MBFC's Daily Vetted Fact Checks for 12/21/2024 (Weekend Edition)

Media Bias Fact Check selects and publishes fact checks from around the world. We only utilize fact-checkers that are either a signatory of the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN) or have been verified as credible by MBFC. Further, we review each fact check for accuracy before publishing. We fact-check the fact-checkers and let you know their bias. When appropriate, we explain the rating and/or offer our own rating if we disagree with the fact-checker. (D. Van Zandt)

Claim Codes: Red = Fact Check on a Right Claim, Blue = Fact Check on a Left Claim, Black = Not Political/Conspiracy/Pseudoscience/Other

Fact Checker bias rating Codes: Red = Right-Leaning, Green = Least Biased, Blue = Left-Leaning, Black = Unrated by MBFC

TRUE	Claim by Rep. Sara Jacobs (D): Government shutdowns in 2013 and 2018 “cost our economy billions of dollars each.” PolitiFact rating: True (The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated that the 2018-19 shutdown, which lasted about five weeks, reduced U.S. economic output by $11 billion in the following two quarters, including $3 billion that the economy never regained.) Fact-check: Past government shutdowns cost the U.S. economy billions
FALSE	Claim via Social Media: U.S. President-elect Donald Trump once said the U.S. and Italy have been allies since ancient Rome. Snopes rating: False (Trump stated that the United States and Italy share a political and cultural heritage dating back thousands of years, but did not claim they had been allied for that long. Trump’s use of the phrase “dating back thousands of years” seems to have caused confusion, leading some to misinterpret his remarks.) Trump Falsely Accused of Claiming US and Italy Have Been Allies ‘Since the Time of Ancient Rome’
BLATANT LIE	Claim via Social Media: How are “Billions of Unvaxxed people with NO Boosters […] still alive”? Unvaccinated people should be dead. Science Feedback rating: Flawed Reasoning (The claim misunderstands the concept of risk of death from COVID-19. Being unvaccinated puts people at higher risk of severe COVID-19 and death. However, just because a person remains unvaccinated, it doesn’t mean they’ll automatically die from COVID-19 if they contract it. Epidemiological data shows that unvaccinated people died at a higher rate from COVID-19 than vaccinated people, contradicting the idea that vaccines were useless.) Unvaccinated people died of COVID-19 at a higher rate than vaccinated people; vaccines prevented hundreds of thousands of deaths
FALSE	(International: Australia): The World Economic Forum knows about a new disease that doesn’t appear in any medical textbooks. Australian Associated Press rating: False (So-called ‘Disease X’ is a stand-in term for an unknown pathogen, coined to help prepare for hypothetical future pandemics.) Disease X is a placeholder term, not a ‘new disease’

Disclaimer: We are providing links to fact-checks by third-party fact-checkers. If you do not agree with a fact check, please directly contact the source of that fact check.