Chooses tangent fact to �check� leftist�s claim
PolitiFact continues to deceptively pose as a �fact checking�
organization
Author Miriam Valverde chooses a red herring in order to promote
Jayapal�s claim
Oversimplification and superficial investigation destroy the
credibility of this fact check
OUR RATING: #FakeNews. This is what you�d expect on CNN playing
to an empty airport.

Indicted Outlet: Miriam Valverde | PolitiFact | Link | Archive

The common refrain from conservatives is that fact check
organizations hyper-scrutinize the political right, while
providing cover to the political left. One way they do this is
by not addressing central claims, and another is by rating
something �true� when it is not the central claim of the speaker.

PolitiFact shows, once again, that it is a highly unprofessional
website that seeks to legitimize or delegitimize who they
choose. Miriam Valverde�s fact check is oversimplified,
unprofessional, and obtuse to the point of laughability.
PolitiFact should find writers who can recognize the claims
worthy of being fact checked, rather than focusing on red
herrings.

Major Violations:

Fake Fact Check
Oversimplification
Superficial Investigation
Willfully Ignorant
Irrelevant
Valverde�s fact check concerns Rep. Pramila Jayapal�s statement
about the cost of a hospital stay from COVID:

��The average hospital stay for a case of COVID-19 costs about
$17,064. The vaccine is free,� said Jayapal in her Aug. 30
Instagram post.�

Jayapal was promoting the vaccine when she made this statement.
However, instead of addressing the truth of the obvious
implication � that a vaccine will keep you from getting an
exorbitant hospital bill � Valverde humorously focuses on
whether or not the hospital bill would actually be $17,064. She
determines that Jayapal�s statement is mostly true on the basis
of medical providers, insurance companies, and FAIR Health.

This is Valverde�s primary journalistic failure. She remains
willfully ignorant to the obvious implications and instead
spends paragraphs writing about the estimated cost to get care
for COVID.

The obvious implication for Jayapal�s statement is that the
COVID vaccine will prevent you from getting COVID and thus
needing to go to the hospital.

The number of breakthrough cases, now well documented and
regularly occurring, is a significant problem in Jayapal�s
statement.

Valverde oversimplifies the statement so that she can conduct a
superficial investigation whereby she bestows legitimacy on
Jayapal�s claims. Nowhere is it mentioned that even those who
have been vaccinated have had to go to the hospital due to
coronavirus.

This is Valverde�s second error. Rather than report on vaccine
effectiveness, which is the true heart of the matter in
Jayapal�s statement, Valverde ignores the data that would cast
doubt.

Israel, who has vaccinated 78% of its adult population, has had
a number of cases in which vaccinated people have gotten
coronavirus [1] [2]. How does Jayapal account for them? What
about their bills?

According to reporter Benedict Brook:

�Israel, the poster child for vaccination, recorded more new
Covid-19 infections on Wednesday than at the peak of its second
wave when few in the country of nine million were even
jabbed�The nation � wholly dependent on Pfizer � has a rolling
average of 9300 daily cases. Where it once broke vaccination
records, Israel has now broken a grim new record � the country
with the highest seven day average of new cases per million.�

Here�s just a few more uncomfortable facts left out of this
�fact check.� According to the Boston Herald [3]:

�More than 4,000 fully vaccinated people in Massachusetts tested
positive for the coronavirus last week, a daily average of more
than 600 people as breakthrough infections continue to rise each
week amid the delta variant.�

The case in Gibraltar is even more shocking than Israel�s
situation [4] :

�??The nation of Gibraltar, which achieved a 99 percent vaccine
compliance rate as of June 1, is now seeing an astounding spike
in cases�The number of COVID cases per day have increased by an
astounding 2500 percent since June 1, in the latest bit of
evidence that the vaccine regime is not all it�s cracked up to
be.�

According to one source in the New York Intelligencer, the data
about breakthrough cases is not totally transparent [5]:

��The breakthrough problem is much more concerning than what our
public officials have transmitted,� [Scripps�s Eric Topol said].
�We have no good tracking. But every indicator I have suggests
that there�s a lot more under the radar than is being told to
the public so far, which is unfortunate.� The result, he said,
was a widening gap between the messaging from public-health
authorities and the meaning of the data emerging in real time.
�I think the problem we have is people � whether it�s the CDC or
the people that are doing the briefings � their big concern is,
they just want to get vaccinations up. And they don�t want to
punch any holes in the story about vaccines. But we can handle
the truth. And that�s what we should be getting.��

This reveals a larger hole in Valverde�s fact check. Did she not
look into the credibility of claims about vaccination efficacy?
Nope. She focused on how much it would cost to get treated for
coronavirus, which was obviously not the relevant factual claim
Jayapal was making.

Given these statistics, Jayapal�s claim is false because it is
misleading. Those who are vaccinated, even if it was free, may
still have to go to the hospital to be treated for coronavirus.
What then, Rep. Jayapal? This is the question Valverde should
have asked, but didn�t.

Journalistic rigor requires skill and intelligence in pointing
out the implications of statements and examining the truth of
those implications. Instead, Valverde side steps in order to
make the claim that Jayapal�s statement was true.

OUR RATING: #FakeNews. This is what you�d expect on CNN playing
to an empty airport.

Bibliography:

1] https://www.news.com.au/world/coronavirus/global/israel-
fighting-record-breaking-surge-in-covid19-cases-despite-high-
levels-of-vaccination/news-story/3445287a9c46e8712574da2316bd3ee1
2] https://twitter.com/drsimonegold/status/1433579996589670425
3] https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/medical/massachusetts-
coronavirus-breakthrough-cases-jump-4415-last-week-more-than-600-
fully-vaccinated-people-a-day/ar-AAOckJ2
4]

https://bigleaguepolitics.com/fully-vaxxed-gibraltar-sees-2500-
percent-spike-in-covid-19-cases-per-day-initiates-new-
lockdowns/amp/
5] https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2021/08/breakthrough-covid-19-
cases-may-be-a-bigger-problem.html

https://tgpfactcheck.com/politifact-shamelessly-covering-for-
left-wing-politicians-not-rigorously-fact-checking/