Facts Matter: False claims persist despite GOP review upholding Biden win in Arizona

A review of 2020 presidential election results in Arizona's Maricopa County, conducted by the state's Republican legislators, failed to find any evidence to contradict President Joe Biden's win by about 45,000 votes.

Following last week's end to the six-month partisan review, false claims about the results were making the rounds on social media, according to The Associated Press.

A claim there were 17,000 duplicate ballots in the county is false, the AP said.

The claim by former U.S. Senate candidate Shiva Ayyadurai is based on envelopes, not ballots. Election officials said they rescan a ballot envelope whenever an issue is resolved, such as an envelope with a missing or mismatched signature. Officials submitted all the envelope scans, per the Senate subpoena, but said each ballot was only counted once.

Another false claim says more than 10,000 people voted in multiple counties.

But it was actually people who share the same name and birth year, which officials said is common in an area where more than 2 million people vote. County officials took to Twitter to offer an example of this.

"EXPLANATION: 10,000+ votes in multiple counties is unlikely. More likely: different people, same name. Example: if you search for Maria Garcia born in 1980, you'll get 7 active voters in Maricopa County and 12 statewide. And that's just one name," the Twitter post said.

<h3 class="leadin">Generals contradict Biden

In an Aug. 18 interview focusing on the withdrawal from Afghanistan, President Joe Biden said top military leaders agreed with his plan.

ABC News commentator George Stephanopoulos asked Biden if the military advisers warned against his withdrawal timeline, recommending to keep 2,500 troops in Afghanistan.

"No, they didn't. It was split. That wasn't true," Biden said.

But some of those officials have contradicted the president's claim, according to FactCheck.org.

During a Sept. 28 Senate hearing, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chair Gen. Mark Milley and commander of U.S. Central Command Gen. Kenneth McKenzie both said they believe the U.S. should have kept a force of 2,500 in Afghanistan and that was their recommendation to Biden.

"I'm confident the president heard all the recommendations, and listened to them very thoughtfully," McKenzie said during the hearing.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told the senators that the recommendation to leave 2,500 troops "was received by the president and considered by the president, for sure."

Later, White House press secretary Jen Psaki emphasized that Biden said the advice he received was "split."

<h3 class="leadin">Hydrogen peroxide won't cure COVID-19

Several videos circulating on social media claim inhaling hydrogen peroxide mixed with saline solution from a nebulizer is a remedy for COVID-19.

The advice is not only false, it's dangerous, according to Reuters. Medical professionals advise against inhaling hydrogen peroxide.

"DO NOT put hydrogen peroxide into your nebulizer and breathe it in. This is dangerous. It is not a way to prevent nor treat COVID-19," the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America posted on its website.

Some of the false videos suggest coughing during this practice is a sign that the virus is being killed.

"You are breathing in hydrogen peroxide. That coughing is not because of anything (happening) to the infection. You are literally damaging your own lung cells," Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center associate professor Panagis Galiatsatos told Reuters.

<h3 class="leadin">Funeral home message fake

A meme being shared on social media shows a funeral home advising people to decline a vaccination.

"Don't get vaccinated. Wilmore Funeral Home," is the message on the side of a large black box truck.

The image is real, but the message is not, according to PolitiFact.

The display on the truck was created by North Carolina ad agency BooneOakley for a pro-vaccination campaign. The agency tweeted a photo of the truck with the caption, "It was us. Get vaccinated."

"It was a different way of going about the message," BooneOakley President David Oakley told The Washington Post.

A website for the fake Wilmore Funeral Home, named for the agency's neighborhood, contained only the message, "Get vaccinated now. If not, see you soon."

• Bob Oswald is a veteran Chicago-area journalist and former news editor of the Elgin Courier-News. Contact him at boboswald33@gmail.com.