— Mr. Pence
This is misleading.
Through its expedited vaccine development program, Operation Warp Speed, the Trump administration is already funding the manufacturing of millions of doses of coronavirus vaccines, and has contracts with five drugmakers that have vaccine candidates in late-stage trials.
But just one of the five — Pfizer — has said that it could have initial results this month, and the Food and Drug Administration this week published guidelines for evaluating emergency authorizations that detailed why it could take at least several more months for a company to clear the bar.
Dr. Anthony Fauci and other top health officials have said that evidence of a vaccine’s effectiveness could be available by November or December. If every aspect of the vaccines’ development and distribution goes exactly as planned, certain people in high-risk groups, including frontline health workers, could get vaccinated this year.
— Mr. Pence
This is misleading.
It is true that the economy has added back a lot of jobs since the depths of the pandemic, regaining about 11.4 million of the 22 million jobs it lost between February and April. But that rebound had relatively little to do with Mr. Trump’s policies. People came back to work quickly because they had been temporarily furloughed as states and cities shut down amid the virus, and businesses brought workers back to their jobs as they reopened.
The government’s Paycheck Protection Program — which offered forgivable loans to small businesses that retained employees — helped, and payments to households supported consumer spending and may have prevented deeper recession dynamics from taking hold.
— Mr. Pence
False.
Mr. Pence was referring to a gathering at the White House on Sept. 26, when Mr. Trump nominated Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court, an event that appears to have produced a cluster of coronavirus infections at the highest levels of the administration. Mr. Trump formally announced the nomination in the Rose Garden, where many of the attendees flouted the recommendations of public health experts by not wearing masks or social distancing. But there was also a private reception indoors, where photos show attendees mingling in close quarters without wearing masks.
It is impossible to say which of those events was responsible for the virus’s spread, but the day’s festivities were not all outside.
— Mr. Pence
True.
Since the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Mr. Biden and Ms. Harris have declined to weigh in on whether they supported adding seats to the Supreme Court, as some progressives have called for.
Mr. Biden has repeatedly declined to take a position, including at last week’s debate.
Before Justice Ginsburg’s death, Mr. Biden and Ms. Harris had expressed different views on the issue. Mr. Biden had stated his opposition to adding seats to the court, saying last year, “We’ll live to rue that day.” Ms. Harris had expressed openness to the idea.
— Mr. Pence
This is misleading.
Mr. Pence suggested that there remains a question about the chief causes of climate change. But the established scientific consensus is conclusive. The scientific evidence that the combustion of fossil fuels produces emissions that warm the Earth’s atmosphere is ample.
Among the most recent, exhaustively researched and authoritative of such scientific reports was the National Climate Assessment, a comprehensive scientific report produced by 13 federal agencies and published in 2017 and 2018.
The product of hundreds of experts within the government and academia and peer-reviewed by the National Academy of Sciences, it is considered the United States’ most definitive statement on climate change science. It concludes decisively that humans are the dominant cause of the global temperature rise that has created the warmest period in the history of civilization.
— Ms. Harris
This is misleading.
Ms. Harris is taking Mr….
Read More: Fact-Checking the Vice-Presidential Debate – The New York Times