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| - AFP's fact-check service debunks disinformation spread online. Here are some of our recent articles about inaccurate claims in the United States: Online articles claim a study from Stanford University found that mask wearing, which is recommended to help slow spread of Covid-19, is "ineffective" and harmful. But the study's author is not employed by the prestigious California university, and it repeats previously debunked claims about the use of face coverings during the pandemic. Facebook posts are misleadingly sharing a 2018 photo that shows two teen wrestlers, to claim that transgender athletes are "just boys beating up on girls." But one of the athletes in the picture, Mack Beggs, a trans male athlete, was not allowed to compete in the boys' wrestling division at the time due to state rules, and he is shown employing a classic wrestling move, not "beating up" his opponent. An American physician and anti-vaccination advocate claims in a video viewed more than 169,000 times that widely used Covid-19 vaccines have not been properly tested and pose long-term health risks. But experts say her claims are inaccurate, the technology used in the inoculations was under development well before the pandemic, the shots were trialed on tens of thousands of people, and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that long-term side effects are unlikely. Lindsay Battle says she knows "the truth" about why US gas prices in her area rose 90 cents a gallon in just over two months. "It's because President Biden shut down the pipeline and because of all of his other policies... that make us reliant once again in the Middle East for oil," she said. This is inaccurate, but claims such as those by Battle have become a popular misinformation front on social media. 1. 2. 3. 4.
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