April Fool’s Day brought a spate of false posts claiming students will have to repeat the school year. While many schools across the U.S. closed due to the coronavirus pandemic, there’s no indication they’ll call for repeating the school year.
Former Vice President Joe Biden was wrong when he said that the Trump administration made no effort to get U.S. medical experts into China as the novel coronavirus epidemic spread there early this year.
While his administration has faced criticism for being slow to ramp up testing for coronavirus infections, President Donald Trump has repeatedly claimed that the problem was with his predecessors, saying the administration “inherited a broken system” that it “rebuilt.” That’s misleading.
A meme falsely claims that a health care workers’ union was “caught hiding 39 million N95 masks,” and other posts cast suspicion on the union’s motives. In reality, the union had called medical suppliers nationwide in an effort to find masks — and it never had or hid them.
In his March 30 appearance on “Fox & Friends,” President Donald Trump suggested an estimate that the novel coronavirus might kill a huge number of Americans was a new revelation.
Dr. Deborah Birx, the coordinator of the White House coronavirus task force, misleadingly claimed that 19 states — “almost 40% of the country” — “have less than 200 cases” of COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus. In fact, 17 states with 7.2% of the U.S. population have fewer than 200 confirmed cases each.
In a March 21 press briefing, President Donald Trump prematurely declared that automakers, including Ford and General Motors, were manufacturing much needed ventilators “right now.”
A viral meme suggests that children hospitalized with COVID-19 in the U.S. and U.K. can’t be visited by a parent. Hospital policies have become generally more restrictive, but pediatric patients are still allowed visits by at least one parent.
Viral social media posts and videos have falsely claimed that “martial law [is] imminent” in the U.S. Those bogus reports are being pushed in some cases by those who sell emergency and survivalist products.
A viral social media post wrongly states that former Vice President Joe Biden told donors “he will not be president for very long” if elected. Biden merely said that he would seek an experienced vice presidential running mate who would be prepared to step into the presidency “if something happened.”