(WASHINGTON) — On the heels of a sluggish November jobs report, President Joe Biden on Friday touted the country’s employment landscape as improving despite there being fewer jobs added last month than economists expected.
“We’re looking at the sharpest one-year decline in unemployment ever. Simply put, America — America is back to work. And our jobs recovery is going very strong,” Biden said in remarks from the White House on Friday morning. “Today’s historic drop in unemployment rate includes dramatic improvements for workers who have often seen higher wages and higher levels of unemployment.”
With Biden sounding congested for the second day in a row, a reporter said his voice sounded “different” and asked the 79-year-old president if he was OK.
“I’m OK. I have a test every day to see — a COVID test,” Biden said. “I have a 1-and-a-half-year-old grandson who had a cold who likes to kiss his pop.”
“But it’s just a cold,” the president said with a smile.
Biden’s physician, Dr. Kevin O’Connor, later released a letter saying it’s “readily apparent” that he’s been experiencing congestion this week and is currently taking over the counter medication. O’Conner said Biden was tested three times this week for “COVID-19, other coronaviruses, influenza, streptococcus” among others, and were all negative.
Friday’s remarks came as concerns climbed over the potential economic and health impacts of the new omicron variant detected in five states so far.
The Labor Department released its report ahead of Biden’s remarks revealing that 210,000 jobs were added in November, the fewest in nearly a year — a number well below economists’ expectations of more than 550,000 jobs.
Biden, instead, focused on the report showing that the nation’s unemployment rate fell sharply from 4.6% to 4.2% — the lowest it’s been since the pandemic began but still higher than the pre-pandemic unemployment rate of 3.5%. Still, he touted the report as “incredible news” and a sign that the economy is “stronger” than it was a year ago.
The president said the unemployment falling more than two percentage points since he took office marked the “fastest decline on record and three times faster than any other president in their first year in office.”
With inflation still at a three-decade high amid ongoing worker shortages and supply chain issues, the November jobs report still reflects a resilient economic recovery nearly two years after COVID-19 arrived on U.S. soil.
“Even after accounting for rising prices, the typical American family has more money in their pockets than they did last year. In fact, we are the only leading economy in the world where household income and the economy as a whole are stronger than they were before the pandemic,” Biden said.
Despite the progress the president noted, he said he recognizes Americans are still “anxious.”
“But I also know that despite this progress, families are anxious. They’re anxious about COVID. They’re anxious about the cost of living, the economy more broadly. They’re still uncertain. I want you to know I hear you,” he added. “You need to see it and feel it in your own lives around the kitchen table and in your checkbooks.”
To that end, he reiterated his nine-point plan to combat COVID-19 this winter as a way to show that the administration is aiming to protect the economy as the pandemic continues and the new omicron variant spreads.
While he said it’s impossible to “build a wall around America” to keep the virus out, Biden said the new measures he announced Thursday are “sufficient” to deal with the omicron variant, and the White House is not considering any new measures for domestic travel, such as requiring travelers be vaccinated.
ABC News’ Zunaira Zaki contributed to this report.
(OXFORD TOWNSHIP, Mich.) — The parents of a teenager accused of killing four classmates at Oxford High School in Michigan have been charged in connection to the school shooting.
James and Jennifer Crumbley were each charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter, Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald announced Friday.
The suspected gunman, 15-year-old Ethan Crumbley, allegedly used his father’s semi-automatic handgun, a 9mm Sig Sauer pistol, in the Tuesday shooting that killed four and injured seven. Ethan Crumbley has been charged as an adult with one count of terrorism causing death; four counts of first-degree murder; seven counts of assault with intent to murder; and 11 counts of possession of a firearm in commission of a felony.
McDonald at a news conference outlined an alarming and violent note the suspect allegedly drew hours before the shooting that prompted his parents to be called to the school. She also stressed the importance of responsible gun ownership.
“While the shooter was the one who entered the high school and pulled the trigger, there are other individuals who contributed to this, to the events on November 30, and it is my intention to hold them accountable,” McDonald said.
Ethan Crumbley was with his father when he bought the gun on Nov. 26, McDonald said. The teen posted photos of the gun on social media, writing, “Just got my new beauty today,” she said. Jennifer Crumbley also posted online about testing the gun out with her son, McDonald said.
A teacher saw Ethan Crumbley researching ammunition in class days before the shooting, the prosecutor said. School officials contacted his parents, but they didn’t respond, McDonald said. However, according to the prosecutor, Jennifer Crumbley texted her son, writing, “lol, I’m not mad at you, you have to learn not to get caught.”
According to McDonald, the morning of Tuesday’s shooting, Ethan Crumbley’s teacher saw an alarming note on his desk. McDonald described the note as “a drawing of a semi-automatic handgun pointing at the words, ‘The thoughts won’t stop, help me.’ In another section of the note was a drawing of a bullet with the following words above that bullet, ‘Blood everywhere.'”
“Between the drawing of the gun and the bullet is a drawing of a person who appears to have been shot twice and bleeding,” she said. “Below that figure is a drawing of a laughing emoji. Further down the drawing are the words, ‘My life is useless,’ and to the right of that are the words, ‘The world is dead.'”
Ethan Crumbley was removed from the classroom and his parents were called to the school, McDonald said. By the time a counselor obtained the drawing, the teen had allegedly altered it, McDonald said.
“At the meeting, James and Jennifer Crumbley were shown the drawing and were advised that they were required to get their son into counseling within 48 hours,” she said. “Both James and Jennifer Crumbley failed to ask their son if he had his gun with him or where his gun was located and failed to inspect his backpack for the presence of the gun, which he had with him.”
The parents left school while Ethan Crumbley returned to class, likely with the gun in his backpack, McDonald said.
Once news broke of a shooting at the school, McDonald said Jennifer Crumbley texted her son, “Ethan, don’t do it.”
James Crumbley called 911 to report that a gun was missing from his house and said he believed his son may be the shooter, McDonald said.
Authorities determined James Crumbley’s semi-automatic handgun was stored unlocked in a drawer in his bedroom, McDonald said.
McDonald said involuntary manslaughter is “the strongest possible charge that we could prove” against the suspect’s parents.
“These charges are intended to hold the individuals who contributed to this tragedy accountable and also send a message that gun owners have a responsibility. When they fail to uphold that responsibility, there are serious and criminal consequences,” she said.
A judge entered a not guilty plea for Ethan Crumbley on Wednesday. His next court appearance is scheduled for Dec. 13.
(OXFORD TOWNSHIP, Mich.) — The parents charged in connection with this week’s deadly shooting at Oxford High School in Michigan are returning to town for their arraignment, their attorney said, after detectives announced they were trying to locate the couple.
James and Jennifer Crumbley were each charged Friday with four counts of involuntary manslaughter. Their son, 15-year-old Ethan Crumbley, allegedly used his father’s semi-automatic handgun in the Tuesday shooting that killed four and injured seven.
Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard said the Crumbleys’ attorney would make arrangements for their arrest if charges were issued, and when the warrants were issued Friday, “detectives immediately moved to arrest the couple,” the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office said.
The attorney told police “she had made repeated attempts to reach them by phone and text without success,” the sheriff’s office said.
Bouchard said, “The action of fleeing and ignoring their attorney certainly adds weight to the charges. They cannot run from their part in this tragedy.”
The couple’s attorneys then said in a statement: “The Crumbleys left town on the night of the tragic shooting for their own safety. They are returning to the area to be arraigned. They are not fleeing from law enforcement.”
Earlier on Friday, Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald at a news conference outlined an alarming and violent note Ethan Crumbley allegedly drew hours before the shooting that prompted his parents to be called to the school. She also stressed the importance of responsible gun ownership.
“While the shooter was the one who entered the high school and pulled the trigger, there are other individuals who contributed to this, to the events on November 30, and it is my intention to hold them accountable,” McDonald said.
Ethan Crumbley was with his father when he bought the 9 mm Sig Sauer pistol on Nov. 26, McDonald said. The teen posted photos of the gun on social media, writing, “Just got my new beauty today,” she said. Jennifer Crumbley also posted online about testing the gun out with her son, McDonald said.
A teacher saw Ethan Crumbley researching ammunition in class days before the shooting, the prosecutor said. School officials contacted his parents, but they didn’t respond, McDonald said. However, according to the prosecutor, Jennifer Crumbley texted her son, writing, “lol, I’m not mad at you, you have to learn not to get caught.”
According to McDonald, the morning of Tuesday’s shooting, Ethan Crumbley’s teacher saw an alarming note on his desk. McDonald described the note as “a drawing of a semi-automatic handgun pointing at the words, ‘The thoughts won’t stop, help me.’ In another section of the note was a drawing of a bullet with the following words above that bullet, ‘Blood everywhere.'”
“Between the drawing of the gun and the bullet is a drawing of a person who appears to have been shot twice and bleeding,” she said. “Below that figure is a drawing of a laughing emoji. Further down the drawing are the words, ‘My life is useless,’ and to the right of that are the words, ‘The world is dead.'”
Ethan Crumbley was removed from the classroom and his parents were called to the school, McDonald said. By the time a counselor obtained the drawing, the teen had allegedly altered it, McDonald said.
“At the meeting, James and Jennifer Crumbley were shown the drawing and were advised that they were required to get their son into counseling within 48 hours,” she said. “Both James and Jennifer Crumbley failed to ask their son if he had his gun with him or where his gun was located and failed to inspect his backpack for the presence of the gun, which he had with him.”
The parents left school while Ethan Crumbley returned to class, likely with the gun in his backpack, McDonald said.
Once news broke of a shooting at the school, McDonald said Jennifer Crumbley texted her son, “Ethan, don’t do it.”
James Crumbley called 911 to report that a gun was missing from his house and said he believed his son may be the shooter, McDonald said.
Authorities determined James Crumbley’s semi-automatic handgun was stored unlocked in a drawer in his bedroom, McDonald said.
McDonald said involuntary manslaughter is “the strongest possible charge that we could prove” against the suspect’s parents.
“These charges are intended to hold the individuals who contributed to this tragedy accountable and also send a message that gun owners have a responsibility. When they fail to uphold that responsibility, there are serious and criminal consequences,” she said.
Ethan Crumbley has been charged as an adult with one count of terrorism causing death; four counts of first-degree murder; seven counts of assault with intent to murder; and 11 counts of possession of a firearm in commission of a felony.
A judge entered a not guilty plea for Ethan Crumbley on Wednesday. His next court appearance is scheduled for Dec. 13.
(MINNEAPOLIS) — The jury has been selected in the trial of former Brooklyn Center officer Kim Potter, who’s charged with fatally shooting Daunte Wright, a 20-year-old Black man, during a traffic stop in April.
The jury of 12, and two alternates, will be composed of 11 white jurors, one Black juror and two jurors of Asian descent.
Wright’s death reignited protests against racism and police brutality across the U.S., as the killing took place just outside of Minneapolis, where the trial of Derek Chauvin, a former officer who was convicted of murdering George Floyd, was taking place.
The jury selection process lasted only three days.
In the questionnaire given to potential jurors back in August, they were asked what they know about this case, what their impression of Potter and Wright is, whether they participated in protests or if they have any relation to Potter, Wright or local law enforcement. Ownership of stun guns and firearms also was also discussed.
On the stand, potential jurors were asked if they’ve seen body camera footage of the incident, their feelings on Black Lives Matter and Blue Lives Matter movements, and discussed their answers on the questionnaires.
Potter is charged with first- and second-degree manslaughter. She has plead not guilty to both charges.
Potter fatally shot Wright after initially pulling him over for an expired registration tag on his car. She then determined he had an outstanding warrant for a gross misdemeanor weapons charge and tried to detain him, according to former Brooklyn Center Police Chief Tim Gannon, who resigned after the incident.
As officers tried to arrest him, Wright freed himself and tried to get back in his vehicle. That’s when, according to Potter’s attorneys, she accidentally grabbed her firearm instead of her stun gun and shot him.
(NEW YORK) — As the COVID-19 pandemic has swept the globe, more than 5.2 million people have died from the disease worldwide, including over 785,000 Americans, according to real-time data compiled by Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering.
Just 59.6% of the population in the United States is fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Dec 03, 8:22 am
Vaccinated people make up ‘many’ of the omicron cases in US, CDC director says
With several cases of the omicron variant confirmed in the United States, officials have learned that “many” of those infected are vaccinated against COVID-19, according to Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
But many of the patients experiencing mild symptoms from omicron are also vaccinated, Walensky said, indicating that the current COVID-19 vaccines are fending off severe disease.
“We’ve seen omicron in about five states now and we’re continuing to do investigations in other states as probable cases emerge. But what we can say, based on what these cases are showing — some have mild disease, some may have more severe disease, many of them are vaccinated — and what we’re seeing now is that many of the people with mild disease were the vaccinated people,” Walensky told ABC News’ Cecelia Vega in an interview Friday on Good Morning America.
“So we still have a lot of science to do to understand how these vaccines are working against omicron, except to say that we know for every variant that we’ve had it’s better to be vaccinated than unvaccinated,” she added.
Walensky emphasized that, despite the global frenzy around omicron, delta remains the dominant variant in the U.S.
“We have 90,000 new cases of COVID-19 every day and about 99.9% of them continue to be delta,” she said. “So we can’t lose sight of the fact that the vast majority of what we have here in the United States is delta, and we know how to tackle delta with vaccines, with boosters, with masking and all of our prevention measures we have been using all along.”
Walensky acknowledged that there are still many unknowns about omicron, including the severity of disease, transmissibility and vaccine effectiveness.
“I think we really do need to follow the science here and understand how our vaccines are going to work against omicron,” she said. “It may very well be that our vaccines actually work quite well and continue to work quite well against severe disease, and those are the studies that are ongoing.”
Dec 02, 9:08 pm
Hawaii latest state to confirm omicron case
Hawaii became the fifth state to detect the omicron variant, after confirming a case through expedited genomic sequencing Thursday, health officials said.
The individual is an unvaccinated resident of Oahu who had a previous COVID-19 infection, the state health department said. The person is experiencing “moderate symptoms,” the department said.
The resident has no recent travel history, indicating that this is a case of community transmission, health officials said.
Dec 02, 8:44 pm
LA County detects 1st omicron case
The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health said Thursday evening it has confirmed its first case of the omicron variant.
The county resident had recently traveled to South Africa, returning via London on Nov. 22, and the infection “is most likely travel-related,” the department said.
The person is fully vaccinated and their symptoms are improving without medical care, health officials said. Several close contacts have all tested negative.
This is the second confirmed case of omicron in California, following identification Wednesday in a resident of San Francisco who had recently traveled to South Africa.
Dec 02, 7:38 pm
Preliminary analysis suggests omicron might be more likely to lead to reinfection
A new study from South Africa suggests that the new omicron variant might be more likely to lead to COVID-19 reinfection than prior variants, though more research is needed.
The study, which is not peer-reviewed, found that in November, there was an uptick in the rate of reinfections seen within three months of a primary infection, compared to prior surges driven by the delta and beta variants.
Researchers, who reviewed records of over 2.7 million people in South Africa with COVID-19 infections in 2020 and 2021, assumed many cases in November were caused by omicron, even though the first cases of the variant were not detected there until late November.
The vaccination status of individuals with suspected reinfections was unknown in the study, so it is unclear if they had immunity from prior infection or vaccination.
Dec 02, 6:27 pm
5 omicron cases identified in New York
Five cases of the new COVID-19 variant omicron have been detected in New York state, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced in a press conference Thursday evening.
Hochul emphasized that battling the delta variant is more of a challenge right now, adding that all five cases have been described as mild.
One case was located in Suffolk County, while three others were in New York City — two in Queens and one in Brooklyn, Hochul said. A fifth suspected case has also been detected, the governor said, but did not provide details.
(NEW YORK) — A Columbia University graduate student has been stabbed to death near the Ivy League school’s New York City campus.
The student, 30-year-old Davide Giri, suffered a stab wound to his abdomen just before 11 p.m. Thursday near West 123 St. and Amsterdam Ave., at the north end of Morningside Park, according to the New York Police Department.
A second victim, a 27-year-old man, suffered a stab wound to his torso. He was found nearby, at the northwest corner of Central Park, and hospitalized in stable condition, police said.
While canvassing the area, a 25-year-old man fitting the suspect’s description was taken into custody in Central Park, police said. The 25-year-old “was observed menacing” a third victim, a 29-year-old man, with a knife, police said.
The 29-year-old wasn’t hurt and the knife was recovered, police said.
Columbia said Giri was a student at the School of Engineering and Applied Science.
“This news is both unspeakably sad and deeply shocking, as it took place only steps from our campus. The University is working closely with NYPD to learn more details of the attack,” university president Lee Bollinger said in a statement. “On behalf of the entire Columbia community, I send my deepest condolences to Davide’s family.”
The scene of his death is near where Barnard College student Tessa Majors was stabbed to death in Morningside Park in December 2019, allegedly by three teenagers who were later arrested.
(NEW YORK) — As the COVID-19 pandemic has swept the globe, more than 5.2 million people have died from the disease worldwide, including over 785,000 Americans, according to real-time data compiled by Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering.
Just 59.4% of the population in the United States is fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Dec 02, 9:08 pm
Hawaii latest state to confirm omicron case
Hawaii became the fifth state to detect the omicron variant, after confirming a case through expedited genomic sequencing Thursday, health officials said.
The individual is an unvaccinated resident of Oahu who had a previous COVID-19 infection, the state health department said. The person is experiencing “moderate symptoms,” the department said.
The resident has no recent travel history, indicating that this is a case of community transmission, health officials said.
Dec 02, 8:44 pm
LA County detects 1st omicron case
The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health said Thursday evening it has confirmed its first case of the omicron variant.
The county resident had recently traveled to South Africa, returning via London on Nov. 22, and the infection “is most likely travel-related,” the department said.
The person is fully vaccinated and their symptoms are improving without medical care, health officials said. Several close contacts have all tested negative.
This is the second confirmed case of omicron in California, following identification Wednesday in a resident of San Francisco who had recently traveled to South Africa.
Dec 02, 7:38 pm
Preliminary analysis suggests omicron might be more likely to lead to reinfection
A new study from South Africa suggests that the new omicron variant might be more likely to lead to COVID-19 reinfection than prior variants, though more research is needed.
The study, which is not peer-reviewed, found that in November, there was an uptick in the rate of reinfections seen within three months of a primary infection, compared to prior surges driven by the delta and beta variants.
Researchers, who reviewed records of over 2.7 million people in South Africa with COVID-19 infections in 2020 and 2021, assumed many cases in November were caused by omicron, even though the first cases of the variant were not detected there until late November.
The vaccination status of individuals with suspected reinfections was unknown in the study, so it is unclear if they had immunity from prior infection or vaccination.
Dec 02, 6:27 pm
5 omicron cases identified in New York
Five cases of the new COVID-19 variant omicron have been detected in New York state, Gov. Kathy Hochul announced in a press conference Thursday evening.
Hochul emphasized that battling the delta variant is more of a challenge right now, adding that all five cases have been described as mild.
One case was located in Suffolk County, while three others were in New York City — two in Queens and one in Brooklyn, Hochul said. A fifth suspected case has also been detected, the governor said, but did not provide details.
(WASHINGTON) — The Christmas season has begun in Washington, with bright lights, festive trees and a touch of bipartisanship in the spirt of the holiday.
President Joe Biden, joined by first lady Jill Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and second gentleman Doug Emhoff, lit the National Christmas Tree outside the White House on Thursday evening.
The president delivered a message of optimism, telling the crowd of first responders and military families, “We have so much ahead of us.”
“We are a great nation because of you, the American people,” Biden said. “You’ve made me so optimistic.”
While Biden struck a tone of optimism, the reality of the pandemic was still on display with a smaller crowd allowed than most years and guests required to wear a mask despite being outside.
Last year’s ceremony had no guests and was completely virtual because of the pandemic.
The national Christmas Tree Lighting ceremony began in 1923 with President Calvin Coolidge, when he lit a 48-foot balsam fir tree from Vermont with festive bulbs in red, white and green on Christmas Eve.
This year’s tree came from Middleburg, Pennsylvania, and is adorned with white and red lights. It is surrounded by smaller trees each representing a different state and territory with decorations unique to the area handcrafted by students across the country.
The White House tree was lit one night after the U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony, which featured House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy on Wednesday.
“Now, as always, this tree is our symbol of hope. That it has earned the nickname ‘The People’s Tree,’ is a testament to its special ability to unite us in comfort and joy, no matter who we are where we’re from,” Pelosi said.
The Capitol Hill Christmas tree is a tradition dating back to 1964.
The 84-foot white fir, nicknamed “Sugar Bear,” made its way to D.C. after venturing across the country from Six Rivers National Forest in California. The tree features hand-painted ornaments made by California residents.
“A tree is the lungs of the earth. A tree breathes in CO2, captures the carbon but releases the oxygen, and purifies,” McCarthy said. “So it’s a rightful symbol of why we have it here.”
Both the National Christmas Tree and the Capitol Hill tree are free to visit for the public until early January.
(NEW YORK) — At least until June 2021, Facebook had significant gaps in its efforts to tackle COVID-19 misinformation from one of the most prominent anti-vaccine groups in the world, according to a study from ISD Global, a U.K.-based think tank that studies polarization, extremism and misinformation.
During the first year of the pandemic, Facebook pages associated with the World Doctors Alliance — an anti-vaccine group whose members regularly post false information about COVID-19 — ballooned in popularity, according to ISD Global, despite consistent breaches of Facebook’s own COVID-19 and vaccine policies. The group’s primary page was removed from the platform in July 2021.
“The World Doctors Alliance is a collective of pseudo-science influencers … that hijacked the pandemic to build up a significant audience online in a multitude of languages in multiple continents,” Ben Decker, CEO of Memetica, a digital investigations consultancy firm, told ABC News.
On its website, the WDA lists 12 key members from seven different countries, a number of whom have become leading voices within the COVID-denier and vaccine-skeptic movements.
The ISD Global study also says that Facebook failed to implement its own policies “at a very basic level.”
For example, the report outlines some of the false claims from members of the WDA group that were allowed on Facebook, from claims that the COVID-19 virus does not exist, to others acknowledging its existence but downplaying its severity.
The report also claims that other WDA members have propagated overarching conspiracy theories that allege the entire pandemic has been a “scam” or “hoax” “perpetrated by governments, health care authorities and the media.”
Last October, documents released by Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen showed that employees were concerned about how the social media giant was handling COVID-19 misinformation.
Researchers at ISD Global looked at the WDA’s presence on other social media platforms such as YouTube, Twitter and TikTok but primarily focused on Facebook as it’s where the group has the largest following. WDA is also an international group with members posting in multiple languages, even though the members with the largest followings come from English-speaking countries.
According to the research, Facebook is fact-checking some of the COVID-19 misinformation posted by the group but failing to take appropriate action and in many other cases failing to detect the misinformation altogether. The data also suggests that Facebook’s fact-checking in languages other than English is insufficient and almost nonexistent in some languages.
“Facebook should use the knowledge of fact-checking organizations to take action on misinformation super-spreaders”, the study author, Aoife Gallagher, told ABC News. “Our report highlights how often some of the WDA members have been featured in fact-checks, yet no decisive action seems to be taken.”
The Facebook pages of WDA members have increased their number of followers by 13% since the start of the pandemic, according to ISD Global. Their posts have garnered 5.7 million interactions since January 2020 and those numbers have increased by 85% in the first six months of 2021. The data also showed that the Facebook posts containing false claims and misinformation got more engagement (likes, views etc.) than others.
Dr. Scott Jensen (with 394,857 Facebook followers) and Dr. Dolores Cahill (with 128,942 Facebook followers) are responsible for the vast majority of the group’s followers, according to the study.
Jensen is a Minnesota state senator who came to prominence with anti-vaccine groups when in an interview he gave to Fox News he expressed concerns that COVID-19 fatality numbers could be exaggerated.
Subsequent studies found that the number of deaths due to COVID-19 was actually likely underestimated. Four anonymous complaints challenging his medical license based on his COVID-related comments were investigated and dismissed by state regulators last year, a CBS Minnesota news outlet reported.
Cahill is an Irish scientist who lost her job as a professor at University College Dublin earlier this year, after the college’s student union called for an investigation into her for “gross misconduct, ” according to Irish newspapers. She was also fined for breaching U.K. lockdown restrictions.
Cahill did not respond to ABC News when asked for comment on the ISD Global study and the fine.
Facebook uses third-party investigators to fact-check posts to determine whether a post containing false or misleading information needs to be either labeled or removed. However, the study states there was “minimal application of these labels across the 50 most popular posts mentioning the World Doctors Alliance or its members in English, Spanish, Arabic and German, despite these posts containing problematic claims.” Only 13% of English-language posts were labeled and even less in German (8%) and Spanish (4.5%).
Moreover, the report states that the labeled posts received even more engagement from Facebook users than the posts which were not labeled.
According to Decker, a relatively small number of independent fact-checkers can never hope to police the billions of Facebook posts on the platform. “Fact-checking has always been a Band-Aid on a broken leg to this problem because fact-checking can’t address scale,” he said.
There was also a huge disparity in fact-checking across different languages, according to the report. The study examined 189 fact-checking articles mentioning the WDA. There were 61 articles written in English, 26 in Spanish and 13 in German, but there were none at all in Romanian, Hungarian, Swedish and Italian despite there being more than 5,528 posts mentioning the WDA in those languages.
Report author, Aoife Gallagher, called on Facebook to put more human resources into its fact-checking efforts but also to improve its automated detection methods. The ISD found examples of one video in English which was labeled as containing misinformation but the exact same video translated into Spanish was not labeled and seemingly went undetected. There were other examples such as an interview Dolores Cahill did with infamous spreader of COVID-19 misinformation, Del Bigtree, which was fact-checked and labeled, yet clips of the same video that were in the form of embedded videos uploaded to Facebook, went undetected.
“It’s not about new rules, it’s about enforcing the ones they already have,” said Gallagher. “Facebook’s policies on COVID-19 and vaccine misinformation go into a lot of detail on what content is prohibited and removed, but this report shows they are failing to implement these at a very basic level,” she added.
Decker of Memetica said that Facebook should be using the same automated technology to track COVID misinformation that it uses to detect ISIS content and child pornography. “You could feed 5,000 COVID-19 conspiracy memes into a system and it would learn to go seek out those things and either prevent them getting uploaded, prevent engagement or apply a fact-check label,” said Decker. “The question is why are these resources not being made available.”
ABC News reached out to all 12 members of the WDA for comment.
Only Belgium’s Dr. Johan Denis, who had his medical license suspended earlier this year after a Belgian provincial commission found he was placing patients and the public health at risk by violating mask requirements, responded by calling the study “revolting” and incorrectly claiming that COVID-19 is a “scam.”
Facebook responded to ABC News saying that the study only looked at a narrow sample of 14 accounts. “This small sample is in no way representative of the hundreds of millions of posts that people have shared about COVID-19 vaccines in the past months on Facebook,” according to a Facebook spokesperson. However, when asked, Facebook did not provide ABC News with data to support a claim that this sample was not representative of a wider trend.
Facebook also said, “Since the pandemic began, our goal has been to promote reliable information about COVID-19, take more aggressive action against misinformation, and encourage people to get vaccinated. So far, we’ve connected over 2 billion people to authoritative information from health experts, removed 24 million pieces of COVID misinformation, and labeled more than 195 million pieces of COVID content rated by our fact-checking partners.”
The study authors told ABC News that one of the reasons they chose this group was that it was a prominent well-known spreader of misinformation which, in theory, should be easier to police than lesser-known accounts.
“I think it’s just a sliver of the pie, just a tiny part of how bad the actual problem is,” said Decker. “What about other [Facebook]-owned properties like Instagram and even worse, WhatsApp, where disinformation can spread really quickly because it’s already in these kind of baked-in trusted family and local communities,” he added.
Decker also said that after the improvements Facebook promised following the 2016 election that the pandemic was a real stress test to see if Facebook has learned anything. “My inclination is that based on what we see now that they haven’t really learned anything,” he said.
Though ISD Global has publicly released its methodology, the study has not been peer-reviewed or published in an academic journal.
(CHICAGO) — At the American Library Association, annual reports are collected to monitor efforts by parents and political groups to ban books from libraries and schools across the country.
Deborah Caldwell-Stone, the director of non-profit ALA’s Office for Intellectual Freedom, has worked with such reports for about 20 years — and she says she’s never seen such a widespread effort to remove books on racial and gender diversity from the shelves the way she’s seeing it right now.
“What we’re observing right now is an unprecedented volume of challenge reports that seem to be connected to a loosely organized campaign to remove certain books,” Caldwell-Stone said. “Before, you might get one or two challenge reports a week and now we’re getting multiple reports per day.”
Though the reports for 2021 are still coming in, 273 books were targeted in 2020 — and Caldwell-Stone says the number is expected to be higher this year. Reports of challenges are based on media stories and voluntary reports sent to the organization. But the vast majority of book challenges remain unreported.
The increase comes as the controversy over the concept of race in education picks up steam, as states across the country challenge education about racism and discrimination through legislative action.
“In recent months, a few organizations have advanced the proposition that the voices of the marginalized have no place on library shelves,” ALA, which fights censorship, wrote in a recent statement against the efforts. “Falsely claiming that these works are subversive, immoral, or worse, these groups induce elected and non-elected officials to abandon constitutional principles, ignore the rule of law, and disregard individual rights to promote government censorship of library collections.”
In June 2021, about 150 organizations including the ALA penned an open letter against legislative efforts to restrict education and readings about racism and American history.
Now, some authors of color are speaking out, saying that books are a tool for children and young adults to learn, ask questions and see new or nuanced perspectives about the world around them.
“The mind of an adult begins in the imagination of a kid,” said poet and author Kwame Alexander, whose books tackling racial issues have been challenged in the fight to ban certain books from educational spaces. “When you talk about representation, you talk about creating a space for literature in a child’s life that is all-inclusive of the kind of world that we claim we want for them, that the world is kind of loving and compassionate and empathetic.”
No Left Turn in Education is one of the groups leading the calls against certain books on race and sexuality. Its website contains a long list of books, warning parents that they allegedly spread anti-police messages, themes of critical race theory, and education on sexuality.
“These are the books that are used to spread radical and racist ideologies to students,” a statement on the website reads. “They demean our nation and its heroes, revise our history, and divide us as a people for the purpose of indoctrinating kids to a dangerous ideology.”
No Left Turn in Education did not respond to ABC News’ request for comment.
Focus on ‘critical race theory’
Critical race theory, an academic concept that analyzes how racism affects or drives U.S. laws, has become a target of Republican legislators in states across the country despite the subject not being officially taught in K-12 classrooms. At least 29 states have introduced or implemented bills that aim to place limitations on lessons about race and inequality being taught in American schools, in the name of stopping “critical race theory” in its tracks.
Proponents say that some lessons blame children for actions of generations past or make them feel guilty for being white.
“We can and should teach this history without labeling a young child as an oppressor or requiring he or she feel guilt or shame based on their race or sex,” said Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt when he signed a bill into law in his own state in May. “I refuse to tolerate otherwise during a time when we are already so polarized.”
In a statement sent to ABC News, Stitt said that some forms of the curriculum “define and divide young Oklahomans” based on their race or sex.
The language in the law is almost identical to at least 24 other proposed bills across the country. Lawmakers in several states are aiming to ban educators from teaching that “an individual, by virtue of the individual’s race or sex, is inherently privileged, racist, sexist or oppressive, whether consciously or subconsciously,” that “a meritocracy is inherently racist or sexist, or designed by a particular race or sex to oppress members of another race or sex” and that “this state or the United States is fundamentally or irredeemably racist or sexist.”
This push has led to the increasing call on school boards and libraries to remove books that deal broadly with racial issues — a misinterpretation of what critical race theory is, according to Caldwell-Stone.
“There was a real focus on books that dealt with Black American history, the experiences of Black persons that talked about racism, the history of racism and slavery in the United States, all under the claim that they dealt with critical race theory,” Caldwell-Stone said.
Many educators, however, say that it’s not critical race theory that’s being taught in K-12 schools, but that it’s basic U.S. history on racial issues in America. They argue that anti-critical race theory laws only serve to restrict conversation about racism and oppression in America.
Encouraging diverse perspectives
A diverse array of books, the authors say, is a major factor in getting children to learn about new perspectives and to look at society in nuanced or complex ways.
Author and artist Lulu Delcare, who writes multilingual children’s books centering on the Latino experience, says she has looked to books to learn about people and identities.
“Many decades ago, one of my daughters came out as gay. And for me, I didn’t know how to react to this because I grew up in … an extremely prejudiced family and guess what? I turned to books,” Delcare said. “The very first thing that I did was to tell her I loved her no matter what. The second thing that I did was to go to the library.”
Delcare and author Sheetal Sheth joined the non-profit Reading Is Fundamental to encourage young readers to embrace literature from diverse perspectives.
These authors fear that if children don’t have inclusive reading material, they may not be prepared to see the complexities of the world around them. Specifically, they may not be able to understand and address racism or discrimination, Alexander says.
Alexander’s book, “The Undefeated” has landed itself on some banned books lists. The book of poetry is described as a “love letter to Black life in the United States,” and covers slavery, the civil rights movement and more.
Many books on banned lists cover similar issues.
“Human beings are afraid of things they can’t see, things they can’t imagine things they don’t have any connection with,” Alexander said. “If you look at the background of any of the people who are banning books, I would posit that there were no poetry books by Langston Hughes and Nikki Giovanni on their shelves as kids. There was no “House on Mango Street” by Sandra Cisneros on their middle school shelf.”
Fostering ‘cognitive empathy’
A study from the Frontiers in Psychology research journal found that reading books can support empathy if it highlights differences between groups of people, and seeks to minimize bias between those different groups of people.
It also found that “identification with characters who are dissimilar from the readers is the most valuable contribution of children’s storybooks to cognitive empathy.”
Alexander said that a lack of diversity in education has helped shape some of the efforts to ban books now.
“They didn’t have an opportunity as children to be able to experience the full capacity of the world,” he said. “And so therefore, when they became adults, their imaginations are so limited, that all they can see is what they know. And so they’re afraid of things they don’t know. So that could be slavery. You know, that could be the tragedy and the triumphs of Black people in America. That could be the experiences of LGBTQ+.”
Caldwell-Stone says the organization is also seeing a rising number of challenges to books on LGBTQIA topics amid a wave of anti-transgender legislation.
Authors urge parents and educators to promote banned books and literature despite calls, in hopes of preparing children for an ever-intensifying social and political climate.
“It’s a product of the political climate that we’re in,” Sheth said. “The idea that you would take away a book where they might see themselves or be able to have a conversation or whether it be a window to them or a mirror for them — if you want to teach our kids empathy, and kindness and love, the best place to start is in the books that they read.”
