Facts Matter: False information follows football player's collapse
Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin, during a Monday Night Football game last week against the Cincinnati Bengals, made a tackle, got up and immediately collapsed. He suffered a cardiac arrest during that hit and his heartbeat was restored on the field, the Bills said in a statement.
While Hamlin was rushed to the hospital in critical condition, social media users were posting unverified claims that the incident was caused by a COVID-19 vaccine, according to FactCheck.org.
"24 year old elite athletes in the NFL don't just have cardiac arrest in the middle of a prime time game. This is squarely on the back of every single person who pushed that poison, required it, and shamed people who didn't get it," an Instagram user wrote on Tuesday.
A different claim on Twitter, posted Monday night, appears to be a screenshot of a Fox News report with the headline, "FBI SLAMS UNVACCINATED PESTS."
The meme includes a Fox News logo, along with an FBI logo and the statement: "It is unfortunate that conspiracy theorists are feeding the American public misinformation. It is completely normal for professional NFL athletes to collapse suddenly and be put on a breathing tube."
But the image was fabricated. A Fox News spokesperson told Reuters the graphic never appeared on its broadcasts.
None of the Fox News reports about Hamlin's collapse in the Monday game included a statement from the FBI, Reuters said.
Medal story doesn't add up
During a town hall for veterans held in Delaware last month, President Joe Biden told a story about awarding a Purple Heart to his uncle.
It happened after he was elected vice president in 2008, Biden said.
According to his comments, Biden's father told him his Uncle Frank won the Purple Heart in the Battle of the Bulge but never received it.
"So, we got him the Purple Heart," Biden said.
"I said, 'Uncle Frank, you won this. And I want to ... ' He said, 'I don't want the damn thing.' No, I'm serious. He said, 'I don't want it.' I said, 'What's the matter, Uncle Frank? You earned it.' He said, 'Yeah, but the others died. The others died. I lived. I don't want it,'" Biden recalled.
But this couldn't have happened the way the president relayed it, according to PolitiFact. Biden's Uncle Frank died on Nov. 28, 1999, long before the 2008 election. News articles about Frank recount his service but don't mention him receiving, or refusing, the honor.
COVID, flu not the same virus
Posts making the rounds on social media show an at-home test kit that can detect COVID-19 and the flu. Users have questioned if the two are the same virus.
"Covid or flu. ahhh. doesn't matter," read the text in an Instagram post. "The flu's back y'all after disappearing for over 2 years. It's always been the flu ..."
The test kit is real, according to The Associated Press. And it can identify the different viruses separately.
"While flu and COVID may feel similar, the viruses that cause these diseases are as different as night and day," Texas A&M's Global Health Research Complex chief virologist, Dr. Benjamin Neuman, told the AP.
The kit in the post, named Fanttest, has been approved for use in Australia.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has not authorized any home-only use kits to test for influenza.
Feet not going to museum
Legendary Brazilian soccer player Pelé was laid to rest Jan. 3. Then, an odd claim appeared on social media.
"(Soccer's governing body) FIFA will keep Pele's feet in the museum. Pele's family has given the permission," read a post, which cited "TNT_SPORTS_BRAZIL."
But this claim is completely false, a FIFA spokesperson told Reuters.
There also is no mention of this claim on the TNT Sports website, Reuters said.
• Bob Oswald is a veteran Chicago-area journalist and former news editor of the Elgin Courier-News. Contact him at boboswald33@gmail.com.