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An update from FactCheck.org
Daniel Jędzura / stock.adobe.com


** Swatting Away Bogus mRNA Vaccine Claims
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We have written this several times, but apparently it needs repeating: It has not been shown that COVID-19 mRNA vaccines cause or accelerate cancer.

But bogus claims about the vaccines keep surfacing on social media, like a game of whack-a-mole.

As Staff Writer Catalina Jaramillo writes, opponents of the vaccines wrongly claim that a new review article “has found that COVID-19 mRNA vaccines could aid cancer development.” The review conclusions are heavily based on the misinterpretation of a study on mRNA cancer vaccines in mice.

Messenger RNA, or mRNA, vaccines work by instructing a small number of a person’s cells to make specific proteins, which then prompt the body to mount an immune response. N1-methylpseudouridine is a modification naturally found in some RNA molecules that’s attached to mRNA in vaccines to allow it to deliver its message to the cell without being destroyed by an innate immune response.

Jordan L. Meier, senior investigator at the National Cancer Institute who has studied the role of N1-methylpseudouridine in COVID-19 vaccines, told Catalina that the authors of the review paper misrepresent what N1-methylpseudouridine, which is abbreviated as m1Ψ, does.

The review “incorrectly” confuses “m1Y’s ability to hide from the immune system with an ability to weaken or disable it,” he said in an email.

To explain it, Meier compared the mRNA modification to a spy using a disguise in order to pass security guards.

“The authors are essentially suggesting that the disguise somehow makes the guards less able to do their jobs going forward,” he wrote. “In reality, once the disguised person is through, the guards remain just as vigilant and capable as before.”

For more, read Catalina’s article, “Still No Evidence COVID-19 Vaccination Increases Cancer Risk, Despite Posts ([link removed]) .”
HOW WE KNOW
There are many tools that fact-checkers can use to find or cite old news clippings when writing about older politicians -- which is particularly valuable in this year's presidential campaign. One of them is newspapers.com ([link removed]) , which allows you to search newspaper articles by keyword, date range and location. It says it has more than 25,800 newspapers, some dating back to the late 1700s. Newspaper buffs will also enjoy its news blog -- cleverly called Fishwrap ([link removed]) -- which features blog posts on some of the biggest and notorious stories in journalism history.
FEATURED FACT
On April 25, the Bureau of Economic Analysis revealed that the real gross domestic product (which is adjusted for inflation) increased 1.6% in the first quarter of 2024 -- far below expectations. A day earlier, the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta’s GDPNow model was projecting growth of 2.7%. “Compared to the fourth quarter, the deceleration in real GDP in the first quarter primarily reflected decelerations in consumer spending, exports, and state and local government spending and a downturn in federal government spending,” the BEA explained.
WORTHY OF NOTE
The Society of Environmental Journalists held its 2024 convention at the University of Pennsylvania in April. Our parent organization, the Annenberg Public Policy Center, hosted the event in honor of the Penn Center for Science, Sustainability, and the Media.

On the first day, APPC Director Kathleen Hall Jamieson, who is a cofounder of FactCheck.org, and PCSSM Director Michael Mann led a lunchtime workshop on disinformation -- “Combating Climate and Science Disinformation" -- that was moderated by Rick Weiss, director of SciLine. Weiss also moderated a conversation with Mann and Jamieson in the opening night plenary session.

During the evening session, Weiss asked Mann about his successful defamation suit ([link removed]) against two conservative writers who had compared the renowned climate scientist and his work on global warming to a convicted child molester.

“Those of us in the climate science arena were introduced to the concepts of fake news and alternative facts decades ago before they became fashionable and part of our popular lexicon,” Mann said. “And in some sense, the bad faith debate that has existed for decades over human-caused climate change has sort of metastasized into this larger bad faith debate we have today over basic factual discourse.”

For more information, read the APPC press release ([link removed]) on the SEJ conference and the center's involvement in it.
REPLY ALL

Reader: There is a commercial on TV in Minnesota. It says that Minnesota has the most controversial abortion law. It says that abortions can be performed up to the time of birth.

FactCheck.org Director Eugene Kiely: Minnesota is one of nine states and the District of Columbia that do not restrict abortion based on the length of the pregnancy, according to ([link removed]) the Guttmacher Institute, a research and policy organization that supports abortion rights. That's because the state Supreme Court in 1995 ruled that the state constitution guarantees a woman's right to terminate a pregnancy.

"The [state] Court explicitly found that the Minnesota Constitution offers broader protection than the United States Constitution of a person’s fundamental right to make reproductive healthcare choices without state interference," the state Attorney General's Office says on its website ([link removed]) . "This remains the case despite the U.S. Supreme Court's June 2022 decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization. Minnesotans' rights continue to be protected."

In 2023, the state AG's office explains, the state Legislature codified the court ruling in a state law known as the Protect Reproductive Options Act or PRO Act.

Late-term abortions, however, are rare.

As we have written, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data show ([link removed]*%20and%20reporting%20area%20of%20occurrence%20%E2%80%94%20selected%20reporting%20areas%2C%E2%80%A0%20united%20states%2C%202020) that nearly all abortions occur early in pregnancy, in the first trimester. In Minnesota, there were 10,162 abortions in 2020 in which the age of gestation was known. Of those, 200, or 2%, were performed at or after 21 weeks. Most -- 79% -- were performed in the first nine weeks.

For more about late-term abortions, see our article "The Political Disagreement Over a Health Exception for Later Abortions ([link removed]) ."


** Wrapping Up
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Here's what else we've got for you this week:
* "Biden’s Dubious Civil Rights Arrest Anecdote ([link removed]) ": In his interview with SiriusXM radio’s Howard Stern, President Joe Biden revived a dubious anecdote about having been arrested as a teenager while standing in solidarity on the porch of a Black family amid a desegregation protest.
* "Posts Misrepresent Raising of Palestinian Flags at Harvard ([link removed]) ": Protesters against the war in Gaza raised three Palestinian flags on the Harvard University campus on April 27. Social media posts misleadingly claimed the university “replaced the American flag with the Palestinian flag.” The Palestinian flags were removed by Harvard staff shortly after they were raised by the protesters.
* "Posts Misrepresent Immigrants’ Eligibility for Social Security Numbers, Benefits ([link removed]) ": Immigrants who are lawfully living or authorized to work in the U.S. are eligible for a Social Security number and, in some cases, Social Security benefits. But viral posts make the false claim that “illegal immigrants” can receive Social Security numbers and retirement benefits, and they confuse two programs managed by the Social Security Administration.

Y lo que publicamos en español ([link removed]) (English versions are accessible in each story):
* "El giro partidista de Trump sobre TikTok ([link removed]) ": El expresidente Donald Trump dijo que quiere que los jóvenes sepan que “el corrupto Joe Biden es responsable de prohibir TikTok”. Sin embargo, la prohibición de TikTok cuenta con un amplio apoyo bipartidista en el Congreso. Trump mismo intentó prohibir TikTok como presidente a través de una orden ejecutiva, pero fue bloqueada por los tribunales.
* "Publicaciones tergiversan los criterios de elegibilidad de los inmigrantes para obtener números de Seguro Social y beneficios ([link removed]) ": Los inmigrantes que residen legalmente o están autorizados para trabajar en EE. UU. son elegibles para obtener un número de Seguridad Social y, en algunos casos, beneficios de Seguridad Social. Sin embargo, publicaciones virales hacen la afirmación falsa de que los “inmigrantes ilegales” pueden recibir números de Seguridad Social y beneficios de jubilación, y confunden dos programas gestionados por la Administración de Seguridad Social.

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