Fact-checking recent claims about COVID-19 vaccines, 'wonder drugs' and more

CLAIM: The head of research at Pfizer says the COVID-19 vaccine causes female sterilization because it contains a spike protein known as syncytin-1.

THE FACTS: The Pfizer and BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine does not contain the protein syncytin-1, which is important for the creation of placenta.

CLAIM: The antiparasitic drug ivermectin “has a miraculous effectiveness that obliterates” the transmission of COVID-19 and will prevent people from getting sick.

THE FACTS: During a Senate hearing Tuesday, a group of doctors touted alternative COVID-19 treatments, including ivermectin and the anti-malaria medication hydroxychloroquine. Medical experts have cautioned against using either of those drugs to treat COVID-19.

CLAIM: The first two recipients of the COVID-19 vaccine in Britain are “crisis actors.” The image of the first person who was vaccinated on Dec. 8 was published in October, long before the vaccine was approved. The same nurse was photographed administering the vaccine to two people, in two locations 20 miles apart.

THE FACTS: After Margaret Keenan, 90, and William Shakespeare, 81, became the first two people to receive the Pfizer-BioNTech shot outside of a clinical trial, multiple false posts surfaced on social media suggesting that they were hired actors. Britain was the first country in the world to deliver the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine to the general public.

CLAIM: Scientists have not isolated the COVID-19 virus, so a vaccine is not possible.

THE FACTS: The virus was first isolated by Chinese authorities on Jan. 7, according to the World Health Organization. A virus is isolated when a specimen is collected from an infected patient to be grown and studied. Virus isolation is critical for diagnosis of diseases and in the development of vaccines.

CLAIM: Forensic tests completed on Dominion Voting Systems equipment show that dozens of votes cast for President Donald Trump in Ware County, Georgia, were “switched” or “flipped” to count for Joe Biden, who has been declared the winner in the presidential election.

THE FACTS: Social media users are misrepresenting a minor error in Ware County’s initial vote tally as evidence of election fraud, even as local elections officials confirm nothing is awry.

CLAIM: Photos show an abandoned school bus full of voting machines discovered in Buckeye, Arizona.

THE FACTS: The bus was full of office equipment purchased at a surplus sale, not voting machines, according to an investigation by the Buckeye Police Department and the Arizona attorney general’s office. It was not abandoned; the driver of the bus was in the vehicle, according to an employee at the gas station where the photos were taken.

CLAIM: Image captures Democratic state Sen. Elena Parent of Atlanta counting votes.

THE FACTS: This week, social media users shared a screenshot from a video of a woman counting ballots at the Allegheny County elections warehouse on Nov. 7 and wrongly identified the poll worker as Parent. The posts came on the heels of a hearing last week, where Parent, a member of the state’s Senate Judiciary Committee, countered claims of voting fraud in Georgia.