Fact check 2022: Top 5 VERIFY viewer questions of the year

VERIFY’s mission is to reply your questions and assist viewers perceive what’s true and what’s false. Our viewers despatched us so many nice questions this previous year, via social media, textual content, e mail, and thru our web site.

From whether or not the U.S. would run out of diesel gas in 25 days to in case you ought to use hydrogen peroxide to deal with wounds, the VERIFY workforce fact-checked lots of of viewer questions this year. 

To look again on 2022, the VERIFY workforce reviewed the most-read tales that includes questions that got here straight from our viewers. Here’s a have a look at the high 5 tales:

#5: No, a California invoice doesn’t permit individuals to kill their infants as much as 7 days after start

In April, a number of headlines and several other social media customers claimed {that a} proposed invoice in California would permit individuals to kill their infants as much as seven days after start. VERIFY viewer Cierra texted our workforce to ask if these claims had been true.

VERIFY discovered that California Assembly Bill 2223 (AB 2223) doesn’t permit individuals to kill their infants as much as seven days after start. Instead, the invoice eliminates necessities for a coroner to analyze deaths associated to or following suspected self-induced or prison abortions in the state of California. AB 2223 additionally prohibits utilizing a coroner’s statements on a fetal loss of life certificates for prosecution in civil or prison instances.

These necessities are from an earlier time when “abortion was an offense in the California Penal Code, provisions which were repealed more than two decades ago,” Farah Diaz-Tello, senior legal professional and authorized director for If/When/How: Lawyering for Reproductive Justice, mentioned.

AB 2223 was signed into regulation by California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Sept. 27, 2022. 

#4: No, the U.S. isn’t going to expire of diesel gas in 25 days

On Oct. 27, Fox News host Tucker Carlson claimed that “by the Monday of Thanksgiving week,” or in 25 days, “there will be no more diesel” in the U.S. Several VERIFY viewers, together with Robert, requested if the U.S. would run out of diesel gas in 25 days. 

VERIFY discovered the metric the TV host and others had been citing got here from U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) knowledge. For the week ending Oct. 21, EIA knowledge confirmed the U.S. had 25.9 days’ value of provide of diesel gas. 

But oil consultants informed VERIFY that quantity didn’t imply the U.S. would run out of diesel gas in underneath a month. Instead, the metric measures the days’ value of provide if U.S. refineries stopped producing oil and the trade stopped importing it from different international locations. It’s calculated by taking U.S. stock and dividing it by each day demand, Houston-based oil skilled Andy Lipow defined.

(*5*) Lipow informed VERIFY.  

Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum evaluation at GasBuddy, agreed with Lipow. He mentioned claims that the U.S. would run out of diesel gas in 25 days are “completely inaccurate,” explaining that the quantity is “used as an industry benchmark to look at overall supply and demand balances.”

#3: Yes, Social Security’s cost-of-living adjustment for 2023 is anticipated to be greater than common

Social Security supplies individuals with an revenue once they retire or can’t work attributable to incapacity. Those who’re retired can sometimes begin receiving their Social Security advantages as early as age 62.

In July, some individuals on social media claimed that Social Security funds would enhance as a lot as 10% in 2023. Ruby and different VERIFY viewers requested our workforce if Social Security recipients would see an even bigger enhance than regular of their checks subsequent year.

The Social Security Administration (SSA) adjusts profit quantities each year to account for inflation by means of a cost-of-living adjustment (COLA). The COLA is calculated primarily based on the share enhance in the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W), an inflation gauge measured by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). It measures the common change over time in the costs that employees are paying for a “basket of consumer goods and services.”

On Oct. 13, SSA introduced that its 2023 cost-of-living adjustment shall be 8.7%, the highest since 1981.

#2: Yes, the president can declassify paperwork, however there isn’t a set protocol they should observe

FBI brokers took 11 units of categorized data from former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago property throughout a search on Aug. 8, court docket data revealed. 

Trump later claimed that the paperwork had been “all declassified” in a submit on Truth Social, his social media platform. Many VERIFY viewers, together with Beverly and Carole, requested whether or not the president can declassify paperwork whereas in workplace.

The U.S. classification system has three ranges: high secret, secret and confidential. A sitting president has wide-ranging authority to categorise and declassify sure paperwork, however former presidents should not have authority over classification and declassification.

Current presidents can classify paperwork so long as they’ll “make a plausible argument that it is related to national security.” On the different hand, the president “doesn’t have to give any reason for declassifying” information, in response to Kel McClanahan, govt director of the National Security Counselors.

“He can just say, ‘I decide that this should be declassified,’ and it’s declassified,” McClanahan mentioned.

However, Richard Immerman, a historian and professor at Temple University, informed VERIFY that presidents typically observe a casual protocol when declassifying paperwork.

#1: No, you shouldn’t use hydrogen peroxide on wounds

Hydrogen peroxide is a chemical that’s typically used for cleansing, disinfecting and stain removing. It can also be generally used as an antiseptic to deal with cuts, scrapes or different minor pores and skin wounds. 

Several individuals on social media have claimed that hydrogen peroxide shouldn’t be used to scrub wounds as a result of it may be irritating to the pores and skin. VERIFY viewer Jehu requested whether or not these claims are true.

The Cleveland Clinic, Mayo Clinic, and Houston Methodist all warn in opposition to utilizing hydrogen peroxide to deal with or clear wounds as a result of it could irritate the pores and skin.

“Hydrogen peroxide has fallen out of favor as a wound cleanser. Studies have found that it irritates the skin. It may prevent the wound from healing, doing more harm than good,” Sarah Pickering Beers, M.D., a household medication specialist at the Cleveland Clinic, mentioned.

A weblog submit on Houston Methodist’s web site explains that hydrogen peroxide can kill “normal cells within the wound, including healthy skin cells and immune cells, and slow down blood vessel formation.”

“Hydrogen peroxide is actually detrimental to wound healing. It prevents healing rather than promoting it,” mentioned Michael Yaakovian, M.D., a surgeon and wound care specialist at Houston Methodist. “When you’ve got an open wound, you do not have that standard pores and skin barrier there defending you anymore. This uncovered space of tissue then turns into weak to an infection.”