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An upbeat TV ad from President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign praises his response to the pandemic and includes clips of Democrats praising him. The overall message of the ad, titled “American Comeback,” is that Trump and the United States will persevere, despite what Joe Biden and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi have said. “No matter how […]

Given the massive impact of the coronavirus, and efforts by elected officials to fight the global pandemic, it should come as little surprise that virus-related items took four of the five top spots on PolitiFact Wisconsin’s list of most-clicked items for April 2020. Here is a look at our monthly “High Five.” 1. State Republican Legislative […]

In their Oval Office meeting, President Donald Trump told Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to let him know if banning travel from foreign countries was necessary to contain the coronavirus outbreak in Florida. DeSantis said so far that wasn’t necessary, because the state’s COVID-19 outbreak was mostly due to domestic travel, particularly from New York. “If […]

It’s seldom been harder to discern what’s true, whom to trust and what’s reliable than in the age of the coronavirus pandemic — nor has solid information ever been as important.  I sort out fact from fiction every day, and I want to help you do it, too. As editor-in-chief for PolitiFact, I’m monitoring a […]

“The Week in Fact-checking” compiles short summaries of our most notable work; the links will take you to our full reports. Want this report early and via email? Sign up here.  This week: Biden’s accuser … Please don’t drink disinfectant … PolitiFact on YouTube … Biden distorts coronavirus testing numbers … What is the leading cause of […]

Since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic in the United States, concerns about mental health care have grown, especially as the number of people living under stay-at-home orders has increased. One Fort Worth television station reported that the Texas chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness has seen a 300% increase in calls to […]

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to include Biden’s response on May 1.  More than two dozen women have accused President Donald Trump of sexual assault, and many of the allegations emerged not long before his election in November 2016. In October of that year, multiple women said he forced himself on them. A […]

At a time when good news about the coronavirus pandemic is hard to find, one hopeful word has landed on a lot of people’s lips: remdesivir. The drug, produced by Gilead Sciences, was unsuccessfully deployed against Ebola virus in recent years. It has attracted new interest after the novel coronavirus appeared in China late last […]

Even within the whirlwind of coronavirus news, a recent study quickly garnered headlines when it reported a high mortality rate for patients on ventilators in one New York health care network. The study, published in the prestigious Journal of the American Medical Association, followed 5,700 coronavirus patients who had been admitted to 12 Northwell Health […]

It’s been over three months since the first COVID-19 case was confirmed in the United States, yet the country still continues to struggle to bring testing up to scale. Some labs don’t have the supplies they need to complete tests. Part of the problem is that the U.S. has outsourced production of some testing materials […]

Companies that make cleaning products, state agencies and public health experts are warning Americans not to ingest disinfectants to treat the coronavirus after President Donald Trump floated the idea. During the April 23 White House coronavirus briefing, William Bryan, undersecretary for science and technology at the Department of Homeland Security, outlined a new DHS study […]

President Donald Trump celebrated the early results of a federal study looking into the impact of sunlight, heat and humidity on COVID-19. At his nightly White House briefing, Trump suggested the preliminary findings supported his earlier view that the virus would disappear in April. “I once mentioned that maybe it does go away with heat […]