Category: Fact Check

Amid spikes of social media antisemitism driven by the Israel-Hamas war, the discovery of a tunnel near a well-known Brooklyn synagogue spurred similar misinformation.

The tunnel first made news in December in a local Crown Heights neighborhood media outlet. But the tunnel near the Chabad Lubavitch World Headquarters became a national story after police arrested a group of young worshippers who tried to prevent a cement truck from pouring concrete in the tunnel.

Social media claims about the tunnel and what it was being used for spread rampantly. Many posts claimed without evidence that it was used for child sex trafficking or organ harvesting. 

The only charges pending in relation to the tunnel’s discovery are for crimes such as reckless endangerment, criminal mischief and disorderly conduct, from when worshippers clashed with police. No one has been charged with child or adult sex trafficking, and authorities have made no public statements to say those crimes are suspected. 

The Anti-Defamation League said the social media posts echo the blood libel, an unfounded claim originating in the Middle Ages that Jewish people used the blood of non-Jews for rituals. 

Here’s what we know about the tunnel.

What happened?

Crownheights.info, a local New York news outlet, reported Dec. 22 that a tunnel was found underneath a building near 770 Eastern Parkway, the site of the Chabad Lubavitch headquarters, home of the global Hasidic Jewish movement dating back 250 years. 

On Dec. 24, the outlet posted an Instagram video it described as footage “leaked” from inside the tunnel. PolitiFact has not independently verified the video’s authenticity. It shows a tunnel and two rooms on floors above it. Authorities described the structure as a single, linear 60-foot-long underground tunnel, so the parts of the video’s footage that shows debris-filled rooms with doors is not from the tunnel. 

The news made national headlines Jan. 8 when videos emerged of police clashing with protesters at the synagogue.

According to a Jan. 8 X post from Motti Seligson, a Chabad spokesperson, a group of “extremist students” some time ago broke through some walls in properties next to the synagogue to gain “unauthorized access.”

After a cement truck arrived to repair the damage, the people who damaged the property tried to stop the repair and vandalized the synagogue, he said.

News reports and videos show a chaotic scene of a group of young men clashing with police.

News reports said the men who secretly dug the tunnel did so because the late Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson had supported expanding the synagogue.

Ryan Degan, New York City Department of Buildings deputy press secretary, said the agency’s investigation found a single, linear 60-foot-long underground tunnel — 8 feet wide and 5 feet high — that was illegally excavated directly under a single-story rear extension behind 784 and 786 Eastern Parkway. 

The extension connects four neighboring buildings, and is next to 770 Eastern Parkway. But the tunnel wasn’t connected to that building, he said. Degan said wall openings had been created in several areas of the adjacent buildings at the basement levels.

No other tunnels were found. Degan added that the tunnel threatened the stability of two other buildings.

“As a result of this extensive investigation, we have issued emergency work orders to stabilize the buildings above the tunnel, vacate orders in parts of the buildings to ensure occupant safety, and enforcement actions against the property owners for the illegal work,” Degan said.

Seligson wrote Jan. 10 on X that the space dug out by the men was “underneath a ground-level extension made by the synagogue decades ago.”

Baseless claims emerge

Claims that the tunnels were the site of nefarious behavior flooded social media. None is backed by statements from authorities, credible news stories or criminal charges. 

The claims included:

An Anti-Defamation League spokesperson said the incident sparked “hate-filled antisemitic conspiracy theories” with “absolutely no basis in fact.” 

What the police said

The New York Police Department didn’t respond to specific questions about what was found at the site. The department provided a statement that said officers responded Jan. 8 to calls of a disorderly group outside 770 Eastern Parkway.

The statement said officers were told a group of people entered the building by damaging a wall. Officers took 12 people into custody. No injuries were reported.

Police provided the names of nine men, ages 19 to 22, who have been charged in the incident. They face charges including reckless endangerment, criminal mischief and attempted hate crimes. Three others received summons for disorderly conduct.

What was found at the site

Many of the social media posts shared the Dec. 24 video from Crownheightsinfo.com. In it, the camera pans across a debris-filled room, then downstairs to another room filled with more debris. 

Empty boxes, buckets and clothes can be seen in the footage. There’s one item that some social media posts said was a highchair, but it’s unclear that it is. The camera then passes through a hole in a brick wall and emerges in what looks like a dirt-filled tunnel.

“The tunnel was empty during our initial inspection on Tuesday morning aside from hand tools like shovels and light debris,” said Degan, when asked whether signs of illegal activity were discovered at the site.

We fact-checkers are sometimes stumped when hearing politicians make claims. And when Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said at a Concord, New Hampshire, town hall, that U.S. tax dollars “have gone to promote transgenderism in Bangladesh,” we had one of those moments.

In January, we heard him say it again in Iowa.

What was the Republican presidential candidate referring to? 

The Bangladeshi population has long included a community of people who identify as “third-gender,” sometimes referred to as the “hijra.” For centuries, they played a role in religious life in South Asian communities but were criminalized under British colonization, which lasted from 1757 to 1947. 

In the past decade, Bangladesh’s government has taken steps to reduce discrimination against third-gender people by legally recognizing a third-gender category and opening job opportunities.

What is the United States’ role? DeSantis’ team pointed PolitiFact toward U.S. foreign aid that was given to local Bangladeshi organizations from 2018 to 2020 that supported gender-diverse communities. The program aimed partly to increase third-gender people’s awareness of their rights and promote access to legal aid. USAID wrote that its support helped “mobilize” and get a third-gender option added to  Bangladesh’s national census in 2021. Another round of funding was awarded in 2022. 

So, U.S. foreign aid has supported local LGBTQ+ nongovernmental organizations since 2018, but Bangladesh already had a long history of gender diversity, and Bangladesh’s government has been moving toward greater recognition of third-gender people since 2013.

History of the hijra

In Bangladesh, and in other South Asian countries such as India, “hijra” are most often intersex individuals — those born with reproductive or sexual anatomy that is not exclusively male or female — or those assigned male at birth, but who present as women or identify as feminine.

Experts have noted that the term “transgender” is an imperfect way to describe the hijra community. “Most hijras consider themselves to be third gender — neither male nor female, not transitioning,” said a 2018 case study on the community from Harvard Divinity School, but some hijras have identified as transgender or sought out gender reassignment procedures. 

Before the British colonized the region, third-gender people were “revered” and rose to “significant positions of power under both Hindu and Muslim rulers,” according to the Harvard case study, written by graduate student Kristofer Rhude. South Asian cultures considered hijras to be people who had sacrificed their male genitalia in return for what they deemed spiritual power that allowed them to perform rituals and bless or curse marriages and newborns. Hindu holy texts include references to a third -gender.

In 1871, under British colonial rule, hijras were criminalized, and that stigma has lasted.

In a 2016 report by Human Rights Watch, a New York-based nongovernmental organization, hijras in Bangladesh reported stigma, discrimination and violence, as well as challenges doing tasks like registering to vote or opening a bank account. 

But the community remains strong in number, with Bangladesh’s 2022 census counting more than 12,000 hijras. 

Bangladesh has been changing its policy toward third-gender people since 2013

The country made its first significant policy change when it announced in 2013 that it would legally recognize a third-gender category. In December 2014, the Ministry of Social Welfare invited hijras to apply for certain government jobs. 

However, according to the Human Rights Watch report, people who went through the interview process reported inappropriate interview questions and were subjected to invasive medical examinations. Several interviewees were accused of being men impersonating hijras. 

In the following years, the government took several steps to expand employment opportunities for third-gender Bangladeshis.

In 2015, after a hijra witnessed and helped solve a high-profile murder, the government announced plans to recruit third-gender people into law enforcement, specifically traffic police jobs. Banks were instructed to allow hijras to apply for bank loans. And, in 2021, the government announced a tax rebate to benefit companies that hired third-gender employees. 

U.S. foreign aid for gender-diverse communities

Where do U.S. tax dollars come into this? DeSantis’ campaign pointed us to a 2018-20 program by USAID called the Rights for Gender Diverse Populations. The program was implemented by a partner NGO, the Bandhu Social Welfare Society, over three years and cost $850,000, according to a 2021 performance evaluation of the program.

USAID, the leading U.S. agency for foreign aid, receives its money from Congress. Congress’ revenue for federal spending largely comes from tax collection. The Bandhu Social Welfare Society, which works with gender diverse populations in Bangladesh, has received grants from USAID in 2018 and in 2022.  

The 2018-20 program goal was, partly, to “advance human rights advocacy for (gender-diverse populations)” and improve access to public services and legal aid. The program set up a panel of lawyers to provide legal advice, educational radio public service announcements, collaborated with private agencies to provide employment opportunities, and trained community watchdogs to help third-gender people “learn about and assert their rights.” 

In promotional materials, USAID said its support helped “mobilize the National Human Rights Commission to include a third-gender option in the 2021 (Bangladeshi) census for the first time.”

Our ruling

DeSantis said U.S. tax dollars “have gone to promote transgenderism in Bangladesh.”

Since 2018, the U.S. has invested in aid programs in Bangladesh that support gender-diverse people. 

But PolitiFact found no evidence that this money was used to persuade people to take on a new gender identity or undergo gender transition, as some hearing DeSantis’ statement might be led to believe. 

The money is supporting a community that describes itself as “hijra” or “third-gender” — not necessarily “transgender” — that has existed for hundreds of years and that the Bangladeshi government had worked to recognize.

His statement is partially accurate in that there is a program funded by the U.S. that supports the gender-diverse community in Bangladesh, but he omits critical cultural and historical context.

We rate this claim Half True. 

El Dr. Juan Rivera no está ofreciendo pruebas gratuitas de un producto para perder peso. 

Un video en Facebook muestra al Dr. Rivera, el médico corresponsal jefe de Univision y cardiólogo, vestido con una bata blanca y supuestamente hablando de una medicina para perder peso.

“Hoy quiero compartir un método secreto sobre cómo perder peso rápidamente sin necesidad de hacer dieta o ir al gimnasio”, supuestamente dice el Dr. Rivera en la publicación del 5 de enero. ” Por favor tengan en cuenta que hay muchas estafas de cetona en el mercado pero este es el único producto autorizado por mi mismo”. 

Aunque el doctor aparentemente es el que habla en el video, la publicación es engañosa y alteró su voz. 

El video muestra el logo de Univision y el subtítulo dice: “Entre ahora y el Año Nuevo estaremos ofreciendo 186 pruebas gratuitas de nuestros productos y dándote la oportunidad de comprar 2 y llevar 2 gratis”.

La publicación fue marcada como parte del esfuerzo de Meta para combatir las noticias falsas y la desinformación en su plataforma. (Lea más sobre nuestra colaboración con Meta, propietaria de Facebook e Instagram).

PolitiFact noto que la voz en el video no concuerda con los movimientos de labios del doctor, ni sus gestos corporales.

También hicimos una búsqueda de imagen inversa y encontramos un video publicado en el Instagram oficial del doctor que lo muestra con la misma bata blanca y el lapicero verde en su bolsillo como en el de Facebook. Pero el video en Instagram, de abril de 2020 no habla sobre pastillas para adelgazar. Más bien, da consejos sobre cómo luchar contra el insomnio. 

Un enlace en la publicación lleva a usuarios a una supuesta página de “Despierta America”, un show matutino de Univision. Pero al investigar, PolitiFact noto que esta página web no es legítima, ya que su dirección URL no coincide con la de la página oficial del programa. La página engañosa muestra un artículo de Rivera supuestamente diciendo que su producto para bajar peso fue renombrado como “Platinum Keto + ACV Gummies”, pero esto no es cierto. Rivera ha aclarado en varias ocasiones en sus redes sociales que su única tienda oficial de suplementos alimenticios y productos para la piel es Santo Remedio.

El video también muestra a Rivera supuestamente diciendo que hay otros productos adelgazantes en el mercado que son estafas y que el suplemento de él es el único autorizado, haciéndole creer a la gente que el producto promovido en la publicación es legítimo.   

Un profesor de marketing de Emory University David Schweidel, le dijo a PolitiFact en Octubre que estos videos de figuras públicas son fáciles de crear porque hay mucho contenido disponible en internet. Por eso, para detectar si un video es real o no, es importante tratar de validarlo con la fuente original. 

Así que calificamos el video que dice mostrar al Dr. Rivera hablando de un producto para perder peso como Falso. 

Lea más reportes de PolitiFact en Español aquí.

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Debido a limitaciones técnicas, partes de nuestra página web aparecen en inglés. Estamos trabajando en mejorar la presentación.

As negotiations on border security legislation happen in Congress, Republican U.S. Rep. Glenn Grothman, R-Wis., took to the House floor to decry the increase of immigrants into the U.S.

During his speech Dec. 1, 2023, Grothman expressed contempt for ways foreign nationals and their children are illegally getting into and living in America.

When listing legal ways migrants can become U.S. citizens, Grothman pivoted and said citizenship is incorrectly granted to their children born in America.

“That’s not including children who are born here to parents who are not (legal) immigrants because right now our government, wrongly, is saying if you’re born in this country you’re automatically an American citizen,” Grothman said.

Grothman didn’t respond to our inquiry seeking clarification and backup for the claim, which is known as “birthright citizenship.” But his statement aligns with that of some other conservatives, who argue birthright citizenship does not apply to children of people living in the country illegally. 

Let’s consider the conditions of citizenship for those born in America. 

The 14th Amendment guarantees birthright citizenship

The most common path toward citizenship is by being born in the U.S. or U.S. territory. 

This is laid out in the Constitution’s 14th Amendment, which states “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.” 

In layman’s terms, it means anyone born on U.S. soil is automatically a citizen.

A number of Republicans have argued that because undocumented immigrants are not legally in the country, they should not fall under the 14th Amendment’s protections. Critics have pointed to the “subject to the jurisdiction” language in the clause, arguing this means only children of legal residents are natural-born citizens.

However, two Supreme Court cases argue citizenship is given to children of undocumented immigrants. 

In its 1898 U.S. v. Wong Kim Ark case, the Supreme Court decided birthright citizenship applies to children of foreigners present on American soil regardless of their parent’s immigration status. The high court listed the only exceptions to birthright citizenship could be if the child’s parents are diplomatic representatives or enemies during a hostile occupation of a U.S. territory.

This provides a direct contrast to Grothman’s claim and many GOP arguments that birthright citizenship wouldn’t apply to children of migrants.

The issue came up again in the Supreme Court’s 1982 Plyler v. Doe case over a Texas education law that allowed the state to withhold education funds for educating the children of undocumented immigrants. In that case, the court reasoned undocumented immigrants are people “in any ordinary sense of the term” and are consequently afforded 14th Amendment protections and threw out the GOP jurisdiction argument.

Because of the Ark and Plyler cases, former President Donald Trump and others, such as Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, have vowed to end the birthright citizenship practice via methods of executive order or constitutional amendments.

Our ruling

Grothman claimed “our government, wrongly, is saying if you’re born in this country you’re automatically an American citizen.”

Grothman said it in the context of the immigration debate, suggesting birthright citizenship does not apply to children of migrants born in the U.S.

The Constitution’s 14th Amendment guarantees citizenship to anyone born on U.S. soil and an 1898 Supreme Court case held that citizenship is given regardless of the origin of one’s parents.

We rate Grothman’s claim False.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley saw a path to besting the quadruply-indicted former President Donald Trump when they entered the primary to become the Republican presidential nominee.

With days until the Jan. 15 Iowa caucuses and the Jan. 23 New Hampshire primary, voters will tell these candidates exactly how far they’ve come or how far they’ve fallen behind.

Over months of campaign stops, debates and ad releases, the Republican rivals and their political action committees have attacked one another, making statements about abortion, Israel, Social Security, COVID-19 and more. Here’s a look back at nine fact-checks that matter before the Iowa caucuses and three other wild moments that kept fact-checkers busy. 

Nine fact-checks that matter for the Iowa caucus

Deportations: DeSantis began his campaign cautious about attacking Trump, his onetime ally, but grew increasingly emboldened. DeSantis said Trump “deported less, believe it or not, than Barack Obama even did.” Federal data tracking the removals, returns and expulsions of noncitizens supports this claim. During each of his terms, Obama deported more people than Trump did during his single term in office. We rate DeSantis’ claim True.

President Joe Biden’s immigration record: During the Iowa CNN debate, DeSantis said “Biden’s let in 8 million people just in four years.” Immigration officials have encountered migrants 8.1 million times nationwide, but that does not mean they’re all in the U.S. Encounters represent events, not individual people, and millions of encounters result in people being deported from the country. We rated this statement Mostly False.

Trump’s border wall: An ad from MAGA Inc., a pro-Trump PAC, said DeSantis “voted against the wall.” DeSantis voted against a 2018 appropriations bill that included funding for fencing along the southern U.S. border. DeSantis said he didn’t oppose the funding for the wall, but the manner in which the bill was introduced, arguing that “nobody had time to read it, much less understand it.” In 2017, DeSantis voted for a wall funding bill. We rated this statement Mostly False. 

A separate Trump ad claimed that Haley “opposed Trump’s border wall” and “Trump’s travel ban.” Haley opposed Trump’s 2015 campaign proposal to ban Muslims from entering the U.S. However, she supported travel bans he instituted as president. Haley said a border wall was one of several measures needed to reduce illegal immigration, but she did not oppose it. His statement rated False.

The war in Israel opened up new attacks: Support for Israel is important for evangelicals, an important Iowa voting bloc. The Never Back Down PAC, a pro-DeSantis group, said, “Nikki Haley argues in support of bringing Gaza refugees to America.” Haley said in an interview that many people in Gaza want to be free from terrorist rule and that Americans can separate civilians from terrorists. But she did not call for allowing refugees from Gaza into the U.S. We rated this statement False.

China: Anti-China rhetoric has taken center stage as candidates clash over who’s been the communist country’s bigger friend or foe. Haley has claimed, falsely, that DeSantis recruited Chinese companies to Florida in the last six months. We found no evidence for that. Haley cited two Chinese companies with operations in Florida, but one came to the state before he was governor, and the other came under an anonymous name, without state incentive dollars. 

Abortion: Claims about abortion have continued to make headlines since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022 and states have enacted their own abortion restrictions. In one interview, DeSantis, who signed a six-week abortion ban in Florida in 2023, claimed that some “liberal states” conduct post-birth abortions. We rated that False.

Killing an infant after birth is infanticide and is illegal in all 50 states. Situations that result in a fetal death in the third trimester are exceedingly rare, experts say, and usually involve emergencies such as fatal anomalies or life-threatening complications affecting the mother.

Social Security: Each candidate says their opponent wants to slash Social Security. Never mind that both parties will need to agree on an overhaul within a decade.

Trump claimed Haley said that the federal U.S. retirement age, at which Americans would receive Social Security and Medicare benefits, is “way too low.” That characterization lacks context, and we rated it Half True. Haley said this, but added that the retirement age should be raised in line with longer life expectancy and only for younger people — not for current Social Security beneficiaries or people nearing retirement. 

Trump himself co-wrote a book in 2000 calling for solutions to address the Social Security trust fund’s impending depletion, and suggested raising the retirement age to 70. But Trump has retreated from this idea on the campaign trail.

Wildest moments

In the 2024 primary, unlike any past iteration, artificial intelligence is being used to disparage politicians. And Trump is running for president as he faces 91 criminal charges, many related to his efforts to overthrow the 2020 election. The U.S. Supreme Court could decide whether Trump is an insurrectionist and is allowed to run again.

Trump accused his haters of using AI against him. They didn’t. An exhaustive review of clips and photos used in the Lincoln Project’s ad shows it used real footage and photographs of former President Donald Trump. ​

Trump is being criminally prosecuted and blamed Biden. Trump said, “Just like the Cuban regime, the Biden administration is trying to put their political opponents in jail, shutting down free speech.” His statement recklessly downplays the authoritarian regime in Cuba, where leaders have quashed dissent for decades. Trump has been the subject of court gag orders but he retains his right to criticize Biden or his political rivals. We rated his statement False.

Birther claims are back, and still wrong. Baseless social media posts, including from Trump, claimed that Haley is ineligible to be president or vice president. The U.S. Constitution requires presidents to be natural-born citizens. It also says people born in the U.S. are citizens. It doesn’t matter that Haley’s parents became citizens after she was born in South Carolina. We rated these claims Pants on Fire!

RELATED: Fact-checking the 2024 Iowa debate between Ron DeSantis, Nikki Haley on CNN

RELATED: Fact-checking Trump’s Iowa town hall: Wuhan scientist, wars, ‘no inflation’ and DeSantis on Fauci

Florida’s top health official suggested without evidence that tiny DNA fragments in mRNA COVID-19 vaccines are dangerous and said the shots should not be used, but epidemiologists and vaccine researchers disagree.  

In a Jan. 3 statement, Dr. Joseph Ladapo, the state’s surgeon general, implied that recipients of the vaccine could pass on DNA fragments to their biological children.

“DNA integration poses a unique and elevated risk to human health and to the integrity of the human genome, including the risk that DNA integrated into sperm or egg gametes could be passed onto offspring of mRNA COVID-19 vaccine recipients,” he said. “If the risks of DNA integration have not been assessed for mRNA COVID-19 vaccines, these vaccines are not appropriate for use in human beings.”

Ladapo’s statement did not include any evidence that COVID-19 vaccines have caused “DNA integration,” in which DNA fragments in the vaccines combine with a recipient’s DNA. 

Ladapo’s concerns are misguided, medical experts and FDA officials say. 

Ladapo’s letter to the FDA

In early December, Ladapo wrote to U.S. Food and Drug Administration officials asking whether the agency had appropriately evaluated the potential risks posed by DNA fragments detected in some mRNA vaccine doses. The DNA fragments findings come from a 2023 preprint article that has been criticized for methodological flaws. (Preprint manuscripts have not been peer-reviewed or published in academic journals.) 

Ladapo argued that the vaccine’s lipid particles — which surround and protect the mRNA that  provides instructions for fighting COVID-19 to immune cells — are “an efficient vehicle for the delivery” of the mRNA into human cells, and “may therefore be an equally efficient vehicle for delivering contaminant DNA into human cells.”

He asked the FDA whether it had evaluated the COVID-19 vaccine’s lipid nanoparticle delivery system for mRNA and expressed concern that the COVID-19 vaccine could cause “DNA integration in reproductive cells.”

Ladapo pointed to a 2007 FDA guidance document he said included considerations about DNA integration that the agency recommended for vaccines that use DNA.  

But Dr. Peter Marks, director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, wrote in a footnote to a Dec. 14, 2023, response to Ladapo that the nonbinding 2007 guidance “was developed for DNA vaccines themselves, not for DNA as a contaminant in other vaccines, and is not applicable to the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines.”

Marks also wrote, “With over a billion doses of the mRNA vaccines administered, no safety concerns related to residual DNA have been identified.” 

Pfizer, left, and Moderna bivalent COVID-19 vaccines are readied Nov. 17, 2022, for use at a clinic in Richmond, Va. (AP)

Tiny DNA fragments in mRNA vaccines cannot alter human DNA

The COVID-19 vaccines work by introducing mRNA to teach cells to recognize the coronavirus’ spike proteins and equip the immune system to fight a COVID-19 infection. Because mRNA is fragile, the vaccines deliver the mRNA wrapped inside lipid nanoparticles. 

These fat particles protect the mRNA and “help it get taken up by specialized cells of the immune system,” explained a Vaccine Makers Project video about mRNA vaccines. “Once inside these cells, the mRNA does not enter the cell’s nucleus or interact with DNA, but remains in the cytoplasm with other mRNA molecules, waiting to create the enzymes our body needs.”

Experts said that small DNA fragments found in the vaccines are not cause for concern. Cells are needed to make vaccines, and those cells contain DNA. 

“Small amounts of residual DNA can be found in several approved vaccines, including influenza and hepatitis vaccines, which have been administered globally for more than 30 years,” Pfizer spokesperson Kit Longley told PolitiFact in October.

Tiny DNA fragments from the COVID-19 vaccines’ starting material could wind up in the final vaccine, said Dr. Paul Offit, a pediatrics professor in the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia’s infectious diseases division and director of its Vaccine Education Center.

In a video addressing concerns about these DNA fragments, Offit explained that the existence of DNA fragments does not pose a risk because it would be “virtually impossible” for those fragments to get into our DNA. 

“First, these DNA fragments would have to enter the cytoplasm, which is that part of the cell outside of the nucleus, and our cytoplasm hates foreign DNA,” Offit said. 

In a Jan. 5 edition of the newsletter “Your Local Epidemiologist,” three scientists said that when exposed to foreign DNA, our cells “destroy it through a shredder (called a DNase) — the DNA gets chopped into tiny fragments and our body recycles them.”

Part of the COVID-19 vaccine manufacturing process includes treating the mRNA with that “shredder” to break down and eliminate any residual DNA, Marks wrote in his letter. As a result, he said the amount of residual DNA present in finished COVID-19 vaccines is well below the internationally agreed upon limits for biological products.

Even if a DNA fragment was injected into the body and reached a cell, it would have to enter a cell’s nucleus to alter DNA, Offit said. 

“It would have to cross the nuclear membrane, which requires a nuclear membrane access signal, which these DNA fragments don’t have,” he said. If, somehow, the DNA did get into the nucleus, Offit said it would need an enzyme called “integrase” to integrate into a person’s DNA — and the fragments do not have this enzyme. 

In his response to Ladapo, Marks wrote that it is “quite implausible” that any residual DNA fragments could cross cells’ nuclear membranes and integrate with existing DNA — including the DNA in reproductive cells such as eggs or sperm. 

Marks also said studies in animals that have used the COVID-19 vaccines’ modified mRNA and lipid nanoparticle — and any “minute quantities of residual DNA fragments” — have found no evidence that the vaccines cause DNA or chromosomal damage, which is also known as genotoxicity. 

The data available after years of monitoring mRNA COVID-19 vaccine side effects in the millions of people who have been vaccinated “indicate no evidence indicative of genotoxicity,” Marks wrote. 

Offit told PolitiFact the discussion of “DNA contaminants” in the COVID-19 vaccines is really one about “utterly harmless manufacturing residuals.” Plus, he said people are exposed to foreign DNA all the time, including when they eat animal or plant products. 

PolitiFact Staff Writer Samantha Putterman contributed to this report.

Low-income families cannot get free U.S. passports using a specific waiver form, though social media posts are claiming otherwise.

“If you receive EBT, you can get you and your children a free passport,” a Jan. 5 Facebook post said. “For fee waiver forms, print, fill out then set an appointment with your local post office,” it adds and then links to fee waiver form I-912 on the website of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

EBT stands for Electronic Benefits Transfer, an electronic system that lets families using the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program pay for food at participating retailers. The U.S. Department of Agriculture administers SNAP.

The post was flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.)

The State Department says in a frequently asked questions section of its website that Form I-912 is for immigration services and does not apply to U.S. passports.

To qualify for federal food assistance, recipients must meet income thresholds determined by the states in which they live. Although the program’s purpose is helping pay for food, other public agencies and private companies consider the benefit a pre-qualification for other discounts and waivers.

For example, in New York City and Washington, D.C., federal food assistance recipients can get half-off public transportation fares. Federal food assistance recipients can visit some museums nationwide for free or at reduced fees and can receive subsidized home internet as part of a federal program.

But getting a free passport is not among such services. First-time passport applications cost $130 for applicants 16 years and older and $100 for minors.

Very few people can receive a free passport; it’s limited to instances such as losing a passport in a recognized natural disaster.

We rate the claim that federal food assistance recipients and their children can get “a free passport” by using a specific waiver form False. 

An edited video posted on TikTok shows actor Tom Hanks dancing at a wedding with a Jewish yarmulke.The video is accompanied by a CNN banner that reads, “Breaking News: Tom Hanks converts to Judaism and flees to Israel”. 

TikTok identified this video as part of its efforts to counter inauthentic, misleading or false content. (Read more about PolitiFact’s partnership with TikTok.)

The video was shared on singer Justin Bieber’s Instagram account in 2014. Multiple news reports said that Hanks was attending Bieber manager Scooter Braun’s wedding in Whistler, Canada. 

The video is not an authentic CNN video. We searched for the video on CNN’s website and in the Nexis news database and found no evidence of a video that mentions Hanks fleeing to Israel. PolitiFact contacted CNN and didn’t immediately hear back. But a CNN spokesperson told USA Today that the news banner was fabricated. 

The video refers to court documents linked to Jeffrey Epstein, a disgraced financier and registered sex offender, that were unsealed by a federal judge. Hanks’s name was not mentioned in the newly unsealed court documents. 

Celebrity news site Page 6 reported that Hanks was photographed on Jan. 10 in Los Angeles for the “Masters of the Air” premier, which he produced. 

We rate the claim that Hanks fled to Israel after the release of the Epstein client list False.