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Welensky did not say 75% percent of all COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. had at least four comorbidities. The shared social media posts imply that deaths from COVID-19 are being over-counted. We find this claim to be misleading, having taken Walensky's interview out of context. It is clear from watching the full clip, Dr. Welensky was referring to the percentage of fully vaccinated people who died from COVID-19.

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An interview with Pfizer CEO Bourla is being used as proof that the initial vaccinations were “a failure” or that the vaccine does not protect against COVID-19. We find claims that represent this interview as proof of vaccine failure are false and misleading. Bourla's comments were specific about Omicron.

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There is growing evidence that the currently available MRNA vaccines provide some protection against the Omicron variant (B.1.1.529) of the SARS-COV-2 virus, the coronavirus that causes COVID-19. According to the CDC, preliminary results for Omicron from South Africa showed that the Pfizer vaccine provided 70% protection against COVID-19 hospitalization and 33% against infection, during the current Omicron wave. Granted, the protection is reduced compared with the Delta variant (93% for hospitalization and 80% for infection).

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In a widely shared newsletter, Steve Kirsch, a man who promotes himself as an entrepreneur and technology expert, stated that "they've now killed close to twice as many kids from the vaccine as have died from COVID." He's also repeated this claim in an interview on The New American, a conservative news site. We find this claim false. There is no confirmed evidence of a COVID-19 vaccine causing the death of even one child.

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"Climate change applies to any change in the weather. If it rains, it's climate change, if there is a storm, it's climate change. Record snowfall? Climate change," says a widely shared tweet. We find this claim as false. Weather and climate are two different things.

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The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends to wear a mask indoors to "reduce the spread of SARS-CoV-2, including alpha and delta variants, among adults and children." Several studies have proven the effectiveness of masks in limiting the spread of the virus that causes COVID-19. However, this hasn't stopped some people from claiming that masks are hurting children that are forced to wear them in schools.

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"NASA says huge, 'potentially hazardous' asteroid will break into Earth's orbit next week" reads a headline from The Hill posted on December 1st. "ROCKY HORROR: Giant asteroid will skim Earth’s orbit tomorrow in hair-raising near miss" reads another headline posted on December 9th in The Sun (UK). These are some of the many headlines describing 4660 Nereus, an asteroid that is around 1,083-feet long (330-meter), will come within 2.4 million miles (3.9 million km) of Earth, still about 10 times farther away than the moon.

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Kim Iversen, a popular political talk show host with over 27K followers on Twitter, claimed that people who are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 are global superspreaders of the new omicron variant. “I can’t believe that after fully vaccinated travelers have been found to be the global spreaders of the omicron variant, we’re STILL talking about forcing people into being vaccinated,” she wrote on Twitter. We find this claim to be misleading. There is very little data on how the new variant is being spread.

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Steven Koonin, former Undersecretary for Science in the Obama Administration says that the media is exaggerating the climate crisis. In a recent video for Prager U, Koonin offered several statements that address flooding, hurricanes and the melting of the Greenland Ice Sheet. We address the claim that "Greenland's ice sheet isn't shrinking any more rapidly today than it was 80 years ago." Our analysis: this claim is mostly false.

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While cases appear to have fallen in Uttar Pradesh as well as most locations in India, it’s not clear why. Many other factors, including immunity from a previous infection, vaccination, and lockdowns, likely helped reduce the number of cases.