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** Biden's Numbers, Preelection Edition
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With Election Day just weeks away, we published an article today on key statistical measures of how the U.S. has performed under President Joe Biden.

In a quarterly feature we call "Biden's Numbers," we review the latest data from federal departments and agencies, such as the Census Bureau, Energy Information Administration, and Bureau of Economic Analysis, Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Five staffers -- including Director Emeritus Brooks Jackson, who started this feature as "Obama's Numbers" in 2012 -- had a hand in sifting through the data and presenting you the facts.

For this preelection edition, we got our first look at Census Bureau data on poverty rates, median household income and health insurance coverage in 2021. We also have just-released FBI crime data for last year and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives' data on handgun manufacturing in 2021.

There's information in our story that runs counter to party narratives. Did you know that U.S. oil production is up under Biden?

There's also data that confirms the party narratives. Apprehensions of those trying to cross the southwest border illegally are up a staggering 330% for the past 12 months, compared with President Donald Trump’s last year in office.

For more, read the full story, "Biden's Numbers, October 2022 Update ([link removed]) ."
HOW WE KNOW
After Dr. Joseph A. Ladapo, Florida's surgeon general, recommended that males ages 18 to 39 not receive mRNA COVID-19 vaccines, FactCheck.org Science Editor Jessica McDonald reviewed the state analysis that formed the basis of Ladapo's decision. The unpublished analysis had no listed authors and by its own admission is “preliminary” and “should be interpreted with caution.” Jessie also interviewed experts who specialize in the unusual method used in the analysis; they told her the analysis was flawed. One of those experts was Paddy Farrington, a professor emeritus of statistics at the Open University in the U.K., who was the author on three of the papers cited in the Florida analysis. Read More ([link removed]) .
VERBATIM
“The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), in accordance with the Presidential Records Act, assumed physical and legal custody of the Presidential records from the administrations of Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George H.W. Bush, and Ronald Reagan, when those Presidents left office. ... Reports that indicate or imply that those Presidential records were in the possession of the former Presidents or their representatives, after they left office, or that the records were housed in substandard conditions, are false and misleading.” -- NARA statement, Oct. 11, responding to reporters' questions about former President Donald Trump's remarks at a rally in Arizona. Read more ([link removed]) .
WORTHY OF NOTE
Who's more unpopular than President Joe Biden? The U.S. Supreme Court.

According to the latest Annenberg Public Policy Center survey ([link removed]) , only 39% of U.S. adults approve of how the Supreme Court is handling its job, while 53% disapprove.

(For the record, Biden's average approval rating is currently about 43%, according to ([link removed]) FiveThirtyEight.com.)

The APPC survey, which dates to 2005, also found that only 46% of those surveyed trust the Supreme Court "to operate in the best interests of the American people." That's down from a high of 75% in 2005.

APPC Director Kathleen Hall Jamieson, a co-founder of FactCheck.org, called the results worrisome.

“Whether the perceptions registered in our survey are justified or not, they are worrisome,” Kathleen said ([link removed]) . “For the court to play its role in our system of government, it is important that it be perceived to be an independent branch that impartially and fairly bases its decisions on the Constitution, the law, and the facts of the case.”

For more information on these and other questions, read the APPC press release ([link removed]) and survey data ([link removed]) .
REPLY ALL

Reader: Is it true that the newest Covid vaccine was only tested on 8 mice?

FactCheck.org Director Eugene Kiely: Our science editor, Jessica McDonald, last month addressed your question in "Q&A on Omicron-Updated COVID-19 Boosters ([link removed]) ." It's under the subhead “What evidence supports the use of these omicron-updated boosters?”

Jessica wrote:

To authorize the updated boosters, the FDA borrowed ([link removed]) its approach for influenza vaccines, which each year are modified to match the flu strains that are expected to circulate that season. Because the changes are only tweaks — and because it would be impractical if not impossible to test the vaccines in people prior to the flu season — flu vaccines are approved without doing clinical studies each year.

The omicron-updated boosters are similar in that they have not yet been evaluated in people, although there is other supporting evidence ([link removed]) to suggest that they will work.

She goes on to explain that experiments from both Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech “show that mice previously vaccinated and then boosted with the bivalent BA.4/5 vaccines have higher BA.5 neutralizing antibody responses than those boosted with the original vaccine.”

She then writes:

Moderna also challenged, or intentionally infected, vaccinated and boosted mice with BA.5 and found animals who received the bivalent BA.4/5 booster were better protected in their lungs than those boosted with the original vaccine.

An unpublished study posted as a preprint ([link removed]) following authorization of the new boosters also found that mice given Moderna’s BA.4/5 booster had a stronger and broader antibody response compared with those given the original booster, which appeared to translate into better protection against BA.5 in the lung.

Fox News host Tucker Carlson ([link removed]) and some posts ([link removed]) on social media ([link removed]) have highlighted the lack of clinical data on the BA.4/5 boosters, noting that the specific vaccines have only been given to eight mice. That’s mostly true (Pfizer lists ([link removed]) eight, while Moderna shows ([link removed]) 10), but it’s misleading to suggest that’s the only information scientists have on these shots.

As we said, the revised boosters are not entirely new vaccines. Regulators considered the abundance of data indicating the original shots are safe and effective, particularly against severe disease, and they had the clinical data from the highly similar BA.1 bivalent boosters along with the animal data.

This week, Pfizer said ([link removed]) “early data” from its ongoing clinical trial on humans found that the updated booster provides a strong immune response to the current omicron subvariants. The trial involves 900 volunteers.


** Wrapping Up
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Here's what else we've got for you this week:
* "Trump’s Faulty ‘Double Standard’ Document Claim ([link removed]) ": Former President Donald Trump made a series of faulty comparisons to other past presidents to argue that he was being held to a double standard regarding the FBI’s pursuit of his presidential documents.
* "Florida’s COVID-19 Vaccination Analysis Is Flawed, Experts Say ([link removed]) ": The state of Florida recently announced that it was no longer recommending that younger males receive mRNA COVID-19 vaccines, based on an unpublished analysis that purportedly found an increased risk of cardiac-related death following vaccination. But experts who specialize in the unique method used in the analysis say it was not properly done — and even if it had been, the findings would not mean that individuals should not get vaccinated.
* "Stacey Abrams Opposed Boycotts in Atlanta, Contrary to Facebook Post ([link removed]) ": Georgia Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams opposed the state’s new election law and gun laws, but she spoke out against corporations using economic sanctions to protest the laws. Yet, a social media post falsely claims Abrams “lobbied to move” the MLB’s All-Star Game out of Atlanta last year and a music festival this year.
* "In Context: Laxalt’s Comments on Latino Businesses ([link removed]) ": In the tight Senate race in Nevada, where nearly a third of the population is Latino, the campaigns of Republican challenger Adam Laxalt and Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto have been locked in a dispute over remarks Laxalt made about the impact of the pandemic on Latino jobs and businesses.
* "Unraveling Wisconsin GOP Candidate’s Abortion Position ([link removed]) ": The Republican Accountability PAC says in a Facebook ad that Wisconsin Republican gubernatorial candidate Tim Michels “supports" an abortion ban with "no exceptions for rape [or] incest.” The ad doesn’t tell the whole story.

Y lo que publicamos en español ([link removed]) (English versions are accessible in each story):
* "Detractores de las vacunas contra el COVID-19 tergiversan un seminario de los CDC sobre las causas de los coágulos sanguíneos ([link removed]) ": Los Centros para el Control y la Prevención de Enfermedades (CDC, por sus siglas en inglés) organizaron un seminario en internet sobre el tratamiento de los coágulos sanguíneos, que se espera que aumenten a medida que la población estadounidense envejezca y la tasa de obesidad aumente. Pero algunos detractores de las vacunas tergiversaron el seminario para sugerir incorrectamente que el previsto aumento de los coágulos sanguíneos está relacionado con las vacunas contra el COVID-19.

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