Your weekly fact-checks
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#Health
False: An increase in child vaccines has caused autism rates to rise from one in 10,000 to one in 36 over the past four decades.
The claim autism rates have gone from one in 10,000 to one in 36 in line with an increase in childhood vaccines is false. Multiple studies prove vaccines are not linked to an increase in autism. Experts told AAP FactCheck the increase is largely due to a greater understanding of the condition and a broader diagnostic criteria. (Source: Australian Associated Press - AAP)
False: You can only get hepatitis B from sharing a needle or having unprotected sex.
Evidence shows the virus is most commonly spread from mothers to babies during birth. Experts told AAP FactCheck children infected with the virus are much more likely than adults to develop chronic infections. The vaccination is also safe and highly effective. (Source: Australian Associated Press - AAP)
Unproven: One way to tell if a drink is spiked with drugs or other substances is that the ice won't float.
In general, there is no clear physical indicator to tell if a drink is spiked or not, according to experts. (Source: Snopes)
False: Raw milk cures lactose intolerance.
Raw unpasteurised milk still contains lactose, and doesn’t contain any of the enzymes needed to break it down, so people who have issues digesting milk shouldn’t expect it to fix these. Authorities also advise against consuming raw milk due to the risk of harmful bacteria. (Source: Full Fact)
#Climate
False: Recent wildfires put more carbon in the atmosphere than "the human race has put out in the last 100 years."
Canada’s wildfires have set records for carbon dioxide emissions over a short period of time, but they represent only a tiny fraction of total CO2 emissions from human activity. (Source: PolitiFact)
#Nordics
Falsk: I Finland er det 250.000 stats- og kommuneansatte, mens i Norge er det 650.000.
Tallene stemmer ikke, antall ansatte i stat og kommune er mye høyere både i Norge og Finland. Forskjellen er heller ikke så stor som det påstås. (Source: Faktisk)
Falsk, Men…: Lider din hund en “langsom og meget smertefuld” død, hvis du nedkøler den med koldt vand?
Det er som udgangspunkt ikke livsfarligt at nedkøle sin hund med vand, så længe vandet er almindelig koldt og ikke iskoldt. Iskoldt vand kan få hundens blodkar til at trække sig sammen og gøre det svært for den at komme af med varmen. (Source: Tjekdet)
#Other
True: Hunter Biden charged with failing to pay federal income tax and illegally having a weapon
President Joe Biden’s son Hunter will plead guilty to federal tax offenses but avoid full prosecution on a separate gun charge in a deal with the Justice Department that likely spares him time behind bars. (Source: AP News)
Fewer Charges: Federal prosecutors "quietly" dropped all 13 criminal charges against Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of the collapsed crypto-exchange FTX.
Prosecutors announced that they would withdraw five of the charges against him. However, Bankman-Fried still faces eight charges related to his alleged orchestration of a scheme involving billions of dollars in securities fraud, as well as campaign finance violations and money laundering. (Source: Lead Stories)
#WTF?! What The Fact?! of the week
True: Quaker Oats, MIT, and Harvard conducted or funded research on children deemed "mentally retarded" that involved feeding them radioactive breakfast cereal while telling them they were in a "science club."
Though the research, conducted in the 1950s, was launched as an initiative to highlight past research involving human subjects and radiation now considered to be highly unethical. (Source: Snopes)
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