Rachel Schraer @rachelschraer Twitter profile

Last Seen Profiles

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@RelatoIncestoBR

@usebullish

Rachel Schraer

@rachelschraer

2 years

A viral tweet is claiming to give bombshell news (🚨) that Pfizer is "admitting" they never tested whether the vaccine prevented transmission and therefore the concept of "get vaccinated for others" was a lie - this is wrong on basically every count. So, some facts.

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Rachel Schraer

@rachelschraer

3 years

🚨🚨Not a big klaxon person but... I start today as the BBC's first specialist health disinformation reporter - I'm privileged to take on this important brief at a time when bad information is playing such a big role in people's health and wellbeing

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Rachel Schraer

@rachelschraer

2 years

1. The vaccines were tested for whether they reduced people's chances of catching Covid - they seemed to, giving less chance of the virus being passed on. But they didn't look specifically at whether they stopped already infected people passing the virus on (transmission)

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Rachel Schraer

@rachelschraer

2 years

Today we painstakingly checked videos frame by frame, matched images from different sources and angles and spoke to forensic pathologists with expertise in war crimes to debunk Russian claims the killings in Bucha were a ‘hoax’ or ‘faked’

Bucha killings: Satellite image of bodies site contradicts Russian claims

Russia called footage of bodies in Bucha 'staged' but its evidence for this does not stack up.

www.bbc.co.uk

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Rachel Schraer

@rachelschraer

2 years

By the way, neither Pfizer nor health agencies claimed they had. This Nature article gives a good flavour of the discussions around the time So...

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Rachel Schraer

@rachelschraer

2 years

2. When the vaccines first became available, public health messaging was clear - we don't know whether they stop transmission, & people should continue keeping preventative measures. Here's the FDA - here's the UK's DHSC -

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Rachel Schraer

@rachelschraer

2 years

3. Over time, stronger evidence *did* emerge they reduced transmission - of the variant at the time (this was before Delta). I wrote in March 2021 about how authorities were in fact being very cautious about confirming this

Covid jab probably does protect those around you

Out-of-date information may be deterring people from being vaccinated.

www.bbc.co.uk

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Rachel Schraer

@rachelschraer

2 years

... whether they were the right policy in the first place (I wrote about some of the concerns here ) - but let's get the basic facts straight. Was the idea your vaccine protects others based on a lie? No.

Covid vaccine passports could discriminate, experts warn

They are 'feasible' but need to meet 12 tests before being brought in, the Royal Society says.

www.bbc.co.uk

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Rachel Schraer

@rachelschraer

2 years

4. Then, new variants began to change the equation. The vaccines were less good at preventing transmission of Delta and even less good at preventing Omicron. This saw spikes in infections around the world

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Rachel Schraer

@rachelschraer

2 years

side-note: That *doesn't* mean they don't reduce transmission from Omicron at all - this is really tricky to disentangle from waning immunity and rising contacts. Some more info here

How well do vaccines protect against Omicron? What the data shows

*Data presented in this blog is accurate as of Thursday, February 10, but is subject to change over time. For the latest data on vaccine effectiveness, read the UKHSA’s Vaccine Surveillance Reports,...

ukhsa.blog.gov.uk

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Rachel Schraer

@rachelschraer

2 years

5. In the UK at least, soon after it became clear vaccinated people could now pass on the virus at similar rates to unvaccinated people, vaccine passports were quickly all but dropped. That's not to say there aren't valid discussions about...

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Rachel Schraer

@rachelschraer

1 year

Made my @BBCNewsnight debut on Friday with report about a conspiracy film which is leading bereaved people to be harassed. “Died Suddenly” uses fabricated evidence and manipulated data to claim falsely that Covid vaccines are killing millions

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Rachel Schraer

@rachelschraer

2 years

Before sharing a post about Ukraine, it's worth following these steps (devised by @holden ) to SIFT out bad info: 1. Stop - take a breath, when things make us feel shocked, sad or angry we're more likely to smash that share button without thinking. That impulse can be exploited

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Rachel Schraer

@rachelschraer

2 years

I’ve spent recent weeks investigating Romana Didulo, a woman who claims to be Queen of Canada, and whose royal decrees- including that her thousands of followers don’t need to pay their utility bills - are causing real damage. Listen here

The QAnon influencer whose “royal decrees” are causing real life harm to her followers.

www.bbc.co.uk

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Rachel Schraer

@rachelschraer

1 year

Why are more people dying in 2022 than we'd expect? Excess deaths have become a big question - and we're starting to get some answers coming through in the data with @robertcuffe

Excess deaths in 2022 among worst in 50 years

New figures show more than 650,000 people died in the UK last year.

www.bbc.co.uk

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Rachel Schraer

@rachelschraer

8 months

Breaking: Conspiracy theory-peddlers blame Passage of Time on Vaccines

Shayan Sardarizadeh

@Shayan86

8 months

10,000 retweets, 46,000 likes and 4.2 million views for this nonsense by a blue tick conspiracy theorist. The top left image showing a young Jacinda Ardern is from 1997, when she was a student.

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Rachel Schraer

@rachelschraer

8 months

Russell Brand built a new fanbase on YouTube in recent years, primed to mistrust the mainstream and come to his defence. A seductive soup of half-truths, real concerns and falsehoods gained him this much larger audience

Russell Brand: How the comedian built his YouTube audience on half-truths

The comedian has spent recent years building an online presence, often getting millions of views.

www.bbc.co.uk

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Rachel Schraer

@rachelschraer

10 months

Lisa Marie Presley's cause of death has been confirmed as a small bowel obstruction linked to earlier bariatric surgery. She's one of several celebrities whose deaths have been unfoundedly linked to Covid vaccines. I investigated this distressing phenomenon earlier in the year

Rachel Schraer

@rachelschraer

1 year

Made my @BBCNewsnight debut on Friday with report about a conspiracy film which is leading bereaved people to be harassed. “Died Suddenly” uses fabricated evidence and manipulated data to claim falsely that Covid vaccines are killing millions

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Rachel Schraer

@rachelschraer

8 months

Conspiracy theories about viruses and vaccines have exploded in recent years. At the same time, something arguably stranger has spiralled…groups online who don’t believe germs which cause disease exist at all

Rachel Schraer investigates the people who don’t believe in germs.

www.bbc.co.uk

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Rachel Schraer

@rachelschraer

3 years

Ah yes, the famous monthly vagina sprinkles

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Rachel Schraer

@rachelschraer

1 year

A propaganda-style film called Died Suddenly has rapidly gained traction on Twitter and beyond, baselessly claiming the Covid vaccine is killing swathes of young people. Its claims stray far from the evidence - what makes this film so convincing?

They died suddenly - then the anti-vax trolling started

A new "documentary" falsely blames Covid vaccines for deaths of young people.

www.bbc.co.uk

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Rachel Schraer

@rachelschraer

5 years

So to summarise, MPs don’t want Theresa May’s deal, don’t want no deal, don’t want another referendum, don’t want a series of votes to work out what they do want but DO want three more months to...

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Rachel Schraer

@rachelschraer

1 year

@tedthepyrenean @BBCNewsnight That's not how we do science - if we have a hypothesis we have to test it not just assume. In fact that very work of testing if vaccines might be driving excess deaths is being done. But the UK's @ONS found vaccinated people were dying of all causes at *lower* rates than unvax

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Rachel Schraer

@rachelschraer

1 year

Is this the next Alex Jones? With @mwendling I met the man whose viral conspiracy film is leading bereaved people to be harassed

Is this anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist the next Alex Jones?

An anti-vaccine conspiracy film is supercharging the harassment of bereaved people

www.bbc.co.uk

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Rachel Schraer

@rachelschraer

1 year

Dubbed "ghouling", a grim trend has grown over the last 2 years. Of tracking down deaths announced online and linking them without evidence to Covid vaccines. Now a viral conspiracy film has sent this trend trickling from the fringes into the mainstream...

A viral anti-vax conspiracy theory is seized on by trolls to harass bereaved people

www.bbc.co.uk

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Rachel Schraer

@rachelschraer

1 year

It claims without evidence that virtually *any* sudden death announced on social media is linked to vaccines. It’s miles away from any genuine effort to highlight real vaccine injury. And it’s set up a grim routine - a death is announced and like clockwork trolls descend…

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Rachel Schraer

@rachelschraer

4 years

At least one good thing can come out of this whole mess

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Rachel Schraer

@rachelschraer

1 year

I challenged its creator Stew Peters on why he’s created a film with so many errors and easy-to-disprove falsehoods- and whether he cared that it was inciting harassment of people in mourning. Watch the full film here

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Rachel Schraer

@rachelschraer

10 months

A lot of Twitter ink has already been spilled on these Musk comments about Bronny James, but some important things to remember: 1. myocarditis does happen rarely after certain Covid vaccines but it has *not* been linked to an increased risk of cardiac arrest

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Rachel Schraer

@rachelschraer

2 years

Really delighted to have won the @RoySocMed 's inaugural prize for journalists exposing fake health news, together with @JackAGoodman , for our investigation into ivermectin

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Rachel Schraer

@rachelschraer

4 years

Belated tweeting of this hopeful piece of research - twice as many people in one study showed Covid-19-specific t-cell immunity as tested positive for antibodies...meaning we may be underestimating how many people now have immunity

Coronavirus: Immunity may be more widespread than tests suggest

A Swedish study found twice as many people had protective T-cells as tested positive for antibodies.

www.bbc.co.uk

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Rachel Schraer

@rachelschraer

3 years

The idea the Covid vaccine causes miscarriages or infertility is persistent, it's highly emotional and it's generally targeted at young women. Here's why three claims circulating online are wrong -

Covid vaccine: Fertility and miscarriage claims fact-checked

Posts claiming Covid vaccines cause miscarriages are not supported by scientific evidence.

www.bbc.co.uk

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Rachel Schraer

@rachelschraer

3 years

Ivermectin will be studied in a 'gold standard' trial from today. There have been some early promising signs but the studies so far have been small or low quality. That hasn't stopped it being promoted by people online, doctors and interest groups though

Covid: Ivermectin to be studied as possible treatment in UK

Scientists begin to give the drug to people at home with symptoms to see if it can keep them out of hospital.

www.bbc.co.uk

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Rachel Schraer

@rachelschraer

9 months

I received a sudden flurry of messages after Bronny James' collapse, claiming 1 in 35 vaccinated people develop myocarditis. It didn't match up with other evidence - now @DrSusanOliver1 has put together a handy explainer of where it comes from, and why that conclusion isn't right

Dr Susan Oliver (PhD)

@DrSusanOliver1

10 months

There is a 35 in 35 chance that Dr John Campbell misrepresented Swiss myocardial injury study:

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Rachel Schraer

@rachelschraer

2 years

💊 A study claiming to debunk the link between depression and serotonin has shot to attention, becoming one of the most read in years. Psychiatrists say this is nothing new but the huge reaction to the research suggests it was news to many

Did we all believe a myth about depression?

A study some claim debunks antidepressants has gone viral. Was it read wrong?

www.bbc.co.uk

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Rachel Schraer

@rachelschraer

2 years

The idea that depression is caused by low serotonin is everywhere. But that's not based in evidence - and more research has just confirmed there doesn't seem to be a link. So how did this theory take hold and how has it affected prescribing of serotonin-tweaking antidepressants?

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Rachel Schraer

@rachelschraer

1 year

The Andrew Tate pizza box story is a satisfying one so people understandably want to believe it, but it's most likely Romanian authorities have known he was there for a while

Robert Evans (The Only Robert Evans)

@IwriteOK

1 year

Andrew Tate posted about being in Romania on December 25th.

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@rachelschraer

1 year

Damar Hamlin's shocking collapse led to a now-predictable wave of people linking it - with absolutely no evidence - to Covid vaccines. @mwendling and I took a deeper look...

Damar Hamlin: How anti-vaxxers exploited player's collapse

The football star's case has become the latest rallying point for anti-vaccination lobby.

www.bbc.co.uk

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Rachel Schraer

@rachelschraer

3 years

I've exposed and explained claims about the vaccine and fertility that were scaring young women +

Covid: Claims vaccinations harm fertility unfounded

Social-media posts - some described as "scare stories" - are based on misunderstandings, experts say.

www.bbc.co.uk

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Rachel Schraer

@rachelschraer

3 years

I debunked the idea vitamin D is a miracle Covid cure - it's recommended by the NHS to be taken daily in the winter and all year round by some groups for general health, but there's no evidence it can stop you catching the virus or treat it

Vitamin D: The truth about an alleged Covid ‘cover-up’

The vitamin is being studied - but why do some claim evidence is being ignored?

www.bbc.co.uk

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Rachel Schraer

@rachelschraer

1 year

You can now watch my @BBCNewsnight film, exposing the conspiracy theory leading to bereaved people being harassed, on YouTube:

The antivax filmmaker who sparked harassment of bereaved families -...

It’s more than two years since Covid vaccines were first rolled out. Throughout that time, conspiracy theories have swirled claiming that the jabs have kille...

www.youtube.com

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Rachel Schraer

@rachelschraer

2 years

2. Investigate the source - Are they a new account with hardly any followers? Do they reveal who they are? What else are they saying on their timeline? Are they coming from one specific perspective?

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Rachel Schraer

@rachelschraer

4 years

Wow - what a story this chart tells about what's been going on with testing the past couple of weeks... cold-type viruses in school-age kids have SOARED

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Rachel Schraer

@rachelschraer

9 months

Powerful and important story by @mariannaspring today on a campaign of horrific abuse targeted at a bereaved mother by the editor of conspiracy paper the Irish Light

The Irish Light: Woman abused by paper which falsely said vaccine killed her son

Promoting a Covid conspiracy theory, the Irish Light's editor accuses the mum of "massive fraud".

www.bbc.co.uk

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Rachel Schraer

@rachelschraer

1 year

With huge thanks to superstar producer @mpolachowska and the rest of the Newsnight team, as well as everyone who spoke to me for this report

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Rachel Schraer

@rachelschraer

3 years

Over the past 18 months I've been focusing on identifying and debunking misleading information about Covid

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Rachel Schraer

@rachelschraer

2 years

3. Find better coverage - doesn't have to be anything complicated, just a quick Google can let you know if this has been picked up by big media organisations which have legal and regulatory duties to be accurate, whether it's disputed or if it's already been fact-checked

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Rachel Schraer

@rachelschraer

2 years

4. Trace the material back to its original context - real video, quotes and even scientific papers can be twisted to tell a different story. Ask yourself, was there a longer interview, are these pictures from a different conflict, is that what the data really shows?

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Rachel Schraer

@rachelschraer

3 years

And revealed the flaws and signs of potential fraud in the evidence used to support ivermectin to prevent or treat Covid

Ivermectin: How false science created a Covid 'miracle' drug

Thousands worldwide have taken ivermectin to fight Covid. But what's the evidence?

www.bbc.co.uk

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Rachel Schraer

@rachelschraer

3 years

Having lost the battle on adult vaccines - more than three-quarters of the population has been jabbed - children are the latest front for various UK Covid anti-vaccine groups - with @Nikki_Presenter

Covid: Misleading vaccine claims target children and parents

The vaccine is being offered to children aged 12 and older.

www.bbc.co.uk

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Rachel Schraer

@rachelschraer

3 years

So if you're seeing something you're confused about, not sure is true or an influencer whose advice you don't know whether to trust, get in touch! You can send me your tips, stories and worries here or to rachel [dot] schraer [at] bbc. co. uk

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Rachel Schraer

@rachelschraer

2 years

Or, as the BBC puts it - is this REAL? (Does it feel right? What's the evidence? Do the details add up? And look around - what are other trusted sources saying?)

Checking the story

In this video you will hear from BBC journalists Natalie Miller, Alex Murray and Rachel Schraer from BBC Reality Check.

www.bbc.co.uk

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Rachel Schraer

@rachelschraer

2 years

A slowed down low quality distorted video was used to suggest a body lying in the road had lifted an arm- it was a smudge on the windscreen

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Rachel Schraer

@rachelschraer

4 years

I don't know who needs to hear this (nobody except me) but I just found out Mrs Elswood is named thusly because the pickles were made in Elstree and Borehamwood

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Rachel Schraer

@rachelschraer

1 year

A classic case where a grain of truth gets warped and taken out of context: ivermectin *is* a very useful and relatively safe drug, scientists working on it *were* awarded Nobel prizes... for its use for parasites. Not Covid.

Timothy Caulfield

@CaulfieldTim

1 year

"Joe Rogan defends taking ivermectin for COVID-19" His response nonsensical. Ivermectin not on WHO essential med list & didn't win Nobel for COVID! And quoting antivaxxer RFKjr? Lots of good science (i.e., not anecdotes) shows it doesn't work. Period.

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Rachel Schraer

@rachelschraer

3 years

this work will complement fierce reporting by the excellent @mariannaspring who has already made the online disinfo beat her own. I hope to add a sprinkle of health debunking, focusing on fake cures, bad advice and misleading evidence around the world, and...

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Rachel Schraer

@rachelschraer

1 year

@Vanessa_Kisuule the telling on yourself-ness of admitting you think consent only extends to touching a *stranger's* private parts..

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Rachel Schraer

@rachelschraer

3 years

I'll keep doing this and investigating misinformation about wider health topics that affect people globally

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Rachel Schraer

@rachelschraer

2 years

Russian government agencies took advantage of the curve of a wing mirror creating the optical illusion of movement - like in this video -to suggest a corpse was sitting up - higher res video and examining the rest of the objects in the frame showed this wasn’t what was happening.

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@rachelschraer

5 years

CBD products are suddenly everywhere and insta is full of health claims for them, some even recommending you ditch anti-depressants and take them instead But we're still REALLY early days when it comes to the evidence

CBD oil: Have the benefits been overstated?

It's suddenly in everything from coffee to lip balm but does it work?

www.bbc.co.uk

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Rachel Schraer

@rachelschraer

1 year

Andrew Bridgen has been suspended as a Conservative MP, with the chief whip saying: "Misinformation about the vaccine causes harm and costs lives". Early in the pandemic Bridgen expressed concerns about lockdown and vaccine mandates, but praised the vaccine itself

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Rachel Schraer

@rachelschraer

4 years

You can tell this sentence was written by an American - love the idea that someone would be from 'just four hours north on London' and therefore feel an affinity to it (he was from Doncaster)

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@rachelschraer

3 years

... hopefully help you through the thicket of weaponised stats, charts and scientific papers that get chucked out there to confuse, by people who want to push an agenda, gain influence or even make money

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@rachelschraer

1 year

Damar Hamlin's shocking collapse at Bills vs Bengals game has spurred on the usual sprinkling of people blaming Covid vaccines with no evidence. Remember it's very easy if you start with a belief to find the evidence to back it up. But if we look at the big picture there's:

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Rachel Schraer

@rachelschraer

1 year

Very excited to be part of a new team, BBC Verify. It brings together journalists who cover disinformation, report forensically on social media, fact-check, verify and tell the stories of the people misinformation and online hate affects

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Rachel Schraer

@rachelschraer

1 year

Flashing up news reports of sudden deaths understandably provokes strong emotions and creates an alarming picture. But when you dig deeper, the film makers had included people who fainted but didn't die, people who hadn't had the Covid vaccine, people who died in car crashes

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@rachelschraer

2 years

A big team effort with @J_A_Horton @Shayan86 @alistaircoleman @O_Rob1nson plus colleagues on the ground

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Rachel Schraer

@rachelschraer

2 years

Posts claiming only 17,000 people died of Covid in the UK are doing the rounds - they're wrong, and they're playing on a framing tactic which has been used time and again through the pandemic...

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Rachel Schraer

@rachelschraer

2 years

Thanks to super producer @samjudah and editor Ed Main, experts and dedicated investigators @DrSarteschi @MackLamoureux and @misterEpete and to the followers and former followers who spoke to me about their experiences- even when it was very difficult to talk about

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@rachelschraer

1 year

"Death is generally irreversible though..." You can hear more about what happened when @mwendling and I entered the topsy-turvy world of Stew Peters, creator of anti-vaccine conspiracy film Died Suddenly, here

A viral anti-vax conspiracy theory is seized on by trolls to harass bereaved people

www.bbc.co.uk

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Rachel Schraer

@rachelschraer

3 years

For under-30s, when cases are low, the risk probably outweighs the benefit and they are advised to have a different jab. For everyone else, the benefit outweighs the risk. If we were in the middle of a big wave of infection, the benefit would outweigh the risk even for under 30s

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@rachelschraer

2 years

🚨Some people have been falsely claiming the advice about the Covid vaccine during pregnancy has changed and that it's no longer considered safe - it hasn't, and it is. 🧵Here's what you need to know:

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@rachelschraer

1 year

The use of Google is clever because even though it has absolutely no validity as a measure of deaths, it's something people can do themselves and feel like they are checking and uncovering something - in a way they can't with, say, randomised control trial data

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Rachel Schraer

@rachelschraer

1 year

Straight from the school of "flood the zone with shit", he throws out fabricated images alongside scraps of real stats that have been manipulated or stripped of context and cherry picked experts to bolster his claims - even though they are not supported by the weight of evidence

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@rachelschraer

3 years

Also out today: I looked at a study by @MAPS that could lead to the legalisation of MDMA to treat post-traumatic stress disorder in the US

MDMA could help trauma survivors face painful memories

Usually thought of as a party drug, a trial suggests it helps people with post-traumatic stress disorder.

www.bbc.co.uk

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Rachel Schraer

@rachelschraer

1 year

It's my 7 year BBC anniversary today and in those 7 years I've covered a referendum campaign, two general elections, three-and-a-half Tory leadership campaigns, two Labour leadership campaigns and a global pandemic. Time for a Sabbatical! 😅

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Rachel Schraer

@rachelschraer

2 years

It's common to hear people online say 'we don't have long-term safety data Covid vaccines' or 'we don't know what will happen in 5, 10, 20 years'. But a year actually is relatively long-term when it comes to vaccines - here's why

Vaccines: What we know about long-term safety now

Despite concerns over Covid vaccines, most side effects occur with hours or weeks of having a jab.

www.bbc.co.uk

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Rachel Schraer

@rachelschraer

1 year

Many online have questioned whether Covid vaccines have contributed. It's a fair thing to investigate but that conclusion is not supported by the data. Rare heart-related vaccine side effects are seen in boys and young men but excess deaths much higher + driven by 50-64 year olds

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Rachel Schraer

@rachelschraer

2 years

Another ivermectin study bites the dust. It's promoters pointed to it as evidence, now it has been retracted after being described as "misleading" and "unethical"

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Rachel Schraer

@rachelschraer

3 years

- Avoid 'hygiene theatre' - the virus is airborne & catching it from objects/surfaces is unlikely - Fresh air is more important - You probably don't have to do the 'pavement dance' - But do keep indoor meetings small and brief

Covid: How should I protect myself from Covid now?

What are the actions we can take to reduce our risk of catching the virus?

www.bbc.co.uk

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Rachel Schraer

@rachelschraer

1 year

For @BBCtrending I investigated how the film spread, to the point that its hashtag and false claims now appear under virtually any celebrity death announcement. We reveal who its creator is and how the film is leading to the harassment of ordinary bereaved people

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@rachelschraer

1 year

@HuxleySoma @BBCNewsnight Absolutely, my intention is never to deny that vaccine injury exists or trivialise genuine cases - but fabricated evidence and clear misinformation like this isn't helping anyone

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Rachel Schraer

@rachelschraer

2 years

The advice on getting a Covid vaccine during pregnancy hasn't changed - so why did hundreds if not thousands on social media think it had? I've investigated how this untruth spread - you can read the facts here

Covid: Pregnant women targeted with false vaccine claims

Posts shared by thousands across social media wrongly suggested government advice had changed.

www.bbc.co.uk

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Rachel Schraer

@rachelschraer

2 years

Something we don’t reckon with enough is how *painful* it can be to confront facts that contradict our existing beliefs. A lot of Romana Didulo’s followers were brought in by her views on vaccines and lockdowns which accorded with their own

The QAnon influencer whose “royal decrees” are causing real life harm to her followers.

www.bbc.co.uk

6

20

65

Rachel Schraer

@rachelschraer

1 year

She told me she'd wanted to talk about her grief on twitter, to start a conversation that is too rarely had. But people "intruded not just on my grief, but on my attempt to do something in my grief" by filling her memorial thread with misleading health advice and conspiracy

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Rachel Schraer

@rachelschraer

4 years

No there is literally no physical way 5g could have anything to do with coronavirus- a virus, which we know came from animals- by me and @Eleanor_Lawrie

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Rachel Schraer

@rachelschraer

1 year

with thanks to @VABVOX for sharing her story of what it's like to have your personal grief co-opted into an online agenda. She faced messages blaming her wife's death on vaccines, blaming her or calling her a liar

10

3

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Rachel Schraer

@rachelschraer

2 years

The ONS has produced a blog responding to the 'factually incorect and highly misleading' claims 'only' 17k people died of Covid

To say only 17,000 people have died from COVID-19 is highly misleading

It’s being claimed that the true number of deaths caused by COVID-19 in England and Wales is ‘only’ around 17,000 people. The claim is based on ONS data on the number of coronavirus deaths whe

blog.ons.gov.uk

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63

Rachel Schraer

@rachelschraer

1 year

Twitter Files have got people talking about 'shadow banning' - where an account can still post but their posts become harder to find. It raises some big questions, like what a tech company's role is in influencing what its users are exposed to...

Twitter Files spark debate about ‘blacklisting’

Revelations about Twitter's content moderation decisions have raised questions about political bias.

www.bbc.co.uk

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Rachel Schraer

@rachelschraer

1 year

Listen to the full investigation here:

A viral anti-vax conspiracy theory is seized on by trolls to harass bereaved people

www.bbc.co.uk

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Rachel Schraer

@rachelschraer

5 years

Eyewateringly strong language in the UN report on poverty in the UK...describes Universal Credit as treating 'vulnerable people like guinea pigs and wreak[ing] havoc in real people's lives'...

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Rachel Schraer

@rachelschraer

1 year

It also uses straightforward fear tactics.The film is peppered throughout with gory pictures of blood clots though this alone cannot tell us anything about who they came from, what causes them and whether they are happening more than you'd expect

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Rachel Schraer

@rachelschraer

2 years

Despite state propaganda, plenty of people in Russia don't support the invasion. And surveillance means they are having to get creative about how they organise protests

The Russians using emojis to evade censors

Amid a protest crackdown, young people are still risking freedom to oppose the conflict in Ukraine.

www.bbc.co.uk

4

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57

Rachel Schraer

@rachelschraer

1 year

By throwing out so many images and claims, it's virtually impossible for people to evaluate each one as they watch. Instead they are just left with a general impression of evidence and authority - it makes it highly believable to those already predisposed...

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Rachel Schraer

@rachelschraer

2 years

I'll be investigating over the next few months - if you have a story you want to share about experiences of antidepressant withdrawal, bad reactions or success stories, get in touch

14

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Rachel Schraer

@rachelschraer

1 year

even though deeper scrutiny reveals the images don't show what he claims they do. The stats actually tell the opposite of his story. The experts don't appear to be qualified to say what they're saying - and are completely out of step with the rest of their field.

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Rachel Schraer

@rachelschraer

3 years

My analysis of the anti-Covid vaccine protests happening outside schools - which Keir Starmer has said should be stopped using Public Space Protection Orders (the kinds that get used outside abortion clinics)

19

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Rachel Schraer

@rachelschraer

1 year

Deaths from any cause were higher in unvaccinated people than vaccinated as of June last year. And an investigation into a rise in deaths in under-30s in 2021 found it was driven by Covid infections and external causes including suicide and drug poisoning

Excess deaths in 2022 among worst in 50 years

New figures show more than 650,000 people died in the UK last year.

www.bbc.co.uk

37

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Rachel Schraer

@rachelschraer

5 years

@Sara_Rose_G the image of oat babies being fed with the milk of their oat mother is killing me

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Rachel Schraer

@rachelschraer

8 months

I've been investigating the growth and spread of these beliefs on social media – and how they are being used to discourage people from taking potentially life-saving medicines and vaccines

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