Fact Check: Debunking Misinformation Surrounding COVID-19 Vaccines and Deaths

The Associated Press fact-checks several popular but false stories circulating on social media. The CDC did not say that vaccinated people are more at risk of a new COVID variant than the unvaccinated. President Joe Biden misspoke when he claimed to have convinced segregationist Sen. Strom Thurmond to vote for the Civil Rights Act. Claims linking a meat allergy caused by ticks to a Gates Foundation-funded program are baseless. Social media videos falsely suggest that only blue items survived the Maui wildfires, implying a directed energy weapon attack, but there is no evidence to support this claim.