Statistical measures of the president's term to date.

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An update from FactCheck.org


** Biden's Numbers, The Inaugural Edition
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Nearly 10 years ago, we started what turned out to be a standing feature of FactCheck.org.

On Oct. 8, 2012, we published “Obama’s Numbers ([link removed]) ” — our attempt to provide a statistical measure of then-President Barack Obama’s first term in office as he sought reelection. After Obama won, we continued with quarterly reports ([link removed]) of "Obama's Numbers."

We did the same for President Donald Trump ([link removed]) — and now we do so for President Joe Biden. This week we published our first "Biden's Numbers ([link removed]) ."

As always, we include statistics that may seem good, bad or indifferent for the president, depending on a person’s partisan leanings.

In Biden’s case, the nation's economy and employment have been growing fast. The U.S. economy added 6.2 million jobs since January 2021, and economists estimate the economy grew by about 5% in 2021 -- the fastest in decades.

But inflation and border apprehensions are also way up. The Consumer Price Index increased 6.8% during Biden's first 11 months in office, and the number of apprehensions at the border with Mexico increased by 317% in Biden’s first 10 full months compared with the same period in 2020.

And, as always, we make no judgments on how much credit or blame the president deserves for any of it. We leave that to you and others.
HOW WE KNOW
At a press conference, Biden boasted that "we’re adding about 9 million more vaccinations each week." Science Editor Jessica McDonald went to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's "Trends in Number of COVID-19 Vaccinations in the US ([link removed]) " website to check the figures. Biden's number is slightly exaggerated and more than half were boosters -- not first doses for the unvaccinated. Read more ([link removed]) .
FEATURED FACT
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office's 10-year economic projections ([link removed]) issued in February 2021 estimated that unemployment would not reach 3.9% until 2026. In fact, it reached that mark by December 2021. That's 2.5 percentage points below the level Biden inherited when he took office, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. This is one of many facts in "Biden's Numbers ([link removed]) ."
WORTHY OF NOTE
FactCheck.org has been a verified signatory ([link removed]) of the International Fact-Checking Network at the Poynter Institute since 2017. IFCN promotes fact-checking standards through its code of principles. Verified signatories are evaluated annually.

This week, our application to be a signatory of the IFCN was approved. The latest assessment of our fact-checking policies and practices is available here ([link removed]) .

"Overall, factcheck.org operates as a robust and fair fact checking organization," IFCN assessor Julie Homchick Crowe writes. "Their evaluations are data-driven and fair and they do the necessary detailed research to share well-supported findings with the public in a transparent and accessible way, making their work compliant with the IFCN."

If you believe we are in violation of the IFCN code of principles, you can file a complaint with the IFCN here ([link removed]) .
REPLY ALL

Reader: Will all people vaccinated die within 2 to 5 years?

FactCheck.org Director Eugene Kiely: There is no medical evidence that COVID-19 vaccinations will result in massive premature deaths.

I don't know where you heard this claim, but there was a video clip circulating online this past summer that showed Dolores Cahill — a professor in Ireland who until recently was the chair of the right-wing Irish Freedom Party — making a similar claim about widespread premature deaths. But she provided no evidence for it, because there isn't any.

Cahill specifically alleged that “anyone who’s over 70 who gets one of these mRNA vaccines will probably be — sadly die within about two to three years. And I would say anyone who gets the mRNA injection, no matter what age you are, your life expectancy will be reduced to you know die, if you’re in your 30s, within five to 10 years."

This is what we wrote at that time in our article "Irish Professor Makes Unfounded Claims About Long-Term Effects of mRNA Vaccines ([link removed]) :"

It’s unclear what exactly is behind Cahill’s wild and baseless claim that the vaccines will cause all recipients to die within a matter of years. Our inquiries to Cahill went unanswered.

Meanwhile, Grant McFadden, director of the Biodesign Center for Immunotherapy, Vaccines, and Virotherapy at Arizona State University, told us in an email that “the safety record for the mRNA vaccines is excellent.” McFadden said that while “we do not yet have long-term data in humans,” there “are no scientific reasons to predict complications in these new vaccines in the coming years.” He added that “common health practices mandate that this will be monitored carefully for years to come.”


** Wrapping Up
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Here's what else we've got for you this week:
* "FactChecking Biden's Press Conference ([link removed]) ": In a nearly two-hour press conference, President Joe Biden stretched the facts and left out important context on vaccinations, funding for lead pipe removal, child poverty and more.
* "Q&A on At-Home Rapid Tests ([link removed]) ": The demand for at-home, rapid COVID-19 tests — sparked by the fast-spreading omicron variant in December — has continued in 2022. With that demand have come questions about the tests’ efficacy, how to use them and where to get them. We answer those queries and more.
* "Partisans Seize on Edited Clip of CDC Director’s Comments on COVID-19 Vaccine Effectiveness ([link removed]) ": Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, discussed a recent study that found that on the rare occasion when fully vaccinated people died from COVID-19, they often had multiple risk factors for severe disease. But her reference to vaccinated people was cut in a version of the interview — and conservative figures misleadingly claimed she was talking about all COVID-19 deaths.
* "Fake Article Falsely Links Dr. Sanjay Gupta to CBD Products ([link removed]) ": CNN chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta has reported extensively on the growing popularity of cannabis-based products. But a social media post, which links to a webpage masquerading as a CNN article, falsely claims Gupta is selling cannabidiol gummies. A CNN spokesperson said the content on the page is “completely false” and not from CNN.

Y lo que publicamos en español ([link removed]) (English versions are accessible in each story):
* "Datos iniciales sobre ómicron ([link removed]) ": Mientras muchas personas en Estados Unidos y en todo el mundo se preparan para viajar y reunirse con seres queridos durante la época de vacaciones, la variante ómicron continúa causando preocupación. Si bien los datos disponibles sobre la transmisión, la eficacia de las vacunas y la gravedad de la enfermedad aún son preliminares, esto es lo que hemos aprendido hasta ahora.
* "Verificación de las aseveraciones de los jueces de la Corte Suprema sobre el COVID-19 ([link removed]) ": El 7 de enero, la Corte Suprema de Estados Unidos escuchó argumentos para dos objeciones a los intentos de la administración Biden de expandir el uso de vacunas. Aquí presentamos los datos correctos sobre algunos de las aseveraciones realizadas por los jueces.
* "Aumento de informes al VAERS se debe a mayores requisitos de notificación y al intenso escrutinio de las vacunas contra el COVID-19 ([link removed]) ": La ampliación de los requisitos de notificación y el intenso escrutinio de los cientos de millones de dosis administradas de vacunas contra el COVID-19 ha generado un récord en el número de notificaciones de posibles efectos secundarios a uno de los sistemas gubernamentales de control de la seguridad de las vacunas. Sin embargo, en las redes sociales se ha insinuado falsamente que el aumento de las notificaciones significa que las vacunas no son seguras.

Have a question about COVID-19 and the vaccines? Visit our SciCheck page ([link removed]) for answers. It's available in Spanish ([link removed]) , too.
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