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** Using Acetaminophen During Pregnancy
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You may have seen some advertisements on Facebook that raise questions about the use of Tylenol during pregnancy. If so, our newest staff member, Kate Yandell, has answers for you.

In an Ask SciCheck, Kate answers questions our readers had about whether using the pain reliever during pregnancy causes autism and ADHD.

One reader forwarded to us a sponsored Facebook post from the page “Child Autism & ADHD from Tylenol during pregnancy” stating that “parents of children with autism or ADHD whose mother took Tylenol while pregnant may be eligible for legal compensation.” Parents have filed lawsuits against retailers of acetaminophen, stating that their children developed autism or ADHD due to exposure to acetaminophen taken during pregnancy.

For her article, Kate reviewed the available research, talked to experts and summarized the guidance provided by health officials. She found that some studies have indeed shown a relationship between acetaminophen taken during pregnancy and autism or ADHD in children. But they do not demonstrate that the acetaminophen use caused the elevated rates of autism and ADHD, researchers told her.

Sura Alwan, a birth defects epidemiologist and co-director of the Teratogen Information System at the University of Washington, told Kate that the studies “do not necessarily imply a causal link, which means that there isn’t enough evidence to say that taking acetaminophen causes those behavioral or cognitive concerns.”

Expert groups said that acetaminophen can have benefits for pregnant people experiencing pain or fever, and there may not be good alternatives. They recommend use of the drug during pregnancy when necessary and in consultation with a doctor.

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, for example, said in a 2021 statement: “ACOG and obstetrician-gynecologists across the country have always identified acetaminophen as one of the only safe pain relievers for pregnant individuals during pregnancy.”

Read Kate's full story, "Limited Evidence of a Link Between Acetaminophen and Autism or ADHD ([link removed]) ." For more about Kate, read our "Worthy of Note" item below.
HOW WE KNOW
For his story on U.S. aid to Ukraine, Staff Writer D'Angelo Gore reviewed a Feb. 17 report by the U.S. Agency for International Development, which so far has distributed $13 billion in “direct budget support” to Ukraine. The funding has helped pay the salaries of hundreds of thousands of educators, health workers and first responders, as well as help Ukraine maintain health care services, meet its pension responsibilities, and provide housing and services to the poor and disabled. Read more ([link removed]) .
FEATURED FACT
For the last three years — 2022, 2021 and 2020 — there have been about 9,000 train accidents annually, which includes any collision, derailment or fire, according to data from the Federal Railroad Administration. That number is down from an average of nearly 12,000 accidents per year from 2013 to 2019. The decline in the number of train derailments, however, has been less pronounced. There were 1,049 in 2022, compared with 1,311 in 2013. Read more ([link removed]) .
WORTHY OF NOTE
FactCheck.org has a new staffer! Her name is Kate Yandell and she joins our ever-expanding SciCheck staff.

Kate has worked as a journalist covering the life sciences since 2012. Prior to joining FactCheck.org this month, she was a staff editor for various oncology websites, including OBR Oncology, Patient Power and Cancer Today. Her writing has appeared in The Scientist, Spectrum, Audubon and the New York Times.

Kate received her journalism degree from New York University’s Science, Health, and Environmental Reporting program and her undergraduate degree in English and biology from Williams College.

REPLY ALL

Reader: How does the public know that what you fact check and say about an article or a post is correct? The mainstream news is nothing but propaganda that they want to feed the American public. You might list all kinds of resources we can go to, but how do I know that's not just propaganda also. I also want to know why there was no fact checking till the 2020 election? Was it so they could cover up the election fraud? I also want to know who patrols Facebook for you to find all the misinformation? And how long has misinformation been fed to the public before Facebook decided to fact check everything. They fact check my post from seven years ago and ban me from Facebook. What the hell is our world coming to when we are losing our freedom of speech? ... I doubt you will answer my questions because you will have to fact check them first.

FactCheck.org Director Eugene Kiely: You ask a lot of good questions. Let me answer them one at a time.

Q: How does the public know that what you fact check and say about an article or a post is correct? You might list all kinds of resources we can go to, but how do I know that's not just propaganda also.

A: We list and link to the sources we use in our articles. That helps the reader assess the accuracy of our reports and the reliability of our sources. We seek to rely whenever possible on primary sources – rather than secondhand sources. Our sources, for example, include the Library of Congress for congressional testimony, the House Clerk and Senate Secretary’s office for roll call votes, the Bureau of Labor Statistics for employment data, the IRS for tax data, the Bureau of Economic Analysis for economic data, and the Energy Information Administration for energy data.

We also rely on nonpartisan government agencies for expertise, analyses and reports, including the Congressional Budget Office, the Joint Committee on Taxation, the Government Accountability Office, the Congressional Research Service, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, and the federal inspectors general.

We also rely on respected and trustworthy outside experts, such as the Kaiser Family Foundation on health care data, the Tax Policy Center for tax data and the National Conference of State Legislatures. We also interview experts on other topics as needed. For instance, in researching articles on COVID-19, we contact researchers and professors who are considered among the best in their fields of expertise, such as immunology or virology. When quoting experts, we disclose relevant biographical information, including their previous work in government or campaigns — if applicable.

Q: I also want to know why there was no fact checking till the 2020 election? Was it so they could cover up the election fraud?

A: Fact-checking long predates the 2020 election. We have been fact-checking since 2003. We’ve covered the Bush, Obama, Trump and Biden administrations, and the presidential campaigns of all four presidents. We were the first to do full-time, online political fact-checking. The Washington Post Fact Checker and PolitiFact followed suit in 2007. In December 2016, we and other fact-checkers helped start Facebook’s independent third-party fact-checking program. That program was created after the International Fact-Checking Network petitioned Facebook to do something to address rampant misinformation on its platform.

Q: I also want to know who patrols Facebook for you to find all the misinformation? And how long has misinformation been fed to the public before Facebook decided to fact check everything.

A: Facebook provides us with a list of links to content on the platform that has been flagged as potentially false by its users and machine learning. In announcing the initiative, Facebook explained ([link removed]) that it uses “the reports from our community, along with other signals, to send stories to these organizations.” The content that we receive usually arrives within 24 hours. Facebook doesn’t fact-check anything or decide what to fact-check. Our stories are selected, researched, written and edited by our staff without any input from Facebook. Facebook has no control over our editorial content.

You can learn more about our process ([link removed]) on our website.


** Wrapping Up
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Here's what else we've got for you this week:
* "McCarthy Is Supportive of Raskin’s Head Covering, Contrary to Online Posts ([link removed]) ": Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland wears head coverings on the House floor to cover his hair loss while undergoing treatment for cancer. Social media posts falsely claim that House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, a Republican, refused to allow Raskin to wear his head covering. The posts misinterpret a joke Raskin made in response to a question.
* "Trump’s Dubious Claim About ‘Hidden’ Tweets Exonerating Him for Jan. 6 Capitol Attack ([link removed]) ": Former President Donald Trump says two Jan. 6, 2021, tweets that the “highly partisan January 6th Committee” tried to hide have now been “fully restored” by Twitter and “fully exonerate me.” But the posts are included, and discussed at length, in the committee’s final report.
* "Posts Misinterpret Zelensky Quote on ‘Preventive Actions’ Against Russia ([link removed]) ": Responding to a question on what NATO could do to deter Russia’s nuclear threat, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said NATO and its allies should use “preventive actions” against Russia. But the Kremlin and social media posts have misquoted Zelensky, claiming he referred to nuclear strikes when he was referring to economic sanctions against Russia.
* "Posts Falsely Claim CDC Official Admitted COVID-19 Vaccines Cause ‘Debilitating Illnesses’ ([link removed]) ": Health problems that are reported to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System after vaccination are not necessarily caused by a vaccine. Yet social media posts distorted a comment from a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention official about such reports to falsely say he admitted the vaccines cause “debilitating illnesses.”
* "Commentators Push Unfounded Claims About Ohio Train Derailment ([link removed]) ": The derailment of a freight train carrying toxic chemicals in eastern Ohio has sparked a slew of unfounded claims by conservative commentators. There’s no indication that this incident will rise to the level of a “domestic Chernobyl”; it has been covered steadily by the media; federal and state agencies are monitoring air and water quality and its impact on people and animals.
* "Biden’s April 2022 Remark About Some Ukraine Aid Covering Pensions Is Not ‘Breaking’ News ([link removed]) ": President Joe Biden said in April 2022 that some of the funding in a Ukraine aid package that Congress later overwhelmingly approved could be used to pay pensions for Ukrainians amid the ongoing war with Russia. That is not a new development, as several viral tweets have misleadingly claimed in recent days.

Y lo que publicamos en español ([link removed]) (English versions are accessible in each story):
* "El coma de la princesa tailandesa se debe a una infección, el país no prohibirá la vacuna contra el COVID-19 de Pfizer ([link removed]) ": Las autoridades tailandesas atribuyeron el colapso de la hija mayor del rey en diciembre a una infección bacteriana, no a la vacuna contra el COVID-19, como algunos han afirmado infundadamente en internet. Los rumores sobre la prohibición de las vacunas de Pfizer son también “noticias falsas”, dijeron las autoridades.
* "Publicaciones afirman falsamente que un funcionario de los CDC admitió que las vacunas contra el COVID-19 causan ‘enfermedades debilitantes’ ([link removed]) ": Los problemas de salud que se notifican en el Sistema de Notificación de Reacciones Adversas a las Vacunas después de la vacunación no son necesariamente causados por una vacuna. Sin embargo, publicaciones en las redes sociales distorsionan comentarios de un funcionario de los Centros para el Control y la Prevención de Enfermedades sobre dichas notificaciones para decir falsamente que admitió que las vacunas causan “enfermedades debilitantes”.
* "Publicaciones en redes sociales tergiversan declaraciones del CEO de Moderna sobre la producción de las vacunas ([link removed]) ": El presidente y director ejecutivo de Moderna dijo en enero que la producción total de la empresa en 2019 fue de “100.000 dosis”, refiriéndose a todas sus vacunas y terapias. Publicaciones en línea distorsionaron estos comentarios para afirmar falsamente que Moderna fabricó vacunas contra el COVID-19 “antes de que comenzara la pandemia”. El primer lote de vacunas contra el COVID-19 de Moderna no estuvo listo hasta febrero de 2020.

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