How Many Americans and Allies Are Left in Afghanistan?

The exact number of Americans still in Afghanistan who want to leave is unknown.

What we do know is that President Joe Biden claimed, on Aug. 18, that if there were U.S. citizens left in Afghanistan on Aug. 31 who wanted to leave, "we’re gonna stay to get them all out."

But Biden broke that promise. Not all got out by the time the last U.S. soldier departed the country.

This week, a FactCheck.org team outlined what we know—and don't know—about those citizens, and allies, left behind.

Foremost, they found that a firm number is hard to come by. The White House put the number of U.S. citizens wanting to leave at 100 to 200, though the State Department has confirmed that doesn't include U.S. legal permanent residents or green card holders. It also doesn't include at-risk Afghan allies who were unable to escape—such as interpreters who worked with the U.S. during the war and who are eligible for special visas to come to the U.S.

One Republican lawmaker has suggested the number of U.S. citizens was higher, in the thousands. But U.S. officials in interviews have said the figures cited were preliminary estimates that were later reduced after vetting.

Officials say that U.S. and coalition aircraft combined were able to evacuate more than 123,000 civilians since the end of July.

Read the full story, "How Many Americans and Allies Are Left in Afghanistan?"

Reader: If you’ve been fully vaccinated against Covid 19, and are tested for Covid 19, how can they tell if the antibodies you may have are from Covid 19 or from the vaccine? Hence, will the test come back as positive for Covid 19?

FactCheck.org Science Editor Jessica McDonald: Thanks for the question. This depends on the type of test being used. 

PCR tests, which are used to diagnose current infection, detect fragments of viral RNA and are not affected by vaccination. Rapid antigen tests, which also are used for diagnosis, check for viral proteins present in respiratory tract samples. These also would not be affected by vaccination.

If you are being tested for whether you have had a past infection (and developed antibodies against the virus), then, yes, tests that check for antibodies against the spike protein will come back positive if you've been vaccinated (after a certain amount of time). These antibody tests, however, are not used to diagnose COVID-19.

Plus, there is a way for these tests to distinguish between infection and vaccination by checking for antibodies to other parts of the virus (typically the nucleocapsid). If someone has antibodies to both the spike and nucleocapsid proteins, then they were previously infected. If a person only has spike antibodies, then they were vaccinated.

Wrapping Up

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

• "What We Know About the Claims of Military Dogs Left in Kabul": The Department of Defense maintains that none of its military service dogs were left behind in Afghanistan, contrary to viral claims suggesting otherwise. But animal welfare groups say some contract working dogs — which did not belong to the U.S., though some may have been contracted by the military — were left at the Kabul airport.
   
• "Instagram Post Missing Context About Israeli Study on COVID-19 Natural Immunity":  An Instagram post highlighted a headline about a non-peer-reviewed study from Israel that found that unvaccinated people previously infected with SARS-CoV-2 had greater immunity against the delta variant than never-infected people fully vaccinated with Pfizer/BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine. But the social media post omitted the study’s other finding that one dose of the vaccine enhanced protection for infection survivors.
   
• "Social Media Posts Draw Unsupported Conclusion on Afghan Helicopter Video": Afghan journalists report that a video of a person suspended from a helicopter shows an operation in which the person was trying to change a flag. But critics of President Joe Biden have used the footage to claim the Taliban used U.S. equipment for a “hanging.” One person who shared the claim, Sen. Ted Cruz, later deleted his tweet, saying it “may be inaccurate.”
   
• "Health Sensors Misconstrued as Government Tracking ‘Microchips’": A digital device company is developing gel sensors that would monitor the wearer’s health and could potentially help to detect future outbreaks of disease. But conspiracy theorists are falsely claiming that the sensors are actually COVID-19-detecting microchips that will be used to track people’s movements.
   
• "Video: Idaho Doctor Makes Baseless Claims About Safety of COVID-19 Vaccines": In this video, FactCheck.org and Univision Noticias teamed up to debunk false claims made by a doctor in Idaho about COVID-19 mRNA vaccines and treatments. It is available in both English and Spanish.
   
• "Trump and Boebert’s Oil Spin": Former President Donald Trump said he had gotten the U.S. to a point where “we didn’t need the Middle East” for “energy.” And now, he said, “we’re going back to them asking them for help.” But the U.S. has continued to import a smaller amount of its petroleum from the Middle East under President Joe Biden.
   
• "Researcher Distorts Facts on COVID-19 Vaccine Approval, Liability": The Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine was fully approved by the Food and Drug Administration, though an emergency use authorization also remains in place. Dr. Robert Malone misleadingly said Americans are being offered the shot only under the latter and that it carried different liability ramifications. The liability protections, afforded under a public health law, are the same for the two.
   
• "Biden Issued Proclamation to Fly Flags at Half-Staff":
  President Joe Biden issued a proclamation honoring those who died in the attack at the Kabul airport Aug. 26 and calling for flags to be flown at half-staff. But a meme has been circulating on Facebook with the false claim that no such order had been issued.

• "General del Cuerpo de Infantería de Marina apoya vacunaciones para militares ": El secretario de Defensa anunció que la vacunación contra el COVID-19 será obligatoria para todos los miembros del servicio a mediados de septiembre. Pero publicaciones en redes sociales han compartido un artículo de un sitio web dudoso que afirmaba falsamente que el líder de la Infantería de Marina “reprendió” al secretario de Defensa por el mandato de la vacuna. Un vocero del Cuerpo de Infantería de Marina nos dijo que “no hay verdad” en la afirmación.
   
• "Video: Médico de Idaho hace declaraciones infundadas sobre seguridad de vacunas contra el COVID-19": En este video, los equipos de FactCheck.org y Univision Noticias se unieron para desmentir las declaraciones falsas de un médico en Idaho sobre las vacunas contra el COVID-19 de ARN mensajero y sobre los tratamientos de la enfermedad. Está disponible en inglés y español.
   
• "Quiropráctico vuelve a diseminar declaraciones falsas y engañosas sobre el COVID-19": La variante delta del coronavirus que causa el COVID-19 es más contagiosa que las formas anteriores del virus y ha ayudado a impulsar un aumento de casos, incluso en niños. Pero en un video en Facebook, un quiropráctico asegura erróneamente que la variante “no está planteando más problemas”. Esa es una de varias afirmaciones engañosas y falsas que hace sobre el COVID-19.
   
• "Hospitales abrumados por otra ola de pacientes con COVID-19 y tensión financiera": El promedio del número de hospitalizaciones por COVID-19 en siete días en Estados Unidos ha aumentado en un 322% en dos meses, agotando la capacidad del personal médico para atender a pacientes en algunos estados. A pesar del incremento en las cifras, una publicación de Instagram pregunta si es realmente el COVID-19 “una pandemia ‘abrumando hospitales’”, si los hospitales están despidiendo a enfermeras y enfermeros que se niegan a ser vacunados.