Daily Archives: July 15, 2020

Who is the villain?

When I listened to President Trump speak at Mt. Rushmore over the July 4th weekend, he once again made comments that I found not only highly offensive, but also not true.

His comment that "children are taught in school to hate their own country and to believe the men and women who built it were not heroes but villains" is the one that most struck at my heartstrings.

As a retired teacher and administrator who spent 45 years working with students, I can guarantee that while I was teaching in the classroom and while I was principal, students were taught to love and appreciate not only our country and its history, but also the peoples of all races, colors, and creeds who are part of that history. I have no doubt that that is the case in most all classrooms in Kansas and throughout the country. When looking at the Kansas Department of Education standards for History, Government, and Social Studies there is no mention of hating ones country nor is there a list of individuals considered to be villains.

Makes one wonder what the basis for such a comment is! I am proud to have been a lifelong educator working to instill a foundation of knowledge and values into students that undoubtedly has given them the opportunity to be informed, knowledgeable, and contributing citizens in our communities, states, and country which, by the way, fits in with the standards they are being taught.

Delon Martens

Haven

Religious privilege

Under the Constitution's Establishment Clause, government cannot favor the religious beliefs of some at the expense of the rights, beliefs and health of others. Yet, 50 years after access to contraception was recognized as a constitutional right, the Catholic Church continues exploiting authority over sexuality.

The Supreme Court recently affirmed the Trump administration's rules which create a religious or moral exemption from the Affordable Care Act's contraception coverage guarantee for any employer or university that wants it. And the new rules don't require any third-party accommodation to provide workers or students with coverage for this critical care, as does the ACA.

Houses of worship are exempted from complying with the ACA's contraception benefit. And the government offers other religiously affiliated employers with religious objections to contraception an accommodation: simply sign a written notice of the objection and government would work with a third-party provider to ensure access to reproductive coverage without involving the employer. But the Little Sisters of the Poor and other religious organizations said even signing the opt-out form was a burden and sued the government.

The hypocrisy of the Little Sisters and others claiming to be the injured parties in this legal battle over access to reproductive health care is that they already have the type of "church plan" insurance that allows them to exclude contraceptive care for their workers, hundreds of people who are not nuns or Catholics, and for many, who don't share their religious views on contraception.

What's at issue in this case is the difference between religious freedom and religious privilege.

Janean Lanier

Hutchinson

Voters Beware!

By now we have all had postcards in the mail or door hangers left on our doors, some filled with lies paid for by Topeka special interest groups. These big-money, special interests want politicians beholden to them, not to us the constituents.

There is more to the story being told on those postcards. Call the candidates here at their homes. Ask them for the truth. Like every election, these big-money special interest groups want us to believe half-baked truths and outright lies: whatever it takes to make us believe their lies so they can buy the election and buy our politicians.

I recently ran into a young man dropping literature for them-he was being paid by a Topeka special interest group and was from Johnson County. He had no vested interest in our communities. If these far-away Topeka special interest groups are supporting one candidate or lying about another, they are doing it so that we might elect a pawn for them.

We need to elect candidates that stand up for us. As my husband, Greg Lewis, said when he resigned from the Kansas House of Representatives due to illness, "This is not the house of special interest. This is the Peoples House; long may it serve the People and the Great State of Kansas."

In August make your vote count. Dont buy the lies. Elect candidates who will work for us and are NOT beholden to Topeka special interest groups.

Susan Lewis

St. John

Antifa Is NOT Imaginary

What do Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, and the Tooth Fairy all have in common? They are not real; they are imaginary.

On June 25, Democrat Senator Jerry Nadler from New York made one of the most asinine statements I have ever heard. Mr. Nadler intimated that antifa was "imaginary". In other words, Mr. Nadler would have you believe that antifa (that "peaceful", anti-Fascist mob which vandalized, looted, pillaged, and set fires to many businesses in cities throughout the United States) did NOT actually do any of these dastardly deeds.

Nadler would like to think that what American citizens saw with their own eyes on TV was a "figment of their imagination""--that they are actually dumb enough to "buy into" this outrageous statement. Really, Senator Nadler, do you honestly think that the Antifa mob threw "imaginary" bricks through storeowners' windows? Tell the store owners these bricks were "imaginary".

Do you really think that the lootings and fires that were set by antifa rioters were "imaginary". Tell the store owners (many who had invested years of sweat and labor into making their businesses successful, only to have their livelihoods destroyed in one night) that the lootings and fires were "imaginary". Senator Nadler, you are insulting the intelligence of the American people if you think they are "buying" any of this nonsense.

If there is one thing that I wish was "imaginary", Senator Nadler, it is you! Unfortunately, Senator Nadler is "real", as is the radical left-wing drivel spewing out of his mouth.

Ron Etchison

Ellsworth

Vote Berger

In his role as President of Hutchinson Community College, I was always impressed with how Dr. Ed Berger leveraged limited resources to achieve great results. When he decided to run for the Kansas Senate four years ago, I was pleased because the Brownback administration had clearly gone off the rails and we needed elected officials like Ed Berger to step up and clean up the mess. Ed and his colleagues have had to make some tough votes to bring Kansas back to financial soundness. They have done that.

Now Eds opponent, who has not bothered to vote in many previous elections, seems to want to take us back to the "Brownback Years." Apparently, he doesnt know that experiment failed and Kansas is still digging its way out of the economic hole it created.

I hope you will join me in voting for a man of real integrity, Ed Berger.

Patty Kerr

Hutchinson

Presidential Election Could Be a Game Changer

The upcoming presidential election on November 3rd is the most important election in American history since 1860 and 1864. This is because our very existence as a constitutional republic created by our U.S. Constitution in 1789 is at stake.

The progressive (actually regressive) left-wing Democrat Party wants the United States government to change to a socialist/Marxist government. They attack our very U. S. Constitution as out-dated and old-fashioned created by 56 white men, some who owned slaves. Thus, they say it is a racist document. This is nonsense!

The history of the Democrat Party reveals that it has always been racist. They were supporters of slavery before and during the U.S. Civil War (1861-1865). After the Civil War they established the Ku Klux Klan and segregation to keep newly freed former slaves from voting. This is in our history books that the Democrat Party wishes to hide. They want to destroy our history by rewriting it. Part of this destruction of our nations history is seen by the rioters who have destroyed statues of past Americans.

The Democrats resort to intimidation of people through violent groups such as antifa (which get lots of financial support from anti-American government multi-billionaire George Soros) as well as Black Lives Matter, an organization whose background is heavily pro-Marxist in its ideology. As a matter of fact, its three co-founders are extremely pro-Marxist in their comments. Thus, weve got to save our country and its freedoms by defeating the Democrats in November.

Don Etchison

Haven

Vote Dower

Please join us in voting for Tad Dower for District Court Judge. Tads time spent as Municipal Court Judge in Hutchinson has given him the experience to be a fair and thoughtful judge. And Tads many years as a local attorney in private practice has given him a keen understanding of all facets of legal issues involved in the type of cases he would contemplate in District Court. Integrity, honest, fair, and thoughtful are all words that describe Tad.

Anne and Tom Sellers

Hutchinson

Berger is for education

When Ed Berger ran for our State Senate 4 years ago I didnt know him personally. I knew of him from his days as Hutchinson Community College President. After spending 10 plus years in Kansas classrooms I saw Ed as the best choice to help get Education back on track in Kansas. Ive been more than pleased with the job Ed has done for Kansas. Ive got to know Ed personally as he visits our town cafe regularly and we had him address our Lions Club. I want to encourage all voters to vote to re-elect Ed Berger to the Kansas Senate.

Alan Albers

Cunningham

Critical to re-elect

The most important resource in Kansas is our children; they are our future. As a public school teacher, I have spent years advocating for students. It is critical that we re-elect Dr. Ed Berger to the state legislature.

Following my year of service as the Kansas Teacher of the Year, I have learned just how important it is to have representatives in Topeka that understand the unique needs of our schools and the communities they serve. Ed Berger does that. He listens to my experiences and concerns as an educator. He always responds quickly to my questions about how new bills and policies will affect local schools.

Dr. Berger shows balance and fairness in his voting record towards public schools which is needed to sustain our local communities. Please support Dr. Berger with your vote; District 34 will continue to benefit from his leadership and experience.

Samantha Neill

Buhler

Continue reading here:

Letters to the editor - News - The Hutchinson News

His voice was deep and gruff. His message was unmistakable. He questioned my right to live. He was upset that I presented an alternative view to his about the clinical operations of the new community cancer center in Sequim.

He didnt leave his name, let alone an invitation to dialogue over his concerns.

The threat didnt worry me because the messenger already exposed himself as a coward in shielding his threat in anonymity. Still, I couldnt help but feel a sense of loss and weariness that he was representative of part of our American culture that felt justified in intimidating another person, no matter how innocent.

This incident occurred a few years after the turn of the century. Little did I know then that such threats would become commonplace and escalate to open actions of intimidation and, in some cases, terrorization.

Local intimidation

Most of us have read Peninsula Daily News reporting of the events that took place in Forks in which a family of people were interrogated by a group of local men as they left a grocery store, followed and trapped by felled trees at a campsite they reserved for a weekend of touring the location of the Twilight sagas. The harassers are said to have believed social media postings that Antifa was coming to rural communities in buses to create mayhem. The family was driving a bus that doubled as a living space.

Did I mention the family of three women and one man were greatly outnumbered by a group of men apparently bent on cornering these Twilight adventurers?

Meanwhile, the day before, a group of greater Sequim folks gathered to stage a demonstration in support of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement. They were joined by a group of men carrying rifles. The armed men apparently read similar social media postings about Antifa coming, although it is said that these men were more concerned about Antifa staging violently disruptive demonstrations.

Fortunately for all involved, the Sequim situation was resolved peacefully when the armed men could see that this group of young to middle age to old people were neither armed nor violent protesters.

The Forks story is unfinished.

PDN reporter Paul Gottlieb is continuing to report on the Forks story and related recriminations and investigations. Weve learned from his reporting that the family was traumatized and that several Forks residents are ashamed and embarrassed by the treatment of the family, enough to put an apologetic ad in the familys hometown paper and start a community roll of paper with signatures to send to the family.

We recently learned that County Sheriff Bill Benedict is diligently investigating the incident to establish accountability for the trauma experienced by the family, the destruction of property and the embarrassment if not shame of the Forks community, goals not shared by the harassers.

The men have formed a wall of silence. So far, its not entirely clear why except there could be trouble ahead for the men who felled the trees and for everyone involved for false imprisonment which Benedict says is a felony.

Here on the North Olympic Peninsula we had two cases of what I will call deliberate and unwarranted intimidation under the guise of protecting the community. In Sequim, the armed men came prepared to use lethal force. In Forks, the group of men harassed and cornered an innocent family.

No one has been charged in either case. Seeking to intimidate and threaten people doesnt seem to be a crime. Neither is social media spreading lies about threats in an effort to incite fear, anger and potentially violence.

Just what meets the test of crying fire in a movie theater?

Prelude to answers

My brain churns trying to understand why a swift prelude to justice occurred for a man who threw eggs at demonstrators and used racial/other slurs. He was quickly charged with a hate crime in Clallam Bay. The charge was malicious harassment which is a class C felony coupled with a threat or assault.

I dont think Im the only person who thinks guns on a mission are more deadly than eggs and stalking a family into the woods is at least as terrorizing as speaking hate on sidewalks of a town.

Neither Sequim nor Forks incidents involved racial slurs or eggs, but each involved intimidation and provoking if not instilling fear for the safety of people present. All three of these incidents were people taking causes and law into their own hands. I cant account for the egg-thrower, but I can wonder why those so fearful of Antifa did not alert law enforcement.

Do they not trust local law enforcement to defend them? Why do they feel safer with a gun? What were their plans once they had the family trapped? Why were these actions seen as the only alternative? Their fears need to be addressed.

Something needs to be done about balancing the laws related to carrying weapons for safety and carrying weapons (guns or eggs) as a threat or as a defense against a specious threat.

People are trying a variety of methods to calm the tensions and bring interested parties together. Ive read letters to the editors asking for leadership to step in and bring the cause of public safety into consideration. I contacted Police Chief Crain to offer my support and ask questions. Someone else started a GoFundMe account for the family harassed in Forks.

A petition was circulated recently calling for controls on displaying firearms at public gathering and outlawing vigilantism. This followed a petition that was successful in calling upon the Sequim City Council to denounce systemic racism in the community.

I call all these efforts public cries for help, for peace and, perhaps for redemption.

Perhaps, we should start with redemption. Just how does a community of people whove live in wide-open spaces and small towns arrive at such drama during a pandemic yet? We can change the intimidation prospective. We all can stop fighting ghosts.

We can arrive at the place where we all have space, understood boundaries, respectful interdependence, collaboration for the common good and well-knitted community that has parades of small children and old cars on holidays.

Bertha Cooper, featured columnist in the Sequim Gazette, spent her career years in health care administration, program development and consultation. Cooper and her husband have lived in Sequim more than 20 years. Reach her at columnists@sequimgazette.com.

Read more here:

Think About It: Intimidation prospective - Sequim Gazette

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:

___

CLAIM: The nasal swab test commonly used for to diagnose COVID-19 involves obtaining a sample from a protective layer of cells known as the blood-brain barrier, which can result in inflammation of the brain.

THE FACTS: The swab used to diagnose COVID-19 goes so far back into the nose that it can be uncomfortable, even causing some people's eyes to water. But it doesn't touch the area known as the blood-brain barrier, where blood vessels and the brain exchange important nutrients, despite social media posts that claim it does. This week, Facebook posts viewed more than a million times shared a diagram of the nasopharyngeal swab test next to an anatomical picture of the brain, suggesting the swab disrupts the blood-brain barrier. "The blood-brain barrier is exactly where the swab has to be placed," the image read, with a raised eyebrow emoji. "Coincidence??? I don't think so." However, Dr. Morgan Katz, an assistant professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins University, said these posts fundamentally misunderstand what's happening when the test is conducted. The swab "would have to go through layers of muscle and fascia, as well as the base of the skull, which is a thick bone, in order to get anywhere near the blood-brain barrier, and I would say that it is not possible," Katz told The Associated Press. Instead of the brain, the test collects a sample from the nasopharynx, an area between the back of the nose and the back of the throat where respiratory viruses often live. "That's just a place where we expect to see the highest yield of respiratory viruses," she said.

___

CLAIM: Wearing a face mask for extended periods of time can cause pleurisy, an inflammation of the lining around the lung.

THE FACTS: Multiple experts told The Associated Press there is no medical evidence that wearing a face mask could lead to this condition, despite Facebook posts claiming it could. "Be careful healthy people, shared from a friend," read one Facebook post, which described a story of a healthy 19-year-old frontline grocery store worker who started feeling sick and was diagnosed with pleurisy. "They basically tell her.. It's because she's been wearing a mask for over 8 hours a day 5-6 days a week. Breathing in her own bacteria. Carbon dioxide.. Caused an infection." Another Facebook post featured a diagram of a lung with an inflamed lining. "Result of wearing mask for 8 hours a day," the caption read. "Why are they not reporting the number of people being hospitalized for this?? YOU NEED FRESH AIR." But doctors who study the respiratory system say a face mask doesn't pose this risk. "There is absolutely no truth in that claim," said Humberto Choi, a pulmonologist at Cleveland Clinic, in an email. "There are thousands of health care workers wearing face masks everyday including masks that are much tighter than simple surgical masks. Nobody is getting pleurisy because of that." "I don't see a medically plausible mechanism for mask wearing to cause pleurisy," said Albert Rizzo, chief medical officer at the American Lung Association. Claims that mask-wearing leads to harmful conditions, including bacterial and fungal infections, pneumonia, hypercapnia and other ailments are also false, according to AP reporting.

___

CLAIM: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention sent out COVID-19 tests "seeded" with the virus.

THE FACTS: Social media users shared an illustration of a COVID-19 nasal swab test where a six inch long swab is placed into the cavity between the nose and mouth with false information that the CDC sent out tests that contained the live virus. The post asserts that COVID-19 tests are tainted and could expose people to the virus. According to one Instagram post that shared the illustration with false information: "COVID-19 test has the virus ... the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention sent states tainted lab tests in early February that were themselves seeded with the virus, federal officials have confirmed." The Instagram caption further states: "... if one person in the family could have gotten tested with one of those tainted 'Planted' COVID-19 tests that would potentially expose the entire family to the virus" In February, the CDC distributed a batch of faulty COVID-19 test kits to laboratories, but the kit did not contain the live virus. The contaminated tests were not sent out to patients. The CDC produced two types of test kits in January. There was no evidence that the first batch had any issues. The second type of test kit, which was developed to be manufactured by the CDC, was contaminated. The Department of Health & Human Services published an investigation of the failed rollout on June 19. The report states: "After receiving these tests from CDC in early February, public health laboratories attempted to validate the test kits before using them on real specimens. They could not validate the test a negative control gave a positive result and thus, the test kits were not used and no patient received an inaccurate test result." According to the review, "One of the three reagents in this initial batch of manufactured test kits was likely contaminated. These tests are so sensitive that this contamination could have been caused by a single person walking through an area with positive control material and then later entering an area where tests reagents were being manipulated," the report states. Positive control material is the synthetic, non-infectious part of the virus. Dr. Yvonne Maldonado, professor of pediatric infectious diseases and of health research and policy at Stanford University School of Medicine, told the AP that this is not the live virus. The false post implies that nasal swab tests are tainted with the virus. "We only use sterile swabs," Maldonado explained. "That's actually the problem with getting the swab is that we have to make sure that they've been sterilized. We can't just take Q-tips from a box."

___

CLAIM: "Teachers are the number one occupation of the antifa terrorist organization according to the FBI."

THE FACTS: False. There is no evidence that teachers make up an outsized portion of antifa, a shorthand term for "anti-fascists." The FBI told The Associated Press it "has not made any such statements about the occupations of people who are attracted to particular ideologies." This false claim has gone viral online recently, both as part of longer blog posts promoting conspiracy theories around COVID-19 and the death of George Floyd, and independently on Facebook and Twitter. On Facebook alone, posts connecting teachers with antifa have been viewed more than a million times in the past week. But the posts don't reflect the way the FBI actually investigates criminal activity or people who identify as antifa, which has become an umbrella term for left-leaning militant groups that oppose neo-Nazis and white supremacists at demonstrations. While FBI director Christopher Wray recently told Fox News the agency is investigating various "violent anarchist extremists, some of whom self-identify or otherwise link to the antifa movement," the agency does not initiate investigations solely based on an individual's identity. "Our focus is not on membership in particular groups but on individuals who commit violence and criminal activity that constitutes a federal crime or poses a threat to national security," the FBI told the AP in a statement. Accordingly, the FBI said it has not made any statements about the occupations of people who are drawn to particular ideologies, such as anti-fascism. Though President Donald Trump has tweeted that the United States will designate antifa as a terrorist organization, it does not qualify for inclusion on the State Department's foreign terror organizations list because antifa is a domestic movement.

___

CLAIM: Dr. Anthony Fauci is married to Ghislaine Maxwell's sister.

THE FACTS: Fauci is married to Christine Grady, chief of the bioethics department at the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center. Dr. Fauci's role as the nation's top infectious disease expert has made him a target of false information. Social media users are now attempting to link Fauci to conspiracy theories tied to Jeffrey Epstein, the financier who died in jail after being charged with sex trafficking underage girls. Posts online say that Fauci's wife is related to Ghislaine Maxwell, a British socialite who was arrested last week and charged with helping recruit girls for Epstein. Maxwell is one of seven siblings, including twin sisters Christine and Isabel. Their father Robert Maxwell was a billionaire publishing magnate whose nude body was recovered from waters off the Canary Islands in November 1991. He had disappeared from his yacht named Lady Ghislaine. The Associated Press reported at the time that Robert Maxwell had four daughters and three sons. Two of Maxwell's children died: Michael, who died in 1968 at age 21, and Karine, who died in 1957 at age 3, of leukemia. His daughter Christine is not Christine Grady. The National Institutes of Health interviewed Grady in 1997 about her life where she said she grew up in New Jersey as one of five children. "But when I was fairly young, I thought I wanted to be a nurse, and my mother encouraged it the most, even though she was not one herself. She thought nursing was a noble profession and a good thing for me to do. So she encouraged that," Grady says in the oral history interview. Grady served on the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues from 2010 to 2017 and received a Bachelor of Science degree in nursing and biology as well as a doctorate in philosophy from Georgetown University. Former GOP candidate DeAnna Lorraine tweeted the photo of Fauci and Grady Sunday, saying Grady was Maxwell's sister. Lorraine later corrected the tweet. "Looks like the connection may not be accurate w Fauci' wife/Maxwell. When ppl sent me this I researched it & it checked out at first, I'm sorry for getting excited about the connection & jumping gun," she later tweeted. Posts making the false claim online shared a 2016 photo, which can be found in the Getty Images archive, of Fauci with Grady at the White House state dinner held by then-President Barack Obama for the prime minister of Italy, Matteo Renzi. "No coincidences," one post with 1,429 likes on Instagram said sharing the photo of the two.

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CLAIM: The dress Melania Trump wore during Fourth of July celebrations featured drawings by various victims of child sex trafficking.

THE FACTS: The sketches on the dress were made by art students in a class, not by victims of sex trafficking. On July 3, during a visit to Mount Rushmore to commemorate the Fourth of July, First Lady Melania Trump wore a white dress with black lines, black shoes and a black belt. Social media users criticized both the appearance and the price of the garment, which cost $3,840. Others claimed the dress featured drawings from sex trafficking victims. "The media mocked First Lady Melania's dress," read one Facebook post with more than 8 million views. "They said it looked like childish scribbles. Little did they know, they were the drawings of several young victims of sex trafficking who tried to explain their pain through pictures." But posts like this are not correct the dress actually shows sketches of "dancing girls" made by design students from the British art school Central Saint Martins. The students worked with Julie Verhoeven, a fashion illustrator, during a class at the Alexander McQueen flagship store in London. In early May, Paper magazine published a story explaining that the sketches of dancers were first made on sheets. "Afterwards, Creative Director Sarah Burton enlisted the entire McQueen staff to hand-embroider and stitch over the sketches of a single ivory linen dress," the story reads.

___ Reporter Abril Mulato contributed to this item from Mexico City.

___

CLAIM: Kansas City Chiefs CEO and owner Clark Hunt told NFL players, coaches and staff that they are all "simply paid performers on a stage" and he will "immediately fire" anyone who does not stand, with their hand over their heart, during the playing of the national anthem.

THE FACTS: Hunt did not hold such a meeting, although he has publicly expressed support for Chiefs players standing during the national anthem. Facebook users for years have circulated a false letter that claims to reveal the Kansas City Chiefs owner called a dramatic meeting to tell NFL players they need to stand during the anthem or face immediate dismissal from the team. The hoax is gaining traction, again, on Facebook before the football season resumes and after NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell apologized last month for the way the league has handled peaceful protests over racial injustice. They included players taking a knee in 2016 during the national anthem an effort led by former 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick. Goodell made the comments this year, the day after Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes urged the league to condemn racism. The letter first began circulating on Facebook in 2016, as debate over football players' decision to kneel during the anthem raged. At the time, Hunt told the Kansas City Star the posts were a hoax. "I have heard about it," Hunt told the Kansas City Star in 2016. "It was an Internet hoax." Brad Gee, the director of football communications for the Kansas City Chiefs, also confirmed to The Associated Press that the contents of the viral letter are inaccurate. Hunt has publicly stated in years past that he prefers players to stand during the national anthem but several Chiefs players have sat or taken a knee during the national anthem, without being fired, including star tight end Travis Kelce. In 2017, after President Donald Trump called on NFL owners to fire players who didn't stand during the national anthem, Hunt responded with a formal statement, saying he believes in "honoring the American flag" but encouraged everyone to "work together to solve these difficult issues."

___

This is part of The Associated Press' ongoing effort to fact-check misinformation that is shared widely online, including work with Facebook to identify and reduce the circulation of false stories on the platform.

Read more from the original source:

NOT REAL NEWS: A look at what didn't happen this week - Minneapolis Star Tribune

The swab used to diagnose COVID-19 goes so far back into the nose that it can be uncomfortable, but it doesn't touch the area known as the blood-brain barrier.

A roundup of some of the most popular but completely untrue stories and visuals of the week. None of these are legitimate, even though they were shared widely on social media. The Associated Press checked them out. Here are the facts:

Claim: The nasal swab test commonly used for to diagnose COVID-19 involves obtaining a sample from a protective layer of cells known as the blood-brain barrier, which can result in inflammation of the brain.

The facts: The swab used to diagnose COVID-19 goes so far back into the nose that it can be uncomfortable, even causing some people's eyes to water. But it doesn't touch the area known as the blood-brain barrier, where blood vessels and the brain exchange important nutrients, despite social media posts that claim it does. This week, Facebook posts viewed more than a million times shared a diagram of the nasopharyngeal swab test next to an anatomical picture of the brain, suggesting the swab disrupts the blood-brain barrier. "The blood-brain barrier is exactly where the swab has to be placed," the image read, with a raised eyebrow emoji. "Coincidence??? I don't think so." However, Morgan Katz, M.D., an assistant professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins University, said these posts fundamentally misunderstand what's happening when the test is conducted. The swab "would have to go through layers of muscle and fascia, as well as the base of the skull, which is a thick bone, in order to get anywhere near the blood-brain barrier, and I would say that it is not possible," Katz told the Associated Press. Instead of the brain, the test collects a sample from the nasopharynx, an area between the back of the nose and the back of the throat where respiratory viruses often live. "That's just a place where we expect to see the highest yield of respiratory viruses," she said.

Claim: Wearing a face mask for extended periods of time can cause pleurisy, an inflammation of the lining around the lung.

The facts: Multiple experts told the Associated Press there is no medical evidence that wearing a face mask could lead to this condition, despite Facebook posts claiming it could. "Be careful healthy people, shared from a friend," read one Facebook post, which described a story of a healthy 19-year-old frontline grocery store worker who started feeling sick and was diagnosed with pleurisy. "They basically tell her.. It's because she's been wearing a mask for over 8 hours a day 5-6 days a week. Breathing in her own bacteria. Carbon dioxide.. Caused an infection." Another Facebook post featured a diagram of a lung with an inflamed lining. "Result of wearing mask for 8 hours a day," the caption read. "Why are they not reporting the number of people being hospitalized for this?? YOU NEED FRESH AIR." But doctors who study the respiratory system say a face mask doesn't pose this risk. "There is absolutely no truth in that claim," said Humberto Choi, a pulmonologist at Cleveland Clinic, in an email. "There are thousands of health care workers wearing face masks everyday including masks that are much tighter than simple surgical masks. Nobody is getting pleurisy because of that." "I don't see a medically plausible mechanism for mask wearing to cause pleurisy," said Albert Rizzo, chief medical officer at the American Lung Association. Claims that mask-wearing leads to harmful conditions, including bacterial and fungal infections, pneumonia, hypercapnia and other ailments are also false, according to AP reporting.

Claim: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention sent out COVID-19 tests "seeded" with the virus.

The facts: Social media users shared an illustration of a COVID-19 nasal swab test where a 6-inch-long swab is placed into the cavity between the nose and mouth with false information that the CDC sent out tests that contained the live virus. The post asserts that COVID-19 tests are tainted and could expose people to the virus. According to one Instagram post that shared the illustration with false information: "COVID-19 test has the virus ... the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention sent states tainted lab tests in early February that were themselves seeded with the virus, federal officials have confirmed." The Instagram caption further states: "... if one person in the family could have gotten tested with one of those tainted 'Planted' COVID-19 tests that would potentially expose the entire family to the virus" In February, the CDC distributed a batch of faulty COVID-19 test kits to laboratories, but the kit did not contain the live virus. The contaminated tests were not sent out to patients. The CDC produced two types of test kits in January. There was no evidence that the first batch had any issues. The second type of test kit, which was developed to be manufactured by the CDC, was contaminated. The Department of Health & Human Services published an investigation of the failed rollout on June 19. The report states: "After receiving these tests from CDC in early February, public health laboratories attempted to validate the test kits before using them on real specimens. They could not validate the test a negative control gave a positive result and thus, the test kits were not used and no patient received an inaccurate test result." According to the review, "One of the three reagents in this initial batch of manufactured test kits was likely contaminated. These tests are so sensitive that this contamination could have been caused by a single person walking through an area with positive control material and then later entering an area where tests reagents were being manipulated," the report states. Positive control material is the synthetic, non-infectious part of the virus. Yvonne Maldonado, M.D., professor of pediatric infectious diseases and of health research and policy at Stanford University School of Medicine, told the AP this is not the live virus. The false post implies that nasal swab tests are tainted with the virus. "We only use sterile swabs," Maldonado explained. "That's actually the problem with getting the swab is that we have to make sure that they've been sterilized. We can't just take Q-tips from a box."

Claim: "Teachers are the number one occupation of the antifa terrorist organization according to the FBI."

The facts: False. There is no evidence that teachers make up an outsized portion of antifa, a shorthand term for "anti-fascists." The FBI told the Associated Press it "has not made any such statements about the occupations of people who are attracted to particular ideologies." This false claim has gone viral online recently, both as part of longer blog posts promoting conspiracy theories around COVID-19 and the death of George Floyd, and independently on Facebook and Twitter. On Facebook alone, posts connecting teachers with antifa have been viewed more than a million times in the past week. But the posts don't reflect the way the FBI actually investigates criminal activity or people who identify as antifa, which has become an umbrella term for left-leaning militant groups that oppose neo-Nazis and white supremacists at demonstrations. While FBI director Christopher Wray recently told Fox News the agency is investigating various "violent anarchist extremists, some of whom self-identify or otherwise link to the antifa movement," the agency does not initiate investigations solely based on an individual's identity. "Our focus is not on membership in particular groups but on individuals who commit violence and criminal activity that constitutes a federal crime or poses a threat to national security," the FBI told the AP in a statement. Accordingly, the FBI said it has not made any statements about the occupations of people who are drawn to particular ideologies, such as anti-fascism. Though President Donald Trump has tweeted that the United States will designate antifa as a terrorist organization, it does not qualify for inclusion on the State Department's foreign terror organizations list because antifa is a domestic movement.

Claim: Anthony Fauci, M.D., is married to Ghislaine Maxwell's sister.

The facts: Fauci is married to Christine Grady, chief of the bioethics department at the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center. Fauci's role as the nation's top infectious disease expert has made him a target of false information. Social media users are now attempting to link Fauci to conspiracy theories tied to Jeffrey Epstein, the financier who died in jail after being charged with sex trafficking underage girls. Posts online say that Fauci's wife is related to Ghislaine Maxwell, a British socialite who was arrested last week and charged with helping recruit girls for Epstein. Maxwell is one of seven siblings, including twin sisters Christine and Isabel. Their father Robert Maxwell was a billionaire publishing magnate whose nude body was recovered from waters off the Canary Islands in November 1991. He had disappeared from his yacht named Lady Ghislaine. The Associated Press reported at the time that Robert Maxwell had four daughters and three sons. Two of Maxwell's children died: Michael, who died in 1968 at age 21, and Karine, who died in 1957 at age 3, of leukemia. His daughter Christine is not Christine Grady. The National Institutes of Health interviewed Grady in 1997 about her life where she said she grew up in New Jersey as one of five children. "But when I was fairly young, I thought I wanted to be a nurse, and my mother encouraged it the most, even though she was not one herself. She thought nursing was a noble profession and a good thing for me to do. So she encouraged that," Grady says in the oral history interview. Grady served on the Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues from 2010 to 2017 and received a Bachelor of Science degree in nursing and biology as well as a doctorate in philosophy from Georgetown University. Former GOP candidate DeAnna Lorraine tweeted the photo of Fauci and Grady Sunday, saying Grady was Maxwell's sister. Lorraine later corrected the tweet. "Looks like the connection may not be accurate w Fauci' wife/Maxwell. When ppl sent me this I researched it & it checked out at first, I'm sorry for getting excited about the connection & jumping gun," she later tweeted. Posts making the false claim online shared a 2016 photo, which can be found in the Getty Images archive, of Fauci with Grady at the White House state dinner held by then-President Barack Obama for the prime minister of Italy, Matteo Renzi. "No coincidences," one post with 1,429 likes on Instagram said sharing the photo of the two.

Claim: The dress Melania Trump wore during Fourth of July celebrations featured drawings by various victims of child sex trafficking.

The facts: The sketches on the dress were made by art students in a class, not by victims of sex trafficking. On July 3, during a visit to Mount Rushmore to commemorate the Fourth of July, First Lady Melania Trump wore a white dress with black lines, black shoes and a black belt. Social media users criticized both the appearance and the price of the garment, which cost $3,840. Others claimed the dress featured drawings from sex trafficking victims. "The media mocked First Lady Melania's dress," read one Facebook post with more than 8 million views. "They said it looked like childish scribbles. Little did they know, they were the drawings of several young victims of sex trafficking who tried to explain their pain through pictures." But posts like this are not correct the dress actually shows sketches of "dancing girls" made by design students from the British art school Central Saint Martins. The students worked with Julie Verhoeven, a fashion illustrator, during a class at the Alexander McQueen flagship store in London. In early May, Paper magazine published a story explaining that the sketches of dancers were first made on sheets. "Afterwards, Creative Director Sarah Burton enlisted the entire McQueen staff to hand-embroider and stitch over the sketches of a single ivory linen dress," the story reads.

Claim: Kansas City Chiefs CEO and owner Clark Hunt told NFL players, coaches and staff that they are all "simply paid performers on a stage" and he will "immediately fire" anyone who does not stand, with their hand over their heart, during the playing of the national anthem.

The facts: Hunt did not hold such a meeting, although he has publicly expressed support for Chiefs players standing during the national anthem. Facebook users for years have circulated a false letter that claims to reveal the Kansas City Chiefs owner called a dramatic meeting to tell NFL players they need to stand during the anthem or face immediate dismissal from the team. The hoax is gaining traction, again, on Facebook before the football season resumes and after NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell apologized last month for the way the league has handled peaceful protests over racial injustice. They included players taking a knee in 2016 during the national anthem an effort led by former 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick. Goodell made the comments this year, the day after Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes urged the league to condemn racism. The letter first began circulating on Facebook in 2016, as debate over football players' decision to kneel during the anthem raged. At the time, Hunt told the Kansas City Star the posts were a hoax. "I have heard about it," Hunt told the Kansas City Star in 2016. "It was an Internet hoax." Brad Gee, the director of football communications for the Kansas City Chiefs, also confirmed to the Associated Press that the contents of the viral letter are inaccurate. Hunt has publicly stated in years past that he prefers players to stand during the national anthem but several Chiefs players have sat or taken a knee during the national anthem, without being fired, including star tight end Travis Kelce. In 2017, after Trump called on NFL owners to fire players who didn't stand during the national anthem, Hunt responded with a formal statement, saying he believes in "honoring the American flag" but encouraged everyone to "work together to solve these difficult issues."

This is part of the Associated Press' ongoing effort to fact-check misinformation that is shared widely online, including work with Facebook to identify and reduce the circulation of false stories on the platform. Find all AP Fact Checks here: https://apnews.com/APFactCheck.

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Fact-checking the weeks lies, misinformation - Echo Pilot