FactCheck.org's Weekly Update

In revealing that he’s taking the drug to prevent COVID-19, the president distorted the facts.

At a White House meeting with fellow Republicans, President Donald Trump said, without evidence, that the coronavirus “is going to go away without a vaccine.” While it’s impossible to predict the future, experts say it’s unlikely that the virus will simply go away.

The Kentucky Senate race — likely pitting Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell against Democratic challenger, and former Marine fighter pilot, Amy McGrath — is playing out on the airwaves. But the recent TV ads don’t always square with the facts.

Facebook posts credit President Donald Trump with accomplishing a list of things that haven’t happened — claiming, for example, that he “cancelled” a proposed House bill on contact tracing and “expelled WHO.”

President Donald Trump erroneously tweeted that Michigan’s Democratic secretary of state was “illegally” sending “absentee ballots to 7.7 million people” for this year’s primary and general elections.

Defending his decision to fire a fourth inspector general this year, President Donald Trump has misleadingly compared his record to past presidents, claiming, “I think every president has gotten rid of probably more than I have.”

Former Vice President Joe Biden overstated the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s staffing cuts in China during the Trump administration. He said the CDC reduced its staff to four, but it was actually 14.

A voicemail message being left at the homes of voters in Pennsylvania and elsewhere by the Republican National Committee makes a number of misleading claims about presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden and his son Hunter and Trump’s handling of the novel coronavirus outbreak.

A viral social media post falsely claims Dr. Anthony Fauci is “pushing” remdesivir as a potential COVID-19 treatment drug, because he “invented” it with Bill Gates and they stand to profit from it. Remdesivir was invented by the pharmaceutical company Gilead Sciences, which receives any profit from sales of the drug as a treatment for COVID-19.

A viral claim on Facebook erroneously tells users that “you will test positive” for COVID-19 if “you’ve gotten flu shots during the past ten years.” Vaccine and infectious disease experts told us that’s false, and the Food and Drug Administration says this hasn’t been observed in any authorized tests.

An outdated video clip of Dr. Anthony Fauci is circulating on social media — giving the false impression he is currently advising the public not to wear face masks. Fauci, like other health officials, recommends wearing a cloth face covering when distances of at least six feet can’t be maintained.

Viral posts suggest that COVID-19 can’t be a serious disease if it hasn’t “wiped out the homeless.” But recent reports published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have found high rates of homeless residents testing positive for the novel coronavirus, known as SARS-CoV-2.

In revealing that he’s taking the drug to prevent COVID-19, the president distorted the facts.