In a 2012 documentary, Magic Johnson discussed his HIV diagnosis and how it has affected his career. Social media posts are sharing an image from the documentary to falsely claim it shows Johnson donating blood for people with COVID-19. Johnson hasn’t donated HIV-infected blood for any medical reason.
The IRS Criminal Investigation division’s “Adrian Project” educates the public about the IRS through community outreach sessions with high school and college students. Posts on social media are sharing a video from one of the sessions to falsely claim it shows agents in training. The images were posted by a New Jersey university in 2017 and earlier this year.
Wastewater surveillance is a public health tool that can track the spread of pathogens. The virus that causes polio was detected in New York City sewage as part of such monitoring efforts. Social media posts, however, have incorrectly claimed the virus was found in tap water. Similar claims have been made about the monkeypox virus.
The Inflation Reduction Act includes $79 billion for the IRS. Social media posts misleadingly claim the IRS will now hire “87,000 new agents” to investigate average citizens. But most new hires will provide customer services, and enforcement efforts will be aimed at “high-income and corporate tax evaders,” a Treasury Department spokesperson said.
After the FBI seized boxes of U.S. documents from Mar-a-Lago — some of them labeled “top secret” — former President Donald Trump claimed he had a “standing order” that documents “taken to the residence were deemed to be declassified.” Numerous experts say that isn’t plausible.
President Joe Biden and members of his administration have touted the falling gasoline prices, suggesting that the decrease was because of the president’s policies. But U.S. presidents have little control over the price that consumers pay for gasoline. We look at the reasons for the decline in gasoline prices.
For the month of July, the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Customers was unchanged from June. This has triggered a war of words between Democrats, who crow about “zero percent inflation” for July, and Republicans, who say the Democrats are now trying to “deny there’s inflation.” Both have a point.
Dozens of former President Donald Trump’s supporters gathered outside his Florida home to protest a recent FBI search of the building. The activity triggered a satirical tweet falsely attributed to Trump’s eldest son, purportedly telling supporters to disperse, and saying, “We have many important people coming through the club and need to keep it clean.”
Congress has passed a bill that would fund incentives to purchase electric vehicles. But a false claim is circulating on social media that purports to show an “electric car cemetery” in France. The photo actually shows a car-sharing company’s storage lot in China. The cars were to be replaced by updated electric vehicles.
After a long delay marred by manufacturing troubles, a COVID-19 vaccine from Novavax became the fourth such vaccine authorized in the U.S. We review how it works and how it’s different from its competitors.