Facts Check

SciCheck Digest Monkeypox is a viral disease that spreads through close physical contact with an infected person and large respiratory droplets that don’t travel more than a few feet. A recent meme on social media gets the facts wrong about how the virus spreads, its severity and symptoms. Full Story […]

Quick Take The U.S. announced it had conducted a drone strike on July 31 killing al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri in Kabul. But social media posts make unfounded claims that al-Zawahiri had died in 2020 from asthma. The posts cite an unconfirmed story in a British tabloid, which reported a year […]

Quick Take Three stimulus payments have been sent to Americans to ease the economic impact of the pandemic. Social media posts are now sharing a false claim about a new, $40,000 federal stimulus loan. But it’s a marketing ploy. The bottom of the web page says, “This is not a […]

Political leanings: Nonpartisan 2020 total spending: N/A United Democracy Project is a nonpartisan super PAC created to advocate for political organizations and candidates that support the United States’ partnership with Israel. The super PAC “works to help elect candidates that share our vision and will be strong supporters of the […]

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said the Senate plans to hold its first vote on Aug. 6 on the Inflation Reduction Act, surprising legislation that he and West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, a previous holdout, announced on July 27.  The budget reconciliation bill that the two Democratic senators have agreed […]

Both political parties are spinning the facts on whether the Democrats’ Inflation Reduction Act would raise taxes. Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin says the climate bill “does not raise taxes” but merely closes tax “loopholes.” Republicans say it does raise taxes and would break President Joe Biden’s pledge not to raise […]

SciCheck Digest It’s estimated that COVID-19 vaccines have saved millions of lives, but false claims continue to cast doubt on their safety and efficacy. One such claim that has spread around the world falsely suggests that three Canadian doctors died from the shots. But they each died of a long-term […]

SciCheck Digest Viral claims have repeatedly misrepresented unverified data from a U.S. vaccine safety system that encourages reports of any potential side effects — whether they’re likely to be caused by the vaccine or not. Now we’re seeing the same phenomenon with a similar system in Germany. Some have wrongly […]

SciCheck Digest There is “unequivocal” evidence that humans are causing global warming, the U.N. climate change panel has said. But viral posts revive a 2014 video of Weather Channel co-founder John Coleman falsely claiming “climate change is not happening.” The channel, which supports the scientific consensus that climate change is […]

Tudor Dixon, a Republican candidate for governor in Michigan, proposes to phase out the state’s individual income tax, though she has not detailed how she would cut state government spending to make up for the lost revenue. Since the tax helps to fund the state police budget, a group backed […]