Just The Facts: Camp Lejeune Lawyers + Medicare, Social Security Scare

ACROSS AMERICA — You may have seen personal injury lawyers’ ads on television seeking clients exposed to toxic water from 1953 to 1987 at the Camp Lejeune U.S. Marine training center in Jacksonville, North Carolina.

Among the provisions of the PACT Act of 2022, signed by President Joe Biden in August, is the authorization for relief for the estimated 1 million veterans, family members and civilian workers who may have been exposed to dangerous chemicals that leaked into the ground from sources on and off the base.

The ads on television paint a desperate picture, with the clock ticking on the time remaining to file a claim and the need to hire a lawyer to get it done.

The claim: To request compensation, you must hire an attorney.

That’s false. Lawyers can file claims on behalf of people who are eligible for compensation, according to the terms of the PACT Act, but those individuals can also file claims without legal representation, according to the fact-checkers at Verify.

The claim: Republicans plan to do away with Medicare and Social Security if they gain control of the Senate in the midterm elections.

That’s false. Washington Democratic Sen. Patty Murray made the “Mediscare” claim, which fact-checkers at The Washington Post said is a familiar tactic as Election Day nears.

Most GOP lawmakers supported Social Security when it was established in 1935, but more Republicans than Democrats opposed it. Decades later, the fact-checkers said, Democrats continue to conjure up false narratives about Republicans’ plans to deny older Americans the retirement benefits they paid for in payroll taxes during their working careers.

The Post said the main source of the claim was a document issued by Florida Republican Sen. Rick Scott, whose “11-point plan to rescue America.” included this reference: “All federal legislation sunsets in 5 years. If a law is worth keeping, Congress can pass it again.”

“In theory, then, even a venerable program such as Social Security or Medicare would have to prove its worth all over again every five years, though neither was specifically mentioned,” The Post reported, noting most Senate Republicans immediately rejected it. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky was especially forceful in his repudiation of the idea, the fact-checkers said.

But Democrats aren’t the only ones trying to scare voters, the fact-checkers said. With Republicans, typical scare tactics are immigration and crime.

The claim: If you’re being robbed at an ATM, enter your PIN backward. Doing so will summon police, take photos of the suspect and withdraw the cash, but keep it stuck in the slot.

That’s false. Security experts say there’s no known ATM in the United States with such security capabilities. Even if emergency-PIN technologies could be developed, they wouldn’t measurably decrease crime at cash machines, according to AP Fact Check, a project of The Associated Press.

The claim: People who are vaccinated and boosted against COVID-19 are more susceptible to infection or disease with the omicron variant than unvaccinated people.

That’s false. Getting vaccinated increases protection against COVID-19, according to SciCheck, according to SciCheck, a project of FactCheck.org run by The Annenberg Public Policy Center. Certain raw data may suggest otherwise, the site said, but that information can’t be used to determine how well a vaccine works.

The claim: “Telling the bees” about important family events and happenings is a real tradition.

That’s true. The tradition of beekeepers telling the hives of important events in their life is common in the United States and western Europe. After Great Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II died, the royal beekeeper told the bees, according to Verify. The site was asked to check the accuracy of a Daily Mail headline: “Royal beekeeper has informed the Queen's bees that the Queen has died, and King Charles is their new boss in a bizarre tradition dating back centuries.”

It’s not a royal tradition, however. The custom has been primarily kept alive among common people, according to Verify. According to tradition, bees are regarded as family members and deserve to know what’s going on.

About Just The Facts

Just The Facts is a Patch feature sorting truth from fiction in various claims made on social media and other places on the internet. Among our sources:

• Verify, from Tegna newsrooms;
• FactCheck.org and SciCheck, both from Annenburg Public Policy Center;
• PolitiFact, from The Poynter Institute for Journalism Studies, a nonprofit journalism and research organization;
• Snopes, a misinformation-fighting website whose fact-checkers include writers, editors and web developers;
• AP Fact Check, from The Associated Press;
• Washington Post Fact Checker; and
• NPR FactCheck.

Many of those sites allow users to submit claims they’ve seen on the internet for verification.