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SciCheck Digest The Federal Emergency Management Agency is deploying contracted medical workers to understaffed hospitals, where they are required to comply with COVID-19 vaccine mandates. But social media posts falsely claim that “doctors and nurses are being forced to quit over the mandates,” while the workers sent by FEMA are […]

Social media posts repeatedly misuse unverified reports to a federal database designed to detect safety issues in vaccines to falsely claim that COVID-19 vaccines are dangerous. In this video, FactCheck.org and Univision Noticias teamed up to debunk misleading statements spread by Fox News host Tucker Carlson.  More than 400 million […]

SciCheck Digest Former Secretary of State Colin Powell died from complications of COVID-19. Although he was fully vaccinated, he was also 84 years old and was a cancer patient who had undergone treatment for multiple myeloma — factors that put him at higher risk of a serious breakthrough illness. His […]

The percentage of Americans who say they would “definitely not” get the COVID-19 vaccine has remained relatively stable since 2020. And the daily number of people getting vaccinations had slid near a low point when President Joe Biden announced sweeping vaccine mandates. Yet, former President Donald Trump and his son […]

SciCheck Digest Studies show the COVID-19 vaccines boost the antibody levels and improve the immune response of those who previously had COVID-19. The vaccines do not “wipe out” the antibodies developed by a person who had recovered from the disease, as social media posts have falsely claimed for months. Full […]

Quick Take The U.S. is providing humanitarian aid through several independent organizations in Afghanistan, but not through the Taliban government. Yet an online article falsely claims that the Biden administration will “send the Taliban millions in US dollars,” and repeats a debunked claim about the cost of U.S. military weapons […]

In TV ads, the pharmaceutical industry claims congressional plans to allow the federal government to negotiate drug prices in Medicare would deny beneficiaries’ access to medicines their doctors prescribe. Experts say that’s unlikely, and an inaccurate portrayal of recent legislation. Under current law, the federal government is barred from negotiating […]

The recession caused by the COVID-19 pandemic officially lasted just two months and ended in April 2020. But Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg wrongly credited President Joe Biden for guiding “this economy out of the teeth of a terrifying recession.” Buttigieg made his remarks on CNN’s “State of the Union,” while […]

SciCheck Digest Merck and Pfizer are each developing a new oral antiviral drug that might prevent or treat COVID-19. The pills are very different from the antiparasitic medication ivermectin, contrary to claims online that they are “suspiciously similar” or that the companies are “repackaging” ivermectin in a ploy to increase […]

As of 2020, almost 52% of the United States population 25 to 34 years old had earned a postsecondary degree — putting the U.S. in 11th place among the 38 countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. The roughly 50% of U.S. residents 25 to 64 years old […]