A roundup of some of the most popular but completely untrue stories and visuals of the week. None of these are legit, even though they were shared widely on social media. The Associated Press checked them out. Here are the facts:
Altered video twists Kamala Harris statements on COVID vaccines
CLAIM: A video from a speech shows Vice President Kamala Harris repeatedly saying that most people who were hospitalized or recently died from COVID-19 were vaccinated.
THE FACTS: The video was falsified to change what Harris said. The manipulated videos show Harris appearing to say that vaccinated people are being hospitalized and are dying from COVID-19, when the unedited version distributed by the White House shows she actually said this was happening among unvaccinated people. In the doctored clip, Harris appears to state, “Virtually every person who is in the hospital, sick with COVID-19 right now, is vaccinated,” before repeating the sentence again and appearing to add: “Virtually everyone who has recently died from COVID-19 was vaccinated.” But the clip had been edited to make it sound like she used the word “vaccinated.” In the edited version, Harris’ mouth doesn’t match all the words and there is a short, unnatural pause where it appears the word “vaccinated” was inserted into the video in some instances. The real video of Harris captures her remarks at a vaccine mobilization event in Detroit. It was posted July 12 by the White House YouTube account. During the address, she states: “Virtually every person who is in the hospital, sick with COVID-19 right now, is unvaccinated. I’m going to repeat that. It’s a fact. Virtually every person who is in the hospital right now, sick with COVID-19, is unvaccinated. And even more regrettably, virtually everyone who has recently died from COVID-19 was unvaccinated. The loss. The tragedy of that loss. Literally every person who has died from COVID-19 that we have recently been seeing was unvaccinated.” Medical experts have continued to maintain that data shows the vaccines are safe and effective against COVID-19.
— Associated Press writer Sophia Tulp in Atlanta contributed this report.
Pfizer CEO was not arrested by the FBI, nor charged with fraud
CLAIM: The CEO of Pfizer was arrested on Nov. 5 by FBI agents, charged with fraud and was being held in federal custody while awaiting a bail hearing.