Facts Matter: Airlines aren't worried about flying vaccinated passengers
Recent social media posts suggest airline executives met to discuss the risks of flying vaccinated passengers.
"Airlines are meeting today to discuss the risks of carrying vaxed passengers due to the risk of clots and the liabilities involved," a May 30 Facebook post read. "Oh the irony only the non vaxed can fly."
But this claim doesn't fly, according to PolitiFact.com.
"We're not aware of any such meeting having taken place on (May 30) or otherwise," International Air Transport Association spokesman Perry Flint told PolitiFact.
The insinuation that airlines are concerned about vaccinated passengers is false.
"We have not had internal conversations on this topic," a Southwest Airlines spokesperson told PolitiFact.
Blood clots, caused by long periods of sitting, have always been a risk for long-distance travelers. Experts have said people who have had COVID-19 have an increased chance of developing abnormal blood clots.
"Vaccinated people would have a far lower risk of getting blood clots, because they have a far lower risk of having COVID, and having COVID is what causes blood clots," thrombosis expert Dr. Mark Crowther told PolitiFact. "If I were an airline I would be very concerned about unvaccinated people - for more than one reason - and would welcome vaccinated people onto my aircraft."
Trump falsely claims fraud in Arizona
Former President Donald Trump praised Arizona state senators with unsubstantiated claims that they were exposing election fraud.
The Republican legislators ordered an audit of the votes cast in Maricopa County, Arizona. The audit has been criticized by Democrats and Republicans.
During a June 5 North Carolina GOP convention, Trump congratulated "Republican state senators in Arizona and other places for their great work that they are doing in exposing this fraud."
In reality, no fraud has been exposed, according to PolitiFact.com. No results from the Arizona audit have been released. Audit spokesman Randy Pullen told PolitiFact the group is expected to finish the audit this month and will then take a few weeks to write a report that will be delivered to the state Senate.
Bourdain didn't talk about Wuhan's bat soup
The false claim that the coronavirus originated from people eating bat soup in Wuhan, China, got some traction recently when a year-old fake Twitter post, supposedly from deceased TV host Anthony Bourdain, resurfaced.
Bourdain traveled the world and tasted various dishes as host of the cable TV shows "No Reservations" and "Parts Unknown." His June 2018 death in France was ruled a suicide.
"This might be the best bat soup I ever had in my life. Someday everyone's gonna be talking about Wuhan," says the fake message.
But Bourdain didn't send this, according to USA Today.
The Twitter post doesn't show up in a search of the TV host's activity on social media. Bourdain did post a message at the same time and date but it was a thank you to Spike Lee for sticking up for his girlfriend at the Cannes Film Festival. It appears that Twitter post was used to create the fake post about Wuhan.
Wuhan is not included in a list of places visited by Bourdain published by the website Lonely Planet.
He last traveled to China in 2016.
Military hasn't arrested Birx for conspiracy
The headline falsely claiming "U.S. Military Arrests Dr. Deborah Birx" tops a story published on the website Real Raw News that was shared on YouTube, Instagram and conspiracy-theory social media sites.
The story claims Birx was apprehended because she conspired with infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention "to deceive the American public into believing that face masks were an effective method to mitigate the spread of COVID-19."
The story is false and Real Raw News is known for its satirical content, according to The Associated Press.
Jo Trizila, of TrizCom Public Relations, which represents ActivePure Technologies where Birx works as chief medical and scientific adviser, told the AP that Birx was not apprehended.
• Bob Oswald is a veteran Chicago-area journalist and former news editor of the Elgin Courier-News. Contact him at boboswald33@gmail.com.