Dark Money, Dark Ads 

There is a new "dark money" group linked to aides of former President Donald Trump that is getting involved in the midterm elections, which are only 11 days away. 

Dark money groups spend other people's money to influence elections, but don't disclose their donors. According to Open Secrets, three former Trump officials sit on the board of one such group that calls itself Citizens for Sanity.

Open Secrets, a nonpartisan campaign finance watchdog, describes the group's ads as "provocative." 

"The group, Citizens for Sanity, has paid for billboards emblazoned with messages like 'Protect Pregnant Men from Climate Discrimination' and 'Real progressives support violent criminals in their hour of need' in states across the country – including Massachusetts, Colorado, Arizona, Nevada, Pennsylvania, California, Michigan, Texas, Illinois and Georgia," Open Secrets writes. 

Deputy Managing Editor Rob Farley wrote about one of its TV ads this week.

The ad, which ran in heavy rotation during the Major League Baseball playoffs, focuses on a deadly knife attack on the Las Vegas Strip in early October, and misleadingly claims that “every Senate Democrat voted against deporting criminal illegal immigrants.”

As Rob points out, the ad's claims are unsupported. In fact, every Democrat – and some Republicans – increased funding earlier this year for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the agency charged with deporting those living in the country illegally. The Biden administration also has directed ICE to prioritize the deportation of immigrants in the country illegally who have committed serious felonies.

Instead, the ad is based on one of many amendments that Republicans offered during a so-called Senate vote-a-rama in August that preceded the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act. As Rob writes, vote-a-ramas are largely political theater in which the opposing party often proposes amendments that can be used in future political ads — like the one from Citizens for Sanity.

Read the full story, "Misleading Attack About Democrats and Criminal Immigrants."

Reader: Can taking Moderna COVID shots destroy your immune system?

FactCheck.org Director Eugene Kiely: There is no evidence that any COVID-19 vaccines harm your immune system. It's quite the opposite. But let me provide you with some information. 

This question seems to come up whenever public health officials recommend getting booster shots to keep up to date on COVID vaccinations. We addressed it in February when comedian Bill Maher called booster shots “useless” and suggested that boosters would somehow make it more difficult for your immune system to fight the virus. 

At that time, Science Editor Jessica McDonald wrote: 

Data show that people who have received COVID-19 booster shots — either a third dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech or Moderna mRNA vaccines, or a second dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine — are less likely to be infected with the coronavirus, at least temporarily, even against the now-pervasive omicron variant. Boosters also augment protection against severe disease. And there is no evidence that COVID-19 boosting can exhaust the immune system.

“You don’t get immune system exhaustion from periodic boosting of the immune system,” such as with vaccines, E. John Wherry, an immunologist at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine, told us.

She went on to write:

Wherry said there is a possible risk that repeated boosting might hinder a person’s immune response against a future variant if that response gets too focused on a particular coronavirus spike protein. This kind of immune imprinting, which depends on the version of the spike protein that is included in the vaccine, could winnow the range of antibodies that are made, reducing a person’s flexibility to respond to subsequent variants.

Continual boosting with an omicron-specific vaccine, for example, which is not yet available, might “push the antibody response to be, let’s say, more tailored to omicron, which might prevent our ability to respond to a delta-like variant that emerges in the future,” he said.

In other words, it’s possible a booster designed for a particular variant will lock in an immune response that’s less ideal for a future variant, although there is no evidence of this yet.

For more, read “COVID-19 Booster Enhances Protection, Contrary to 'Immune Fatigue’ Claims.”

Since then, the U.S. began administering the first COVID-19 booster vaccines that have been updated to better match the latest circulating coronavirus strains. The new vaccines, from mRNA vaccine makers Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna, are bivalent, meaning that along with the original version of the coronavirus, or SARS-CoV-2, they also specifically target the BA.4 and BA.5 omicron subvariants. 

Jessie also did a Q&A about the bivalent boosters in which she addressed the issue of “immune imprinting.” In answering a question on the safety of the new boosters, Jessie again interviewed immunologist John Wherry.

She wrote:

Another issue being monitored by scientists is whether boosting could hurt a person’s ability to respond to a future variant, as we have written. But Wherry, who has been following this topic, said there is no indication that is a current risk. “From the data that exists, I see no concern about that whatsoever,” he said. Some animal studies suggest that giving an omicron-only vaccine as a first vaccine dose in animals could be detrimental, he added, but that’s not what is being given to people.

For more, read “Q&A on Omicron-Updated COVID-19 Boosters.” 

You may also want to read a CDC webpage that provides information on staying up to date on COVID-19 vaccines.  

Wrapping Up

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

• "States Determine School Immunization Requirements, Not CDC": 
  Vaccines are added to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s immunization schedule after consultation with an outside advisory group and when the benefits outweigh the risks. Contrary to claims from Tucker Carlson and others, the COVID-19 vaccines will not become mandatory in schools just by being added to the CDC schedule. States and local districts make those determinations. 
• "What Biden’s Marijuana Pardon Proclamation Does — and Does Not Do": In early October, President Joe Biden issued a proclamation pardoning certain individuals previously charged with or convicted of simple marijuana possession offenses under federal and Washington, D.C., law. But Biden exaggerated the scope when he claimed he was keeping a promise not to incarcerate those convicted of simple possession charges.
• "Social Media Claims Misrepresent Boston U. Study of What Causes Severity of COVID-19 Strains": To study the role of the spike protein in the severity of COVID-19 illnesses, researchers exposed 10 mice prone to develop severe disease to a hybrid version of the virus. Eight mice died. Social media posts say researchers created a dangerous new variant with an “80 PERCENT Kill Rate,” potentially leaving the false impression that this pertains to humans. Also, the hybrid virus used in the study had a lower mortality rate than the original virus had on mice. 
• "Biden’s Student Loan Forgiveness Gaffe": President Joe Biden wrongly said that he got student debt forgiveness “passed by a vote or two.” There was no vote. Biden simply announced that the Department of Education would provide debt relief, and the plan is facing a legal challenge. 
• "GOP’s Shaky Claims About Cortez Masto’s Net Worth": A TV ad aired by Republican Adam Laxalt and the National Republican Senatorial Committee accuses Nevada Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto of putting her “own financial interests over yours” and “becoming a multimillionaire while in office.” But the claims rely on financial disclosure reports that provide only broad ranges of assets and liabilities and show no evidence of wrongdoing. 
• "Fabricated Screenshot Misrepresents GOP’s ‘Commitment to America’": House Republicans unveiled a list of policy goals called the “Commitment to America” in September. But a fabricated screenshot purporting to show the agenda has been circulating on social media. None of the items included in the image come from the agenda — although some echo proposals made by the conservative Republican Study Committee. 
• "Super PAC Ads Distort New York Congressional Candidate’s ‘Help Not Handcuffs’ Quote": The Congressional Leadership Fund, a Republican super PAC, is running ads on TV and social media that distort Democratic House candidate Josh Riley’s positions on crime.

• "El análisis de la vacunación contra el COVID-19 de Florida es defectuoso, dicen los expertos": El estado de Florida anunció recientemente que ha dejado de recomendar que los varones jóvenes reciban vacunas de ARNm contra el COVID-19, sobre la base de un análisis no publicado que supuestamente encontró un mayor riesgo de muerte relacionada con el corazón después de la vacunación. Pero los expertos que se especializan en el singular método utilizado en el análisis dicen que este no se realizó adecuadamente.
• "No es noticia ni ‘escandaloso’ que el ensayo de Pfizer no haya probado transmisión": Los ensayos clínicos de la vacuna contra el COVID-19 fueron diseñados para estudiar la seguridad y la eficacia de la vacuna para prevenir la enfermedad con síntomas, no la transmisión. Pero ahora algunas publicaciones digitales presentan engañosamente el hecho de que la vacuna de Pfizer/BioNTech no se probó contra la transmisión como una “impactante admisión” y prueba de que la compañía y el gobierno mintieron.