We’ve rounded up some of the completely false stories and visuals of this week’s most popular ones. None of these are legal, even if shared widely on social media. The Associated Press examined them. Here are the facts:
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The claim: The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the new strain of COVID-19 is more contagious among vaccinated people than among unvaccinated people.
fact: Overview of risk assessment 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, such as through vaccination or previous infections. I wrote that there is a high possibility It does not state that vaccinated people are at greater risk than unvaccinated people. “BREAKING: CDC says new strain of novel coronavirus is more contagious among vaccinated than unvaccinated,” posted on Instagram and X (previously A post shared on the platform formerly known as Twitter said: But officials have not said that people who have been vaccinated against COVID-19 are more likely to catch the new variant than those who have not been vaccinated. Rather, people who have been vaccinated or previously infected may be more susceptible to the variant strain than they were before. “Based on the information currently available to the CDC, there are multiple mutations in this new variant, and BA.2.86 is not recommended for people who have previously had COVID-19, or who have COVID-19. Concerns have been raised that people who have been vaccinated against viral infections are more likely to become infected,” the agency said in its statement, bolding the word “or.”Those making false claims are misrepresenting CDC information August 23 Risk Assessment For this variant, “BA.2.86 is more likely to cause infection in people who have been previously infected with COVID-19 or who have been vaccinated against COVID-19.” there is potential,” he said. Near the end of the evaluation, the report notes, “This variant has multiple mutations, and evades pre-existing immunity from vaccines and past infections to a greater extent than other recent variants. It’s causing concern,” he said. In a statement, the agency continued to monitor variants closely, but said it was “too early to know the true impact on immunity” and encouraged people to stay up-to-date on the new coronavirus vaccine. .
— New York-based Associated Press reporter Melissa Goldin contributed to this report.
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Claim: President Joe Biden “literally” persuaded racist Senator Strom Thurmond to vote yes. civil rights law.
FACT: Biden had not yet been elected to the U.S. Senate when this landmark bill passed in 1964, and Thurmond was one of the prominent Southern Democrats who voted against the bill. . A White House press secretary admitted the president was wrong. Biden made the point at a White House event on Monday. In a video widely shared on social media, Mr Biden pointed out that a racist white shooter had died. three blacks In Jacksonville, Florida, on the same Saturday that the United States marked this day, 60th anniversary A view of the historic March on Washington. “I thought things had changed. I literally, not figuratively, managed to persuade Strom Thurmond to vote for the Civil Rights Act before he died. And I was like, ‘Well, I thought, ‘Maybe there’s real progress,'” Biden said. Official record of the White House. “But the hate never goes away.” Many social media users were quick to point out that Mr. Biden’s timeline didn’t line up. When Congress passed the Civil Rights Act in 1964, Biden was nine years away from becoming one of the youngest senators in U.S. history in 1973, at age 30. Biden’s senatorial years certainly overlapped with Thurmond, who served in the Senate. From 1954 to 2003, he served as a senator from South Carolina for nearly half a century. But the Democrat-turned-Republican is a staunch supporter of racism and voted against the original Civil Rights Act, which outlaws discrimination based on race, religion and sex. White House press secretary Andrew Bates said Biden intended to tout his own achievements in the 1980s to win passage of a bill reauthorizing the Voting Rights Act. A landmark 1965 law followed the Civil Rights Act, outlawing discriminatory voting practices such as literacy tests designed to disenfranchise black voters. “He emphasized his role in gaining Sen. Thurmond’s support for reauthorizing the Voting Rights Act, which Sen. Thurmond had previously opposed,” Bates explained in an email. A White House press secretary cited reports from the time Thurmond, then the Republican chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, threatened to remove parts of the 1965 law. Biden, the Democratic front-runner on the committee, promised at the time that he wouldn’t turn down. According to a 1980 Wilmington News-Journal article, he said, “If Strom Thurmond is serious about repealing the Voting Rights Act, I will be against it.” Passed the Senate in 1982 By a wide margin. Thurmond, who died in 2003 at the age of 100, was one of the Republicans who voted for it.
— New York-based Associated Press reporter Philip Marcelo contributed to this report.
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Claim: The rising incidence of tick spit-related meat allergies in the United States is linked to a project funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation involving the genetic modification of cattle ticks.
FACT: Programs to create modified cattle ticks with the aim of reducing and protecting livestock populations have so far been limited to work in British laboratories. Experts say it has been largely eradicated and does not bite humans. But social media posts baselessly link the study’s findings to a recently released government study that estimates that hundreds of thousands of Americans were affected. you may be allergic to red meat Because of the syndrome caused by tick bites. This reaction, called alpha-gal syndrome, occurs when an infected person consumes beef, pork, venison, and other mammalian products. The sugars in mammalian meat and tick saliva can cause allergic reactions when infected through the skin through tick bites. “Bill Gates Funds Research on Genetically Engineered Cow Ticks — 450,000 Americans Now Have Red Meat Allergies Due to ‘Alpha-Gal Syndrome’ Caused by Tick Bites,” read one broad headline. reported. But the relationship between the two is “scientifically impossible,” said Neil Morrison, chief strategy officer at Oxytech, whose research is actually funded by the Gates Foundation. “Oxytec’s early research and development was done in the UK,” Morrison said in an emailed statement. He added that the study was done in the laboratory and that “there are no field studies with self-limiting (modified) ticks.”Oxytec’s Focus is on Asian blue ticks, or Lipicephalus microplus, and self-limiting genes are used to reduce its populations, better protect livestock, and limit the economic losses associated with tick bites and disease. Such ticks also cause problems in other parts of the world, almost eradicated Additionally, Sam Telford, professor of infectious diseases and global health at Tufts University, who has studied ticks and tick-borne diseases for more than 35 years, said cow ticks do not bite humans. Telford explained that ticks are adapted to eat specific animals, and cow ticks eat closely related animals such as cows and deer. They do not recognize humans as hosts. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention spokeswoman Kate Fawley 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 infects even if other native ticks have not been eliminated.researcher Published a paper for the first time In 2011, alphagal syndrome was linked to tick bites. That was a decade before the Gates Foundation funded Oxytech’s program on cow tick self-control.The foundation announced for the first time that it will be offering Oxitec in 2021 about $1.5 million For the first feasibility project. In April, the foundation announced a grant to the company. Another $4.8 million to further develop the program.
— New Jersey-based Associated Press reporter Angelo Fichella contributed to this report.
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Social media videos spread unsubstantiated conspiracy theory that blue items saved Maui wildfires
The claim: Only blue items survived the Maui wildfires, and the laser had no effect on their color, suggesting that the island was indeed “attacked” by a directed energy weapon.
Fact: Wildfires didn’t just escape the blue ones, photos and videos clearly show that many different colored buildings and objects survived or disappeared. More importantly, while there is ample evidence that Maui was destroyed by fire, the idea that weapons and lasers were involved has been around for some time. Mistakes 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 have somehow proved 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 fabric in yellow, red, and green, while the blue swatch is intact and 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 Technology like high-energy lasers instead of bullet-like projectiles. However, these videos do not prove anything to do with wildfires. First, only a few blue objects are shown in the aftermath of the fire, but other footage and photographs indicate that these 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 various other colored buildings that have survived. Aerial footage A video captured by the Associated Press also shows a similar scene.front and back satellite image It also shows that many blue-painted buildings are still destroyed. Experts have previously found it 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. AP. Images of the aftermath of the fire show no anomalies.wildfire anyway witnessed by a survivor Extensively documented with videos and images. According to Ian Boyd, director of the Center for National Security Initiatives at the University of Colorado, the footage of the workshop’s laser cutting not damaging part of the blue fabric does not disprove it. High-energy lasers can interact in different ways with objects made of different materials and colors, but a beam with enough power to cause a massive fire will burn through materials of any color. Only, he explained in an email. “But even more relevant, these images show an area with massive fires and the damage caused no longer has anything to do with what caused the fires in the first place. So that’s it,” Boyd added, noting that there was a blue fire. Objects are not just resistant to fire. Maui County has filed a lawsuit A lawsuit was filed against the Hawaiian Electric Company over the fire, accusing the company of failing to shut down power despite unusually high winds and dry conditions.company on sunday Admitted The company said its power lines caused the first wildfire, but power lines in West Maui were out of power for hours, but a second, more serious blaze hit downtown Lahaina, killing at least 115 people. He said he had died and 2,000 buildings had been destroyed.
— Los Angeles-based Associated Press reporter Karena Huang contributed to this report.
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Find the AP Fact Check here: https://apnews.com/APFactCheck
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