What was claimed
Covid-19 does not exist.
Our verdict
False. Covid-19 is a real disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which has been isolated many times.
Covid-19 does exist and germs can cause disease
What was claimed
Germs do not cause disease.
Our verdict
Many infectious agents, or germs, do cause diseases in humans. This has been proven many times.
A post on Instagram shares a video clip in which a woman claims, among other things, that “COVID-19 does not exist” and “germs don't cause disease”.
Both these claims are false, as we have said several times before.
The clip seems to come from a longer video interview that the late Dr Lorraine Day gave in March 2021 with a religious website called Israeli News Live [1:02:30].
Claims by Dr Day and Israeli News Live have been checked by other fact checkers before.
In this case, there is abundant evidence that Covid-19, the disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, does exist. As we have said before, the virus has been isolated many times and continues to be detected in hundreds of tests each week in England alone.
The claim that germs don’t cause disease is also false. Many diseases are caused by germs, (also known as infectious agents), which include viruses and bacteria. This idea was first established in the 19th century, and has been conclusively proven in the years since.
It is true that not all diseases are caused by germs, with others arising from causes that include nutrient deficiency, lifestyle factors or genetics.
But many treatments and preventative medicines based on the germ theory of disease are used effectively every day, including antibiotics, antivirals and vaccines.
False information can spread quickly on social media and may be harmful if people use it to make decisions about their health.
Full Fact approached Israeli News Live for comment.
This article is part of our work fact checking potentially false pictures, videos and stories on Facebook. You can read more about this—and find out how to report Facebook content—here. For the purposes of that scheme, we’ve rated this claim as false because Covid-19 exists and germs do cause diseases.