Let’s pledge to save lives, let’s pledge to donate organs!
Earlier this month, the Union Health Minister, Jagat Prakash Nadda, highlighted how India had achieved a milestone that we can all truly be proud of. “Due to the unwavering dedication...
World Breastfeeding Week: Ignore the noise, listen to the experts!
Hello, When I was pregnant with my first child a couple of years ago, I thought I had done everything I could do to prepare myself for this beautiful journey....
AI is here to stay—might as well learn how to use it responsibly!
Hello, Artificial Intelligence, or AI, is now quickly transforming our approach to most industries—from media to communications, and from healthcare to transportation. Words like ChatGPT, prompting, and Generative AI have...
Health Literacy Matters!
Hello! One often wonders what is the point of a health literacy training. Can we really change attitudes towards health and health information by a few training sessions? Can we...
Vaccines are your best friend!
154 million lives in 50 years. 6 lives. Every minute. Every day. For 5 decades. That is the number of lives saved by vaccines, according to the World Health Organization...
Women’s Health Matters
Hello! As promised in the previous newsletter, the month of March was dedicated to Women's Health at First Check, where we focused on women centric stories. However, while we had...
Happy Women’s Day
“Communities and countries and ultimately the world are only as strong as the health of their women.” -Michelle Obama Welcome to another newsletter from First Check- your one-stop shop for...
New Year, New Collaborations!
Hello! We have some great news for our readers; you can now read selected stories by First Check on THE WEEK as well! THE WEEK, published by the 137-year-old Malayala...
SAVE THE DATE: The Health of India Summit is back!
Hello! 👋 Welcome to another First Check newsletter! We hope you had a happy, bright and healthy Diwali! 🪔🎉 While you were busy with the festival season, we have also...
Wishing all the good folks in white coats a Happy Doctor’s Day!
An apple a day keeps the doctor away, goes the adage. But for how long? Sooner or later, we all have to make that visit to the doc. Some do...
Navigating the misinformation about type-1 diabetes
In 1992, I was diagnosed with type-1 diabetes. I was just a child and had no idea what it meant! I soon realised that the autoimmune condition where the body...
#IToldYouSo: Act before it’s too late when it comes to climate change
As the results of the world’s largest democratic elections unfolded yesterday, four words echoed everywhere. Those who supported the victors, those who sympathised with the other contenders, just about everyone...
Not just fact-checking, health literacy also needed to address misinformation
It is equally fascinating and terrifying that for the millions of years humans have spent trying to unwrap the secrets of this world, there are still just as many, if...
Credible health information, critical thinking fundamental to combatting misinformation
“If they can make penicillin out of mouldy bread, they can sure make something out of you.” The quote is attributed to Muhammad Ali, the legendary boxer, and I couldn’t...
Collective effort essential to tackle health misinformation
Today, there is an abundance of information available online. But there is also a significant amount of misinformation. It has become vital to separate fact from fiction. The rise of...
Take it from a former social media junkie: online cures and hacks can be dangerous!
Not too long ago, I was a social media junkie. Guilty of falling for every health tip and trick on online platforms. Whether it was ways to get flawless skin...
Health matters. Facts matter. And that’s precisely why health fact-checking matters.
The tendency to process information by looking for, or interpreting it, in a manner that is consistent with our existing beliefs is very common. And this is amply evident when...
Epidemic of misinformation is a public health concern
As a social and behavioural scientist, I have been intricately involved in the battle against health misinformation. In the digital age, where information spreads rapidly and often unchecked, the epidemic...
Health misinformation is injurious to health!
How do you like your coffee? With butter? And some oil? Apparently, bulletproof coffee is what the celebs are having – instead of breakfast – to shed some superfluous body...
First Check Diaries by Dr Annick Mondjo
Happy New Year! How time flies! It’s 2024 already. I remember the day in January 2020, when for the first time I raised my voice against an inaccurate post on...
First Check Diaries by Dr Cait McMahon OAM
As one of the early members of First Check, I became concerned about the impacts of the work of fact-checking on mental health. I undertook a survey during COVID and...
First Check Diaries by Jisha Krishnan
I come bearing exciting news: First Check has a new website! And we would love to get your feedback and suggestions. Tell us what you like, what you don’t. What do...
First Check Diaries by Tracey Nomatter Ruzengwe
For as long as I can remember, I have been fascinated by science and the way it explains the functioning of the human body. During my high school days, I...
First Check Diaries by Dr Arulchelan Sriram
Have you heard the popular folktale about Akbar and Birbal, the Mughal emperor and his ingenious advisor, that beautifully captures the human tendency to give (often useless, sometimes harmful) health-related...
First Check Diaries by Tej Kumar
Have you heard of the condition where people find it hard to meet and interact with new people? It’s not about being shy or an introvert; the condition is called...
First Check Diaries by Walter Balane
As a journalist and radio broadcaster, fact-checking has become an integral part of my work. We need to check, verify, and counter-check facts, before using them in storytelling. My fact-checking...
First Check Diaries by Jisha Krishnan
Today is International Fact-Checking Day, promoted by the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN) in partnership with fact-checking organisations around the world. As a verified signatory of IFCN, First Check has been...
First Check Diaries by Dr Safieh Shah
During the early days of the pandemic, I had immigrated to Canada and was keen to contribute my skills as a humanitarian public health scientist with global experience, in a...
First Check Diaries by John Aloyzeus Reotutar
Once a victim of health misinformation, I know from my own experience that it can lead to grave mistrust and negatively impact public health. Even before the pandemic, health misinformation...
First Check Diaries by Dr Chandrika Kambam
Happy New Year! As we enter 2023, the battle against misinformation has to get stronger. In today’s era of digitalisation, information spreads at the speed of light, and misinformation spreads...
First Check Diaries by Saleem Samad
Almost three years ago, Bangladesh, like most countries, experienced a nightmare when the coronavirus infection turned into a pandemic. The deaths and infection rates were galloping at an unprecedented pace....
First Check Diaries by Dr Manisha Arora Pandit
Like most people of my generation, I too have a fairly significant online presence. However, until recently I had no idea of the massive scaling effect of social media and...
First Check Diaries by Dr Sameera Ranasinghe
I was introduced to the world of fact-checking after working in the public health sector for more than eight years. Although health promotion was one of my fields of expertise,...
First Check Diaries by Qian Sun
It was late January, 2020. Amidst the catastrophic COVID-19 crisis in China, I landed in Delhi. Soon, I met Syed Nazakat (the founder and CEO of DataLEADS) and a conversation over...
First Check Diaries by Abara Erim
Health misinformation, I strongly believe, must be treated like a disease because it behaves like one. My experience during the Ebola outbreak in Nigeria in 2014 fuels my passion for...
First Check Diaries by Dr Ahmad Firdaus Mohd Haris
“We’re not just fighting an epidemic, we’re fighting an infodemic. Fake news spreads faster and more easily than this virus (COVID-19) and is just as dangerous.” - Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus,...
First Check Diaries by Dr. Rohini Karandikar
As a member of First Check, I feel like a warrior, fighting the infodemic. The pandemic showed us how people contracted,spread, or even succumbed to COVID-19 because they fell for...
First Check Diaries by Dr. Nicola Simone
“The limits of my language mean the limits of my world.” - Ludwig WittgensteinBefore joining First Check, I was an independent fact-checker with a personal page on Facebook. When I...
First Check Diaries by Dr. Debanjan Banerjee
“We now live in a world where information is potentially unlimited. When information is cheap, meaning turns expensive.” - George Dyson I believe that every physician is inherently a fact-checker,...