False information that claims COVID-19 is caused by a bacteria and can be easily treated started spreading by text message, and is now viral on social media. Actually, COVID-19 is caused by a virus and there is no treatment for it.
President Donald Trump has upped the ante in his allegations about Nancy Pelosi and Chinatown, falsely charging that the House speaker urged foreign nationals to “bring your infection” to the San Francisco neighborhood. Pelosi never issued such an invitation.
Former Vice President Joe Biden overstated the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s staffing cuts in China during the Trump administration. He said the CDC reduced its staff to four, but it was actually 14.
A voicemail message being left at the homes of voters in Pennsylvania and elsewhere by the Republican National Committee makes a number of misleading claims about presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden and his son Hunter and Trump’s handling of the novel coronavirus outbreak.
The Wuhan Institute of Virology received $600,000 as part of a larger five-year U.S. government grant to a U.S.-based nonprofit studying emerging infectious diseases. But President Donald Trump put the figure at $7.5 million, saying he “ended it.”
A social media post falsely claims that “the United States is the only country on earth that is protesting” stay-at-home restrictions and business closures. People around the world have opposed mitigation measures designed to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus because of economic hardship and concerns over personal freedoms.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren said, “We are right now at … 25,000 new infections a day and 2,000 deaths a day.” White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany called those “some funny numbers.” The disparity is largely a matter of semantics.
While the United States has done more total tests for COVID-19 than any other country, it doesn’t lead when testing is measured by other metrics.
The United States has one of the highest rates of COVID-19 deaths per capita in the world. However, President Donald Trump made the false claim that “Germany and the United States are the two best in deaths per 100,000 people.”
A new Trump campaign ad claims that President Donald Trump took “fast action” in regard to testing for the novel coronavirus. While “fast action” is subjective, pandemic experts say the U.S. did not move quickly to set up an adequate system and in fact lagged behind other countries.