{"id":1573,"date":"2026-05-22T10:39:07","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T10:39:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/edmohub.ie\/?p=1573"},"modified":"2026-10-15T16:17:02","modified_gmt":"2026-10-15T16:17:02","slug":"weekly-fact-checking-round-up-6","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/edmohub.ie\/index.php\/weekly-fact-checking-round-up-6\/","title":{"rendered":"Weekly factchecking round-up: 15-21 May 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Through the European Digital Media Observatory (EDMO), the EU supports a European network of factcheckers, including TheJournal in Ireland. For a monthly roundup of European factchecks, visit the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/edmo.eu\/\">main EDMO website<\/a>. Here, we highlight recent pieces by&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.thejournal.ie\/factcheck\/news\/\">TheJournal FactCheck<\/a>&nbsp;team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thejournal.ie\/did-the-who-say-that-hantavirus-is-spreading-rapidly-across-the-world-7038517-May2026\/\">Debunked: The WHO has not said hantavirus is \u2018spreading very fast across the world\u2019<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Published: 15 May \u2013 by Shane Raymond<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Claims circulating online that the World Health Organization warned hantavirus was \u201cspreading very fast across the world\u201d are false. The outbreak remains limited to a small number of cases connected to a cruise ship, and the WHO has stated the overall public health risk remains low.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thejournal.ie\/debunked-factcheck-pope-leo-honours-iranian-ambassador-us-war-trump-white-house-7040703-May2026\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.thejournal.ie\/debunked-factcheck-pope-leo-honours-iranian-ambassador-us-war-trump-white-house-7040703-May2026\/\">Debunked: There is no government scheme offering free cheese to recipients of a hantavirus vaccine<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Published: 16 May \u2013 by Shane Raymond<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A fake news-style image claiming the government would give free cheese to people receiving a hantavirus vaccine spread widely across social media platforms. The fact-check found there is no such scheme, and noted that there are currently no hantavirus vaccines licensed for use in Europe or the Americas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thejournal.ie\/debunked-free-cheese-hantavirus-vaccine-conspiracy-theories-health-misinformation-7039499-May2026\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.thejournal.ie\/debunked-free-cheese-hantavirus-vaccine-conspiracy-theories-health-misinformation-7039499-May2026\/\">Debunked: Posts misrepresent a routine honour given to the Iranian ambassador by the Vatican<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Published: 17 May \u2013 by Shane Raymond<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Social media posts falsely suggested Pope Leo XIV had made a political statement by honouring Iran\u2019s ambassador amid tensions with the United States. In reality, the award was part of a routine Vatican ceremony in which 13 ambassadors received the same diplomatic honour.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Through the European Digital Media Observatory (EDMO), the EU supports a European network of factcheckers, including TheJournal in Ireland. For a monthly roundup of European factchecks, visit the&nbsp;main EDMO website. Here, we highlight recent pieces by&nbsp;TheJournal FactCheck&nbsp;team. Debunked: The WHO has not said hantavirus is \u2018spreading very fast across the world\u2019 Published: 15 May \u2013 &#8230; <a href=\"https:\/\/edmohub.ie\/index.php\/weekly-fact-checking-round-up-6\/\" class=\"more-link\">Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Weekly factchecking round-up: 15-21 May 2026&#8221;<\/span> &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":1502,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_eb_attr":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[27,28,44,54],"class_list":["post-1573","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-factchecks","tag-disinformation","tag-fact-checking","tag-misinformation","tag-thejournal"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/edmohub.ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/pexels-hartonocreativestudio-20457108-scaled.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/edmohub.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1573","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/edmohub.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/edmohub.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edmohub.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edmohub.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1573"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/edmohub.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1573\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2000,"href":"https:\/\/edmohub.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1573\/revisions\/2000"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edmohub.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1502"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/edmohub.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1573"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edmohub.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1573"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/edmohub.ie\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1573"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}