We’ve rounded up some of this week’s most popular yet completely false stories and visuals. None of these are legal, even if shared widely on social media. The Associated Press looked into them. The facts are:
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CLAIM: The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says new variants of the coronavirus are more contagious among vaccinated people than unvaccinated people.
fact: Risk assessment overview The CDC announced on August 23 that the BA.2.86 variant is more likely than previous variants to infect people who already have immunity to COVID-19 through vaccination or previous infection. I wrote that there is a high possibility that It does not say that vaccinated people are at higher risk than unvaccinated people. “Breaking News: CDC says new variant of coronavirus is more transmissible among vaccinated people than unvaccinated people,” Instagram and X (previously says the post, which was shared on the platform formerly known as Twitter. But officials have not said that people who have been vaccinated against COVID-19 are more likely to be infected with the new variant than people who are unvaccinated. In fact, people who have been vaccinated or have been previously infected may be more susceptible to the variant than before. “Based on information currently known to CDC, this new variant has a number of mutations, and BA. “There is concern that the virus may be more likely to cause infection in people who have received the vaccine,” the agency said in a statement, with the word “or” in bold.People making false claims are misrepresenting CDC information August 23 Risk Assessment Regarding this variant, “BA.2.86 is more likely to cause infection in people who have previously been infected with COVID-19 or have received a COVID-19 vaccine.” There is a gender,” he said. Near the end of the assessment, the report said, “This variant has a large number of mutations that make it more susceptible to escaping pre-existing immunity from vaccines or past infections compared to other recent variants.” “It’s causing concern,” he said. The agency said in a statement that it continues to closely monitor variants, but that it is “too early to know their true impact on immunity” and encouraged people to stay informed about coronavirus vaccines. .
— Associated Press writer Melissa Goldin in New York contributed to this report.
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Biden didn’t let racist Thurmond vote for civil rights legislation.White House claims he misspoke
CLAIM: President Joe Biden “literally” persuaded racist Sen. Strom Thurmond to vote yes. civil rights law.
Fact: Biden had not yet been elected to the U.S. Senate when this landmark bill was passed in 1964, and Thurmond was one of the prominent Southern Democrats who voted against the bill. . The White House press secretary acknowledged that the president’s statement was incorrect. Biden made the claim at a White House event on Monday. In a video widely shared on social media, Biden pointed out that the racist white shooter was killed. three black people in Jacksonville, Florida, on Saturday, the same day the nation marked the day. 60th anniversary Scenes from the historic March on Washington. “I thought things had changed. I was able to convince Strom Thurmond, literally, not figuratively, to vote for the Civil Rights Act before he died. And I was like, ‘Well, I thought, ‘Maybe there’s going to be real progress,”’ Biden was quoted as saying. official white house records. “But hate never goes away.” Many social media users were quick to point out that Biden’s timeline didn’t add up. When Congress approved the Civil Rights Act in 1964, Biden was nine years away from becoming one of the youngest senators in U.S. history at age 30 in 1973. Biden’s time in the Senate certainly overlapped with Thurmond’s time in the Senate. From 1954 to 2003, he served as a senator from South Carolina for almost half a century. But the Democrat-turned-Republican was an ardent supporter of racial justice, voting against the original civil rights law that outlawed discrimination based on race, religion, and sex. White House press secretary Andrew Bates said Biden intended to tout his own accomplishments in the 1980s to win passage of legislation reauthorizing the Voting Rights Act. The landmark 1965 law followed the Civil Rights Act and outlawed discriminatory voting practices such as literacy tests aimed at disenfranchising black voters. “He emphasized his role in gaining Sen. Thurmond’s support on reauthorizing the Voting Rights Act, which Sen. Thurmond previously opposed,” Bates explained in an email. A White House spokesperson cited reports from the time that Thurmond, then the Republican chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, threatened to remove parts of the 1965 law. As the committee’s top Democratic nominee, Biden promised at the time that he would not recuse himself. “If Strom Thurmond is serious about repealing the Voting Rights Act, I’m going to oppose it,” he said, according to a 1980 Wilmington News Journal article. Passed the Senate in 1982 By a large margin. Mr. Thurmond, who died in 2003 at the age of 100, was one of the Republicans who voted for it.
— Associated Press writer Philip Marcello in New York contributed to this report.
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CLAIM: The increasing incidence of meat allergies associated with tick saliva in the United States is linked to a project funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation that involves genetically modifying cattle ticks.
Fact: A program to create modified cattle ticks, with the aim of reducing livestock numbers and protecting livestock, has so far been confined to lab work in the United Kingdom. It is almost eradicated and does not bite humans, experts said. But social media posts baselessly link the findings to a recently released government study that estimates hundreds of thousands of Americans were affected. You may be allergic to red meat Due to a syndrome caused by tick bites. This reaction, called alpha-gal syndrome, occurs when an infected person ingests beef, pork, venison, or other mammalian products. Sugars in mammalian meat and tick saliva can cause allergic reactions when infected through the skin from a tick bite. “Bill Gates funds research into genetically modified cow ticks – 450,000 Americans now suffer from red meat allergy caused by ‘alpha-gal syndrome’ caused by tick bites,” one headline read widely. It has been reported. But the connection between the two is “scientifically impossible,” said Neil Morrison, chief strategy officer at Oxitec, whose research is supported by the Gates Foundation. “Oxitec’s early research and development was conducted in the UK,” Morrison said in his emailed statement. He added that the research was done in the laboratory and “there are no field studies using self-limiting (modified) ticks.”Oxitec’s The focus is on the Asian blue tick, or Rhipicephalus microplus, and use self-limiting genes to reduce their populations to better protect livestock and limit economic losses associated with tick bites and disease. These mites also cause problems in other parts of the world; almost eradicated Additionally, cow ticks do not bite humans, said Sam Telford, a professor of infectious diseases and global health at Tufts University who has researched ticks and tick-borne diseases for more than 35 years. Telford explained that ticks are adapted to eating certain animals, and cow ticks feed on closely related animals such as cows and deer. They do not recognize humans as hosts. Kate Fowley, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said in an email that evidence “strongly suggests” that alpha-gal syndrome is primarily associated with bites. lone star tickIn the United States, Amblyomma americanum can be transmitted even if other native tick species have not been eliminated.researcher published a paper for the first time In 2011, alpha-gal syndrome was linked to tick bites. That was 10 years before the Gates Foundation funded Oxitec’s program on cattle tick self-control.The foundation first announced it was offering Oxitec in 2021. Approximately $1.5 million For first viable projects. In April, the foundation announced it would award the company a grant. Another $4.8 million To further develop the program.
— Associated Press writer Angelo Fichera in New Jersey contributed to this report.
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Social media video spreads baseless conspiracy theory that blue items survived Maui wildfires
Claim: Only blue items survived the Maui wildfires, and lasers had no effect on their color, suggesting the island was actually “attacked” by a directed energy weapon.
Fact: Not only the blue ones were spared by the wildfires, photos and videos clearly show that buildings and objects of different colors survived or disappeared. More importantly, while there is ample evidence that Maui was destroyed by fire, the idea that weapons or lasers were involved has been around for some time. Mistakes have been exposed many times. Still, a recent post is a collection of convenient images that falsely suggest that only blue items “survived” in the flames, suggesting that the Big Island of Hawaii caused the fire, or that it itself claims to somehow prove that it was hit by the laser that caused all the damage. The post usually includes a video from his TikTok account sharing clips of him burning household items with a handheld industrial laser in his workshop. The clip shows the laser burning yellow, red, and green fabric, while the blue fabric swatch is intact, accompanied by text that it can be programmed to “different wavelengths.” They contrast the footage with images of historic Lahaina, Maui, which was largely destroyed by wildfires, noting that a blue car and some blue beach umbrellas were not destroyed in Hell. . In one of his posts on his X, the platform formerly known as his Twitter, he also mentions several blue T-shirts of his that were found relatively intact under the rubble. . “Unbelievable. Everything blue survived Maui’s DEW attack, including the t-shirts,” the post read. DEW stands for directed energy weapon — What to use Instead of bullet-like projectiles, high-energy laser-like technology. However, these videos do not prove anything to do with the wildfires. First, only a few blue objects are shown in the fire’s aftermath, but other footage and photos indicate that they are not the only ones left.I can see the blue car and the umbrella. with drone footage However, the same video also shows red and green trash cans and buildings painted in various other colors that have survived. Aerial footage A similar scene was captured in footage taken by the Associated Press.Before and after satellite image It also shows that many buildings painted blue are still destroyed. Experts have previously said that it is not uncommon to see some items and buildings still standing after wildfires. This is because fires are often spread by flying embers that do not affect everything. A.P. Images of the fire’s aftermath show no abnormalities.forest fire anyway witnessed by survivors Extensively documented with videos and images. Ian Boyd, director of the Center for National Security Initiatives at the University of Colorado, said the video of laser damage to some blue fabric at the workshop is not evidence to the contrary. High-energy lasers can interact in different ways with objects made of different materials and colors, but a beam with enough power to start a large fire will burn through materials of any color. , he explained in an email. “But even more relevant, these images show areas where large-scale fires have occurred, and the damage caused no longer has anything to do with what caused the fires in the first place. That is,” Boyd added, noting that there was a blue fire. Objects are not just resistant to fire. In Maui County, filed a lawsuit The company filed a lawsuit against Hawaiian Electric Company over the fire, accusing it of not shutting off power despite unusually strong winds and dry conditions.Sunday company Admitted The company said its power lines sparked the first wildfire, but power lines in West Maui were without power for several hours before a second, more serious blaze ripped through downtown Lahaina, killing at least 115 people. , said 2,000 buildings were destroyed.
— Associated Press writer Karena Huang in Los Angeles contributed to this report.
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