Category: Fact Check

An article published by Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s anti-vaccination organization and widely shared on social media questions the need of vaccinating those who’ve already recovered from COVID-19. The article says there’s a “potential risk of harm, including death” in getting the vaccines. We report this claim as false. There is no evidence that vaccinating people who had previously had COVID is resulting in an increased risk of adverse events.

There is no evidence any vaccinated people may be transmitting something from their bodies to non-vaccinated people.

A Texas doctor, in a widely shared video, falsely claims the vaccines don’t provide protection and that they’re actually “experimental gene therapy.”

A study published in March 2021 by California State University, San Bernardino’s Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism found that hate crimes reported to police departments in the 16 largest U.S. cities in 2020 increased by 149%.

A study published in March 2021 by California State University, San Bernardino’s Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism found that hate crimes reported to police departments in the 16 largest U.S. cities in 2020 increased by 149%.

Fact-checking a false claim about COVID-19 vaccines

On Tuesday in an interview on Fox News with Sean Hannity, Texas Governor Greg Abbott blamed the outages on wind turbines and on the “Green New Deal.” Rolling blackouts have ravaged Texas after a winter storm created a sudden spike in energy demand and hamstrung production of natural gas, coal, nuclear, and wind energy.

Shared video of Dr. Fauci CNN interview with added commentary sends wrong message about COVID vaccine protection

A Northern California man died on January 21st, several hours after receiving a dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, according to Placer County Public Health and the Placer County Sheriff’s Office. It should be said that the man The man previously tested positive for the coronavirus in late December. There is no evidence that the vaccine was the cause of death.

Rejoining the Paris Agreement signals that the United States intends to do its part to cut global emissions to reduce future warming and, importantly, to reduce future losses from climate-worsened disasters for all Americans.

The NEJM paper actually states that the efficacy between the first and second doses was found to be 52 percent when given 21 days apart. After the second dose, the efficacy raises to 95 percent.

GreenMedInfo, an alternative health website that has published articles claiming vaccines cause autism, published an article on December 6th warning about the adverse side effects of the coronavirus vaccines, including death. We rate this article as mostly false and misleading.

A study published in Clinical Infectious Diseases suggested that coronavirus infections may have been present in the U.S. in December 2019, earlier than scientists previously thought.

On November 17, U.S. Sentator Rand Paul of Kentucky compared the effectiveness of the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines with “naturally acquired COVID-19” on Twitter. He folllowed-up by asking, “Why does the left accept immune theory when it comes to vaccines, but not when discussing naturally acquired immunity?” Besides ignoring the point of vaccines, which is to protect the public BEFORE they get sick, the comparison of natural COVID-19 infection and vaccine efficacy is inacurate. Reinfections have not been confirmed and the efficacy of naturally-acquired immunity is still not understood.

ADE has not been shown to occur in individuals that received COVID-19 vaccines to date.

Analyzing historical documents – from Boston’s smallpox and Philadelphia’s yellow fever in the 18th century to outbreaks of diphtheria, influenza, and typhoid in the 20th century, Foss pieced together over 200 years of health reporting for her latest book “Constructing the Outbreak.” Her research positions Foss as a uniquely informed expert on how today’s news narratives are writing the history of COVID-19.

Elon Musk, Tesla Inc Chief Executive Officer has repeatedly played down the severity of coronavirus since the start of the pandemic. On Thursday, Musk said that a rapid antigen test results from the same machine and the same test showed he tested positive twice and then negative twice all on the same day. He questioned the validy of the test by suggesting “something extremely bogus is going on.”

The article accurately sites a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association which examined the number of excess deaths in the U.S from March to August, which claimed a 20% increase. Nearly a third of that increase did not have the coronavirus as the underlying cause. However there is no scientific evidence that the deaths were a direct result of lockdown measures.

As we enter the last few days before the U.S. Election, President Donald Trump has been ramping up his attacks on mail-in ballots and suggesting that counting them after Nov. 3 will cause fraud. There is nothing unusual about counting mail-in ballots after an election. It happens every election.

Posts are being shared on social media attempting to negate the use of masks as protective devices during the pandemic. These claims are false. Fauci did not blame mask use for any deaths that occurred during the 1918 Spanish flu.

There is no law saying official results must be given on Election Night.

On October 26th, at a campaign rally in Allentown, PA, President Donald Trump told the crowd that his political rival Joe Biden wants to dismantle the country’s oil and gas industry, a move he warned would have devastating consequences for Pennsylvania families. We rate this claim as false. Biden has said that he won’t ban fracking.

At a campaign rally in Allentown, PA., one of several in the important battleground state of Pennsylvania, President Donald Trump brought up a false claim about a lawsuit concerning poll watchers in Philadelphia.

A video featuring Owen Shroyer originally published by Banned.video went viral on Facebook in late October. The video claims that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) confirmed SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, was never airborne, and wearing face masks is unnecessary. This claim is false and inaccurate. The CDC never said the virus could not be airborne. Although the CDC “updated” their guidance on its website to include aerosols among the most common forms of SARS-CoV-2 transmission, experts agree that the virus can spread through water droplets, which masks can act as a physical barrier to stpp the water droplets. There is increasing evidence that suggest airborne transmission may also play a role in the spread of COVID-19.

U.S. President Donald Trump claimed Democratic nominee Joe Biden had “admitted” to perpetrating electoral fraud. On Oct. 24, White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany tweeted out a short video clip of Biden, along with the text “Joe Biden brags about having the “most extensive VOTER FRAUD organization” in history!!” This claim is false and the video is taken out of context.

In the final presidential debate between President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden, moderator Kristen Welker asks the candidates to speak about their plans for healthcare in the United States. President Trump once again accused his oponent of wanting to eliminate private health insurance. Trump has made this claim repeatedly. This claim is false. It conflates Biden’s plan with those of other Democrats pushing “Medicare for All.”

“We’re rounding the turn,” Trump said during the debate. This implies a meaningful improvement. We rate this claim as false. On that very same day the U.S. recorded 77,000 new cases, according to NBC News. This tops the previous high that had been set in July. We may be learning to “live with it,” as Trump mentioned, but this is not an improvement.

According to a report from the New York State Department of Health, “6,326 COVID-positive residents were admitted to [nursing home] facilities” following Cuomo’s mandate that nursing homes accept the readmission of COVID-positive patients from hospitals. Therefore we rate his claim as false.

A video posted by a European-based group called World Doctors Alliance claims the novel coronavirus is “a normal flu virus” and there is no COVID-19 pandemic. Although the video was removed from Youtube, portions of the video are circulating on Facebook. We rate this claim as false. Scientists universally agree that the cuase of this pandemic is a novel coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2, and not a strain of influenza. COVID-19 is deadlier than the seasonal flu. COVID-19 so far has killed more people in the U.S. than the past five flu seasons combined.

We rate this claim as mostly false. There was one instance in Los Angeles where a small percentage of mail ballots omitted the presidential race entirely. That meant that it wasn’t only Trump’s name that was missing, but also Democratic nominee Joe Biden.

A post of an image showing “evidence” of a patent application for a novel coronavirus test in 2015 by a person named Richard A. Rothschild was shared by hundreds of users. This claim is false. The image shows a supplemental application that was filed in 2020 following the submission of another patent application in 2015 that was not related to the coronavirus. A spokesperson for the financial services firm Rothschild & Co. said the patent’s applicant had no link to the company.

President Donald Trump has repeatedly blamed the U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for “not caring about Americans” since she would not agree to his terms for COVID-19 relief aid. We rate these claims as mostly false because they are misleading. According to the New York Times, Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the majority leader, told Republican senators privately on Tuesday that he has advised the White House not to strike a deal with Speaker Nancy Pelosi on a new stimulus bill before Election Day.

A Facebook post from May that is newly gaining traction says that Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the leading voice of experts in the coronavirus pandemic, has been indicted for treason. This claim is entirely false. Despite President Donald Trump calling him a “disaster,” Fauci has not been indicted. There is no news coverage to support this claim, nor any original, credible documents or sources to corroborate it.

U.S. President Donald Trump emphasized his stark contrast to his opponent Joe Biden in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic when he mocked Biden for saying he’ll “listen to scientists.”

We rate this claim as mostly false. Infectious disease experts did not shift from saying immunity was lifelong to saying it lasted only a few months for partisan reasons. Experts haven’t changed their estimates for immunity duration, which remains unknown. Most agree that it is not a “life-time”.

This quote is referencing the claim alleging that Biden (then Vice President) pressed to have a prosecutor fired while the prosecutor was investigating Burisma. We rate this claim as False. Trump’s statement is projecting misinformation by omiting facts, and omiting the series of events that followed the Ukranian money laundering investigation.

This quote is referencing the claim alleging that Biden (then Vice President) pressed to have a prosecutor fired while the prosecutor was investigating Burisma. We rate this claim as False. Trump’s statement is projecting misinformation by omiting facts, and omiting the series of events that followed the Ukranian money laundering investigation.

Unfounded claims and misleading statements earn this New York Post story a rating of False. Several red flags raise doubts about its authenticity, and the allegations have yet to be independently verified and reported.

President Donald Trump participated in a town hall hosted by Savannah Guthrie of NBC News on October 15 in Florida. He claimed that Biden wants to raise taxes on “everybody” including “middle income” people. This is false. Joe Biden has vowed he won’t raise federal income taxes on anyone making under $400,000 a year.

We rate this claim as false. As we mentioned in a previous Fact Check, more testing does not mean that there’s a greater posiitivity rate of COVID-19. The number of positive cases is a simple data point: It shows the total number of people who have received positive COVID-19 test results. if this was just a case of more testing, the positivity rate should stay relatively consistent — unless the virus is spreading.