Tag: AP Fact Check

NOT REAL NEWS: A look at what didn’t happen this week

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A roundup of some of the most popular but completely untrue stories and visuals of the week. None of these are legit, even though they were shared widely on social media. The Associated Press checked them out. Here are the facts:

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Photo altered to include judge who approved Mar-a-Lago warrant

CLAIM: A photo shows Ghislaine Maxwell, the former girlfriend of Jeffrey Epstein who was convicted of sex trafficking, with U.S. Magistrate Bruce Reinhart, the judge who approved the FBI search warrant for Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate.

THE FACTS: This image has been manipulated by combining two separate, unrelated photos. Social media users are sharing the manipulated image that puts Reinhart and Maxwell together, making it appear she is rubbing his foot as he holds a bottle of bourbon and package of Oreos. “Ghislaine Maxwell and Judge Bruce Reinhart… looking awful cozy!” read one tweet of the image shared by hundreds. But reverse image searches show that the original photo of Maxwell was with Epstein, not Reinhart. That photo was released in 2021 as evidence in her trial and published by various news outlets. Maxwell was sentenced in June to 20 years in prison for helping Epstein sexually abuse underage girls. The AP identified the photo of Reinhart on a Facebook profile under his name. The caption indicates he was watching a football game. The manufactured image is circulating amid attention on Reinhart for approving the FBI search warrant for Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate. Reinhart is a former federal prosecutor and has served as a magistrate in West Palm Beach, Florida, since March 2018. Reinhart did at one point represent associates of Epstein. For example, court records reviewed by the AP show he was an attorney for Sarah Kellen, Epstein’s personal assistant. The search at Mar-a-Lago was part of an investigation into whether Trump took classified records from the White House to his Florida residence, according to people familiar with the matter, the AP reported.

— Associated Press writer Angelo Fichera in Philadelphia contributed this report.

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Monkeypox wasn’t found in Georgia drinking water

CLAIM: A news report shows that monkeypox has been detected in drinking water.

THE FACTS: The clip comes from an Atlanta-area news broadcast explaining how wastewater — not drinking water — can be tested for evidence of monkeypox’s spread. But the July 26 broadcast is being mischaracterized online to push the false claim that monkeypox has been found in residents’ tap water. The video shows a reporter explaining that the public works department in Fulton County, which encompasses Atlanta, is launching new efforts to try to detect monkeypox in the community. While the news report is playing in the video, a viewer filming their TV screen can be heard in the background saying “there’s monkeypox in the water.” TikTok and Twitter users are sharing the clip out of context to suggest it means that drinking water is contaminated or being intentionally tampered with. But the county’s tests have nothing to do with drinking water, nor did they reveal that the virus had been found in that supply. “The testing that we’re doing in wastewater for monkeypox DNA is completely separate from drinking water,” said Marlene Wolfe, an environmental microbiologist and epidemiologist at Atlanta’s Emory University, who is involved in the testing initiative. “We have not tested drinking water, we are not planning to test drinking water, we don’t have any expectations or concerns about monkeypox spreading through drinking water.” Experts say monkeypox is primarily spread through skin-to-skin contact such as sexual activity, or contact with items that previously touched an infected person’s rash or body fluids. Dr. Mark Slifka, a microbiology and immunology expert and professor at the Oregon National Primate Research Center, confirmed that “there is really no way” that monkeypox can be transmitted through drinking water. “Historically, there has been no evidence of monkeypox spread through drinking water and currently during this global outbreak, there is absolutely no evidence for monkeypox being spread through drinking water,” Slifka wrote in an email. Wolfe said that people infected with monkeypox excrete virus DNA through skin lesions, saliva, feces and urine, which, much like COVID-19, can enter wastewater through sewage that is produced after showering, flushing toilets and more. That water can be tested using PCR technology to determine whether certain viruses are being spread. This method has also been widely used for earlier detection of new COVID-19 waves. Data released after the news report found that wastewater samples from two areas in Fulton County have tested positive for monkeypox. Meanwhile, drinking water comes from separate reservoirs that go through different quality and treatment processes to make it drinkable. “That’s a totally different department. We only handle wastewater,” said Patrick Person, a Fulton County water quality manager. He added that wastewater is also eventually sanitized before being returned to the environment.

— Associated Press writer Sophia Tulp in New York contributed this report.

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Tweet misrepresents Kenyan president’s speech

CLAIM: Video shows outgoing Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta publicly admitting that his deputy president, William Ruto, will win the presidential elections on Aug. 9.

THE FACTS: A tweet in English gave an incorrect description of the video, where Kenyatta speaks his mother tongue, Kikuyu. Kenyans headed to the polls on Tuesday to select a successor to Kenyatta, who has spent a decade in power. One candidate in the race is Raila Odinga, an opposition leader, who is backed by Kenyatta, his former rival. The other candidate is Ruto, Kenyatta’s deputy who fell out with the president. While Kenyatta was commissioning a dam project last week in Gatundu, a town in Kiambu County, he addressed the crowd from a car’s sunroof on Aug. 1. A Twitter user shared a video of Kenyatta’s speech and provided a false description in English: “President Uhuru Kenyatta publicly admits that DP@WilliamsRuto will WIN the August 9, Elections,” the tweet states. The AP translated the video, confirming that Kenyatta does not mention that Ruto will win. Instead, Kenyatta cautioned people against voting for Ruto. Kenyatta encouraged residents to vote for leaders allied with Odinga, a tweet from Kenya’s State House notes. “You are told to refuse us because they claim they are hustlers and they will bring you this and that,” Kenyatta said in the video. “Ask yourself what you are given. And when someone enters that house they look at you with a mean eye,” he continued, referring to the State House, the official residence of Kenya’s president. Ruto often refers to himself as a “hustler” who rose from humble beginnings, compared to Kenyatta and Odinga, who have elite backgrounds, the AP has reported. Multiple media outlets in Kenya also reported on the speech and made no mention of Kenyatta telling residents Ruto will win.

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WHO chief is vaccinated against COVID-19, contrary to false claim

CLAIM: Video shows World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus saying he isn’t vaccinated against COVID-19.

THE FACTS: The clip is from a documentary and shows part of an interview, filmed weeks after Ghebreyesus was vaccinated, in which he says at one point that he waited for better global vaccine equity before receiving his own shot. But the clip is circulating on social media without context to falsely claim that it shows the WHO leader expressing that he had not been vaccinated against COVID-19. “Tedros not jabbed?” reads one tweet, which garnered more than 8,000 likes. The 35-second clip shows a portion of a 2021 interview of Tedros by Jon Cohen, a writer for the publication Science. The interview was included in a documentary, “ How to Survive a Pandemic,” which runs more than 100 minutes. The clip shows Cohen asking Ghebreyesus when he was vaccinated, and then cuts to the WHO director-general responding: “You know, still I feel like I know where I belong: in a poor country called Ethiopia, in a poor continent called Africa, and wanted to wait until Africa and other countries, in other regions, low-income countries, start vaccination. So I was protesting, in other words, because we’re failing.” But the documentary never claimed Ghebreyesus was not vaccinated, nor did Ghebreyesus’ response indicate as much. In the full June 12, 2021, interview — which was edited for the documentary — Ghebreyesus in fact did reply that he was vaccinated on May 12, according to the Science article by Cohen that followed. Ghebreyesus also publicly posted a photo on Twitter showing him receiving his vaccine that day, which he followed with a post about vaccine equity. The date was not included in the portion of the response shown in the documentary, Cohen confirmed to the AP. Cohen responded to the erroneous claim about Ghebreyesus’ vaccination status on Twitter, calling it a “lie,” and pointing to his written interview. The filmmaker, David France, said in an interview with the AP that the important part of Ghebreyesus’ answer was his explanation that he had waited for better vaccine equity before getting his own shot. But, he said, Ghebreyesus’ explanation that he had waited was clearly in the past tense. “In the context of the film, it was the wait — and the reason for the wait — that was the core part of his answer, and that’s what we included,” France said.

— Angelo Fichera

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Earth spinning faster is no cause for concern, scientists say

CLAIM: The Earth is spinning faster and days are getting shorter, a change that is noticeable and cause for immediate concern.

THE FACTS: While the Earth on June 29 did indeed record its shortest-ever day since the adoption of the atomic clock standard in 1970 — at 1.59 milliseconds less than 24 hours — scientists say this is a normal fluctuation. Still, news of the faster rotation led to misleading posts on social media about the significance of the measurement, leading some to express concern about its implications. “They broke news of earth spinning faster which seems like it should be bigger news,” claimed one tweet that was shared nearly 35,000 times. “We so desensitized to catastrophe at this point it’s like well what’s next.” Some Twitter users responded to these tweets with jokes, as well as skepticism about the magnitude of the measurement. Others, however, voiced worries about how it would affect them. But scientists told the AP that the Earth’s rotational speed fluctuates constantly and that the record-setting measurement is nothing to panic over. “It’s a completely normal thing,” said Stephen Merkowitz, a scientist and project manager at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. “There’s nothing magical or special about this. It’s not such an extreme data point that all the scientists are going to wake up and go, what’s going on?” Andrew Ingersoll, an emeritus professor of planetary science at the California Institute of Technology, agreed with this assessment. “The Earth’s rotation varies by milliseconds for many reasons,” he wrote in an email to the AP. “None of them are cause for concern.” The slight increase in rotational speed also does not mean that days are going by noticeably faster. Merkowitz explained that standardized time was once determined by how long it takes the Earth to rotate once on its axis — widely understood to be 24 hours. But because that speed fluctuates slightly, that number can vary by milliseconds. Scientists in the 1960s began working with atomic clocks to measure time more accurately. The official length of a day, scientifically speaking, now compares the speed of one full rotation of the Earth to time taken by atomic clocks, Merkowitz said. If those measurements get too out of sync, the International Earth Rotation and Reference Systems Service, an organization that maintains global time, may fix the discrepancy by adding a leap second. And despite recent decreases in the length of a day over the last few years, days have actually been getting longer over the course of several centuries, according to Judah Levine, a physicist in the Time and Frequency Division of the National Institute of Standards and Technology. He added that the current trend was not predicted, but agreed it’s nothing to worry about. Many variables impact the Earth’s rotation, such as influences from other planets or the moon, as well as how Earth’s mass redistributes itself. For example, ice sheets melting or weather events that create a denser atmosphere, according to Merkowitz. But the kind of event that would move enough mass to affect the Earth’s rotation in a way that is perceptible to humans would be something dire like the planet being hit by a giant meteor, Merkowitz said.

— Associated Press writer Melissa Goldin in New York contributed this report.

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Find AP Fact Checks here: https://apnews.com/APFactCheck

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September 23, 2022
NOT REAL NEWS: A look at what didn’t happen this week

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A roundup of some of the most popular but completely untrue stories and visuals of the week. None of these are legit, even though they were shared widely on social media. The Associated Press checked them out. Here are the facts:

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Congress didn’t exempt its members from IRS audits

CLAIM: Members of the U.S. Congress recently voted to exempt themselves from IRS audits of their personal finances.

THE FACTS: Congress has not voted on any such measure, according to spokespeople for the IRS, the Speaker of the House and the House Ways and Means Committee. The unsupported claim that U.S. lawmakers voted to exempt themselves from IRS audits spread online this week after a tweet from an account that has posted numerous bogus claims was interpreted as real. “BREAKING,” read the Aug. 17 tweet, which amassed more than 13,000 shares. “In order to safeguard democracy, Congress has voted to exempt itself and its members from upcoming IRS audits.” Hours later, the same account hinted that it had been a joke, writing that “a shocking number of American adults” can’t spell or recognize the word “satire.” Still, the tweet was not deleted or labeled and the false claim has since circulated as real on Twitter and Instagram. A review of recent legislation passed in Congress found no bills matching this claim. The Inflation Reduction Act, which became law last week and sparked an onslaught of misinformation about the IRS, did not include any such provision. Terry Lemons, communications and liaison chief at the IRS, confirmed to The Associated Press that the claim was false, and that “all tax filers are treated equally under the tax law.” Henry Connelly, spokesperson for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, said the claim was “nonsense.” Dylan Peachey, a spokesperson for the House Ways and Means Committee, also confirmed the claim was false.

— Associated Press writer Ali Swenson in New York contributed this report.

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Posts exaggerate adult fentanyl deaths in the U.S.

CLAIM: Fentanyl is the leading cause of death for adults in the U.S.

THE FACTS: Fentanyl overdose deaths, while high, are not the leading cause of deaths among all adults in the U.S., experts say. Heart disease and cancer kill more people, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Social media users, including some Republican elected officials, claimed that the synthetic opioid is the No. 1 killer of adults in the U.S. “Fentanyl is the leading cause of death among American adults,” Rep. Beth Van Duyne, R-Texas, wrote on Twitter. “Until @POTUS secures our southern border, this crisis will only get worse.” The congresswoman’s tweet was also shared by House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif. This is not the case, according to experts and CDC data. “It absolutely is not the leading cause of death for all adults,” said Kenneth Leonard, director of the University at Buffalo Clinical and Research Institute on Addictions. “I wouldn’t minimize fentanyl as a problem, but it’s certainly hard to say it’s the leading cause of death,” said Lewis Nelson, a professor of pharmacology, physiology and neuroscience at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School. That distinction goes to heart disease and cancer, said Dan Ciccarone, a professor of family and community medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. About 71,000 people died from overdosing on synthetic opioids like fentanyl in 2021, up from almost 58,000 in 2020, according to the CDC. In comparison, the CDC estimates that in 2020, almost 700,000 people died from heart disease, roughly 600,000 from cancer and around 350,000 due to COVID-19. Spokespeople for McCarthy did not respond to the AP’s request for comment. Andrea Coker, a spokesperson for Van Duyne, wrote in an email that while heart disease may be the leading killer of older American adults, the “cdc is stating fentanyl is the leading cause of death for Americans 18-45.” As part of her response, Coker provided a link to an analysis conducted by the Ohio-based nonprofit Families Against Fentanyl that determined fentanyl was the top killer of people ages 18-45 in 2019 and 2020. The group analyzed publicly available CDC data by comparing synthetic opioid deaths to other causes of death over the last few years, according to spokesperson Moira Muntz. The CDC has not verified that fentanyl is the top killer among people in that age group, said Jeff Lancashire, a spokesperson for the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics. The agency uses death certificates to determine the leading causes of death in the U.S. In its datasets, fentanyl deaths are included as part of a larger category of deaths attributed to synthetic opioids. Synthetic opioids, which include drugs like fentanyl and tramadol, are different from natural opioids, like morphine, and semi-synthetic opioids, such as oxycodone, according to the CDC. While fentanyl accounts for the majority of synthetic opioid deaths, the CDC lacks breakout data on deaths caused by fentanyl specifically, Lancashire said. Drug overdose deaths are spread over four different cause of death categories, though the majority of them land in the “accidental” category. The rest are classified as suicides, homicides or undetermined. According to preliminary 2021 data, accidents were the leading cause of death among 18-45 year-olds, with accidental synthetic opioid overdoses amounting to less than half of those deaths, Lancashire wrote. “It doesn’t appear that fentanyl alone is the leading cause of death among 18-45 year olds and definitely is NOT the leading cause of death among all adults,” he wrote. “However, we don’t break down the leading causes in such a way that we can rank fentanyl anywhere.”

— Associated Press writer Josh Kelety in Phoenix contributed this report.

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Florida didn’t ban ‘To Kill a Mockingbird,’ as fake list suggests

CLAIM: The state of Florida banned “To Kill a Mockingbird” in schools, along with a number of other popular titles on a “Banned Book List.”

THE FACTS: Florida hasn’t forced schools to stop teaching Harper Lee’s classic novel “To Kill a Mockingbird,” despite misleading posts that amassed thousands of shares on social media. The false claim erupted after various social media users shared a list of book titles and said it showed books banned in Florida, including “To Kill a Mockingbird” and other well-known titles such as “A Wrinkle in Time,” “The Giver,” and “Of Mice and Men.” Bryan Griffin, press secretary for Florida’s Republican governor, confirmed in several tweets that the claim was false. “The State of Florida has not banned To Kill a Mockingbird,” Griffin tweeted. “In fact, Florida RECOMMENDS the book in 8th grade.” The tweet linked to Florida’s state Benchmarks for Excellent Student Thinking, or BEST, standards, which include the book as a sample text for eighth grade students. Jeremy Redfern, deputy press secretary for the governor, told the AP in an email that there is no banned book list at the state level, and that the “Banned Book List” circulating online was fake. “The state sets guidelines regarding content, and the local school districts are responsible for enforcing them,” Redfern said. The Palm Beach County School District temporarily removed “To Kill a Mockingbird” from classrooms to review it earlier this year, but has since returned it, according to the Florida Freedom to Read Project. The Palm Beach County School District told the AP in an email that it had reviewed 2.5 million books over the summer and was in compliance with Florida’s parental rights legislation. The Florida Freedom to Read Project, which tracks book removals across Florida school districts, said its research did not find any other recent bans of the title in Florida schools, though it relies on documentation from the state’s school districts, which have not all responded in recent months. “There is no way for us to say for sure that the title is still available in every district, but it definitely isn’t banned across the state,” said Stephana Ferrell, cofounder of the Florida Freedom to Read Project. Tasslyn Magnusson, an independent researcher who tracks book banning attempts nationwide, also said she was not aware of any recent bans on “To Kill a Mockingbird” in Florida school districts. She said the widely shared “Banned Book List” also didn’t match up with her own data.

— Ali Swenson

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Flawed calculation fuels falsehood on Pfizer vaccine and pregnancies

CLAIM: Pfizer documents show that 44% of pregnancies reported during its COVID-19 vaccine trial ended with miscarriages.

THE FACTS: The claim is based on a flawed calculation that, among other issues, twice counted some of the same reported miscarriages — which also were not established to be caused by the vaccine. Thousands of social media users in recent days spread the erroneous claim that newly released documents showed that nearly half of all pregnancies in the Pfizer vaccine trial resulted in miscarriages. “Massacre: Nearly Half of Pregnant Women in Pfizer Trial Miscarried,” one widely shared headline claimed. The claim first appeared Aug. 12 in a blog run by Naomi Wolf, an author who has gained attention in recent years for spreading COVID-19 misinformation. The blog post falsely claimed that documents from the Food and Drug Administration revealed “chilling data showing 44 percent of pregnant women participating in Pfizer’s mRNA COVID vaccine trial suffered miscarriages.” Asked for comment, the Daily Clout noted in a statement to the AP that it had issued a correction. The post was updated to say in a footnote that the 44% figure is “incorrect.” As of Friday, the post was no longer accessible. The original blog post cited a more than 3,600-page document of Pfizer information dated March 2021 and submitted to the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research. The blog post pointed to 22 references in the document to spontaneous abortions, or a pregnancy loss without outside intervention before the 20th week of pregnancy. The blog also noted that a table within the same document showed 50 pregnancies that occurred among trial participants after receiving their first dose. Using those numbers, the blog wrongly concluded that nearly half of pregnancies in the trial resulted in miscarriages. But Jeffrey Morris, director of the division of biostatistics at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine, told the AP in an email that the post’s methodology contained “numerous mistakes.” The blog’s 22 references to miscarriages actually count about half of the same events twice, Morris said. That’s evident by comparing the unique ID numbers of the clinical trial participants for each of the reports. For example, a single miscarriage reported by one participant in October 2020 was recorded in a “Listing of Adverse Events” as well as a subsequent “Listing of Serious Adverse Events,” though they refer to the same instance. Such reported adverse events are also not confirmed to be caused by the vaccine, but are simply events that occurred after a participant received a shot. Beyond that, Morris pointed out that, of the unique miscarriage events in the document, only three of the subjects appear in the table that lists 50 pregnancies that occurred after participants received their first dose. That means the table is not a listing of all participants who were pregnant during the clinical trial, and therefore can’t be used to calculate the miscarriage rate as the website did. Miscarriages are not uncommon: It’s estimated that about 10% to 20% of known pregnancies result in miscarriage. The AP has previously debunked similar claims that misrepresented Pfizer data to assert that the vaccine was dangerous to pregnancies. In reality, a 2021 study in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that COVID-19 vaccine exposure did not increase the odds of a spontaneous abortion. And a study published in the New England Journal of Medicine the same year found that the risk of spontaneous abortion after mRNA COVID-19 vaccination was consistent with the expected risk of spontaneous abortion. A Pfizer spokesperson declined to comment on the specific claim. The FDA did not return a request for comment.

— Associated Press writer Angelo Fichera in Philadelphia contributed this report.

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Find AP Fact Checks here: https://apnews.com/APFactCheck

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This story was first published on August 26, 2022. It was updated on August 29, 2022, to make clear that the Palm Beach County School District responded on Aug. 25, 2022, that it had reviewed 2.5 million books over the summer and was in compliance with Florida’s parental rights legislation.

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September 23, 2022
NOT REAL NEWS: A look at what didn’t happen this week

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A roundup of some of the most popular but completely untrue stories and visuals of the week. None of these are legit, even though they were shared widely on social media. The Associated Press checked them out. Here are the facts:

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Posts misrepresent Biden 2020 campaign committee filing

CLAIM: President Joe Biden has officially filed for reelection with the Federal Election Commission.

THE FACTS: Biden has not formally filed for reelection, social media users are misrepresenting an updated administrative document that was recently filed with the FEC by his principal 2020 presidential campaign committee. “BREAKING REPORT: (NOT PARODY) Joe Biden Has Officially Filed to RUN FOR RE-ELECTION in 2024,” one Twitter user wrote on Tuesday. The tweet was shared over 1,900 times. “Joe Robinette Biden has just officially filed for Reelection with the Federal Election Committee today – running again with Kamala Harris as his Vice President,” an Instagram user wrote, also on Tuesday. But Biden has not officially declared his candidacy for reelection, according to FEC filings. Biden’s principal campaign committee for the 2020 general election, titled Biden for President, filed a statement of organization form on Tuesday. But this form is different from a statement of candidacy form, which would indicate a candidate is officially running. “These claims that he’s declared for 2024 are flatly untrue based on these filings,” said Kenneth Mayer, a professor of political science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The new filing amended the committee’s statement of organization to “reflect new treasurer information,” said Judith Ingram, a spokesperson for the FEC. Presidential candidates file statements of candidacy for election cycles that they are participating in, and Biden has not filed such a form for the 2024 election cycle, she said. A Democratic National Committee official confirmed that the campaign committee’s filing is “not a re-election filing.” “This is just updating the form to change the treasurer name because the former treasurer is taking a government job,” the official said in an email. A candidate filing by the Biden campaign on the FEC website would be the “clearest indicator that Biden has ‘officially’ launched a reelection campaign,” Barry Burden, founding director of the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Elections Research Center, wrote in an email to the AP. But this hasn’t happened yet. Candidates can also become official candidates in the eyes of the FEC if they raise or spend more than $5,000, according to the agency. The 2020 Biden campaign committee is still active to process minor financial transactions, which is similar to what other presidential campaigns have done, according to Burden.

— Associated Press writer Josh Kelety in Phoenix contributed this report.

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UK didn’t change guidance on COVID vaccines and pregnancies

CLAIM: The U.K. government recently changed its COVID-19 vaccine guidance to advise against Pfizer’s shot for pregnant and breastfeeding people.

THE FACTS: The guidance has not changed. Social media users are misrepresenting a section of a summary report about Pfizer’s shot that was published by the U.K.’s medical regulatory agency in 2020. Posts circulating widely in recent days spread the false assertion that Pfizer’s COVID-19 shot isn’t safe for pregnancies and wrongly claimed that the U.K. government has conceded as much. “The UK now admits it’s not safe for pregnant women to get the vaccine,” reads a tweet that garnered more than 1,300 likes. But the U.K. government is in support of, not against, vaccinating pregnant people, health officials confirmed. The social media posts pointed to a screenshot of a “Toxicity conclusions” section from an online report titled, “Summary of the Public Assessment Report for COVID-19 Vaccine Pfizer/BioNTech.” That report was published by the U.K.’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency in 2020 as part of the vaccine’s initial authorization process and was last updated on Aug. 16. The “Toxicity conclusions” section suggested that those who were pregnant or breastfeeding not be vaccinated, but also said that the recommendations “reflect the absence of data at the present time and do not reflect a specific finding of concern.” However, that specific section was reflective of what was known nearly two years ago when the vaccine was first rolling out — and before additional data became available. “The text referred to in social media posts comes from the Public Assessment Report (PAR) which reflects our assessment at the time of approval for the vaccine (2 December 2020),” the MHRA said in a statement provided to The Associated Press. “Since then new data has come to light (both non-clinical and post-authorisation ‘real world’ data) which supports the updated advice on vaccinating those who are pregnant and breastfeeding.” An archived version of the same page from December 2020 also confirms that the “Toxicity conclusions” section has remained the same. The MHRA specifically notes elsewhere online that the COVID-19 vaccines, including Pfizer’s, are safe for those who are pregnant and breastfeeding. Dr. Victoria Male, a lecturer in reproductive immunology at Imperial College London, told the AP that the confusion appeared to stem from the Aug. 16 update to the Pfizer documents. But that change dealt with information on booster shots, she said, as a note on a connected page indicates. Male also said that the U.K. government’s advice on COVID-19 vaccines and pregnancies hasn’t changed. “Since April 2021, the UK government has offered the COVID vaccine during pregnancy,” Male said in an email. “Since December 2021, pregnancy has been considered a priority condition for vaccination, because we know that COVID infection in pregnancy can cause stillbirth and preterm birth, and that vaccination protects against these and is safe in pregnancy.” An independent advisory group, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation, recommended in July that pregnant people who have been previously vaccinated be offered an autumn booster.

— Associated Press writers Angelo Fichera in Philadelphia and Sophia Tulp in New York contributed this report. ___

Video shows water tanker for bank, not Mississippi governor’s mansion

CLAIM: A video shows a tanker truck outside the governor’s mansion in Jackson, Mississippi, supplying the residence with water amid the city’s water crisis.

THE FACTS: The tanker, which is parked across the street from the governor’s mansion, is there as a standby solution for the headquarters of a bank at that location. In the six-second video, the tanker can be seen parked on North West Street in downtown Jackson before the camera pans across the street to the governor’s mansion. The widely-shared clip has sparked outrage among social media users as the city works to restore water pressure, while many residents remain reliant on water distribution centers. “There is currently no running water in Jackson, Mississippi,” one Twitter user wrote. “The heat index is over 100 degrees. Schools are closed. People can’t cook, clean, drink, or bathe. But at least @tatereeves has a giant water truck providing him with clean water at the governor’s mansion.” The tweet garnered nearly 8,000 shares and nearly 18,000 likes. But the water tanker is for the headquarters of Trustmark Bank, located across the street from the governor’s mansion, according to Danny Shows, president and CEO of 4D Solutions, the emergency preparedness company that provided the vehicle. He told the AP that “by no means” was the tanker delivering water to the governor’s mansion. Shows explained that the water tanker is a back-up solution for the building, in case Jackson’s downtown area completely loses water pressure. Melanie Morgan, director of corporate communications and marketing for Trustmark, confirmed that the bank brought in the water tanker for its building “out of abundance of caution.” She told the AP that the tanker does not contain potable drinking water and is intended for building services such as air conditioning and restroom facilities. “We’ve engaged a contractor to bring in the tanker for us in order to keep our building operational,” Morgan said, adding that the bank wants to be able to relieve pressure on the city’s water system if necessary. She confirmed that the water tanker remains at the bank’s headquarters next to the governor’s mansion, but said that because the building still has “more than adequate water pressure,” the tanker has not yet been used. Shelby Wilcher, Tates’ press secretary, wrote in an email to the AP that the water tanker “is not supporting the Governor’s Mansion or any other state assets.” She added that the residence gets its water from the Jackson water system and that many businesses have brought in their own tankers. Jackson’s water system partially failed early this week due to flooding that exacerbated long-standing problems in one of the city’s two water-treatment plants, the AP reported. Reeves declared a state of emergency in Jackson on Tuesday, while President Joe Biden declared a state of emergency in Mississippi as a whole the same day.

— Associated Press writer Melissa Goldin in New York contributed this report. ___

New York law doesn’t ban minors from buying whipped cream

CLAIM: A New York law that aims to crack down on nitrous oxide abuse makes it illegal for anyone under age 21 to purchase a can of whipped cream.

THE FACTS: The law doesn’t apply to store-bought, disposable whipped cream cans, meaning customers of any age can still legally purchase canned whipped cream in New York stores without having to show identification. Social media users, news outlets and operators of grocery and convenience stores have in recent days misinterpreted a year-old New York law aimed at cracking down on recreational use of the gas nitrous oxide. Commonly called laughing gas, nitrous oxide is used as a sedative in some medical situations and can also be used as a whipping agent for culinary purposes. However, the gas is also often inhaled from metal cartridges — so-called “whippits” — to induce a euphoric effect, despite serious health risks. The New York law, which went into effect in November, attempted to make it harder for minors to access such cartridges by prohibiting New York businesses from selling the small, gas-containing metal capsules to anyone under 21. But language in the bill describing the cartridges as “whipped cream chargers” led to widespread confusion. “New York recently passed a state law that prohibits anyone under age 21 to purchase a can of whipped cream,” wrote one popular Twitter account. The post linked to a news article making the same claim, and was shared nearly 5,000 times. The claim was further spread through headlines and stories in dozens of news outlets as some grocery store operators recently began enforcing what they believed was language that required them to ask for identification before selling whipped cream canisters, such as Reddi-wip, to customers. However, the law doesn’t apply to these types of canisters, Sen. Joseph Addabbo, the Democrat who sponsored the bill, confirmed to the AP. “Anyone can buy, without being carded or ID’d, a can of Reddi-wip or any other canister of whipped cream,” Addabbo told the AP. “What a minor can’t buy is the two-inch whipped cream charger, or cartridge that is filled with nitrous oxide.” The bill amends New York general business law, and adds a new section that defines the term “whipped cream charger” as “a steel cylinder or cartridge filled with nitrous oxide, that is commonly used in a whipped cream dispenser.” Reusable whipped cream dispensers, like the ones found in restaurants or coffee shops, are powered by such metal cartridges. But those chargers are not found inside the disposable whipped cream cans that are sold in most grocery stores. Disposable whipped cream cans contain a combination of cream and nitrous oxide that’s expelled under pressure through the bottle’s nozzle.

— Sophia Tulp

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September 23, 2022
NOT REAL NEWS: A look at what didn’t happen this week

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A roundup of some of the most popular but completely untrue stories and visuals of the week. None of these are legit, even though they were shared widely on social media. The Associated Press checked them out. Here are the facts:

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Judge’s order doesn’t show Biden ordered FBI search

CLAIM: A federal court order in the legal dispute over government documents held by former President Donald Trump shows President Joe Biden ordered the FBI search at Trump’s Florida home.

THE FACTS: While Monday’s court order from U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon does include the phrase “as requested by the incumbent president” it’s not related to last month’s search at Mar-a-Lago. The phrase comes from a May letter from the National Archives denying Trump’s request to delay turning over documents to the FBI. Cannon granted Trump’s request for a special master to review documents seized by the FBI from Mar-a-Lago on Aug. 8. Her 24-page order notes that the National Archives and Records Administration informed Trump on May 10 that it would proceed with “provid(ing) the FBI access to the records in question, as requested by the incumbent President, beginning as early as Thursday, May 12, 2022.” Conservative outlets and social media users quickly seized on that phrasing as evidence that Biden had been aware of the FBI’s plans to raid Trump’s Palm Beach resort, and in fact had ordered it — something he and his administration have steadfastly denied. “‘As requested by the incumbent president,’” Rasmussen Reports tweeted. “Joe Biden initiated the Mar-a-Lago raid, then lied about doing so to Americans repeatedly. Let that sink in.” But the phrase in question is only a partial quote from the May 10 letter from the National Archives to Trump’s lawyer. In it, Debra Steidel Wall, acting head of the National Archives, rejects Trump’s request to delay turning over some 15 boxes of records to the FBI and lays out the timeline of her agency’s lengthy quest to gather government documents held by the former president. Wall notes that the 15 boxes provided by Trump in January 2022 included “classified national security information.” That prompted her agency to inform the U.S. Department of Justice, which then sought and was granted access to the documents from the White House on April 11, she said. Under the Presidential Records Act, any requests for presidential records held by the National Archives must be approved by the current president, not archive officials. “Accordingly, NARA will provide the FBI access to the records in question, as requested by the incumbent President, beginning as early as Thursday, May 12, 2022,” Wall’s letter concludes. The Biden administration declined to comment on the record Tuesday but pointed to its prior statements on the May letter. Spokesperson Karine Jean Pierre has argued that the missive illustrates how removed the White House has been from the Department of Justice investigation. “It shows that DOJ made a request for access to an older set of documents independently and the White House affirmed it, which is standard,” she said at an Aug. 29 press briefing. “And when former President Trump attempted to assert executive privilege to block the FBI from assessing the document, President Biden deferred to the National Archives and the DOJ Office of Legal Counsel on the issue.”

— Associated Press writer Philip Marcelo in New York contributed this report.

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Posts mislead on NIH COVID-19 guidelines for ivermectin

CLAIM: The National Institutes of Health recently added ivermectin to a list of COVID-19 treatments.

THE FACTS: The NIH COVID-19 treatment guidelines website says the agency recommends against the use of ivermectin for the treatment of COVID-19, except in clinical trials. The page outlining data on antiviral medications has included an entry for ivermectin since at least June 2021. Social media users in recent days shared the false claim that the NIH just added ivermectin to the website, with many suggesting that the agency was now endorsing the anti-parasitic drug for use against the virus. “Yesterday the National institute of health added Ivermectin to the list of covid treatment,” reads one Twitter post with more than 44,000 likes. “Looks like the conspiracy theorist were right and the ‘experts’ wrong once again.” Many of the tweets point to an NIH webpage on the agency’s COVID-19 treatment guidelines that provides information on antiviral therapies that are being evaluated, or have been evaluated, as possible treatments for COVID-19. However, the page does not say the NIH recommends using ivermectin for treating COVID. Clicking the entry for ivermectin leads to a page that says: “The Panel recommends against the use of ivermectin for the treatment of COVID-19, except in clinical trials.” The entry for ivermectin is also not new. Caches stored by the Internet Archive’s WayBack Machine shows the data for ivermectin studies has been listed on the antiviral therapies page as early as June 2021. The specific ivermectin page at the time said: “There are insufficient data for the COVID-19 Treatment Guidelines Panel (the Panel) to recommend either for or against the use of ivermectin for the treatment of COVID-19.” The page was updated on April 29, 2022, to add the current language recommending against treating COVID with ivermectin. Dr. H. Clifford Lane, clinical director at the NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, confirmed to the AP that the panel that oversees the COVID-19 treatment guidelines does not recommend ivermectin as a COVID-19 treatment, except in clinical trials. “The body of evidence suggests it does not work,” Lane wrote in an email to the AP. “There are other medications that have strong evidence of efficacy. The concerns are not about safety but lack of efficacy.” Lane is also one of three co-chairs of a panel that oversees those guidelines. Ivermectin is not authorized or approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for use against COVID-19, and most health experts and agencies recommend against prescribing the anti-parasite drug for this purpose. Significant misinformation about ivermectin has spread throughout the pandemic.

— Associated Press writer Karena Phan in Los Angeles contributed this report.

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Experts agree sun exposure is a cancer risk

CLAIM: The sun does not cause cancer and people should stop wearing sunscreen because it is poisonous.

THE FACTS: Ultraviolet radiation from the sun is a major risk factor in developing skin cancer, and while some researchers have raised concerns that certain chemicals found in sunscreen may be harmful, its benefits outweigh any potential risks, experts and federal health authorities agree. A popular post circulating on Instagram this week featured a picture of a person lying in the sand overlaid with the text, “the sun doesn’t cause cancer.” A caption on the post, which received more than 18,000 likes, implored people to “PLEASE stop wearing poisonous SUNSCREEN!” But cancer experts widely agree that solar radiation plays a role in the development of skin cancer. “Most cases of skin cancer are caused by overexposure to ultraviolet (UV) rays from the sun, tanning beds, or sunlamps,” the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states on its website. The National Cancer Institute, which is part of the U.S. National Institutes of Health, similarly advises that “exposure to UV radiation causes early aging of the skin and damage that can lead to skin cancer.” Dr. Philip Friedlander, a medical oncologist specializing in skin cancer at New York’s Mount Sinai Hospital, told the AP that the sun is a clear risk factor in developing skin cancer, because UV rays can create mutations in skin cells. “The sun is a trigger for, mechanistically, causing damage to skin cells of various types that lead to different types of skin cancer,” he said. Health authorities such as the CDC and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration include sunscreen among their recommendations for protecting skin from the sun, despite claims that sunscreen is poisonous. Some researchers have raised concerns about certain chemicals found in sunscreen. In May 2021, an independent research lab called Valisure announced that it had found traces of benzene, a chemical that can cause cancer with repeated exposure at high levels, in 78 sunscreen and sun-related products. But benzene is not listed as an acceptable active ingredient in sunscreen by the FDA, which regulates sunscreen in the U.S. The FDA has acknowledged the Valisure findings and said that it is conducting its own evaluation to assess the data. Valisure’s findings led to voluntary recalls later in 2021 by Coppertone and Johnson & Johnson, whose products were among those tested. Edgewell Personal Care voluntarily recalled three batches of one of its sunscreen products in July 2022 following an internal review that found trace levels of benzene in those batches. A 2019 study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that repeated sunscreen use resulted in the absorption of the products’ active ingredients in participants’ bloodstream. It noted though that its findings did not mean that people should stop using sunscreen, and recommended further studies to determine the findings’ clinical significance. Still, multiple studies have shown that sunscreen reduces one’s chance of developing skin cancer. A 2020 review on the efficacy and safety of sunscreen published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal states that high-quality evidence has shown that sunscreen reduces the risk of developing skin cancer. It further advises that although “low-quality evidence has shown that some chemical sunscreen ingredients are systemically absorbed,” physicians should recommend the use of sunscreen. According to Friedlander, the protection afforded by sunscreen eclipses any possible harm. “We know that limiting sun exposure using sunscreen decreases the skin cancer risk in people who already have skin cancer,” he said. “Any benefits outweigh any potential, theoretical risks from the sunscreen.”

— Associated Press writer Melissa Goldin in New York contributed this report.

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September 23, 2022
NOT REAL NEWS: A look at what didn’t happen this week

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A roundup of some of the most popular but completely untrue stories and visuals of the week. None of these are legit, even though they were shared widely on social media. The Associated Press checked them out. Here are the facts:

___

Germany hasn’t stopped using COVID-19 vaccines

CLAIM: Germany has halted the use of all COVID-19 vaccines because they are unsafe.

THE FACTS: Germany continues to use COVID-19 vaccines and is expected to receive updated booster shots that also target omicron strains, according to health officials. Social media users in recent days have amplified a false claim that Germany has discontinued all COVID-19 vaccines. “BREAKING NEWS — GERMANY HALTS ALL C19 VACCINES, THEY ARE UNSAFE AND NO LONGER RECOMMENDED !!” reads one tweet shared more than 6,000 times. “NO ONE CAN GET IT & the vaccine license has been put on pause!!” On Telegram, posts advancing the erroneous claim included a news broadcast-style video in which a man identified as Stephan Kohn, a political scientist, pretends to be the new president of the Robert Koch Institute, Germany’s disease control agency. Kohn claims in the video that the government passed a “moratorium” and that COVID-19 vaccines are “not recommended any longer.” But that video was part of an event called “BasisCamp.live,” a fictional exercise that took place in Berlin in August. The Robert Koch Institute has actually been headed by Lothar Wieler since 2015. The suggestion that Germany has halted immunizations is false, a representative for the Federal Ministry of Health told the AP. “Germany has not banned or paused the COVID-19 vaccinations in Germany,” Kira Nübel said in an email. Nübel noted that Germany is currently slated to receive millions of more doses of Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines. The country will also receive deliveries of new combination or “bivalent” booster shots from Pfizer, which the European Commission authorized this week. The updated shots contain half the original vaccine that’s been used since December 2020 and half a formulation that targets today’s dominant omicron versions, BA.4 and BA.5, as the AP has reported.

— Associated Press writer Angelo Fichera in Philadelphia contributed this report. ___

Illinois law doesn’t make murder, other crimes ‘non-detainable’ offenses

CLAIM: Suspects facing serious charges including second-degree murder, kidnapping, robbery, burglary and arson will no longer be held in custody until trial under a new, first-in-the-nation Illinois law abolishing cash bail statewide.

THE FACTS: Judges in Illinois will still have discretion to order suspects for these and other serious crimes held in jail pending trial if they are deemed a threat to public safety or a flight risk, but the new law does impose higher standards to meet those conditions. Social media posts and conservative news outlets have been distorting how Illinois’ Pretrial Fairness Act, which is scheduled to take effect Jan. 1, will work. The posts list a range of violent crimes that they say will be considered “non-detainable,” including second-degree murder, kidnapping, robbery, burglary and arson. The posts also include dire warnings that Illinois communities will soon devolve into a real life version of “The Purge,” a horror movie where all crime is allowed on one night a year. “On January 1, 2023, Illinois will take its place in history when they become the first state to test out ‘The Purge’; in real life,” an Instagram user wrote on Monday. “The ironically named ‘SAFE-T’ act will charge and release criminals without cash bail for 12 now non-detainable offenses.” Illinois’ new law ends cash bail, or payments imposed by a judge, as a condition of a person’s release pending trial. It’s among the most contentious parts of the “Safe-T Act,” a wide-ranging criminal justice bill Illinois lawmakers passed in 2021 in response to the nationwide reckoning on racism and police brutality. But the law doesn’t create a new classification of “non-detainable” offenses, as critics claim. Suspects can still be jailed pretrial if they are considered a public safety risk or likely to flee to avoid criminal prosecution, said Lauryn Gouldin, a criminal law professor at Syracuse University in New York who studies pretrial detention and bail. The new law states: “Detention only shall be imposed when it is determined that the defendant poses a specific, real and present threat to a person, or has a high likelihood of willful flight.” Additionally, those charged with “forcible felonies,” ones in which probation isn’t an option if convicted, can also be detained pretrial under the law following a required court hearing, said Benjamin Ruddell, director of criminal justice policy at the American Civil Liberties Union of Illinois, which was among the local advocacy groups that supported the measure. That includes serious crimes such as first-degree murder and criminal sexual assault. Those arrested for forcible felonies such as second-degree murder, robbery, burglary, arson, kidnapping and aggravated battery — the crimes often cited by opponents of the bill on social media — are not required to have a detention hearing since they are offenses subject to probation. The suspects could, however, still be held in custody until trial if a judge determines they are a threat or flight risk. “Contrary to the false arguments advanced by opponents, the new pretrial system will not simply release every person arrested for a crime,” Jordan Abudayyeh, a spokesperson for Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker, wrote in an email. Still, the new law does impose higher standards for determining who is considered a public threat or a flight risk, and critics are concerned it will make it nearly impossible to detain a suspect ahead of trial. Prosecutors will now have to show a defendant poses a threat to a “specific, identifiable person or persons,” rather than a more general threat to the community, or they’d have to show that the person has a “high likelihood of willful flight.” “This is a much higher burden than commonly used today in courts throughout the country,” says Jon Walters, an assistant state’s attorney in the office of Will County State’s Attorney James Glasgow, who has been a vocal critic of the new law. “The new standards could potentially be insurmountable.”

— Associated Press writer Philip Marcelo in New York contributed this report.

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UK didn’t cancel all funerals on same day as queen’s service

CLAIM: All funeral services in the U.K. have been canceled on Sept. 19, the day Queen Elizabeth II is set to be buried.

THE FACTS: While some families are opting to postpone or reschedule services set for the day of the queen’s funeral, Sept. 19, there has been no countrywide cancellation order for private funerals on that day. Following the announcement that Monday would be observed as a public holiday in the U.K. to commemorate the queen’s burial, some social media users shared the inaccurate claim that all coinciding funerals would be canceled in deference to Britain’s longest-serving monarch. “Omg so all funerals due on the 19 th have been cancelled !My heartfelt sympathy with all those bereft families involved,” one Twitter user declared, receiving more than 22,000 likes and nearly 4,000 shares. But this isn’t the case. No blanket cancellation orders have been issued to cover funerals scheduled for the day, according to representatives from three of England’s funeral and crematorial industry groups. “There is no truth in this coverage,” Brendan Day, secretary of the U.K.’s Federation of Burial and Cremation Authorities, wrote in an email to the AP. “The advice being circulated is that all funerals booked for the 19th September proceed as arranged.” Terry Tennens, chief executive of the National Society of Allied and Independent Funeral Directors, and Deborah Smith, a spokesperson for the National Association of Funeral Directors, both confirmed that there was no countrywide call for cancellations. Tennens called the situation a “mixed picture” and added that he knew of two local authorities that opted to close their crematoriums that day, but also noted that crematoriums operated by authorities in at least five other localities would remain open, as would cemeteries and crematoriums run by private operators. “Some funerals will go ahead, others are moving to a different date – led by the needs & wishes of the bereaved families involved and in consultation with their chosen funeral venue,” Smith wrote in an email. The government on Saturday announced that Sept. 19 would be deemed a national bank holiday “to allow individuals, businesses and other organisations to pay their respects to Her Majesty and commemorate Her reign” on the day of her state funeral. Time off is not mandated for bank holidays and “the government cannot interfere in existing contractual arrangements between employers and workers,” according to the guidance. Tanya Khan, a spokesperson for the U.K. government’s Cabinet Office, confirmed that organizations and businesses are “under no obligation” to close offices or otherwise cancel or postpone events, and that those decisions were at the discretion of employers. The queen died at Balmoral Estate, her summer residence in Scotland, on Thursday at age 96, ending her 70-year reign.

— Associated Press writer Sophia Tulp in New York contributed this report.

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Mourning period for queen doesn’t affect tech devices

CLAIM: Nintendo and Apple devices as well as the Roblox gaming platform are displaying on-screen messages explaining that they are disabled during the national period of mourning for the late Queen Elizabeth II.

THE FACTS: These messages aren’t real, and there are no such interruptions. As the U.K. mourns the death of Elizabeth, some social media users are spreading baseless claims that its national period of mourning is hobbling tech devices and gaming platforms. “Don’t play Roblox in the UK,” read one widely shared tweet, which featured an image designed to look like an alert message on the gaming platform. The image featured a photo of the late queen and the text, “Disconnected: Queen Elizabeth II 1926-2022. This experience is unavailable for the Royal period of Mourning and will continue to be until Monday 19 September.” An Instagram post made the same claim about Nintendo, featuring an image of a handheld game console from the brand with a similar message on its screen. Meanwhile, Twitter users falsely claimed Apple iPads would display the message for any users who selected British English in their language settings. “Friendly warning, DO NOT set your iPad’s language to British English or it will go into mourning mode for the next couple of days,” read the tweet, which was shared more than 8,000 times. While some posters shared the images in jest, others seemed to believe the false claims, asking if there were exceptions for emergencies or expressing gratitude that they used Android devices. However, the claims are unfounded. “There’s no truth to the rumor,” a Nintendo representative confirmed to the AP in an email. “There have been no changes to where Roblox is available globally,” said Roblox spokesperson William Nevius. Apple did not respond to a request for comment, but an AP journalist’s iPhone displayed no such message when its language settings were changed to U.K. English. Apple’s tracking page for system issues reported no ongoing issues on Wednesday. The mourning period for the queen extends beyond the date of Sept. 19 mentioned in the false posts. Elizabeth’s funeral is scheduled for that day, and the mourning period will extend for a week after that, according to the royal family.

— Associated Press writer Ali Swenson in New York contributed this report.

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September 23, 2022