The Biden administration has awarded billions in funding to Historically Black Colleges and Universities, including more than $2.7 billion provided in the American Rescue Plan. Yet a social media post revives an old, false claim that Biden revoked $250 million that then-President Donald Trump “pledged to give historical black colleges for the next 10 years.”
Our latest update of what’s happened in the U.S. under Biden’s presidency.
Influenza cases decreased during the first years of the pandemic, likely because of measures adopted to stop the spread of the virus that causes COVID-19. In this video, FactCheck.org teamed up with Factchequeado to debunk a viral post that falsely implied the decrease in flu cases meant that COVID-19 was a hoax.
No COVID-19 vaccines were affected by the tornado that damaged Pfizer’s North Carolina warehouse, which doesn’t produce the vaccines. But some misinformation spreaders are claiming vaccines were destroyed.
A video by country singer Jason Aldean was pulled by Country Music Television after critics called it offensive and racist. Some Aldean fans have responded by calling for the “Bud Light treatment” of CMT and falsely claiming that, in solidarity, singer Luke Bryan removed his own videos from the channel. The bogus claim about Bryan originated on a satirical website.
While announcing an investment in clean energy programs, Vice President Kamala Harris mistakenly said “reduce population” when she meant “reduce pollution.” Online posts shared a video of the gaffe and misleadingly claimed “her goal is to reduce population to fight climate change.” The transcript of her remarks shows the mistake and corrects it.
Studies have found the rate of autism is the same in vaccinated and unvaccinated children. But the false claim that vaccines are associated with the disorder persists. A prominent spreader of COVID-19 misinformation wrongly told legislators in Pennsylvania that autism is virtually nonexistent among the unvaccinated, citing the Amish population.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration considers mammograms “the most effective primary breast cancer screening test” and says there is no evidence to indicate that thermography can replace mammograms. But an article shared on Facebook tells people to “stop getting mammograms” and try thermography instead.
A reader’s note temporarily attached by Twitter to a claim by President Joe Biden — that “real wages for the average American worker is higher than it was before the pandemic” — said that statement “contains a factual error.” But it turns out it doesn’t.
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation supports research into fighting malaria, including funding a company that releases genetically modified mosquitoes that are incapable of carrying the disease. But reports of locally acquired cases of malaria in the U.S. have sparked social media posts that baselessly suggest Gates was behind the recent outbreak.