Tag: Fact-checking

CLAIM: Everyone living in the Ohio River basin, as shown in the yellow area of a map, should be concerned about the safety of their drinking water after the derailment of a train in East Palestine, Ohio, contaminated the river.

AP’S ASSESSMENT: False. The map shows the region of land whose surface water drains into the Ohio River, not the region that gets its drinking water from the river. Many counties in the map get their drinking water from other sources, experts said. Contaminants including butyl acrylate have been detected in the Ohio River, but the amounts so far don’t pose a risk for cities that rely on the river for its drinking water, according to the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency and outside experts.

THE FACTS: A Feb. 3 train derailment in Ohio, and the decision to intentionally release and burn toxic vinyl chloride from five of its cars to avoid an uncontrolled explosion, have sparked worries in local residents over whether their air and drinking water are safe.

They’ve also generated a number of misleading and hyperbolic online claims about the degree to which the Ohio River and its surrounding states are affected.

Social media posts with tens of thousands of shares this week used a map of the Ohio River drainage basin, which touches parts of 14 states, to falsely claim that the entire region needed to be concerned about contaminants that had been detected in the river after the derailment.

One widely shared post claimed the contamination of the river was “extremely” concerning “to anyone living in or near the yellow area,” referring to the Ohio River basin on the map.

Other posts were less specific, sharing the news of the river’s contamination with the statistic that more than 30% of the U.S. population lives in the Ohio River basin.

Ohio officials in a news conference Tuesday did urge people in the East Palestine community to drink bottled water, especially if they use a private water source, until their water source can be tested.

However, officials said, areas in Central Ohio were unlikely to be impacted. And water quality experts say the idea that the entire Ohio River basin needs to worry about its drinking water is wrong.

The concentration of butyl acrylate, the only contaminant of concern that has been detected in the Ohio River, is much lower than the threshold considered hazardous, according to Patrick Ray, assistant professor of environmental engineering at the University of Cincinnati.

That concentration will continue to decrease as it moves downstream, Ray said, as a result of evaporation, dilution in a large body of water, and a little bit of decomposing. It’s likely to be nearly undetectable when it reaches Cincinnati in several days, he added.

The Ohio EPA agreed that the contaminant amounts found so far don’t pose a risk for cities that rely on the river for its drinking water.

What’s more, the use of a map of the entire Ohio River basin to suggest all areas are affected is misleading, according to Ray and Paul Ziemkiewicz, the director of the West Virginia University Water Research Institute.

“Indeed, last time I checked water still flows downhill,” Ziemkiewicz said. “So, only water supplies downstream and within the Ohio River’s pool elevations would be potentially affected.”

The Ohio River valley is the lowest point of the region pictured in the map, Ray explained. As a result, areas whose water flows downhill into the river, such as Kentucky, wouldn’t be affected by its contamination.

Many areas pictured in the map also get their water from sources besides the Ohio River, he said.

“This map is showing an extremely large region that includes many, many counties that have nothing to do with the Ohio River at all,” Ray said. “We would say it’s hydrologically distinct.”

The map’s creator, Karl Musser, confirmed to The Associated Press in an email that it showed the Ohio River drainage basin, not areas that get their drinking water from the river.

Similarly, many internet users this week falsely claimed that because the Ohio River ultimately drains into the Mississippi River, thousands of farms that rely on the Mississippi River for water risk contamination.

But Ray said the Ohio River is nearly 1,000 miles long, and there’s no chance the contaminants that have been detected in it would cause harm to regions along the Mississippi.

Even as the state EPA says cities that rely on Ohio River drinking water are not at risk, some water companies have shut off their intakes or increased treatment processes as a precaution, the AP has reported.

___

This story has been updated to add new guidance from Ohio officials in a news conference Tuesday.

___

This is part of AP’s effort to address widely shared misinformation, including work with outside companies and organizations to add factual context to misleading content that is circulating online. Learn more about fact-checking at AP.

CLAIM: A video of a purple cloud looming over a street as a car drives underneath shows East Palestine, Ohio, after a recent freight train derailment and intentional burning of some of the hazardous chemicals on board.

AP’S ASSESSMENT: False. The video was filmed in Portland, Oregon. It appeared online as early as November 2022, long before the February 2023 derailment. Local weather experts said it looked like clouds they had seen in the state before and could be associated with a thunderstorm.

THE FACTS: Days after the train came off the tracks on Feb. 3 in the community near the Ohio-Pennsylvania state line, officials opted to release and burn toxic vinyl chloride from five of its rail cars, sending plumes of black smoke into the sky. While plenty of real photos and videos captured the sight, some social media users are misrepresenting a video of a dramatic, dark cloud in Oregon, falsely claiming it is tied to the derailment.

The video, captured from a moving vehicle, shows a large, dark purple cloud overwhelming a dim blue and pink sky as the camera angle pans around an outdoor shopping center.

“The East Palestine region of Ohio, where an environmental disaster occurred, is becoming an ominous place,” read one Twitter post with the video.

But the video was taken on the other side of the country and is at least three months old.

A reverse image search traced the video back to a TikTok user who posted it twice, first in November 2022. In another video on her page, she explains that she filmed the clip herself in Jantzen Beach, Portland.

The video was filmed from North Tomahawk Island Drive at the Jantzen Beach Center shopping mall, a geolocation search confirms. The video captures a crosswalk and the hardware store Home Depot, which can also be seen on Google Street View.

It’s not clear exactly when the video was filmed, but the TikTok user said in a video in February that it was “several months old.”

Meteorologists in Oregon said it looked like clouds they had seen in the state before.

Larry O’Neill, associate professor and director of Oregon Climate Services at Oregon State University, said the cloud could have been associated with a thunderstorm, or could be a deck of altostratus clouds, a type of middle-altitude cloud that often takes up the whole sky.

“In Oregon, we get altostratus cloud bands just like this fairly regularly,” he said. “Near sunrise or sunset, they can look dramatic from the lighting even though they are completely innocuous clouds.”

The East Palestine train derailment and burn did result in large plumes of smoke and released some hazardous gases into the surrounding air. Environmental officials said monitors detected toxins in the air at the site during the burn and that officials kept people away until that dissipated.

They say continuing air monitoring done for the railroad and by government agencies — including testing inside nearly 400 homes — hasn’t detected dangerous levels in the area since residents were allowed to return. The Environmental Protection Agency has shared air monitoring results online.

___

This is part of AP’s effort to address widely shared misinformation, including work with outside companies and organizations to add factual context to misleading content that is circulating online. Learn more about fact-checking at AP.

CLAIM: Ireland’s government and a local diversity nonprofit distributed a flyer near Dublin instructing girls to stay indoors after 6 p.m. because of new immigrants “not accustomed to Irish cultural norms.”

AP’S ASSESSMENT: False. The two groups named on the flyer — the Irish Centre for Diversity and the Irish government as a whole — did not create or distribute the flyers, representatives for both confirmed to The Associated Press. Irish police said the matter is under investigation.

THE FACTS: Social media users are sharing a photo of the flyer, which alleges new restrictions are being imposed on young women in Ireland. Several posts claim it was distributed in Ballymun, a suburb of Dublin.

“Girls to stay indoors after 6pm (until further notice),” the bright pink flyer reads. “New arrivals to this area are not accustomed to Irish cultural norms at this transitionary time. Thank you for your compliance.”

The flyer also includes a blue pictogram representing a woman and attributes the initiative to “The Irish Centre for Diversity in partnership with Ralltas nd hEireann.” The latter name is a misspelling of “Rialtas na hÉireann,” Irish for the Government of Ireland.

“Oh boy, home imprisonment thanks to diversity,” a Twitter user who shared the image wrote in a post that had been liked or shared more than 8,000 times as of Thursday.

But the Irish Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth confirmed that the leaflet was not created or distributed by the Irish government and that there is no such curfew for girls.

“The Department strongly condemns such incidents of deliberate misinformation, which are clearly intended to create division and hostility,” the agency, which has been coordinating temporary housing for arriving refugees, wrote in an emailed statement to the AP.

The Irish Centre for Diversity, which is focused on improving diversity at Irish businesses, wrote on its social media accounts this week that it wasn’t responsible for the flyers either and that it has alerted law enforcement.

“We are aware that a leaflet has been distributed in local areas and across social media,” its statement reads. “We are not associated with it and the unauthorised use of our name has been reported to An Garda Síochána (Ireland’s Police and Security Service).”

Emma Farrelly, spokesperson for Ireland’s national police, confirmed to the AP that the agency is looking into the matter, but declined to comment further.

“An Garda Síochána are carrying out enquiries into the distribution of leaflets in the North Dublin area,” she wrote in an email. “An Garda Síochána has no further comment at this time.”

Ireland has seen waves of anti-migrant protests in recent months as tens of thousands of asylum seekers have arrived in the country over the past year, many of them refugees from war-torn Ukraine.

___

This is part of AP’s effort to address widely shared misinformation, including work with outside companies and organizations to add factual context to misleading content that is circulating online. Learn more about fact-checking at AP.

CLAIM: Searches on the National Institutes of Health website show that ivermectin is a cure for cancer but it is being suppressed.

AP’S ASSESSMENT: False. The website shows that some studies have explored the use of ivermectin in relation to cancer. There are no studies demonstrating the drug cures cancer in humans, experts say, but some are researching the use of ivermectin in combination with other therapies to treat breast cancer.

THE FACTS: A popular Facebook video is falsely suggesting that ivermectin, an approved antiparasitic drug that was peddled as an unproven treatment for COVID-19, is a known cure for cancer but is being withheld by officials.

“If you go to the NIH website and search for ivermectin and cancer, you will see that they have known for years — years, probably decades — that they have the cure for cancer,” a woman in the video claims. “And they had the cure for numerous other diseases and ailments and they’ve been hiding it from us.”

But experts say there is no data showing the drug is a “cure” for cancer.

A search on the NIH website for “ivermectin” and “cancer,” as the video instructs, simply shows that there have been early studies exploring if ivermectin can play a role in slowing cancer cell growth or treating tumors.

Dr. Susanne Arnold, associate director for clinical translation at the Markey Cancer Center in Kentucky, told The Associated Press that there have been preclinical studies exploring using ivermectin and similar drugs to slow cancer cell growth in labs, with some interesting results. She noted, however, that such studies aren’t the same as proving the drugs work in humans.

“I know of no reports of clinical trials that yielded successful results in humans with cancer,” Arnold said in an email.

That said, some cancer researchers believe ivermectin could be promising when used in combination with other drugs and are conducting further studies.

Dr. Peter P. Lee, chair of the immuno-oncology department at City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center in California, has studied using ivermectin in combination with a specific antibody, referred to as anti-PD1, for treating breast cancer — with positive results in mice. In short, the research explores ivermectin’s role in inducing cancer cell death and allowing T cells to infiltrate tumors. Lee and fellow researchers are preparing to run a clinical trial in humans.

“Certainly by itself ivermectin is not a cure or even an effective treatment for breast cancer,” Lee said in an interview.

Lee acknowledged that ivermectin has been a controversial subject in relation to COVID-19, but he said his research suggests the drug should continue to be explored for its potential as part of cancer treatments.

“I pride myself as a rigorous, fair-minded scientist,” Lee said. “And in our hands, through many years of experiments, it has promise — but not by itself.”

The National Cancer Institute, part of the National Institutes of Health, said in a statement that it “disseminates evidence-based, scientifically accurate information about cancer to the public. It does not appear from a search of our resources that the NCI maintains any information supporting the claim that ivermectin is a ‘cure for cancer.’”

___

This story has been updated to add a statement from the National Cancer Institute.

___

This is part of AP’s effort to address widely shared misinformation, including work with outside companies and organizations to add factual context to misleading content that is circulating online. Learn more about fact-checking at AP.

The recent burning of toxic chemicals at the site of a train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, has left concerned residents seeking answers about potential health effects on their families as well as pets, livestock and wildlife in the area.

As residents seek details about the environmental impact, false and misleading information online has stepped into the void. For example, social media posts sharing photos and videos of dead birds in states beyond Ohio are spreading with false claims that the deaths are related to the chemical release. The posts have amassed thousands of shares this week even though they are unrelated.

Here’s a closer look at the facts.

CLAIM: Photo shows birds that “dropped dead” in Kentucky following the Ohio derailment.

THE FACTS: This is false. The photo, which shows several birds lying dead on a road, was taken in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 2018.

A Facebook user shared the photo, falsely claiming the incident was related to the toll left by the Ohio train derailment and the toxic chemicals that were intentionally burned.

“Maybe we should be concerned with what’s going on In Ohio,” the user’s post reads. “These birds dropped de@d in Ky.”

A reverse image search shows that the photo was featured in an article published by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, a statewide newspaper, on April 9, 2018. The photo’s caption states that several dead birds were found near the intersection of Main Street and 7th Street in downtown Little Rock that month. A local ornithologist told the paper that the birds likely ate fermented berries, which can intoxicate them, causing them to fall out of trees, or off of buildings, and die.

___

CLAIM: A video shows birds in northern Indiana that died from hazardous chemicals released after the Ohio train derailment.

THE FACTS: False. The video misrepresents dead birds near New Carlisle, Indiana, as an example of the event’s ill-effects.

The video shows a flock of birds hanging side-by-side on a power line upside down, some with their beaks open. More birds can be seen lying, apparently dead, on the ground as the camera pans down.

“Dead birds on a line in Indiana – nothing to see here,” a tweet that shared the video reads, along with hashtags such as “#OhioChemicalDisaster” and “#OhioCoverup.” It had received more than 2,400 likes and shares as of Saturday.

But the original video appeared on Facebook nearly two weeks before the derailment, making it impossible for the two incidents to be related.

Shelly Lister Struss, a resident of Buchanan, Michigan, a small city located about 12 miles (20 kilometers) from New Carlisle, posted the video on Jan. 22. She confirmed to the AP that she was the one who filmed it, about 2 miles (3 kilometers) outside of the center of New Carlisle.

While the death of these birds was not due to the derailment, experts were uncertain of the precise cause.

Marty Benson, a spokesperson for the Indiana Department of Natural Resources, told the AP that although the DNR “has not been on the site of this incident,” it is possible the birds “suffered electrocution from a power surge on the line.” He noted that disease is an unlikely culprit, as that would result in “a wider dispersion of the birds on the ground.”

Michael Bianski, a spokesperson for Indiana Michigan Power Co., which services the area in which the video was shot, said that a more plausible explanation is a phenomenon called conductor, or line, gallop — the sudden, rapid movement of power lines caused by wind gusts.

“This can kill birds perched on power lines as whiplash from the motion can break their necks,” he wrote in an email to the AP.

According to Bianski, it is “highly unlikely” the birds were electrocuted, given that they only appeared to be touching one power line and “electricity is dangerous when it is trying to move between two objects or finding a path to the ground.”

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

___

CLAIM: A photo shows birds that died in a Lexington, Kentucky, parking lot due to the hazardous chemicals released in East Palestine.

THE FACTS: False. Social media users are sharing a post that includes three photos of the parking lot from different angles along with a close up of a dead black bird to suggest that toxic chemicals from the derailment have spread as far as Lexington, more than 300 miles away.

“Here’s a parking lot full of DEAD BIRDS in Lexington, KY. 350 miles SW of East Palestine, OH,” reads one post on Twitter with hashtags such as “#OhioChemicalDisaster” and “#OhioCoverup.”

“Dead birds falling from the sky in LEXINGTON KY. Did Ohio chemical spill make it to Lexington?! The rain won’t help!,” reads another post on Twitter.

The Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources told the AP that the birds were likely killed due to a storm that moved through the region overnight Wednesday into Thursday.

Weather reports confirm there was a thunderstorm Thursday morning at 3:54 a.m.

The bird carcasses were located in the parking lot of Haltech, a company that manufactures motor vehicle equipment. Local media also reported that the birds were found in the Haltech parking lot.

Kevin Kelly, a spokesperson with the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources, told the AP that the bird’s carcasses were examined Friday by Dr. Christine Casey, wildlife veterinarian at the state’s fish and wildlife resources.

Casey concluded the deaths were likely caused by blunt force trauma due to the broken bones, hemorrhaging, bruising and abrasions on the birds.

“The birds probably got startled by thunder and/or lightning, took flight and flew into a solid surface,” Kelly said.

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

___

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

___

This is part of AP’s effort to address widely shared misinformation, including work with outside companies and organizations to add factual context to misleading content that is circulating online. Learn more about fact-checking at AP.

CLAIM: A video shows a strange light that appeared in the night sky in Turkey before Monday’s magnitude 7.8 earthquake.

AP’S ASSESSMENT: False. The video was captured in Kazakhstan in September 2022 and shows a Soyuz spacecraft passing through the night sky.

THE FACTS: Among numerous misrepresented videos that circulated online after this week’s earthquake in Turkey and Syria was a clip that showed a large, glowing orb slowly traveling through a dark sky.

Twitter, TikTok and YouTube users shared the video with claims that it was shot in Turkey shortly before Monday’s devastating earthquake struck.

“Strange light in sky before earthquake….” read a popular tweet.

However, an internet search first conducted last month by the French broadcaster Radio-télévision belge de la Communauté française, or RTFB, reveals that the video was shot in Kazakhstan in September, not Turkey in February.

The video appeared in a post on the messenger app Telegram on Sept. 25 with the caption, “Balkhash. Saturday.” Balkhash is a city in Kazakhstan.

A search of Google Street View images captured in Balkhash confirmed the video was filmed in the city. An image from February 2021 shows the same bus station, metal fence and building that appear in the video.

Chris Combs, Dee Howard endowed assistant professor of engineering at the University of Texas at San Antonio, confirmed that the video shows a rocket launch, displaying a visual effect sometimes referred to as a “space jellyfish.”

He explained that pressure differences during rocket launches cause a spacecraft’s exhaust to expand outward into a large plume. When a rocket takes off at just the right time around dawn or dusk, the sun’s rays can illuminate the plume in the sky.

“They’re in daytime because they’re so high up,” Combs said. “But viewers on the ground, it’s still dark. You see this glow and that’s really just sunlight reflected off that exhaust plume.”

Map data shows that Balkhash is located near the Baikonur Cosmodrome, a spaceport in southern Kazakhstan that is operated by Russia. A Twitter user shared the video in October 2022 mentioning the spaceport.

While there was no reported rocket launch from that port on Sept. 25 — the day the video was shared on Telegram — there was one on Sept. 21, according to Associated Press reporting. A Soyuz capsule rocketed into orbit from Kazakhstan carrying one American and two Russian passengers on a trip to the International Space Station.

A livestream video of the rocket launch shows it lifted off near dusk in Kazakhstan, making it plausible that it would create a “space jellyfish” illusion for the country’s spectators.

___

This is part of AP’s effort to address widely shared misinformation, including work with outside companies and organizations to add factual context to misleading content that is circulating online. Learn more about fact-checking at AP.

CLAIM: Dr. Anthony Fauci, in a recent science paper, admits that COVID-19 vaccines don’t work.

AP’S ASSESSMENT: False. The scientific journal article doesn’t say the vaccines don’t work. The article’s authors say their paper acknowledges current vaccines for respiratory viruses don’t prevent all infections, but that they do prevent the most serious symptoms. Fauci and another coauthor said the article makes the case for exploring new approaches to make respiratory virus vaccines more effective.

THE FACTS: Social media users are claiming Fauci, who stepped down last year as chief medical advisor to President Joe Biden after leading the nation’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, has acknowledged the COVID shot isn’t effective.

They point to an article published Jan. 11 in the scientific journal Cell Host & Microbe that’s titled: “Rethinking next-generation vaccines for coronaviruses, influenzaviruses, and other respiratory viruses.”

The article was written by Fauci and two top officials at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases: Jeffery Taubenberger, deputy chief of its infectious disease lab, and David Morens, a senior advisor to the agency’s director.

Many of the social media posts include a screenshot of an article from a website known to push anti-vaccine conspiracies.

“Dr. Anthony Fauci now admits the mRNA Covid vaccines hardly work and might not be approvable,” the story headline reads.

“Sounds familiar,” quipped an Instagram user who shared the screenshot in a post that has been liked more than 1,200 times as of Friday.

But the paper’s authors argue that the social media posts twist their words.

“The article DOES NOT say these vaccines don’t work, just that they don’t work as well as we want them and need them to work,” Morens wrote in an email Friday.

In their paper, the authors acknowledge that current vaccines for the flu, COVID and other respiratory viruses aren’t effective in protecting against any and all illness over a person’s entire life, whereas vaccines for other respiratory illnesses such as measles, mumps, and rubella effectively confer lifetime immunity.

They then suggest exploring new approaches to respiratory virus vaccines. That includes, among other things, utilizing a “nasal spray or even a lung spray; trying different vaccine schedules and repeat doses; seeing if there is a way to boost the innate immune system,” according to Morens.

“The only thing new in this paper is the tying together of well known scientific and public health knowledge into a bigger picture of challenges to development of new vaccines,” he wrote. “It asks, in essence, OK, these vaccines aren’t perfect, so what are some of the things we might try to do to improve them?”

Fauci, in a separate email, stressed the COVID-19 vaccine has proven effective in preventing the severest symptoms that could lead to hospitalization and death.

“That is the life-saving aspect of the vaccine,” he wrote. “Point in question: I got infected even though I was vaccinated and boosted, but I had a very mild infection. Given my age, if I had not been vaccinated, the chances are that I might have gotten severely ill.”

Juliet Morrison, a microbiology professor at the University of California, Riverside, agreed that the social media posts are misleading.

“There is no ‘bombshell’ here,” she wrote in an email, referencing how some online are characterizing the piece. “The paper is saying that the current approach doesn’t work as well as it could, so we need to explore new approaches.”

Megan Ranney, deputy dean of Brown University’s School of Public Health, added that credible scientific research backs up the paper’s premise.

“That claim is hogwash,” she wrote in an email. “The data is clear (and the paper is clear) that Covid vaccines have significantly decreased severe disease and hospitalization, and that they decrease (but do not eliminate) infection and transmission.”

___

This is part of AP’s effort to address widely shared misinformation, including work with outside companies and organizations to add factual context to misleading content that is circulating online. Learn more about fact-checking at AP.

CLAIM: Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mark A. Milley has never served in combat or won a war.

AP’S ASSESSMENT: False. Milley, the highest-ranking military officer in the U.S., has extensive combat experience, including tours in Afghanistan and Iraq. He is authorized to wear the Combat Infantryman Badge, meaning he has actively participated in ground combat.

THE FACTS: A photo of Milley is spreading widely on social media, along with claims questioning his military credentials. The image, which does not identify Milley by name, shows the senior officer in his full dress uniform on the floor of the House of Representatives prior to the 2022 State of the Union.

“Can someone explain to me how a man who never served in combat and never won a war has THIS many medals on his uniform?” reads a block of text above the photo, which was taken by Evelyn Hockstein, a Reuters photojournalist.

The image and its accompanying text were shared widely on Instagram and Twitter, receiving tens of thousands of likes and shares.

But Milley has extensive combat experience. For example, he was deployed as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom, which began with the 2003 invasion of Iraq, and Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan, a response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Milley’s other deployments include assignments in Egypt, Panama, Haiti and Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Milley became a one-star general, also known as a brigadier general, in 2008. Since then, two of the most significant conflicts in which the U.S. has been engaged, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, concluded with U.S. withdrawal. However, during his more than 40-year military career, Milley has also been involved with operations that have been seen as U.S. successes. For example, he was part of Operation Just Cause, which restored the democratically-elected government of Panama to power, and Operation Uphold Democracy, which brought back democratic rule in Haiti.

Among Milley’s myriad awards and insignia is the Combat Infantryman Badge with one star, meaning he has won the award twice. It can be seen on Milley’s jacket in the misleading posts. There are three basic eligibility requirements for receiving this badge, which is awarded to soldiers ranked as a colonel or below. According to the Code of Federal Regulations, a soldier “must be an infantryman satisfactorily performing infantry duties,” “must be assigned to an infantry unit during such time as the unit is engaged in active ground combat” and “must actively participate in such ground combat.”

___

This is part of AP’s effort to address widely shared misinformation, including work with outside companies and organizations to add factual context to misleading content that is circulating online. Learn more about fact-checking at the AP.

CLAIM: A photo shows a white-haired dog covered in dirt who helped rescue at least 10 people in Turkey after an earthquake struck the country on Monday.

AP’S ASSESSMENT: False. The image was taken in 2014 by a Reuters photographer after a deadly mudslide near Oso, Washington. It shows a rescue dog named Tryon who searched for victims after the destruction.

THE FACTS: Following Monday’s earthquake, many countries have sent dogs and rescuers to Turkey to aid rescue efforts. But some social media users have shared old and unrelated images of rescue animals, falsely claiming they show the aftermath of the quake.

The latest misrepresented image shows a dog caked in dirt as he stares directly into the camera. A person sporting a red sleeve and white glove is holding the dog’s leash.

“This dog hero who worked the whole night and saved 10 lives in Turkey,” reads a caption on an Instagram post of the image. The post had received more than 9,500 likes as of Wednesday.

Another Instagram post featuring the image used hashtags such as #turkey, #earthquake and #helpturkey while claiming that the dog had “saved dozens of lives.” As of Wednesday, it had received more than 8,500 likes.

But the photo shows a rescue dog who helped after the 2014 mudslide in Oso, about 60 miles (97 kilometers) outside of Seattle, which killed 43 people. It was taken by Rick Wilking, a freelance photographer for Reuters.

“Tryon the rescue dog waits to go through the decontamination area at the mudslide after searching for victims in Oso, Washington March 30, 2014,” a caption on the photograph states.

An Associated Press caption for a similar image of Tryon, also taken by Wilking, describes the dog as “muddied from the day’s work” as he “stands with his handler near the west side of the mudslide.”

The 7.8-magnitude earthquake that struck southeastern Turkey, as well as Syria, during the early hours Monday toppled thousands of buildings and killed nearly 12,000 people as of Wednesday, the AP reported. Hundreds of families are believed to remain under the rubble, and the death toll could rise as rescuers search through the wreckage in cities and towns.

Social media users have also shared images of dogs from stock photography websites, falsely claiming they were taken after the earthquake.

___

This is part of AP’s effort to address widely shared misinformation, including work with outside companies and organizations to add factual context to misleading content that is circulating online. Learn more about fact-checking at AP.

CLAIM: A video shows the pop singer Shakira’s house being physically moved from her former partner’s property.

AP’S ASSESSMENT: False. The video shows a historic home in Plano, Texas, being relocated to save it from demolition in 2018. There’s no evidence to suggest Shakira transported her house in response to her recent breakup.

THE FACTS: A years-old video of a historic house being trucked to a new location in Texas is being misrepresented as belonging to the Colombian pop icon in the midst of her public split from Spanish soccer player Gerard Piqué.

The video, shared thousands of times this week, shows an entire wooden two-story house being towed down a street by a truck. While some social media users shared the video making a joke that the house was Shakira’s, others made comments suggesting it really was hers.

“Shakira physically moving the house from her ex’s land is a level of petty I can only aspire to,” reads one popular tweet.

However, a reverse-image search shows that the video was captured in 2018, long before the singer’s 2022 breakup with Piqué.

The clip shows the historic Collinwood House, constructed in 1861, being carefully moved to a new location to allow it to be restored, according to reports from The Associated Press. The video appeared in news reports at the time.

Plano voters rejected a 2017 bond issue with funds meant to restore the Collinwood House, according to news reports at the time. Plano officials then offered to pay anyone who would relocate the home and consider restoration and preservation.

Shakira previously lived in Barcelona with Piqué and their two children. Spanish authorities have charged the singer with six counts of tax fraud, allegations she has repeatedly denied. A trial is set to go forward, but no date has been announced.

A spokesperson for Shakira did not respond to a request for comment.

___

This is part of AP’s effort to address widely shared misinformation, including work with outside companies and organizations to add factual context to misleading content that is circulating online. Learn more about fact-checking at AP.

CLAIM: The Church of England will stop using male pronouns for God and will drop the phrase “our Father” from the Lord’s Prayer.

AP’S ASSESSMENT: False. The church has been in ongoing discussions about using gender-neutral language in written services, and recently said it is launching a new project on the matter in the spring. But there are no current plans to abolish the use of masculine pronouns and language for God, the church told The Associated Press in a statement.

THE FACTS: The Church of England’s governing body, the General Synod, voted Thursday to allow priests to bless same-sex couples and apologized for the church’s past treatment of LGBTQ people. But some posts spreading on social media are misrepresenting the church’s inclusivity efforts thus far.

One widespread post on Instagram shows a screenshot of a headline reading, “Church of England embraces a ‘Gender Neutral God’ Will stop using male pronouns and referring to God in prayers, Will drop the phrase ‘our Father’ from the Lord’s Prayer.”

But the church has made no such decision. Instead, the headline misrepresents news stories about a plan to launch a new effort in the spring to look at gendered language in the church. The actual blog post from which the headline was taken only says the move “may suggest” priests will be able to stop using “He” and “Him” in relation to God.

“There are absolutely no plans to abolish or substantially revise currently authorized liturgies and no such changes could be made without extensive legislation,” the church said in a statement to the AP.

The news emerged out of a question-and-answer period about church policies that took place as part of the General Synod meeting.

During the Q&A, a priest, Rev. Joanna Stobart, asked a group of church officials to give an update on how the church could “provide more options for those who wish to use authorized liturgy and speak of God in a non-gendered way,” according to a readout of the session.

In response, Rev. Michael Ipgravea, a bishop working on the committee looking into neutral language, said the church has “been exploring the use of gendered language in relation to God for several years,” according to the readout.

But he added that a new “project on gendered language” would look into the issue in spring, in consultation with a second committee.

Neither party said the church would or should ban masculine terms like “Our Father.”

___

This is part of AP’s effort to address widely shared misinformation, including work with outside companies and organizations to add factual context to misleading content that is circulating online. Learn more about fact-checking at AP.

CLAIM: The deputy director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention admitted that COVID-19 vaccines are causing “debilitating illnesses.”

AP’S ASSESSMENT: False. This takes Dr. Tom Shimabukuro’s comments at the January meeting of the Food and Drug Administration’s Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee out of context. Shimabukuro, the deputy director of the CDC’s Immunization Safety Office, was discussing reports of illnesses that people have filed after COVID-19 vaccination, but he never says the vaccines were proven to have caused the events.

THE FACTS: A video of Shimabukuro appearing before the vaccine committee during its January meeting is being shared widely online to falsely claim the official admitted that the COVID-19 vaccines the agency has backed are causing “debilitating” complications.

“As Today’s VRBPAC Meeting Ended, CDC Dep. Dir. Tom Shimabukuro Admits COVID Vaccines Are Causing “Debilitating Illnesses,” wrote one Twitter user shortly after the meeting ended. That post was shared more than 3,000 times.

The remarks came during a wider discussion of vaccine safety monitoring in which Shimabukuro was describing accounts in the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, an early warning system kept by the FDA and the CDC to monitor signals of possible side effects from vaccines. Reports in the system are not verified. VAERS allows anyone to submit reports on any possible reactions after a vaccine, and has clear disclaimers that reports may “contain information that is incomplete, inaccurate, coincidental, or unverifiable.”

In the clip, Shimabukuro says: “We take vaccine safety very seriously. With respect to reports of people experiencing debilitating illnesses, we are aware of these reports of people experiencing long lasting health problems following COVID vaccination. In some cases, the clinical presentation of people suffering these health problems is variable and no specific medical cause for the symptoms have been found.”

“We understand that illness is disruptive and stressful, especially under those circumstances and we acknowledge these health problems have substantially impacted the quality of life for people and have also affected those around them,” he adds. “We hope for improvement and recovery and we will continue to monitor the safety of these vaccines and work with partners to try to better understand these types of adverse events.”

An Instagram post with the clip published on Thursday claimed Shimabukuro’s comments proved “The CDC has given up the ghost.”

But nowhere in his remarks does Shimabukuro say that the vaccines have been found to be the cause of the alleged “debilitating illnesses.” He simply says that the CDC acknowledges there are reports of such instances.

“Currently, there are no epidemiologic data from safety monitoring to suggest that COVID-19 vaccines are causing these types of health problems,” the CDC wrote in a statement to the AP.

Right before making the comments about reports of long-term illnesses allegedly caused by the vaccines, Shimabukuro cautioned that VAERS data does not prove causality.

“That is a spontaneous reporting system,” he said. “Anyone can report — a patient, a parent, a healthcare provider — and we accept all of those reports without judging the clinical seriousness or how plausible the adverse event may be with respect to causation.”

The CDC clarified in its statement to the AP that VAERS accepts all reports of adverse events “regardless of the plausibility of the vaccine causing the event or the clinical seriousness of the event.”

Severe reactions to COVID-19 vaccines, such as sustaining heart damage, are rare, according to the CDC. Myocarditis, inflammation of the heart muscle, and pericarditis, inflammation of the heart’s outer lining, have been reported in male adolescents and young men several days after they received Pfizer or Moderna shots, but these cases are also uncommon. The CDC has attributed nine deaths to the shots, all linked to the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

Shimabukuro emphasized during the meeting that the CDC continues to recommend that everyone eligible for a COVID-19 mRNA booster shot gets vaccinated.

___

This is part of AP’s effort to address widely shared misinformation, including work with outside companies and organizations to add factual context to misleading content that is circulating online. Learn more about fact-checking at AP.

CLAIM: A video shows Hyperion, the tallest tree in the world.

AP’S ASSESSMENT: False. The video shows a different, shorter tree, which is located in Humboldt Redwoods State Park in California. Hyperion — which is the nickname for the coast redwood that is the tallest tree in the world — is located more than 70 miles away in Redwood National Park, according to forestry experts.

THE FACTS: Social media users are sharing a video claiming it’s Hyperion, which is a 380-foot (115-meter) coast redwood tree. The video shows a tree towering over a forest, as the camera slowly pans to the top.

“This is Hyperion, a California redwood thought to be the tallest tree in the world,” reads a Twitter post sharing the video, which received more than 100,000 likes on Twitter as of Friday.

While Hyperion is considered the tallest tree, this video doesn’t show it.

The image in the video was taken by photographer Michael Nichols for National Geographic. That smaller tree is located in Humboldt Redwoods State Park in California, whereas the Hyperion is located more than 70 miles away in a remote area of Redwood National Park.

The image was posted on National Geographic’s Twitter account on April 27, and the caption reads, “The largest patch of old growth redwood forest remaining, Humboldt Redwoods State Park, California, USA.” It was also featured in a National Geographic story about the effects of climate change on trees and forests. Nichols and National Geographic did not respond to requests for comment.

Hyperion is still considered the tallest tree in the world, according to Lucy Kerhoulas, an associate professor of forest physiology at California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt. Kerhoulas confirmed that the image being shared online captures the Humboldt Redwood State park, and that the tree it shows is not the Hyperion.

She explained that this tree is just an old redwood tree surrounded by a second-redwood forest, which is a forest that was logged and now has re-grown. Second-growth redwood forests can range from young to more mature, and young forests are typically less than 150 years old, Kerhoulas explained.

Robert Van Pelt, the tree consultant for the Guiness Book of World Records and an affiliate assistant professor at the University of Washington, told the AP that the Hyperion remains the tallest tree. Aerial Lidar scanning, a type of technology used for surveying and mapping, has not discovered any taller trees, Van Pelt said.

“Of course, trees grow,” said Van Pelt who is also the author of “Forest Giants of the Pacific Coast,” which chronicles the largest individual trees in western North America. “But currently it will be 10 years or more until any of these trees could catch the height of Hyperion, plus Hyperion itself is still growing.”

Paul Ringgold, chief program officer for Save the Redwoods League, which is a non-profit organization aimed to protect redwoods, noted that Hyperion is surrounded by trees that are nearly as tall. It is not isolated like the one in the video.

“This was likely taken in Humboldt County, but it looks like a photo of one remaining ancient tree surrounded by a younger forest,” Ringgold said.

According to the National Park Services, Hyperion is not on a trail and is located through dense vegetation which requires heavy ‘bushwhacking’ in order to reach the tree. Park officials have declared the remote area off-limits because of damage done by trampling visitors to the tree and surrounding forest, the AP reported last year.

___

This is part of AP’s effort to address widely shared misinformation, including work with outside companies and organizations to add factual context to misleading content that is circulating online. Learn more about fact-checking at AP.

CLAIM: Electrically-charged stones have been discovered in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

AP’S ASSESSMENT: False. While some minerals can serve as conduits for electricity, rocks can’t store electricity, experts told The Associated Press. A video circulating in connection with the claim shows a rock that is likely pyrite, a common mineral that can conduct electricity but cannot store it, experts say.

THE FACTS: Claims that electrically-charged stones were discovered in the central African nation have spread widely across social media platforms in recent days, including Facebook, Twitter, TikTok and Instagram. Some users likened the supposed discovery to “vibranium,” a fictional rare metal that can store and release energy in Marvel comics and films like “Black Panther”.

As proof, social media users shared a video showing several people inspecting a small, shiny rock. One of the individuals connects two ends of what appears to be a wire to the rock, which activates a light on the wire.

“Electrically charged stones discovered in the Democratic Republic of the Congo,” one Twitter user who shared the video wrote Saturday. The tweet was shared over 27,000 times.

But these claims are as fanciful as a superhero movie, experts say. Certain minerals can conduct electricity, but none can store electricity. Experts told the AP that the substance in the video is likely pyrite, a common sulfide mineral with a shiny metallic luster that can conduct electricity.

“Minerals within those rocks, or if you have sufficient concentrations of them, can conduct electricity, but there’s no way they can really store it,” Simon Jowitt, an associate professor of economic geology at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. “It just passes through, going from one end to the other, like if you had an electrical current passing through a bit of metal.”

Experts said it’s unclear exactly how the light in the video is being powered, but all agreed rocks alone can’t hold a charge.

Rocks, unlike batteries, are unable to release electricity on their own because they lack a chemical reaction that releases electrons and allows the electrons to flow, Jowitt explained.

“There’s no chemical reactive capacity in a rock that you would get in a battery,” he said.

Yaoguo Li, a professor of geophysics at the Colorado School of Mines, said of the notion that rocks can store electricity: “We don’t know of any mechanism, thus far, that actually supports that kind of phenomenon.”

Naturally-occurring rocks typically lack all the necessary components of batteries, such as both positive and negative electrodes, said Yuzhang Li, an assistant professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering at the University of California, Los Angeles.

“I don’t think there’s any new physics being discovered here,” Li said. “I would doubt that the rock alone is generating some kind of voltage.”

Benjamin Hallett, a geology lecturer at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh, guessed that the person holding the rock in the video may also be holding a battery.

___

This is part of AP’s effort to address widely shared misinformation, including work with outside companies and organizations to add factual context to misleading content that is circulating online. Learn more about fact-checking at AP.

CLAIM: A video shows President Joe Biden giving a speech about guns and being interrupted by people making vulgar anti-Biden chants.

AP’S ASSESSMENT: Altered video. This footage has been edited to add the chanting. The original video shows Biden was interrupted by just one person — a father whose son was killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida — who did not use the curse-filled chant.

THE FACTS: A video with more than 10,000 likes on Instagram is misleadingly edited to make it look like a speech Biden gave in July was interrupted by several people screaming “F—- Joe Biden.”

The video posted this week starts with Biden at a podium, speaking mid-sentence. After he mentions “dealing with gun violence,” the chants begin in the background.

Biden appears to respond to the coordinated heckling, saying, “Make no mistake, sit down and you’ll hear what I have to say.”

However, the chants were added to the original footage, which shows just one person interrupted Biden, and not in the same way.

The original video was shot July 11, 2022, on the White House lawn, where Biden gave remarks to celebrate a new law meant to reduce gun violence.

The footage shows that in the moment distorted in the manipulated video, Biden was interrupted by Manuel Oliver, whose son was killed in the Parkland school shooting. Oliver told Biden that more needed to be done to prevent gun violence.

Biden briefly paused his speech and asked Oliver, who was shouting, to sit down, before adding “Let him talk, let him talk,” as he was escorted out of the event, The Associated Press reported at the time.

The AP has previously debunked similar videos edited to add the anti-Biden chant.

___

This is part of AP’s effort to address widely shared misinformation, including work with outside companies and organizations to add factual context to misleading content that is circulating online. Learn more about fact-checking at AP.

CLAIM: A video shows a train transporting American tanks and infantry fighting vehicles in Poland, after President Biden announced that the U.S. will send tanks to Ukraine.

AP’S ASSESSMENT: False. The video was filmed along Highway 40 outside of Gorham, Kansas, by a local resident. U.S. officials said that it will take “many months” to deliver the Abrams tanks to Ukraine, according to AP reporting.

THE FACTS: After Biden announced on Wednesday that the U.S. will send 31 M1 Abrams battle tanks to Ukrainian forces, social media users shared an unrelated video clip of military vehicles being transported by rail in Kansas, falsely suggesting it was Poland.

The video, which was captured from a moving car, shows a seemingly endless line of of tanks and other military combat vehicles traveling by rail along a snowy field. A driver’s rear view mirror is seen at the bottom of the video.

One Instagram post shared the video with text that reads: “BREAKING: Warmonger Biden said he’s sending tanks to the Ukranians today A train pulling tons of Abrams tanks and Bradley infantry fighting vehicles was spotted in Poland. We have no fight in this war. Yet BIDEN continues to push aggression.” The post on Instagram had over 90,000 likes.

The video was also shared on Twitter with similar claims that said it showed Poland.

Eddie Johnson, a local resident who filmed the video, told The Associated Press it was filmed as he was driving on Highway 40 outside of Gorham. Johnson’s video shows an intersection with the surrounding land covered in snow and the back of a stop sign, along with a green sign that reads “Hwy 40.” The intersection of 400th Ave and Hwy 40 on Google maps shows the same sign placement along with the rail line shown in the video.

Johnson said he posted the video on Twitter on Jan, 24, as “kind of a joke” and as a reply to a tweet that stated Biden was “considering” sending tanks to Ukraine. “Is that decision already made? This is Kansas today,” his tweet reads.

A Kansas Department of Transportation map shows that Union Pacific runs the rail line that passes through Gorham. A Union Pacific spokesperson told the AP in an email that they couldn’t disclose any information regarding specific shipments, but did confirm that they transport cargo freight for the U.S. military.

Johnson sent a second similar video to the AP that shows Gorham in the distance. Johnson, who said he was an oil field contractor and drives a lot for a living, posted the same video on his Twitter account, which shows a sticker with a vehicle service date and the address of a Toyota dealership in Kansas.

Dr. Gian Gentile, a senior historian at the RAND Corporation, a nonpartisan research organization, told the AP in an email the video shows Abrams tanks but it’s unclear which kind they are. “The numbers of total vehicles on the rail car suggests battalion size strength,” said Gentile, who is also a former Iraq War commander. Gentile also was able to identify several other vehicles as well, including Bradley fighting vehicles.

An Army spokesperson told the AP in an email that they were not able to verify when the video was taken or where the equipment was assigned to.

U.S. officials said that it will take “many months” to deliver the Abrams tanks to Ukraine, according to AP reporting. The U.S. decision to send the 70-ton tanks came as Germany announced it will send 14 Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine and allow other countries to do the same. Germany had said the Leopards would not be sent unless the U.S. made a similar commitment.

___

This is part of AP’s effort to address widely shared misinformation, including work with outside companies and organizations to add factual context to misleading content that is circulating online. Learn more about fact-checking at AP.

CLAIM: The Declaration of North America, which President Joe Biden signed on to this month, will strip the U.S. of its sovereignty in order to form a pan-North American government.

AP’S ASSESSMENT: False. The declaration doesn’t impose obligations on the U.S. or change its status as a sovereign country, a foreign policy expert told The Associated Press. It lays out some broad commitments to goals like diversity and sustainability, but is not legally binding. A hypothetical treaty to alter the U.S.’ relationship with Canada and Mexico in such a way would require the Senate’s approval.

THE FACTS: Trilateral talks between Biden, Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau concluded earlier this month with cautious optimism, as the leaders sought to downplay their disagreements over trade and migration.

To cap the two-day summit, the three laid out a list of mutual commitments called the Declaration of North America. Some online have falsely suggested that the pact is the first step in merging the U.S. into a North American megastate.

“Did you know that the United States of America as you know it no longer exists?” asks a person in a widely-shared YouTube video, which has since spread to Instagram and Twitter.

“While no one was paying attention, Joe Biden signed away our sovereignty as a nation,” the person adds, referring to the Declaration of North America.

The declaration isn’t binding — or anywhere near that extreme.

“This announcement is basically happy talk about cooperation between the three governments and creates no new legal obligations,” said Walter Olson, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute who studies constitutional law.

The declaration reaffirms previous joint efforts between the U.S., Mexico and Canada, such as working together to “promote buy-in for ambitious cuts to emissions” to meet the goals set by the Paris Agreement. It promises to ensure “safe, orderly, and humane migration” and to combat racism and gender-based violence.

“As we work to implement these commitments in the upcoming year, we seek to model a democratic and sustainable path based on trust to promote inclusive prosperity and security,” the declaration concludes.

It falls well short of a deal to completely restructure three countries.

“It is true that when actual treaties are written and ratified there can be effects on U.S. sovereignty. That can be an area of concern,” Olson said. “But no new treaty is being created here.”

Under the U.S. Constitution, a treaty is an international agreement that has been approved by a two-thirds majority of the Senate. Because the Declaration of North America did not go through the Senate ratification process, any commitments within it would not be legally binding, Olson said.

Asked for comment, the State Department referred The Associated Press to the White House’s statement on the declaration, as well as the text of another agreement made the same day. That pact, signed by Secretary of State Antony Blinken and his counterparts in the Mexican and Canadian governments, focuses more narrowly on ways to “advance equity and racial justice.”

—

This is part of AP’s effort to address widely shared misinformation, including work with outside companies and organizations to add factual context to misleading content that is circulating online. Learn more about fact-checking at the AP.

CLAIM: The United Kingdom is banning anyone under the age of 50 from getting COVID-19 vaccines.

AP’S ASSESSMENT: False. While the country will stop widely providing the vaccine to those under 50 next month, anyone deemed to have a clinical need, such as those at risk of severe illness, as well as frontline healthcare workers and caregivers, will still be able to get the shot.

THE FACTS: Social media users are claiming the UK is prohibiting any and all people under the age of 50 from getting inoculated against COVID-19.

Many are sharing a story from a blog known for spreading COVID misinformation with a headline that reads: “U.K. Becomes Latest Country to Ban Covid Boosters for Under-50s.”

Several posts suggest the alleged ban is motivated by concerns about the vaccine’s safety and efficacy.

“When folks said ‘the science is settled’ I’m thinking it was not this particular science?! Someone help me here,” wrote an Instagram user who shared a screenshot of the false headline in a post that’s been liked more than 8,500 times as of Friday.

But the UK isn’t preventing anyone under the age of 50 from getting the shot if it’s medically necessary, stressed Shaun Whelan, a spokesperson for the UK Health Security Agency, which oversees public health and infectious disease response.

Nursing and care home staff, social workers, homecare givers and other frontline workers will also still be eligible for a COVID vaccine, as will anyone who lives with someone who is immunosuppressed, the agency said.

And the policy change isn’t a reflection of concerns about the safety of COVID vaccines, as some social media users claim, Whelan wrote in an email Thursday. It’s about using national healthcare resources effectively, as demand for vaccinations among those under the age of 50 is dropping off significantly.

“Definitely not being banned. That’s just nonsense,” Whelan wrote. “Completely misleading/inaccurate to say boosters are being banned.”

On Wednesday, UK Health Secretary Steve Barclay announced the country, on Feb. 12, will be ending a COVID vaccine booster campaign that launched last fall.

He said there will be another inoculation campaign in the fall — and one perhaps even sooner — but limited only to those deemed to have high risk of severe illness from COVID.

Health Minister Maria Caulfield, in a separate statement, encouraged anyone who hasn’t received a vaccination to do so before the February deadline.

“It will top up your immunity and keep you and your loved ones protected,” she said.

The more targeted approach means otherwise healthy young people and adults won’t be able to get COVID shots going forward, Whelan acknowledged. But if they move into a higher risk group — such as they develop cancer or diabetes or move into an older age bracket — they can qualify.

Sheena Cruickshank, an immunologist at the University of Manchester, agreed the new policy doesn’t amount to an outright ban, noting health officials have said they could revisit the move. She added there is no evidence COVID vaccines are not safe.

“The overwhelming evidence is they are safe and make a huge difference to whether you need to be hospitalised,” Cruickshank wrote in an email.

At the same time, she said she’s concerned about the change because it’s less than what the country does to combat the flu, even though COVID is still causing significant death and hospitalization.

“We do not know what this will mean in terms of their immunity and protection from the severe impacts of COVID, all of which are reduced by vaccination,” Cruickshank wrote.

___

This is part of AP’s effort to address widely shared misinformation, including work with outside companies and organizations to add factual context to misleading content that is circulating online. Learn more about fact-checking at AP.

CLAIM: A “Sudden Cardiac Arrest Awareness Form” is now being issued in Georgia high schools, suggesting a new phenomenon relating to the COVID-19 vaccines.

AP’S ASSESSMENT: False. That form has been given to families of Georgia students since 2019. A spokesperson for the high school association that published the document noted that it is distributed in accordance with state law.

THE FACTS: Social media posts are spreading an image of an educational form provided to Georgia families focused on sudden cardiac arrest — with some users erroneously implying that it is related to COVID-19 vaccines.

“Parents are now having to sign a Sudden Cardiac Arrest Awareness Form. But remember the Jab is safe enough to give to babies,” reads one tweet with the image.

Another tweet shared by nearly 2,000 users declared: “BREAKING — Georgia High School Now Has A Sudden Cardiac Awareness Form Due Recent Increase In Sudden Cardiac Death.”

The document shown in the social media posts is titled “Georgia High School Association Student/Parent Sudden Cardiac Arrest Awareness Form.”

But that form isn’t new and it predates both the COVID-19 pandemic and the vaccines: A version of the same form available online is dated May 2019.

Steve Figueroa, a spokesperson for the Georgia High School Association, told The Associated Press that the form has been used since the 2019-2020 school year in response to a state law centered on sudden cardiac arrest prevention.

That law passed in 2019 and requires both public and private schools to hold meetings on the symptoms and warning signs of sudden cardiac arrest and to also provide an “information sheet” to parents and guardians.

“It was simply an effort to try to prevent sudden cardiac arrest in high school athletes and to alert the parents of the dangers,” Figueroa said in an email.

The form details warning signs of sudden cardiac arrest, an abrupt malfunction of the heart that is different from a heart attack.

For example, the document instructs parents to consult a doctor if their child faints suddenly or experiences chest pain or shortness of breath during exercise. It further instructs readers to call for help and begin CPR if someone collapses and requests that students and parents sign the form.

Flawed claims and deceptive videos have spread the unfounded theory that the COVID-19 vaccines are behind a wave of young athletes experiencing such cardiac issues. Cardiologists have told the AP there have been instances of athletes experiencing sudden cardiac death and cardiac arrest long before the COVID-19 pandemic and that they have not observed the dramatic increase alleged on social media.

___

This is part of AP’s effort to address widely shared misinformation, including work with outside companies and organizations to add factual context to misleading content that is circulating online. Learn more about fact-checking at AP.

CLAIM: Rep. Matt Gaetz had a $482,321 loan from the Small Business Administration’s Paycheck Protection Program forgiven even though he doesn’t own a company.

AP’S ASSESSMENT: Missing context. Caregivers Inc., a private at-home care company in Florida, had the loan forgiven. Gaetz reported in 2021 that he was a shareholder in the company, making him a partial owner. The company has sold and he no longer owns shares, his office said in an emailed statement.

THE FACTS: The House Committee on Oversight and Accountability’s announcement that it would hold a hearing Wednesday on waste, fraud and abuse in pandemic recovery programs has prompted social media posts that distort the facts around how one Republican congressman benefited from the forgivable aid.

“Matt Gaetz had $482,321 in PPP loans forgiven,” read a popular tweet that was copied and shared elsewhere on social media. “And Matt Gaetz doesn’t even own a company.”

“Start with Gaetz’ forgiven $450000 PPP loan,” wrote another Twitter user in a response to news of the hearing. “He doesn’t have, run or own a business.”

The posts misleadingly suggest Gaetz personally had a loan forgiven as part of the program, but the dollar amount they reference is actually for a company in which Gaetz was a shareholder at the time, according to records.

Gaetz’s 2021 financial disclosure documents show that he reported owning between $100,001 and $250,000 of corporate stock in Caregivers Inc., a companion care provider in Pensacola that his family members ran at the time.

Federal records show that Caregivers Inc. received $475,932 in pandemic-era loans from the federal government, which it reported it would use for payroll. The company had that amount plus accrued interest forgiven, bringing its total loan forgiveness to $482,321.

Gaetz is no longer a shareholder of Caregivers Inc., according to the statement from his office.

“Those who care for the vulnerable should not have had to go without pay during the pandemic solely because they worked for a company partially owned by a congressman,” the emailed statement read. “The company has since sold, and Congressman Gaetz retains no interest therein.”

Lawmakers weren’t blocked from participating in the Paycheck Protection Program and businesses associated with several Republican and Democratic lawmakers benefited from it.

___

This is part of AP’s effort to address widely shared misinformation, including work with outside companies and organizations to add factual context to misleading content that is circulating online. Learn more about fact-checking at AP.