Debunking an Indiana Doctor's Viral Video

We've spent months (years? eons? what is time?) debunking deceptions about masks, COVID-19 vaccines and treatments. But it took just a six-minute video to serve a slew of false and misleading claims on those issues to millions of viewers.

In a video that was all over social media in recent days, Dan Stock, an Indiana doctor who sells vitamins and supplements online, addresses a local school board and urges it to eschew federal health officials' COVID-19 recommendations.

But Stock's main claims in the video are false, misleading or unsupported, a FactCheck.org team found.

For example: 

• Stock claimed that masks can't stop the "aerosol particles" through which the novel coronavirus, which causes COVID-19, spreads. But experts say — and some studies, particularly in labs, show — that masks can indeed help to limit transmission. They are not considered a foolproof solution. And, of course, a mask's material, layers and fit all impact how effective it is.
   
• He also baselessly blamed COVID-19 vaccines for recent outbreaks of the disease, and purported that the vaccines are making infections worse. There's no evidence for those claims, and the data show that the vast majority of people hospitalized and dying from COVID-19 are not fully vaccinated.
   
• Stock also claimed that those who previously had COVID-19 "get no benefit from vaccination at all." But studies show the vaccines provide such individuals an immunity boost.

Read the full story, "Indiana Doctor Piles On Bogus COVID-19 Claims in Viral Video."

"If you had a small outbreak in a town that was 100% vaccinated, 100% of the cases would be vaccinated, but it wouldn’t mean the vaccines don’t work!"
 

— William P. Hanage, a Harvard epidemiologist, explaining that, because no vaccine is 100% effective, the proportion of cases among the immunized can be high if much of the population has been vaccinated

Wrapping Up

Here's what else we've got for you this week:

• "Biden and Buttigieg Overstate Jobs Impact from Infrastructure Bill": President Joe Biden and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg overstated the impact of the bipartisan, Senate-approved infrastructure bill on job creation, citing instead an economic forecast that includes the much larger and partisan "human infrastructure" bill.
   
• "Posts Misinterpret CDC’s Provincetown COVID-19 Outbreak Report": Social media posts are misinterpreting the results of a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report, which found 74% of people in a COVID-19 outbreak were vaccinated, to argue against immunization. But experts say the headline-grabbing statistic is misleading without more context — and doesn’t mean that the vaccines don’t work.
   
• "Tax Credit for Plug-in Electric Vehicles Still Available for Certain Models": Dozens of electric cars and trucks still qualify for a federal tax credit of up to $7,500 for buyers purchasing new plug-in electric vehicles. President Joe Biden misleadingly claimed that the Trump administration allowed the tax credit to expire, which, so far, is only the case for purchases of models made by Tesla and General Motors.
   
• "Video: Irish Professor Makes Unfounded Claims About Long-Term Effects of mRNA Vaccines": Our latest video with Univision Noticias addresses baseless claims made by an Irish professor about the long-term effects of the mRNA vaccines.
   
• "Post Offers Misleading Advice on Mandatory Vaccines and Unemployment Benefits": As some companies mandate COVID-19 vaccines for employees, a social media post misleadingly tells workers who don’t want the vaccine that they can collect unemployment benefits if they are fired. In most states, workers fired for violating company policy aimed at workplace safety are not entitled to unemployment benefits.
   
• "Pfizer CEO Got the COVID-19 Vaccine": The CEO of Pfizer posted a photo of himself getting the second shot of the COVID-19 vaccine on March 10. But an Aug. 5 tweet from Newsmax reporter Emerald Robinson misleadingly suggested he isn’t vaccinated. She updated the tweet hours later, acknowledging the CEO’s post — but after her claim had spread, uncorrected, on other social media.
   
• "Posts Show Manipulated Image of T-Shirt Held by DeSantis": A manipulated image online shows Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis holding a T-shirt reading, "Your mask is as useless as Joe Biden." DeSantis and the White House have sparred, including on the issue of masks, but the original photo is from 2019 and actually shows DeSantis holding a Popeyes restaurant shirt.

• "Publicaciones sin fundamento vinculan pruebas de COVID-19 a teoría de conspiración de las vacunas": Las vacunas contra el COVID-19 usadas en la actualidad deben administrarse mediante una inyección. Sin embargo, publicaciones en Instagram sugieren infundadamente que Bill Gates y George Soros usarán pruebas de COVID-19 para vacunar secretamente a personas que aún no han recibido las inyecciones. No hay evidencia que sostenga esta teoría de la conspiración y los científicos dicen que tratar de administrar una vacuna con un hisopo nasal probablemente no sea efectivo.