Free Republic

The New York Times‘ Angelo Fichera on Wednesday published several extraordinary fact checks on President Joe Biden’s slippery talking points about his economic record. While Biden, 81, is an “elderly man with a poor memory,” according to the special counsel, his cogent staff likely carefully crafted the scripted talking points the Times fact-checked. The fact check comes just days after a feud surfaced between the White House and the paper. Biden aides were “extremely upset” with the outlet for reporting analysis about the president’s age and memory.

Results from 6-year-old Anastasia Weaver's autopsy may take weeks. But online anti-vaccine activists needed only hours after her funeral this week to baselessly blame the COVID-19 vaccine. A prolific Twitter account posted Anastasia's name and smiling dance portrait in a tweet with a syringe emoji. A Facebook user messaged her mother, Jessica Day-Weaver, to call her a "murderer" for having her child vaccinated. In reality, the Ohio kindergartner had experienced lifelong health problems since her premature birth, including epilepsy, asthma and frequent hospitalizations with respiratory viruses. "The doctors haven't given us any information other than it was due to all...

Results from 6-year-old Anastasia Weaver’s autopsy may take weeks. But online anti-vaccine activists needed only hours after her funeral this week to baselessly blame the COVID-19 vaccine. A prolific Twitter account posted Anastasia’s name and smiling dance portrait in a tweet with a syringe emoji. A Facebook user messaged her mother, Jessica Day-Weaver, to call her a “murderer” for having her child vaccinated. In reality, the Ohio kindergartner had experienced lifelong health problems since her premature birth, including epilepsy, asthma and frequent hospitalizations with respiratory viruses. “The doctors haven’t given us any information other than it was due to all...

Results from 6-year-old Anastasia Weaver’s autopsy may take weeks. But online anti-vaccine activists needed only hours after her funeral this week to baselessly blame the COVID-19 vaccine. A prolific Twitter account posted Anastasia’s name and smiling dance portrait in a tweet with a syringe emoji. A Facebook user messaged her mother, Jessica Day-Weaver, to call her a “murderer” for having her child vaccinated. In reality, the Ohio kindergartner had experienced lifelong health problems since her premature birth, including epilepsy, asthma and frequent hospitalizations with respiratory viruses. “The doctors haven’t given us any information other than it was due to all...

CLAIM: Pfizer admitted to the European Parliament that it had not tested the ability of its COVID-19 vaccine to prevent transmission of the virus before it entered the market, proving the company lied about this earlier in the pandemic. AP’S ASSESSMENT: Missing context. Janine Small, president of international markets at Pfizer, told the European Parliament on Monday that Pfizer did not know whether its COVID-19 vaccine prevented transmission of the virus before it entered the market in December 2020. But Pfizer never claimed to have studied the issue before the vaccine’s market release. THE FACTS: After Small testified before the...

Jake West was a seemingly healthy 17-year-old when he collapsed during high school football practice in Indiana and died of sudden cardiac arrest. A video widely shared online falsely suggests COVID-19 vaccination is to blame, weaving headlines about him into a rapid-fire compilation of news coverage about athletes collapsing. The vaccine played no role in West’s death — he died from an undiagnosed heart condition in 2013, seven years before the pandemic began. “My tragedy of losing my son is always upsetting, and to think that somebody would use that for their gain is very upsetting,” she said. “It’s mind-boggling...

The CEO of a major airline suggested during a congressional hearing this week that face masks provide little value on planes — a claim that was quickly amplified online. Citing high-quality filtration systems aboard planes, Southwest Airlines CEO Gary Kelly stated that “masks don’t add much, if anything, in the air cabin environment.” But experts strongly disagree. Here are the facts. CLAIM: Mask-wearing on planes is unnecessary because advanced air filtration systems sufficiently reduce the risk of COVID-19 transmission. THE FACTS: While it’s true that the common air filtration and distribution systems used in modern aircraft are highly effective at...