Vaccines and Menstrual Cycles, Viral Claims, Developing Disinformation, Geopolitical Tensions, and Fake News Fact Checks
Threats, Fact Checks, and Reads #4.22.2021
Covid-19 Update
The Latest
Global Numbers
143,962,157 cases
3,061,478 deaths
950,501,293 vaccine doses administered
—Source: Johns Hopkins University here and here.
Key Developments
COVID vaccines and pregnancy: Based on reports from over 35,000 US women, preliminary CDC results found that women who received the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine while pregnant had comparable rates of miscarriage, premature birth, and other complications compared to those observed before the pandemic. AP
Argentina is experiencing its “worst moment” of the pandemic as cases rise exponentially in most of the country; the government has restricted movement and suspended indoor activities. Reuters
Racial minorities with COVID-19 are more likely to require hospitalization and ICU care compared to white patients, according to a new study comparing the electronic health records of 47,974 adult Hispanic, Black, Asian, Pacific Islander, and white COVID-19 patients from March 1–Jul 31, 2020. CIDRAP
FDA inspectors found numerous problems at an Emergent BioSolutions facility in Baltimore meant to produce materials for the Johnson & Johnson vaccine—the plant does not yet have FDA approval to be part of the vaccine supply chain. NPR
Related
Ecuador announces curfew, curbs as COVID again overwhelms hospitals – Reuters
The U.S. sees unprecedented drop in vaccinations over the past week – The Washington Post
Vaccine Breakthrough Infections with SARS-CoV-2 Variants – New England Journal of Medicine
5 things to know about COVID-19 variants – Chicago Tribune
Meatpacking workers 'systematically ignored,' says the doctor as Alberta delays Cargill vaccine clinic – CBC
The Environmental Toll of Fighting COVID-19 – Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
A cross-national study of factors associated with women’s perinatal mental health and well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic – PLOS ONE
Mental health and social interactions of older people with physical disabilities in England during the COVID-19 pandemic: a longitudinal cohort study – The Lancet Public Health
Threats
Facebook's internal email leaked about “normalising” data scraping
by That’s Nonsense
An internal email intended for Facebook’s PR team was accidentally leaked, claiming the platform intends to “normalise” mass data scraping incidents.
Only a few weeks ago, over 500 million Facebook users' personal data was being passed around on underground hacking forums.
The data, it seems, was originally scraped from Facebook back in 2019 by exploiting a vulnerability that allowed crooks to collect vast amounts of public-facing information on millions of users. Facebook claimed they fixed the vulnerability in 2019 as soon as it was reported.
Want to know if your information has been leaked onto the dark web? Here are 20 resources to check: OSINT resources for breach data research
Russia-linked alt-news sources promote pro-Russian narratives about Ukraine and NATO
by DFR Lab
Pro-Kremlin actors amplify misleading narratives to fuel escalation in Eastern Ukraine
by DFR Lab
Pentagon Warns China’s Nuclear Reactors Could Make Weapons-Grade Plutonium.
by South China Morning Post
Head of the United States Strategic Command, Admiral Charles Richard, says the new nuclear reactors being developed by China to lessen Chinese dependence on coal could produce plutonium that could be used in nuclear weapons.
Congress Considers Bipartisan Bills to Counter China
by Reuters
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee has backed the “Strategic Competition Act of 2021,” in a 21-1 vote, sending the bill to the full Senate for a vote. The act is aimed at pressuring China on its human rights and economic competition. Separately, a bipartisan group of lawmakers introduced the “Endless Frontier Act,” which is looking to allocate billions for technology research to compete with Chinese efforts.
NATO Jets Intercept Russian Aircraft
by NATO
Fighter jets from Estonia, Lithuania, and Poland were called by NATO’s Combined Air Operations Centre to intercept numerous Russian military aircraft over the Baltic Sea, including bombers, fighters, and surveillance planes. In a statement released Wednesday, there were no specific details on whether incidents occurred.
A new platform, UACD.tv, has hosted several anti-vax videos and conspiracy theories
“Exploring YouTube And The Spread Of Disinformation” (Rachel Martin, NPR).
Note: You can listen to this Morning Edition segment here.
Related: “Feeding Hate With Video: A Former Alt-Right YouTuber Explains His Methods” (Cade Metz, The New York Times).
Fact-Checks
Fact Check: NO Evidence 'Black Lives Matter And Antifa' Set Catholic Church On Fire In Minneapolis
by USA TODAY
We expect domestic and foreign sources will likely try to exploit racial tension and do so by playing into our pre-existing beliefs. This has happened repeatedly and is a well-established pattern of disinformation.
If we already have negative beliefs about a certain group, we are more likely to believe false claims without verifying them. If the same claim was made about a group to which we belong, we would be more likely to at least investigate.
Especially when a viral story aligns with our preexisting beliefs, it’s important to do the homework and not simply accept the first story we hear. Our tendency to do this is what disinformation, domestic and foreign, both exploit.
Did a 2-Year-Old Die After Receiving a Dose of the Pfizer Vaccine?
from Snopes
It’s possible to file false VAERS reports, and neither Pfizer nor Moderna had begun clinical trials on children at the time of the alleged vaccination.
Did Columbus Police Not Arrest Anyone After a College ‘Party’ That Left Cars Overturned?
by TruthorFiction.com
Fact Check: Florida Bill Would NOT Make Students 'Drop Pants' To Join A Florida School Sports Team
by Lead Stories
by Health Feedback
Covid-19 shots not found to have caused deaths that followed vaccinations
By AFP
Social media posts claim there have been 3,005 “Covid vaccine deaths” since December 1, 2020. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has received many reports of deaths among people who took a Covid-19 vaccine but found no evidence of the immunizations contributing to the fatalities.
“December 1, 2020 - April 13, 2021, 4+ months TOTAL COVID VACCINE DEATHS = 3,005,” says an April 18, 2021, Instagram post that claims the figure exceeds “ALL VACCINE DEATHS” from the preceding 13-plus years.
Other examples of the claim appear on Facebook here and here and on Instagram here.
The claim is part of a flood of inaccurate information about vaccines spreading online as nations seek to immunize people against Covid-19.
The disease -- which has killed more than three million people worldwide -- sparked a major vaccination campaign in the United States, with more than 211 million Covid-19 shots administered so far.
A CDC webpage says that, from December 14, 2020, through April 12, 2021, the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) “received 3,005 reports of death... among people who received a Covid-19 vaccine.”
But it adds: “A review of available clinical information including death certificates, autopsy, and medical records revealed no evidence that vaccination contributed to patient deaths.”
A description of VAERS says it “contains information on unverified reports of adverse events (illnesses, health problems and/or symptoms) following immunization with US-licensed vaccines,” and accepts reports from health care providers, vaccine manufacturers, and the general public.
The CDC, which runs the VAERS program with the Food and Drug Administration, previously told AFP that the system “accepts all reports of adverse events after vaccination, without regard to whether or not the vaccine caused the event.”
“Because of this and other limitations, data in VAERS generally can’t be used to determine if a vaccine caused the adverse event (including deaths),” it said.
Related Fact-Checks:
The COVID-19 mRNA vaccines authorized for use were found to be safe and effective in clinical trials and real-world conditions. A professor in Ireland baselessly claims in a video circulating on social media that they are not, and that those who get the vaccines will die as a result within several years.
Red flags with this study:
The author has no relevant expertise.
The author misrepresented his affiliation, something not typical in honest research.
The report saw no peer review and was published in a journal that *sounds* science-y enough, especially since most people aren't going to know names of credible journals outside their field but isn’t well-known or highly regarded.
Let's go over what's wrong with this paper for people who aren't sure what's amiss.
The author asserts easily falsifiable claims. He writes that the case fatality rate of COVID-19 is considerably less than 1%, using a citation from March of 2020. We don't know the true case fatality rate, but the lowest rate in the world is 1.1% and the high around 4%. It’s not an assertion someone can make without clarifying why their estimate differs.
Pandemics often have low fatality rates. There were pandemics centuries back that had high fatality rates by any standard, but in modern times we tend to see a relatively low fatality rate. Diseases with higher fatality rates tend to make people feel sick; that makes it easier to contain. A low fatality rate is often mistaken for meaning these aren’t a problem. That is wrong--dead wrong.The author discusses the threat of hypoxemia at length citing valid sources. This is what we call a nonsequitur because what he cited has no relation to the topic. The author implies that mask-wearing can cause hypoxemia, something he neither proved nor offers evidence to support. It could be that he was unable to find a source that showed that, which would be because masks don't do that.
The author uses citations that don't relate or that are of questionable quality. Why would one select unrelated or poor studies, especially someone qualified to speak on this subject?
The paper has a lot of typos, which implies no one carefully reviewed it.
"400,000 people showed a 13% increased morality [sic] risk among people”)" and “As described earlier, wearing facemasks causing [sic] hypoxic and hypercapnic state that constantly challenges the normal homeostasis (this is a redundant term).”
Stephen Miller’s attack on Biden’s immigration policy
By Washington Post Fact Checks
Biden planned a 100-day moratorium on deportations. Although a federal judge ruled to stop the freeze, federal data as of mid-April show that U.S. immigration officials have taken into custody far fewer unauthorized migrants from the interior United States.
“Innocent people are going to get killed,” Miller said on Fox News, claiming that the Biden administration has stopped issuing detainer requests to local authorities “in the vast majority of cases.”
These dire warnings were the typical rhetoric of the Trump administration, even though research studies consistently disprove a link between immigration and higher crime. Keep that in mind when Miller talks about undocumented migrants going “back into your communities, back into your schools.” The role this type of rhetoric has played in violent attacks like the Tree of Life and El Paso shootings should also be acknowledged.
The temporary Biden guidelines do not prohibit ICE from arresting people who are unlawfully in the country, but immigration agents now must receive approval from a field office director before taking enforcement actions involving migrants who fall outside Biden’s list.
Related Read from Novel Science: Data Debunks False Narratives About The Border
by Climate Feedback
For instance, the claim that sea levels have been rising for 20,000 years, made by David Legates, a professor and former assistant secretary of commerce for NOAA nominated by the Trump administration, is imprecise and misleading, as it implies sea levels have continued rising since then and current sea level rise is just a continuation of past natural fluctuations.
Godfrey Bloom's video makes false claims about vaccines
by Full Fact
Three key false claims in the video:
Covid-19 vaccines are experimental.
Vaccines interfere with your DNA.
Covid-19 vaccines weaken your immune system.
Bloom claims Covid-19 vaccines are experimental. This is false, although they have an emergency use authorization to reach the market faster than traditional FDA approval.
Covid-19 vaccines have been through many clinical trials showing their benefits “far outweigh any currently known side effects.”
Gas prices become a front in the US misinformation battle
by Liste
Results of Covid-19 vaccine trials have been published and peer-reviewed
by Full Fact
We don’t know if the ‘Nigerian variant’ is more deadly
by Full Fact
Could the mRNA Vaccines Permanently Alter DNA? No.
by The Dispatch
From factcheck.org
Disinformation
The currently developing disinformation narratives:
An Instagram Live video spread on multiple platforms to promote the conspiracy theory that unvaccinated women who come into contact with people who have received COVID-19 vaccines are experiencing pain and irregular menstrual cycles. This conspiracy is spreading as the general public expresses concerns about the impact of vaccines on menstrual cycles.
Reports of Menstrual Irregularities Following Covid Vaccine
There are credible reports that immunization has affected menstrual cycles but we don’t know for certain. This is a good read on the subject: The COVID-19 vaccine and menstrual irregularities: Exploring potential mechanisms
The endometrium is part of the immune system. This may explain it, but it’s not clear.
Many different things affect cycling, so it’s not necessarily the case that it’s worrisome. Covid-19 infection can affect menstrual cycles, so it’s not shocking that building immunity could also be.
Anti-vax and conspiracy theorist pages have falsely taken reports of Pentagon scientists developing a subdermal implant to support their theory that vaccines contain microchips.
by Claim-Reviews – Health Feedback
The story is being reported by various mainstream and fringe news outlets as a “microchip to detect COVID-19” and is being picked up by right-wing pundits and conspiracy theorist accounts.
White Supremacy groups are seizing on anti-vaccine disinformation.
Although most of these groups do not believe the anti-vaccine content and have even been seen mocking anti-vaxxers, they see the movement as potentially advantageous to their aims.
A specific strain of white supremacy believes in accelerationism.
Accelerationism is the belief that specific forces—historically economic—should be accelerated to affect societal change. Some far-right groups have adopted a violent form of accelerationism to promote terrorism and other violent acts to hasten the downfall of a societal order they believe is complicit in white genocide.
They believe the decline of society is inevitable and will usher in an era of White supremacy. Anti-vaxxers can negatively affect health at the population level and weaken national security, all of which extremists hope to promote.
Research
No evidence mRNA vaccines unsafe during pregnancy, study finds
According to data published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine, the mRNA COVID-19 coronavirus vaccines developed by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna do not appear to pose any serious risk during pregnancy.
“Preliminary findings did not show obvious safety signals among pregnant persons who received mRNA Covid-19 vaccines,” researchers at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) wrote.
By the end of February, 827 of those enrolled in the vaccine pregnancy registry had completed their pregnancies, 86% of which resulted in a live birth.
The rates of prematurity, miscarriage, low birth weight, and defects were consistent with those reported in pregnant women before the pandemic, the researchers wrote.
We asked experts to break down the results of a small new study, which found that herpes zoster might be a side effect of getting vaccinated.
New insights on inflammation in COVID-19
by ScienceDaily
Severe cases of COVID-19 can involve extensive inflammation in the body, and clinicians have wondered if this state is similar to what are called cytokine storm syndromes, in which the immune system produces too many inflammatory signals that can sometimes lead to organ failure and death. A new study published in Arthritis & Rheumatology indicates that different markers in the blood differentiate excessive inflammation in critical COVID-19 from cytokine storm syndromes.
"When we first became aware of a possible association of particularly critical COVID-19 with cytokine storm, this was intriguing for us, as in the field of autoinflammation we are treating and investigating such conditions on a regular basis," said lead author Christoph Kessel, Ph.D.
"Our present research delivers broad insights on the nature and significance of systemic hyper-inflammation following SARS-COV-2 infection," added co-lead author Richard Vollenberg, MD. "We consider this relevant as we still lack proper angles of attack to treat critically ill patients."
Prevalence of COVID-19 symptoms among high-risk children
by ScienceDaily
COVID vaccines and kids: five questions as trials begin
As trials get underway — Moderna began a similar study of its vaccine last month — scientists are seeking answers to important questions about how safe and effective the vaccines are in kids.
The 12 big, unanswered questions about Covid-19
Even now, more than 16 months into this pandemic, "many key questions about SARS-2 and the disease it causes, Covid-19, continue to bedevil scientists," Helen Branswell writes for STAT News.
Report: HHS Put Repatriated U.S. Citizens at Risk for COVID-19
by Homeland Security News Wire and CIDRAP
Lessons from Past Emergencies Could Improve the Pandemic Response
by the University of Washington
These problems could have been avoided, Brunjes said, if the federal government had recognized and mitigated some of the issues that arose during past crises:
During 9/11, the lack of interagency radio capability thwarted rescue efforts. Emergency responders from different agencies could not communicate with each other throughout the 2001 disaster, which led to an effort among law enforcement and other aid agencies nationwide to improve radio systems over the next several years. In the years that followed, new emergency management policies and innovative technologies helped avoid similar problems in subsequent disasters.
The evacuation of millions of people during Hurricane Katrina in 2005 prompted the need for emergency shelters and other services, fast. Several federal agencies purchased temporary beds, trailers, and portable school buildings that went unused or were overpriced. The U.S. Government Accountability Office criticized the response as vulnerable to "fraud, waste, and abuse." In the aftermath, new laws were passed to make emergency procurement more accountable.
A case similar to the current pandemic -- the H1N1 swine flu in 2009-2010 -- showed how the response to COVID-19 might have been different if the government had taken the issue seriously and acted quickly. As the H1N1 crisis continued, resources wore thin, and coordination across states was stymied. In response, the federal government developed a dashboard to track and share information about critical supplies, aiding in the rapid distribution of vaccines.
Recommended Reads
The Forgotten History of the Purging of Chinese from America
The surge in violence against Asian Americans is a reminder that America’s present reality reflects its exclusionary past.
What Facebook Did for Chauvin’s Trial Should Happen All the Time
If the social media giant can discourage hate speech and incitements to violence on a special occasion, it can do so all the time.
'Dramatic deterioration in press freedom during the pandemic, watchdog says
from US News
Vaccine Passports and Health Racism
from data & society
The Race to Curb the Spread of COVID Vaccine Disinformation
Researchers are applying strategies honed during the 2020 US presidential election to track anti-vax propaganda.
House passes bill that would make D.C. the 51st state
Why it matters: Democrats have framed D.C. statehood as a civil rights issue. Republicans have condemned it as an unconstitutional power grab.
The events of Jan 6th and the delay in response by the National Guard is a prime examples of the reason many argue that DC needs to become a state.