A look at what didn’t happen this week
A roundup of a number of the hottest however fully unfaithful tales and visuals of the week. None of those are legit, though they have been shared broadly on social media. The Related Press checked them out. Listed here are the details:
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Home GOP didn’t inform Raskin to take away head overlaying
CLAIM: Home Republicans are requiring Rep. Jamie Raskin, a Democrat from Maryland, to take away the headwear he’s donned on the Home flooring whereas present process chemotherapy.
THE FACTS: Republicans have made no such request and have in actual fact been nothing however supportive, a spokesperson for Raskin advised the AP. Raskin, who introduced he’d been identified with lymphoma final yr, attended the yr’s first Home Oversight Committee listening to on Tuesday carrying a bandana. However as the brand new Republican Home majority takes management, confusion over a joke Raskin made about Home guidelines governing headgear fueled a false rumor on social media. “Kevin McCarthy has insisted Jamie Raskin take away the scarf he’s carrying as a result of chemotherapy has precipitated his hair to fall out,” wrote one Twitter consumer in a tweet with 34,000 likes, referring to the Republican Home speaker. “You’d suppose they might have compassion for a colleague with most cancers however they’re monsters.” However Republicans haven’t imposed such a rule, and the false declare grew from a misunderstanding. In a Tuesday tweet, Punchbowl Information reporter Heather Caygle wrote that Raskin had acquired a standing ovation in a Home Democratic Caucus assembly after saying he’d push again on Republican efforts to make him take away his headwear. “And I’ll make them take off their toupees,” Caygle quoted Raskin as saying. Jacob Wilson, a spokesperson for Raskin, advised the AP in an e-mail that Raskin “was responding lightheartedly to a hypothetical query from a colleague” on the caucus assembly. In response to Caygle’s tweet, he was requested “what he would do if Republicans made him take off his headwear on the Home flooring.” Caygle clarified in a follow-up tweet that Raskin stated no Home Republicans have spoken to him about hat guidelines. Caygle declined additional remark when reached by e-mail. Wilson stated the Democrat “has acquired nothing however help and encouragement from all of his colleagues and leaders on each side of the aisle.” Mark Bednar, a spokesperson for McCarthy, stated the Home speaker had not advised Raskin to take away his head overlaying. Hats have been banned within the decrease chamber in 1837.
— Related Press author Graph Massara in San Francisco contributed this report with further reporting from Sophia Tulp in New York.
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Specialists: Pfizer exams on COVID vaccines, remedy in keeping with trade requirements
CLAIM: Pfizer has acknowledged in a press release it performed “achieve of perform” analysis as a part of its improvement of a vaccine and a separate medical remedy for COVID-19.
THE FACTS: Specialists stated nothing in a current assertion by the corporate suggests it’s conducting analysis designed to make COVID-19 extra dangerous, as some social media customers declare. A press release launched Jan. 27 by Pfizer in response to allegations it was conducting dangerous “achieve of perform” analysis triggered one other spherical of false hypothesis towards one of many prime makers of COVID vaccines. Achieve of perform refers to scientific experiments that give an organism a brand new property or enhances an current one. Within the case of a virus such because the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, that might contain making it extra dangerous, or giving it the flexibility to transmit to different species. However the firm stated no such issues in its assertion, stressing that its vaccine-related experiments are undertaken solely after a brand new variant has been recognized by public well being authorities. “This analysis gives a approach for us to quickly assess the flexibility of an current vaccine to induce antibodies that neutralize a newly recognized variant of concern,” the corporate stated. “We then make this information accessible by means of peer reviewed scientific journals and use it as one of many steps to find out whether or not a vaccine replace is required.” For analysis associated to its antiviral remedy Paxlovid, Pfizer stated that “most” of the work is performed utilizing laptop simulations or mutations of a non-infectious a part of the virus. Peter Hotez, dean of the Nationwide Faculty of Tropical Drugs at Baylor School of Drugs in Houston, Texas, stated nothing within the assertion suggests Pfizer is conducting analysis designed to “weaponize” COVID-19 or “improve its pathogenicity,” as some social media customers declare. “They is perhaps enterprise virologic analysis to check the bounds of their applied sciences realizing that by means of virus evolution a few of these adjustments might happen naturally,” he wrote in an e-mail. Benjamin Neuman, a virologist at Texas A&M College, agreed, although he stated Pfizer’s assertion is “written in a technical approach” that might have been “made clearer for non-science readers.” “To be achieve of perform, the researcher must intentionally make a change, realizing that change makes the virus extra harmful, and the change should be one thing the virus couldn’t fairly do by itself,” Neuman wrote in an e-mail. “Miss out any a part of that definition, and it’s not achieve of perform. That’s a extremely excessive bar, and the final half is the important thing.” Albert Ko, who chairs the epidemiology division on the Yale Faculty of Public Well being in New Haven, Connecticut, stated the web claims amounted to “scare mongering.” “Engineering the virus doesn’t all the time imply achieve of perform analysis,” he stated. “Vaccines are made this manner, from taking items of 1 virus and inserting it into one other virus. It doesn’t essentially imply a excessive danger of making a stronger, extra harmful virus.” On the similar time, he stated, the corporate ought to disclose extra details about the work, resembling its inside approvals course of and security protocols. A spokesperson for Pfizer declined to reply to requests for added remark. “The assertion stands as our touch upon the false allegations at the moment being made about vaccine analysis at Pfizer,” Amy Rose wrote in an e-mail.
— Related Press author Philip Marcelo in New York contributed this report.
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Georgia college type on sudden cardiac arrest dangers isn’t new
CLAIM: A “Sudden Cardiac Arrest Consciousness Kind” is now being issued in Georgia excessive colleges, suggesting a brand new phenomenon regarding the COVID-19 vaccines.
THE FACTS: That type has been given to households of Georgia college students since 2019 in accordance with state legislation. Social media posts are spreading a picture of the academic type offered to Georgia households centered on sudden cardiac arrest — with some customers erroneously implying that it’s associated to COVID-19 vaccines. “Dad and mom are actually having to signal a Sudden Cardiac Arrest Consciousness Kind. However bear in mind the Jab is secure sufficient to offer to infants,” reads one tweet with the picture. The doc proven within the social media posts is titled “Georgia Excessive Faculty Affiliation Pupil/Mother or father Sudden Cardiac Arrest Consciousness Kind.” However that type predates each the COVID-19 pandemic and the vaccines: A model of the identical type accessible on-line is dated Could 2019. Steve Figueroa, a spokesperson for the Georgia Excessive Faculty Affiliation, advised the AP that the shape has been used for the reason that 2019-2020 college yr in response to a state legislation centered on sudden cardiac arrest prevention. That legislation, handed in 2019,requires each private and non-private colleges to carry conferences on the signs and warning indicators of sudden cardiac arrest and to additionally present an “info sheet” to oldsters and guardians. The shape particulars warning indicators of sudden cardiac arrest, an abrupt malfunction of the center. For instance, the doc instructs mother and father to seek the advice of a health care provider if their baby faints instantly or experiences chest ache or shortness of breath throughout train. Flawedclaims and misleading movies have unfold the unfounded idea that the COVID-19 vaccines are behind a wave of younger athletes experiencing such cardiac points. Cardiologists have advised the AP there have been situations of athletes experiencing sudden cardiac loss of life and cardiac arrest lengthy earlier than the COVID-19 pandemic and that they haven’t noticed the alleged dramatic improve.
— Related Press author Angelo Fichera in Philadephia contributed this report.
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False claims of NFL referee investigation began as satire
CLAIM: The NFL is investigating AFC championship referee Ronald Torbert as a result of his son made a big wager on the Kansas Metropolis Chiefs earlier than they defeated the Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday.
THE FACTS: This declare originated on a parody Twitter account, and components of the submit make it clear that it’s fiction. Some Bengals followers weren’t proud of calls made within the AFC championship recreation, which despatched the Chiefs to the Tremendous Bowl. But it surely’s not true that the NFL is investigating the referee who made the calls, regardless of a deceptive submit spreading on social media. A Twitter submit making the declare got here from a satirical account that includes a personality from the comedy movie “Anchorman” — particulars misplaced on some social media customers who shared the submit as actual. “BREAKING: NFL head ref of the AFC Championship recreation, Ronald Torbert, commenting on the NFL’s investigation on his member of the family inserting a wager on the sport this morning,” the submit reads. It then quotes Torbert as saying, “I had no information that my son positioned a big wager on the Chiefs till after the sport.” The submit claims Torbert made the feedback on a radio station referred to as “101.4 ‘The Juice,’” which doesn’t exist. An web seek for the station brings up a number of juices bought in quantities of 101.4 fluid ounces. The account that posted it identifies itself as a “parody/satire sports activities anchor at KVWN sports activities information,” referring to a fictional information station within the film. Nonetheless, social media customers unfold the faux quote with out that context on Fb and Twitter, chalking it as much as a proof for why referees made a number of calls in Kansas Metropolis’s favor on Sunday night time. In some instances, the submit was shared as a screenshot, missing the satirical disclaimer on the Twitter account. There’s no proof any such investigation is happening. Reached for remark, an NFL spokesman pointed to the truth that the account spreading the declare recognized itself as satire.
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