Soon after Russia invaded Ukraine, a newly-launched fact-checking service called War on Fakes published a piece claiming to debunk the notion that Ukrainians were not waging an information war against Russians. Not only were Ukrainians spreading “fakes, productions, and misinformation” to depict Russian forces in “an unpleasant way,” the story said, but they were also […]
As monkeypox cases mount and the disease spreads, some people might have déjà vu — here comes another potentially life-disrupting virus. Although monkeypox first surfaced more than six decades ago, public health officials say this outbreak is different. The disease was first discovered in monkeys kept for research at the Statens Serum Institut in Copenhagen, […]
In the wake of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn the federal right to abortion, things are more than a little confused. As lower courts grapple with rapidly changing state laws, patients wonder from day to day if abortion is still legal and, if legal, whether it is still available in their state. Health professionals […]
Just three weeks ahead of the Aug. 23 Florida primary, Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried, a Democratic gubernatorial candidate, released a TV spot emphasizing why she should face Gov. Ron DeSantis this November. “Florida’s had 46 governors, some good, some bad — and one, depends on which way the wind’s blowing,” Fried said, walking past a […]
As election officials continued to tabulate ballots in the days after the Aug. 2 Arizona primary, some social media users raised unfounded suspicions about the count. Kari Lake declared herself the winner of the Republican primary for governor the day after Election Day, her campaign calling it a “blowout.” Although the unofficial results showed Lake […]
From pipelines to politics to pilsners to political parties (and their conventions), our five favorite fact checks from July 2022 covered a wide range of topics. To give a better sense of what resonated over the past month, we’re changing our protocols on our High Five. We’ll include some of the most-clicked items, of course, […]
When Kari Lake took the stage on election night Aug. 2 in Arizona, partial results showed her leading. But she cast Arizona’s elections as corrupt. “Why are we in this?” Lake asked. “We are in this because of the corruption, and we need somebody who is honest to turn it around. We knew our elections […]
When President Joe Biden tested positive for COVID-19 on July 21, his physician recommended he take the antiviral drug Paxlovid. The drug significantly reduces the likelihood of hospitalization or death for someone at high risk of developing severe COVID. Biden started the five-day course that day, according to the White House, and within six days, […]
This primary season, Democrats have taken to the airwaves — not just in Democratic primaries, but in Republican ones, too. In a move that some Democrats have criticized as risky, Democratic groups in a number of Senate, House, and gubernatorial races have paid to air ads focused on GOP primary candidates who are more conservative, […]
When many Arizona voters show up to cast a ballot in the Aug. 2 primary, they will be able to choose from several vote centers rather than one assigned precinct. Maricopa County officials predict that 10% to 17% of voters will mark their ballots at one of 210 voting centers. The majority of Arizonans will […]
Online misinformation about the 2020 election drove all sorts of real-world consequences, from the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol to the then-president of the United States getting banned from Twitter. Those false claims that the last election was stolen haven’t gone away. Instead, they’re driving new campaign messaging for the 2022 midterm races […]
As countries that rarely see cases of monkeypox struggle to contain an ongoing outbreak, some social media users have promoted what feels like an oddly familiar theory: The monkeypox virus emerged from a lab in Wuhan, China. Social media users such as comedian Jimmy Dore, who has spread health-related misinformation in the past, suggested such […]