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** FactCheck.org's Weekly Update
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May 9, 2020
** SciCheck
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How Many COVID-19 Tests Are ‘Needed’ to Reopen? ([link removed]) Posted on Friday, May 8th, 2020
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The Trump administration has repeatedly claimed that there are enough COVID-19 tests for states to begin reopening their economies. While that may be true for select locations, experts say more tests are needed, even if they don’t agree on a particular number.
Trump Falsely Claims COVID-19 Death Projection Assumes ‘No Mitigation’ ([link removed]) Posted on Wednesday, May 6th, 2020
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Dismissing concerns that states are reopening too soon, President Donald Trump incorrectly said that a newly revised model projecting 134,000 COVID-19 deaths by August “assumes no mitigation.” In fact, the model assumes states will keep their existing social distancing measures in place, unless suspensions have already been announced.
** FactCheck Posts
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Trump’s Misleading Ad on Coronavirus Testing ([link removed]) Posted on Friday, May 8th, 2020
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A new Trump campaign ad claims that President Donald Trump took “fast action” in regard to testing for the novel coronavirus. While “fast action” is subjective, pandemic experts say the U.S. did not move quickly to set up an adequate system and in fact lagged behind other countries.
The Falsehoods of the ‘Plandemic’ Video ([link removed]) Posted on Friday, May 8th, 2020
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The first installment of a documentary called “Plandemic” stormed through social media this week. But the viral video weaves a grand conspiracy theory by using a host of false and misleading claims about the novel coronavirus pandemic and its origins, vaccines, treatments for COVID-19, and more.
Video: Trump’s Repeated Coronavirus Claims ([link removed]) Posted on Wednesday, May 6th, 2020
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President Donald Trump has repeatedly misstated the facts at the White House coronavirus briefings. In this video, we feature five examples from April.
Trump’s Flawed China Travel Conspiracy ([link removed]) Posted on Tuesday, May 5th, 2020
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President Donald Trump has twice now advanced the flawed theory that China nefariously continued to allow flights out of Wuhan, the city where the COVID-19 outbreak originated, to Western cities while blocking flights into other cities in China.
Trump Ad’s Misleading Use of CNN Interview ([link removed]) Posted on Tuesday, May 5th, 2020
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A Trump campaign ad misleadingly edits a CNN interview to suggest 2 million people would have died from the novel coronavirus were it not for President Donald Trump’s China travel restrictions.
Kudlow’s Claim About COVID-19 Spread ([link removed]) Posted on Tuesday, May 5th, 2020
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Despite early warnings about how damaging COVID-19 could be for Americans, White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow defended his late February statement that the U.S. had “contained” the virus, saying on May 3 that the novel coronavirus “spread exponentially in ways that virtually no one could have predicted.”
Trump’s Mysterious Claim of an Apology ‘Letter’ from Biden ([link removed]) Posted on Monday, May 4th, 2020
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President Donald Trump has claimed Joe Biden wrote him a “letter of apology” regarding the administration’s travel restrictions on China. But there’s no evidence of such a letter, and Biden’s campaign says it “never happened.”
Video: Trump Twists Fauci’s Words ([link removed]) Posted on Monday, May 4th, 2020
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In this video, we show how President Donald Trump misquoted Dr. Anthony Fauci’s remarks in late February about the threat that the novel coronavirus posed for Americans.
** Debunking False Stories
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CDC Hasn’t ‘Reduced’ COVID-19 Death Toll ([link removed]) Posted on Wednesday, May 6th, 2020
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Claims on social media have been spreading the falsehood that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention significantly lowered the COVID-19 death toll. There has been no such reduction. These claims confuse two different measures of the number of deaths.
False Claim Targets Gates Using Epstein Connection ([link removed]) Posted on Wednesday, May 6th, 2020
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There’s no evidence that Bill Gates ever visited Jeffrey Epstein’s private island in the Caribbean, contrary to a viral Facebook post claiming he went there numerous times. The “flight records” cited do not show that.
Media Didn’t Misuse Boy’s Photo in Deaths of Three COVID-19 Victims ([link removed]) Posted on Tuesday, May 5th, 2020
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Social media posts falsely suggest that news outlets are misusing a boy’s image to report the same child died of COVID-19 in three different countries. The posts actually refer to three different young people who died from the novel coronavirus in Portugal, Belgium and the UK.
Legislative History of CARES Act Doesn’t Prove COVID-19 Conspiracy ([link removed]) Posted on Monday, May 4th, 2020
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Social media posts falsely claim that the CARES Act was introduced Jan. 24, 2019 to perpetuate the falsehood that the COVID-19 pandemic was planned or known about in advance. The CARES Act was introduced March 25 as a substitute amendment, replacing the title and language of an older, unrelated bill.
Gowdy Didn’t Author Viral Conspiracy Theory ([link removed]) Posted on Monday, May 4th, 2020
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A viral Facebook post, spreading a political conspiracy theory about COVID-19, is wrongly attributed to former Rep. Trey Gowdy. Gowdy confirmed to us that he did not write the post in question.
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