John’s story: when health misinformation leads to harm
At Full Fact, we work to challenge bad information—so people like John can make informed decisions about their health.
Full Fact fights bad information
Bad information ruins lives. It promotes hate, damages people’s health, and hurts democracy. You deserve better.
Recent fact checks
We’ve seen contrasting claims from health secretary Wes Streeting and the British Medical Association about whether most resident doctors voted to strike.
More than 90% of the votes cast in the BMA’s ballot supported strike action, but turnout was 55.32%, meaning nearly half of eligible doctors didn’t vote at all.
Analysis from the Conservative party claims people arriving in the UK via small boat are 24 times more likely to go to prison than British citizens.
This figure is unreliable, based on the details reported. There’s no reliable publicly available data on what proportion of small boat arrivals go to prison.
We’ve seen claims on social media that the Red Arrows used “colourless” white smoke in a flypast over Glastonbury Festival to avoid causing offence.
There’s no evidence to support this claim. The Royal Air Force has said it isn’t true, and that the use of white smoke during the flypast was routine.
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