Facts Check

Quick Take Democrats tried but failed to expand Medicare coverage to include dental benefits in the Build Back Better bill. Yet a Facebook post tells seniors they have until Jan. 31 to apply for “free dental work” under a recently announced Medicare “stimulus.” There is no such program, and traditional […]

After the Food and Drug Administration pulled its authorization of two COVID-19 antibody drugs because the treatments are highly unlikely to work against the omicron variant, Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida misleadingly claimed the decision had been made “without a shred of clinical data” to support it. There may not […]

At a rally in Arizona on Jan. 15, former President Donald Trump waded into the debate over state policies allowing health systems to consider race as a risk factor when prioritizing the allocation of limited supplies of some COVID-19 therapeutics. According to Trump, it translates to white people being denied […]

SciCheck Digest Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who as a diabetic is at higher risk for severe illness from COVID-19, has participated remotely in recent Supreme Court arguments. But Ted Nugent posted a bogus headline on Facebook — using a CNBC logo and byline — with the unfounded claim that Sotomayor tested […]

In a nearly two-hour press conference, President Joe Biden stretched the facts and left out important context on vaccinations, funding for lead pipe removal, child poverty and more. Biden exaggerated his administration’s progress against COVID-19, saying that the U.S. is “adding about 9 million more vaccinations each week.” That number […]

Summary A year ago, Joseph R. Biden took office as the 46th president of the United States — inheriting an economy weakened by the COVID-19 pandemic, but with effective vaccines to finally deal with it. To mark Biden’s first year in office, we take stock of how the U.S. has performed under […]

SciCheck Digest Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, discussed a recent study that found that on the rare occasion when fully vaccinated people died from COVID-19, they often had multiple risk factors for severe disease. But her reference to vaccinated people was cut in a […]

Quick Take CNN chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta has reported extensively on the growing popularity of cannabis-based products. But a social media post, which links to a web page masquerading as a CNN article, falsely claims Gupta is selling cannabidiol gummies. A CNN spokesperson said the content on the […]

The demand for at-home, rapid COVID-19 tests — sparked by the fast-spreading omicron variant in December — has continued in 2022. With that demand have come questions about the tests’ efficacy, how to use them and where to get them. We answer those queries and more. We focus on the […]

Quick Take Politico misidentified Justice Sonia Sotomayor in a photo of a Jan. 7 dinner of Democrats – the same day she participated remotely in oral arguments. Politico corrected the error on Jan. 8. But social media posts continued to wrongly claim Sotomayor attended the dinner and appears in the […]