Does this photo of bulk peanut butter packaged on plastic foam trays and covered with plastic wrap show how peanut butter is packaged and sold in Canada? No, that's not true: This photo shows bulk peanut butter for sale in an unnamed shop in Trinidad and Tobago. This is not the standard way for peanut butter to be packaged in…

Does a picture of thousands of people packing a wide Cuban street show 2021 protesters taking to the streets against Communism? No, that's not true: The picture is several years old and has been described in captions either as a parade of International Workers' Day celebrants or as a commemoration of the death of Fidel Castro. All described the scene…

Was the first slave owner in America a Black man? No, that's not true: Anthony Johnson, an Angolan who was an indentured servant in the Virginia colony starting in 1621, did gain the recognized right to own property, including slaves, after he was released following years of being an indentured servant. He used slaves on his Maryland tobacco farm, but…

Do Los Angeles County and the combined population of seven Midwestern and Western states have roughly the same population, but different congressional representation? Yes, although the comparison is misleading: Every state (and therefore, counties in the state) is represented by two U.S. senators, no matter the area's population. Conversely, the number of a state's representatives in the U.S. House, which…

Did a Politico article suggest the Biden administration monitoring private text messages of Americans to combat vaccine "misinformation"? No, that's misleading. The Politico article stated that "Biden allied groups" are working with SMS carriers to distribute messages attempting to "dispel misinformation about vaccines that is sent over social media and text messages." The article did not state that the administration…

Will COVID-19 vaccines lose emergency use authorization (EUA) when "there is no longer an emergency and everything opens back up"? No, that's not true: That's not how the process works. Whether or not a drug has an EUA is not dependent on lockdowns. Also, manufacturers of COVID-19 vaccines are seeking full approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA),…

Does a photo show a death row inmate whose last wish was to write a letter to his mother? No, that's not true. The man in the photo accompanying the purported death row letter was never on death row nor convicted of any crime serious enough to put him there. He is Jeremy Meeks, who was arrested, convicted and sentenced…

Does a Public Health England report on COVID variants show the case fatality rate for the SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant is .08 percent and that, compared to the virus that started the pandemic, Delta is not as lethal? No, that's not true: The report a radio host linked to clearly says the proportion of patients who will die of infection with…

Does a video show "Joe Biden's green shirt vaccine pushing shock troops" being confronted on camera? No, that's not true. The video has nothing to do with the COVID-19 vaccine. The video shows workers from a construction company and is labeled "Paramount Builders Illegal Solicitors." They are not "troops" attempting to "push" a COVID-19 vaccine to people by going door-to-door.…

Does this caption accurately describe the social structure of a wolf pack that happened to be photographed moving single file through the snow? No, that's not true: This is an allegorical caption that uses the image of a wolf pack to deliver a lesson to people about "the true meaning of life." This breakdown of the roles of the wolves…

Did U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, who has made disparaging remarks about government assistance, receive a Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan for her restaurant Shooters Grill? No, that's not true: a restaurant with a similar name as the Colorado representative's establishment received a PPP loan. The assistance has no connection to her business. The claim appeared in a Facebook post (archived…

Are people going door-to-door to "see your papers" on COVID-19 vaccination? No, there's no evidence that's true: The claim riffs off a comment that President Joe Biden made on vaccine outreach. As his administration has made clear, the door-to-door effort is about education and access. It's being staffed by local public health officials and volunteers. Although they may ask whether…

Does this photo show a reindeer in Finland whose brightly glowing horns were treated with reflective paint to protect it from being hit by a car? No, that's not true: This is artwork by visual designer Vasjen Katro. He was inspired to create this image when he heard about an effort in Finland to try to reduce vehicle collisions by…

Did a court in Lisbon rule that the COVID-19 death toll in Portugal was 152 and not the 17,000 reported by public health officials? No, that's not true: The claim is based on misidentification of court documents and on excerpting that changes their meaning, leaving out context about autopsy-documented deaths that is vital to understanding what was and was not…

Did a Facebook post about the July 2021 protests in Cuba include a picture of said protests? No, that's not true: the image was taken 6,000 miles away, a decade earlier: it shows protests in Egypt in 2011. The claim originated from the caption under a photo in a Facebook post (archived here) where it was published on July 12,…

Does Australian legislation that classifies the COVID-19 vaccine as a "poison" mean that the shot is toxic or harmful? No, that's not true: It's a matter of semantics. Medicines and vaccines are normally classified as poisons under the "Poisons Standard" in Australia, but only in the sense that they can cause harm if taken incorrectly or in the wrong amounts.…

Is Jeff Bezos, the founder and former CEO of Amazon, on his way to becoming a trillionaire, thereby having more than three times the wealth needed to "save the planet"? No, that's not true: Although Bezos is the world's richest person with a net worth of more than $200 billion, his potential trillionaire status is just a projection. Additionally, the…

Is this an electric car "cemetery" in France, full of cars that became worthless due to battery failure? No, that's not true: The caption attached to this photo is misleading on two counts: First, the photo has been misidentified as being a car cemetery in France. There are similar photos circulating online that do show decommissioned electric cars stored in…

Does this video give proof that John McAfee is alive? No, that's not true. There is no evidence that McAfee is alive. He died in prison on June 23, 2021 and an autopsy confirmed he died by suicide in his prison cell in Barcelona, Spain. The claim appeared as a video (archived here) where it was published on Facebook on…

Did the New England Journal of Medicine find that women who received the COVID-19 vaccine -- within 30 days of becoming pregnant and up to 20 weeks pregnant -- had a miscarriage rate of 82%? No, that's not true: A spokesperson for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told Lead Stories that number was "incorrect" and a "misrepresentation of…