Yet again fact-checking Trump’s COVID-19 vaccine claims

It’s not always easy to fact check the president of the United States. That’s especially true when he and his followers seem impervious to any fact that goes against Trumpism. Nonetheless, AP fact checked Donald Trump for hopefully one of the last times during his presidency on Nov. 14 after he claimed credit for a Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine that was more than 90% effective.

The article, “AP FACT CHECK: Trump distorts on vaccine, state distribution,” refutes Trump’s claims that Warp Speed can take credit for Pfizer’s vaccine and that some states won’t get the vaccine right away. The headline indicates in capital letters exactly what the article is: a fact check. This is a subtle yet effective way of using semantic differential in AP’s favor. A fact check is not an opinion. So, by clearly indicating this is a fact check in the headline, AP helps forgo any opportunity for the reader to dismiss the article as an opinion piece, as many Trump supporters have done with other outlets and articles.

Additionally, instead of using “Trump can’t take credit for Pfizer vaccine” as the headline, AP says what Trump did, not what he didn’t do. Linguist George Lakoff’s research on language shows that refuting a statement is less effective than simply saying what the actual truth is. Trying to unpack the myriad layers of the lie in a single heading could have resulted in confusion and misunderstanding. As such, the syntax AP used allows readers to understand more easily what the truth is.

As the article continues, AP lists propagandistic Trump quotes that claim his administration’s Warp Speech initiative resulted in a successful Pfizer vaccine. He also claims that largely blue states won’t use the vaccine right away since doing so would mean acknowledging his role in making it available. While make these claims, Trump yet again calls COVID-19 the “China virus,” although the AP fact check doesn’t correct this error.

Instead, the article rebuts Trump’s first claim by simply saying, “Not so much.” This phrase cuts through Trump’s attempt at attacking political correctness by again referring to COVID-19 as the “China virus,” which is a phrase most Trump supporters consensually approve of Trump using. AP decides to ignore this red herring Trump uses to enforce racist stereotypes of Asian Americans and deflect blame for COVID-19’s spread in the U.S.  

Trump also claims that states like New York won’t get the vaccine right away when it’s available because of “political reasons.” This a statement Trump supporters may have less consensus on since it affects them directly. While Trump may have successfully “othered” China and blamed the country for the virus in the eyes of his followers, AP barrages his “othering” of the largely blue states that have said they will conduct their own reviews of the vaccine. Trump supporters overwhelmingly see political correctness as a threat to their preconceived notions and stereotypes, such as their belief that China is to be blamed for COVID-19 and that Trump has been unfairly blamed for its spread in the U.S. However, AP uses facts and expert sources to refute the “political reasons” Trump uses to scapegoat the vaccine’s potential delay in U.S.— those being that Pfizer waited to announce it after the election to hurt his odds of winning and that liberal states would rather refuse to use the vaccine than acknowledge Trump’s vaccine victory.

To continue debunking these “pollical reasons,” AP focuses on the local health ramifications of Trump claiming some states won’t get the vaccine right away. China may pass the distance test for Trump and his followers, but New York is far closer geographically and socially to most Trump supporters. Since some Trump supporters may even be from New York, focusing on the New York vaccine narrative as opposed to the “China virus” one allows AP to increase the odds of Trump supporters believing their fact check. That’s because they and other Americans would be negatively affected if Trump was correct. Additionally, Trump supporters are less likely to accept that they, meaning Trump supporters and fellow Americans, are at fault for the delay as opposed to a more distant “other,” or China.

While it’s easy to get emotional and heated when yet again having to correct the president, AP’s fact check uses facts and experts to explain why Trump’s statements are not only wrong, but also racist and potentially detrimental to the Americans’ health. AP tactfully focuses on refuting Trump instead of saying the news is that he’s said something shocking and outrageous again. Doing so helps AP reframe the media discourse and the role of fact-checking in keeping deviant behavior deviant as opposed to moving it into the realm of consensus during the dwindling days of the Trump administration.

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This opinion was originally written for a class at Medill.