NOT REAL NEWS
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:
Claim
President Joe Biden has ordered the Department of Veterans Affairs to withhold health care benefits from unvaccinated veterans.
The Facts
Social media posts falsely suggested that a supposed order from Biden would keep veterans who receive assistance from the Department of Veterans Affairs from accessing health care benefits unless they received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine by Nov. 1.
But the worries proved to be unfounded as no such directive or executive order exists.
In a statement to The Associated Press, the Department of Veterans Affairs confirmed the claims were untrue. “The President has not and will not withhold benefits to Veterans who choose not to be vaccinated,” Veterans Affairs Press Secretary Terrence L. Hayes wrote in a statement. “The spread of this misinformation is extremely detrimental to our Veterans and their families and should cease immediately.”
The claims were spread through an article on a website that describes its stories as “parodies, satire, fiction, fake, not real.” The blog includes a disclaimer explaining that “everything on this website is made up” and warning readers not to “rely on anything said here.” But many social media users who shared the story seemed to think it was a real news report.
U.S. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, a Republican from Iowa, was among those who tweeted a link to the satirical article, writing in her tweet: “If true, this is insane!”
While Biden did issue an executive order Sept. 9 introducing sweeping new federal vaccine requirements for as many as 100 million Americans in an effort to curb the surging COVID-19 delta variant, that order makes no specific mention of veterans and does not extend to their government health care benefits or to people who receive assistance from the Department of Veterans Affairs to cover medical expenses.
The rules apply to private-sector employees, health care workers and federal contractors. The order mandates that all employers with more than 100 workers require them to be vaccinated or test for the virus weekly.
The Department of Veterans Affairs announced in July that all its health care personnel who work in Veterans Health Administration facilities, visit those facilities or provide direct care to those the VA serves would need to get vaccinated.
However, that rule does not extend to non-employees who may utilize the department's services.
Claim
COVID-19 vaccines cause impotency and swollen testicles.
The Facts
There is no evidence from available research to suggest COVID-19 vaccines cause erectile dysfunction, swelling of the testicles or male infertility.
The unfounded claims received considerable attention Monday after Trinidadian-born rapper Nicki Minaj tweeted to her more than 22.6 million followers an unverified story about a cousin's friend in Trinidad.
Minaj asserted the unidentified individual “became impotent” and “his testicles became swollen” after receiving the shot. The specifics of the claim aren't clear.
A representative for Minaj did not return requests for more information. But experts say there is no data to support the idea that the vaccines cause erectile dysfunction or swollen testicles. “We have never seen that,” said Dr. Ranjith Ramasamy, director of male reproductive medicine and surgery at the University of Miami's health system.
Orchitis, a condition that can result in swollen testicles, can follow a bacterial infection, such as a sexually transmitted infection. Ramasamy said that while orchitis and erectile dysfunction have not been linked to coronavirus vaccines, there is some evidence suggesting they could be associated with a COVID-19 infection.
Dr. Ashley Winter, a urologist specializing in sexual dysfunction at Kaiser Permanente in Portland, Oregon, agreed there is no indication that the vaccine negatively impacts male sexual function or the testicles overall.
“On a population level, hundreds of millions of men have gotten this vaccine and there's no study showing reduced erectile function in men who have been vaccinated,” she said. “Fundamentally, we just have no study linking the vaccine to either swollen testicles or erectile dysfunction.”
Furthermore, experts say there is no established link between COVID-19 vaccines and male infertility or lower sperm counts.
In the days since Minaj's tweet, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the leading U.S. infectious disease expert, and Trinidad's health minister have both publicly dismissed the claim.
The White House also offered to connect Minaj with one of the Biden administration's doctors to address her questions about the COVID-19 vaccine, the AP reported.
