that showed the minimal success of lockdown measures to prevent COVID-19. Fox News correspondent Jonathan Serrie reported that "the authors [of the meta-analysis] have determined various restrictions on movement only reduce Covid mortality by an average of 0.2%. And more restrictive shelter in place orders reduce mortality by only 2.9 percent." Health Feedback recycled a fact check designed for articles written by Fox News and the Daily Mail. The fact-checker disputed not reporting of the meta-analysis by NewsBusters, Fox News or The Daily Mail, but rather the meta-analysis itself. Health Feedback also argued that the paper could not be considered a Johns Hopkins report since the economists who wrote the report did not all work for Johns Hopkins University and the report was not endorsed by the university. The fact-checker, however, neglected to mention that the meta-analysis was published on the Johns Hopkins Krieger School of Arts and Sciences website with the Johns Hopkins logo on the cover page.

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