Covid-19: Recent claims about cremations and vaccines fact-checked
By Jack Goodman and Kayleen Devlin
BBC Reality Check and Monitoring
Published
image copyrightGetty Images
image captionCovid vaccines have been shown to be very safe, but people continue to make unfounded claims to the contrary
Throughout the pandemic, statistics have been used in misleading and false claims about the impact of Covid-19 and the use of vaccines.
Here are four recent claims we ve fact-checked.
Claim: Cremations and burial rates are no higher than normal
Verdict: This is not correct. Across the UK, there was a sharp increase in cremations in 2020.
Over recent months, people have been sharing data from Freedom of Information Requests (FOIs) about cremations and burials in different local authorities across the UK.
Coronavirus vaccines protect against Indian variant, study says
23 May 202123 May 2021
Last updated at 12:41
Reuters
Coronavirus vaccines being given in the UK offer strong protection against the Indian variant of the virus, scientists have found.
The study said that both Pfizer and AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccines are highly effective against the variant after two doses of the vaccine have been given.
Public Health England, which ran the study, said the vaccines are likely to be even more effective at reducing the number of people needing to go to hospital when ill with the virus.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock said the findings made him increasingly confident that the government was on track for the final stage of easing restrictions in England on 21 June.