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Latest Fact-Checks In Public Health

Clear
Peter DeFazio
Peter DeFazio
stated on February 12, 2015 an interview on MSNBC:
"Monarch butterflies are becoming extinct" because of increased use of crops genetically modified to withstand pesticides.
Half-True
By Lauren Carroll • February 17, 2015
Rick Perry
Rick Perry
stated on February 5, 2014 an interview with the Texas Tribune and Washington Post.:
"When I came into office, our vaccination rate in Texas was 65 percent. When I left two weeks ago, it was 95 percent."
False
By W. Gardner Selby • February 12, 2015
Mike Adams
Mike Adams
stated on February 10, 2015 a story making the rounds on social media:
Mercury is used in vaccines, and there is no safe level of mercury.  
Pants on Fire!
By April Hunt • February 11, 2015
Katty Kay
Katty Kay
stated on February 8, 2015 comments on NBC's "Meet the Press":
"There are countries in Africa where they have higher vaccination rates than here in the United States."
True
By Katie Sanders • February 8, 2015
Rush Limbaugh
Rush Limbaugh
stated on February 3, 2015 a broadcast of the "Rush Limbaugh Show":
The children coming across the southern U.S. border "were never examined after they got here and quarantined if they had a disease. They were just sent out across the country. Many of them had measles ... We now have an outbreak of it all because of our immigration policy."
Pants on Fire!
By Jon Greenberg • February 5, 2015
Elizabeth Cohen
Elizabeth Cohen
stated on February 2, 2015 an interview with Anderson Cooper:
"If someone is in a room that has measles and leaves and you walk in two hours later, you could get measles from that person."
True
By Katie Sanders • February 4, 2015
Celine Gounder
Celine Gounder
stated on February 3, 2015 an interview on CNN:
"Measles is one of the most common causes of child blindness worldwide."
True
By Katie Sanders • February 4, 2015
Megyn Kelly
Megyn Kelly
stated on February 2, 2015 a broadcast of "The O'Reilly Factor":
Science is "very certain" that the measles vaccine doesn't cause autism.
True
By Jon Greenberg • February 3, 2015
Bob Sears
Bob Sears
stated on February 2, 2015 an interview on CNN:
"Every year in the United States between 3,000 and 4,500 severe vaccine reactions are reported to the Centers for Disease Control. Not mild reactions. Severe reactions that land somebody in the hospital, the intensive care unit or cause a permanent disability or death."
Mostly False
By Aaron Sharockman • February 3, 2015
Nationwide
Nationwide
stated on February 1, 2015 an ad during the Super Bowl:
"The No. 1 cause of childhood deaths is preventable accidents."
Mostly True
By Steve Contorno • February 2, 2015
Richard Besser
Richard Besser
stated on February 1, 2015 comments on ABC's "This Week":
"It used to be that the only children at school who weren't vaccinated were those who had true medical" conditions. "Now there are 19 states that allow personal belief exemptions."
Half-True
By Katie Sanders • February 1, 2015
Patrick Lynch
Patrick Lynch
stated on November 24, 2014 a newspaper commentary:
Exposure to the electromagnetic fields from power lines "has been associated with childhood leukemia and other diseases."
Mostly False
By C. Eugene Emery Jr. • January 2, 2015
James Crowley
James Crowley
stated on December 6, 2014 a commentary in The Providence Journal:
"Surveys of teens in high school reveal that knowing a classmate who sells cannabis is 90 times more common than knowing a classmate who sells alcohol."
Half-True
By Katie Mulvaney • December 21, 2014
Doonesbury
Doonesbury
stated on December 14, 2014 the Sunday comics:
Says 3,000 Americans "died of gunfire" between the time of the Ebola scare in Dallas and the midterm elections.
Mostly True
By Jon Greenberg • December 18, 2014
Glenn Grothman
Glenn Grothman
stated on November 30, 2014 an interview:
"A single parent with a couple kids can easily get $35,000 a year" in public assistance in Wisconsin. 
Mostly False
By Tom Kertscher • December 12, 2014
John Stossel
John Stossel
stated on December 4, 2014 an interview on "Fox and Friends":
"There is no good data showing secondhand smoke kills people."
False
By Katie Sanders • December 11, 2014
Jesse Ventura
Jesse Ventura
stated on December 2, 2014 an interview with Salon.com:
"Fluoride in the water, that was originally done by the Nazis!"
Pants on Fire!
By Louis Jacobson • December 8, 2014
Mother Jones
Mother Jones
stated on November 24, 2014 a Facebook post:
"Turkeys today weigh 29.8 pounds. In the ‘30s, they weighed 13.2 pounds."
True
By Tom Kertscher • November 25, 2014
Anne Nolan
Anne Nolan
stated on November 12, 2014 a Journal commentary:
"In Rhode Island, a recent study showed that among a group of people who had been homeless for a year or more, Medicaid costs averaged about $60,000 per person."
False
By C. Eugene Emery Jr. • November 23, 2014
Nicholas Kristof
Nicholas Kristof
stated on October 22, 2014 an op-ed in the "New York Times":
"All of Liberia can produce less than one-third as much electricity as the Dallas Cowboys football stadium consumes at peak times."
Mostly True
By Jon Greenberg • October 30, 2014
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