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. Here are the facts:
NY lawmakers aren’t voting on a bill to detain the unvaccinated
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Claim: New York lawmakers will vote Jan. 5 on a bill that would allow for the “indefinite detention of the unvaccinated.”
The Facts: The claim is misrepresenting a bill, first introduced in the New York state legislature in 2015, that would allow for the temporary detention of individuals infected, or suspected of being infected, with a contagious disease during a public health emergency. The state Assembly’s health committee has no plans to take action on the bill, and its sponsor, Assemblyman N. Nick Perry, now says he will withdraw it. While the proposal failed to find support among lawmakers, it is still causing a stir online. In recent days, social media users have pushed a claim that lawmakers are planning to vote on the bill as soon as Jan. 5 — and that it would allow for the “indefinite detention” of people who aren’t vaccinated against COVID-19. But no such vote on the bill in question was slated for that day, which is actually just the start of the legislative session. Citing “concocted stories” online about the bill, Perry, its sponsor, tweeted Monday that he would take “legislative action to strike the bill, remove it from the calendar, thus ending all consideration, and actions that could lead...
Super Falcons defender Ashleigh Plumptre has dismissed a social media impersonation after fraudsters used her identity to spread false claims about her alleged exclusion from Nigeria’s squad for th...