NOT REAL NEWS: A look at what didn't happen this week
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:
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Video misrepresents voluntary vaccine clinic outside Idaho school
CLAIM: A video shows U.S. government agents forcing students at an Idaho middle school to receive COVID-19 vaccines behind the building.
THE FACTS: An incendiary video circulating widely on social media this week weaponizes footage from a voluntary, health district-run vaccine clinic to push the false narrative that the U.S. military is forcibly vaccinating children. “You’re about to see some disturbing footage,” the video’s narrator says over suspenseful music. “You’re going to see government agents escort children to their execution, to a little shed behind the school in secrecy. They pull these children out of class, they force them into getting the vaccine and they inject them in broad daylight.” The narrator refers to immunizing children as a “genocide,” even though the FDA has declared that the Pfizer vaccine is safe and offers strong protection to children as young as 12. The narrator also claims the press wasn’t invited “to witness the lethal injection.” As the narrator speaks, a video clip shows students milling in and out of a tent outside their school. The Panhandle Health District arranged the voluntary vaccine clinic at Coeur d’Alene’s Canfield Middle School on May 28 to “reduce barriers individuals may have to receiving the vaccine” and “make it convenient for students and parents,” said Katherine Hoyer, public information officer for the health agency. It was one of several clinics held at local schools in the spring, according to Scott Maben, communications...
