A roundup of some of the most popular but completely untrue stories of the week.

ClaimOn Tuesday, hours before police say Robert Aaron Long killed eight people at three Atlanta-area massage businesses, he posted on Facebook that China was engaged in a “COVID coverup” and “AMERICANS NEED TO FIGHT BACK AGAINST CHINA, NOW.”

The FactsThe post is not authentic. The fictitious image began circulating Tuesday night after Long was identified as a suspect in the mass shootings that took place at the Atlanta-area massage businesses.The image is designed to look like a Facebook post made by Long. It uses a picture of him, which was circulating widely in media reports Tuesday night, next to what looks like a Facebook update that accuses China of a “COVID coverup” and calls the country “THE GREATEST EVIL OF OUR TIME.”In an email, Facebook spokesman Andy Stone said the platform was removing the post.

ClaimIn all of 2020, there were only 9,000 immigrants caught at the border without legal status. So far in 2021, 108,000 entered the country.

The FactsA popular Facebook post is spreading false statistics about the number of migrants apprehended at the southern border since President Joe Biden took office compared to the last year of the Trump administration. “SLEEPY JOE NOW SAYING HE INHERITED 'A MESS' AT THE BORDER. FACT: 9,000 ILLEGALS ALL OF 2020. SO FAR IN 2021 108,000 ENTERED U.S,” says the post, which has been shared thousands of times on Facebook.But those numbers are not correct. U.S. Customs and Border Protection does not document the number of individuals who were stopped but rather the number of encounters, which can reflect the same person attempting to cross more than once.Monthly statistics from CBP show that from January 1 to December, 31, 2020, the last full year of Trump's presidency, border officials had 547,816 encounters with people trying to cross the Southwest border. Biden took office on Jan. 20. In the first two months of 2021, there were 178,883 encounters, according to CBP numbers.

ClaimVideo of President Joe Biden was digitally altered to make it appear that he spoke to the press on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington on March 16, and a blurry microphone in the shot proves the video was manipulated.

The FactsThe interaction between Biden and reporters was documented by multiple cameras, including an Associated Press photographer, and the video in question was not altered.False claims circulated on Twitter and TikTok stating that a video of Biden talking to reporters before boarding Marine One had been doctored to make it appear that he took questions from the press. The bogus claim is the latest to be spread by conspiracy theorists who say Biden is not the president or that he is incapable of speaking to the press.

ClaimCOVID-19 vaccines contain aluminum, a toxic ingredient that enters the brain and causes disease.

The FactsThe COVID-19 vaccines that have been authorized for emergency use in the United States do not contain any aluminum, according to their ingredient lists. Nor do the AstraZeneca or Sputnik V vaccines.Some Chinese COVID-19 vaccines, as well as some vaccines used against other diseases, do use tiny amounts of aluminum to help boost the immune response. This method is safe and the quantity of aluminum is trivial compared to what humans encounter elsewhere in everyday life, experts say. Aluminum has been used in vaccines since the 1930s as an adjuvant, or immune booster, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The amount of aluminum in a shot is minimal — similar to the amount of aluminum found in a liter of baby formula, the Vaccine Education Center at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia explains. Posts circulating widely on social media this week weaponized long-held misconceptions about the safety of aluminum in vaccines to stoke fears in the population about getting a COVID-19 shot, even though most coronavirus vaccines in use don't contain the ingredient.

ClaimPresident Joe Biden is not screening immigrants for COVID-19 at the border and is allowing “everyone in no matter what.”

The FactsSocial media users are falsely claiming that all border crossers are being let in at the border without any COVID-19 screening. One widely shared Facebook post uses a popular meme of the rapper Drake to suggest when it comes to the policy of “Screen immigrants for COVID on the border,” Biden disapproves. But when it comes to the policy of “Allow everyone in no matter what,” he approves.In fact, February data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection shows the Biden administration has continued to use an existing public health rule to immediately expel more than 70% of asylum seekers and border crossers stopped at the border. The rule, known as Title 42, was first invoked by the Trump administration at the start of the pandemic a year ago.