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An update from FactCheck.org
White House photos by Shealah Craighead (Trump) and Adam Schultz (Biden)


** Familiar Presidential Race, Familiar Claims
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Yes, we're doing it again.

Now that the presumptive nominees are known -- spoiler alert: it's President Joe Biden against former President Donald Trump -- we published a primer for the 2024 election.

Four of our staffers this week wrote about the top 10 falsehoods and distortions, so far, based on Trump’s and Biden’s propensity to repeat them.

We review every transcript available of remarks made by both Trump and Biden, so patterns become readily apparent to us.

In our story, we explain how we know the 2020 election was not "rigged," contrary to Trump's constant claims. And we deconstruct Biden's unsupported claim that Trump plans to cut Social Security and Medicare.

Read the full story, "Familiar Claims in a Familiar Presidential Race ([link removed]) ."
HOW WE KNOW
Adjuvants in vaccines — ingredients added to increase efficacy — help spur the immune system to mount a strong response to the vaccines’ main ingredients. In a story about the use of aluminum in vaccines, FactCheck.org Staffer Kate Yandell cited the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, which develops Minimal Risk Levels ([link removed]) to protect public health. Read more ([link removed]) .
FEATURED FACT
The vast majority of abortions in the U.S. occur early in pregnancy. According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 93.5% of abortions in 2021 were performed at or before 13 weeks of gestation, and less than 1% were performed at or after 21 weeks. The CDC started the abortion surveillance system ([link removed]) in 1969, based on voluntarily reporting by states and other jurisdictions. Read more ([link removed]) .
WORTHY OF NOTE
SciCheck will be a guest on a Facebook Live event today hosted by Those Nerdy Girls ([link removed]) -- a website dedicated ([link removed]) to helping "readers make better health decisions by providing practical and factual health information."

Dr. Chana Davis, a contributing writer ([link removed]) to TNG who earned a Ph.D. in genetics from Stanford, will ask us about the origins of FactCheck.org and SciCheck, and how we go about fact-checking science claims. Chana will also share with viewers what TNG is doing to boost data literacy skills among its readers. We also will discuss some recent SciCheck articles.

The event will be at 2 p.m. ET. Visit our Facebook events page ([link removed]) to watch. We also will archive the event on our Facebook page after the live event is over.
REPLY ALL

Reader: A recent article by Zachary Stieber writing for the Epoch Times on April 3 titled “CDC Releases Hidden Covid-19 Vaccine Injury Reports,” makes a number of claims that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was forced by a federal judge to disclose the reports of Covid-19 vaccine side effects. Could the team at SciCheck do an article on this story by the Epoch Times?

SciCheck Staffer Kate Yandell: I read the article in the Epoch Times you’re referring to, and it seems to continue a pattern of distortions of vaccine safety monitoring data that we’ve written about before. Here’s a prior article on a similar topic: "Posts Distort Misleading Analysis of COVID-19 Vaccine Safety Data ([link removed]) ."

This latest Epoch Times article is based on a release of raw responses from v-safe — a CDC vaccine safety monitoring system that prompted people via text message to answer questions about their health. It highlights examples of people’s accounts of their health problems without making clear that there isn’t a way to tell just based on these reports whether the problems were caused by the vaccines.

The article mentions some problems that have in fact been causally linked to COVID-19 vaccines, such as myocarditis, and others that have been shown NOT to be caused by COVID-19 vaccines. For instance, the article mentions miscarriages, but there is good evidence that COVID-19 vaccines do not cause ([link removed]) miscarriages.


** Wrapping Up
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Here's what else we've got for you this week:
* "Trump’s False Claim About Roe ([link removed]) ": In a video statement outlining his position on abortion, former President Donald Trump falsely claimed that “all legal scholars, both sides, wanted and in fact demanded” that Roe v. Wade “be ended.” Legal scholars told us that was “utter nonsense” and “patently absurd.”
* "Posts Raise Unfounded Concerns About Aluminum in Vaccines ([link removed]) ": Small amounts of aluminum have been used for many decades to strengthen the immune response to vaccines. Exposure to high levels of aluminum has been associated with brain and bone problems, but there is no evidence that the level of exposure provided by vaccines leads to such toxicity, contrary to social media claims.

Y lo que publicamos en español ([link removed]) (English versions are accessible in each story):
* "El gráfico engañoso de Trump sobre la inmigración ilegal ([link removed]) ": Durante un discurso en Green Bay, Wisconsin, el expresidente Donald Trump señaló un gráfico sobre las detenciones de personas que intentan entrar ilegalmente en Estados Unidos por la frontera suroeste. “¿Ve la flecha en la parte inferior? Esa fue mi última semana en el cargo”, dijo Trump, refiriéndose a la presidencia. “Esa fue la cifra más baja de la historia”. Pero Trump se equivocó en ambos puntos.
* "Verificando el anuncio de la elección de RFK Jr. para la vicepresidencia ([link removed]) ": Al anunciar su elección para la vicepresidencia, el candidato presidencial independiente Robert F. Kennedy Jr. y su compañera de fórmula, Nicole Shanahan, hicieron declaraciones falsas o engañosas.
* "Shanahan engaña sobre tendencias de la fertilidad femenina ([link removed]) ": Las mujeres tienen menos hijos hoy que en el pasado en todo el mundo, pero los expertos dicen que es por opción y que no significa que estemos “enfrentando una crisis de la salud reproductiva”, como dijo Nicole Shanahan, la compañera de fórmula de Robert F. Kennedy Jr., durante su discurso de presentación. Las tasas de infertilidad han permanecido estables durante las últimas décadas.

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