FactCheck.org’s SciCheck feature focuses exclusively on false and misleading scientific claims that are made by partisans to influence public policy. It was launched in January 2015 with a grant from the Stanton Foundation. The foundation was founded by the late Frank Stanton, president of CBS for 25 years, from 1946 to 1971.
In a July 31 television interview, Democratic presidential candidate Marianne Williamson inaccurately implied there might be a connection between vaccines and higher reported rates of childhood chronic diseases. She is correct that reported rates of chronic conditions in kids have increased over the last several decades, but there is no scientific evidence to suggest vaccines are the cause.
Q: When is the human heart fully developed, and when are heartbeats audible during pregnancy?
A: A developing heart has all of its primary structures after about nine weeks of pregnancy. Some forms of ultrasound can detect cardiac activity in an embryo in the sixth week, but a heartbeat wouldn’t be audible until about 10 weeks on a Doppler fetal monitor.
On the campaign trail, former Vice President Joe Biden and President Donald Trump have both claimed that a cure to cancer would soon become a reality — if they were elected in 2020. Experts, however, don’t share that degree of optimism.
President Donald Trump has repeatedly questioned the economics of wind energy, saying that wind “doesn’t work” without subsidies. Experts have differing assessments of that. By some metrics, wind power is already competitive with fossil fuels without subsidies. But other measures don’t come to the same conclusion.
In a July 8 speech dedicated to the environment, President Donald Trump made a series of misleading or false statements as he played up the U.S.’s environmental achievements, many of which predate his time as commander-in-chief.
During a trip to the United Kingdom, President Donald Trump once again expressed skepticism about climate change, making several false or misleading statements in a television interview on “Good Morning Britain” with host Piers Morgan.
In a recent town hall, Iowa Rep. Steve King focused on the positives of climate change, inaccurately stating that increased evaporation under higher temperatures will lead to rain in “more and more places” — a result that’s “surely gotta shrink the deserts and expand the green growth.”
We unpack the complicated and contentious world of fuel economy standards, and explain why some experts aren’t buying some of the Trump administration’s arguments for why stricter Obama-era standards should be loosened.
During an April 2 speech to the National Republican Congressional Committee, President Donald Trump once again attacked wind power, falsely claiming that noise from turbines causes cancer and that turbines sink property values by 75 percent. Both claims are unsubstantiated.
Falsely declaring that he has “always” been a supporter of the Great Lakes, President Donald Trump announced that he would fully fund the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative with $300 million, telling a Michigan crowd he would finally get done something they “have been trying to get for over 30 years.”