Daily FactFloods

February 17, 2021

#FactFlood :ocean:

:speaking_head_in_silhouette: The Texas Power outage is about natural gas freezing, not wind.:droplet:Texas is in trouble. But it’s not because their wind turbines lack de-icing features.

:droplet: Roughly 34 Gigawatts of power capacity that is unavailable due to weather right now. :droplet: Of that, 30 Gigawatts is down due to freezing at gas and coal fueled power plants.
Only 4 Gigawatts is due to reduced wind output. :droplet: Another big factor is that Texas is the only state in the continental US with an isolated power grid, which means they can’t draw on the reserves from other states. #TakeASecToCheck out our sources:point_down:

February 12, 2021

Today's #FactFlood: Did the House impeachment managers violate a House rule about use of manipulated media? No, and here's why. The new rule (which is not active until 12/31/21) says no one in the House can share any media that has been distorted or manipulated with the intent to mislead the public. The video of clips from the Capitol Riots was edited for length, but it does not have any audio-visual distortions or edits to make it appear someone said something they did not. The Impeachment Trial is in the Senate, not the House, so even if the law was in effect it would not apply here.

February 11, 2021

Today's #FactFlood: Can Vitamin D help prevent severe cases of COVID-19? The science may point to YES. Unfortunately, people of color frequently experience Vitamin D deficiency. People with higher levels of melanin in their skin produce lower levels of vitamin D. Vitamin D may help to reduce the severity of COVID-19 illness by regulating your immune response and preventing cytokine storms. There are a lot of complex and troubling reasons people of color suffer more from COVID-19, but while the data on COVID-19 and Vitamin D may be mixed, a Vitamin D pill may be a simple way to make a small improvement.

February 10, 2021

Today's #FactFlood: A German study claims 68% of children have bad reactions to wearing masks. Be skeptical - this wasn't a scientifically valid study. Bad sample: This wasn't a random sample of kids wearing masks. An online survey collected parents' reports of their kids complaints. Research into the study shows that the participants were largely mask skeptics. No control group: They didn't check if kids without masks had the sample complaints. There is no other evidence suggesting masks harm people. Be skeptical of these results.

February 8, 2021