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** Measles Outbreaks Spark Misleading Posts
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Measles is back in the news -- and online, so is misinformation about the disease and its highly effective and safe vaccine.

In Philadelphia, where FactCheck.org is based, an infant who contracted measles abroad sparked an outbreak that has grown ([link removed]) to include eight other people. As of Jan. 23, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said ([link removed]) 23 confirmed measles cases had been reported to the agency since the beginning of December, most of which were in kids or teens who had not been vaccinated.

Measles is surging internationally, likely in large part due to a decline ([link removed]) in vaccination. Measles is one of the most contagious diseases and requires 95% ([link removed]) of people in a community to be immune to prevent an outbreak.

While experts and public health officials are encouraging vaccination to limit the spread and protect more people, certain social media influencers have taken the opportunity to downplay the risk of the viral disease and try to scare parents away from the vaccine.

“As the news tries to fear-monger about the measles ‘outbreak’ of 9 whole people, remember that the vaccine is more dangerous than the actual illness,” one Instagram post ([link removed]) incorrectly claimed. “Not to mention, you can actually get measles from the vaccine.”

In a new story, Science Editor Jessica McDonald breaks down the very real risks of measles, which include not only pneumonia, brain swelling and, rarely, death, but also a kind of immune amnesia, in which a person loses immunity they already developed against other germs.

She also details why the mild rash and fever that can sometimes occur after the vaccine is hardly the same as a natural infection.

For more, read “Posts Mislead About Measles, MMR Vaccine Amid Recent Outbreaks ([link removed]) .”
HOW WE KNOW
For an item about how the Nevada Republican Party will select presidential delegates to the national convention in July, FactCheck.org Undergraduate Fellow Sean Christensen contacted the secretary of state's office in Carson City, Nevada. The secretary of state has a page on its website that provides the state's primary and caucus history, dating to 1864. Sean, a junior, is an economics major. Read more ([link removed]) .
FEATURED FACT
A person’s likelihood of being autistic is influenced by a combination of genetics and other factors. These likely include older parental age and whether there are complications at a child’s birth, including extreme prematurity or very low birth weight. As we’ve written previously, many lines of evidence contradict the idea — long spread by anti-vaccine groups — that childhood vaccines cause autism. Read more ([link removed]) .
WORTHY OF NOTE
As we previewed here last week, FactCheck.org Managing Editor Lori Robertson was a guest on C-SPAN’s “Washington Journal."

In a Jan. 28 interview, Lori talked about debunking misinformation in the 2024 election cycle and, more broadly, explained how we do our work.

Tia Mitchell, a Washington correspondent for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and a host of the “Washington Journal,” interviewed Lori and took phone calls from the audience -- including a handyman who once did work for our co-founder Brooks Jackson. More to the point, Lori discussed recent false and misleading claims we have fact-checked, the use of artificial intelligence in election messaging, and more.

You can watch the interview on C-SPAN's website. ([link removed])
REPLY ALL

Reader: The question I'm trying to get some facts for is, did [President] Obama approve funding for [then-Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Anthony] Fauci to create the coronavirus in the Wuhan lab?

FactCheck.org Director Eugene Kiely: First, there is no solid evidence that SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, was created at the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

As we wrote in June ([link removed]) :

It remains unknown how the virus that causes COVID-19 originated, but many scientists think a natural spillover is most likely.

Second, the funding you are talking about was a grant awarded to EcoHealth Alliance, a U.S.-based nonprofit that does work on pandemic prevention. EcoHealth was first awarded a $3.4 million grant to study the risk of future coronaviruses in 2014, while Obama was president, and $600,000 of that was distributed to the Wuhan Institute of Virology. We wrote about this funding in May 2020 ([link removed]) .

Finally, the funding awarded to EcoHealth could not have resulted in the creation of SARS-CoV-2.

As we wrote in October 2021 ([link removed]) :

The EcoHealth Alliance experiments have nothing to do with the COVID-19 pandemic and did not produce SARS-CoV-2, the NIH says.

“Analysis of published genomic data and other documents from the grantee demonstrate that the naturally occurring bat coronaviruses studied under the NIH grant are genetically far distant from SARS-CoV-2 and could not possibly have caused the COVID-19 pandemic,” NIH Director Dr. Francis Collins said in an Oct. 20 statement, referring to an analysis posted to the NIAID’s website. “Any claims to the contrary are demonstrably false.”

Our complete file on the origins of COVID-19 can be found here ([link removed]) .


** Wrapping Up
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Here's what else we've got for you this week:
* "Viral Posts Misuse Rat Study to Make Unfounded Claims About COVID-19 Vaccines and Autism ([link removed]) ": COVID-19 vaccination during pregnancy benefits both mother and baby. Side effects are generally mild, and studies don’t show negative effects on the baby. A criticized study that gave COVID-19 vaccines to pregnant rats doesn’t show that vaccines cause autism or that people shouldn’t get COVID-19 vaccines, contrary to claims.
* "Posts Misrepresent WHO Term ‘Disease X’ for Possible Future Illness ([link removed]) ": The World Health Organization began using the term “Disease X” in a 2018 planning document to refer to a “currently unknown” illness. But since the term was used at the January meeting of the World Economic Forum, conspiracy theorists baselessly claim Disease X is part of a “Globalist Plan to … Install World Government.”
* "Trump Chose to Compete in Nevada GOP Caucuses, Not Primary, Contrary to Online Claims ([link removed]) ": Former President Donald Trump is competing in Nevada’s Republican presidential caucuses but not the state-run primary election. Nevada’s delegates are awarded based on the results of caucuses, not the primary election. Social media posts falsely claim Trump “forgot to file” or “election interference” prevented his name from appearing on the primary ballot.
* "Trump, Haley Trade False and Misleading Attacks ([link removed]) ": The last two major candidates for the Republican presidential nomination have misfired in launching attacks on each other in recent speeches.
* "Examining Lankford's Claim About 'Special Interest Aliens' ([link removed]) ": With apprehensions at the southern border still near historical highs, some congressional Republicans have raised concerns about the number of border crossers who have been counted as so-called "Special Interest Aliens."

Y lo que publicamos en español ([link removed]) (English versions are accessible in each story):
* "Publicaciones tergiversan significado de 'Enfermedad X', el término de la OMS para una posible enfermedad futura ([link removed]) ": La Organización Mundial de la Salud comenzó a utilizar el término “Enfermedad X” en un documento de planificación de 2018 para referirse a una enfermedad “actualmente desconocida”. Pero desde que el término se utilizó en la reunión de enero del Foro Económico Mundial, creadores de teorías conspirativas afirman sin fundamento que la Enfermedad X forma parte de un “Plan globalista para (…) instalar un régimen mundial”.

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