In today’s world of instant information, it is our own responsibility to check that the information we are reading, believing, and sharing is accurate. We all have a tendency to believe whatever stories we read that align with our own values, but we need to look beyond that, to whether what we are reading is actually factual, or if it has been skewed to fit the view of the person posting/reading it.
Let’s take a look at this piece of skewed information that I found through Reuters Fact Check:
When reading a post like this, one of the first things to look at is the source. First of all, just the fact that this was forwarded by Rudy Giuliani is a big red flag to me, but to a Trump supporter they will most likely see him as reliable, just like the US Patriots which “is a fellowship of Americans who abide by the Constitution of the United States and believe that our rights come from God” (mostly extremely conservative, anti-science posts).
Reuters dug into the original ruling and debunked that this had anything to do with a person receiving an mRNA vaccine. The Court ruled that synthetically created complementary DNA (cDNA) is patentable, while isolated natural DNA is not, and also that per the US Patent Act “no patent may issue on a claim directed to or encompassing a human organism” meaning that a patented medical treatment or device does not make a human any less human. If that were the case, anyone who has ever had a stitch or a filling would be considered trans-human.
Let’s have a look at this post. Facebook has already flagged it, but if they hadn’t what do you need to look for? The only link in the post is to the court document, so that’s ok, but they didn’t actually quote from it, they created their own misunderstanding of the results and stating it as fact with no corroborating proof. Not to mention, if you actually try to search for information on this “trans-human” creation, you will pretty much get articles from fact checking sites debunking it, like this one:
The most important tool in disseminating online information is research. Even when I read something from a website that I generally trust, I will look for another source for confirmation.
Cyndi's Media Class 
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