The Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania

FactCheck.org presents Trump's final numbers -- the last set of statistics from President Trump's term in office. Among other things, we find: The economy lost 2.9 million jobs. The unemployment rate increased by 1.6 percentage points to 6.3%. Paychecks grew faster than inflation. Average weekly earnings for all workers were up 8.7% after inflation. The international trade deficit Trump promised to reduce went up.... Illegal immigration increased. Apprehensions at the Southwest border rose 14.7% last year compared with 2016. Coal production declined 26.5%, and coal-mining jobs dropped by 16.7%. See FactCheck.org's complete list below.

The Washington Post's Aaron Blake writes about our recent survey on the Supreme Court.

It’s not the first time that Tucker Carlson has cast doubt on the effectiveness of the vaccines. But experts told FactCheck.org that unvaccinated people with COVID-19 are a potential threat to people who have been fully immunized against the disease.

Higher proportions of the public have a foundational awareness of the three branches and the protections in the First Amendment, said Kathleen Hall Jamieson, director of the The Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania. But this knowledge appears to have been purchased at a real cost. It was a contentious year in which the branches of government were stress-tested.

FactCheck.org offers a Q&A on Biden's plan.

FactCheck.org answers: Did the U.S. abandon its military dogs during its withdrawal from Afghanistan?

In a viral video with more than 4 million views on YouTube alone, an Indiana physician makes a boatload of false and misleading claims that undercut public health guidance about COVID-19. #scicheck

The power of shows like Carlson’s is less in the information they offer than in the assumptions they perpetuate, says Kathleen Hall Jamieson, a communications professor at the University of Pennsylvania. If you hear the word lie tied to Anthony Fauci, and Anthony Fauci now comes on in a completely different venue, the assumption is, you can’t trust Anthony Fauci, she says.

Fellowship opening: The Center for Ethics and the Rule of Law, based at the The Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania, is seeking applicants for '21-'22 fellows. CERL, dedicated to preserving ethics and the rule of law in national security, democratic governance, and contemporary conflict and warfare, is looking for applicants with expertise in national security, military law and ethics, international law, cyber law and cybersecurity. More details: https://cdn.annenbergpublicpolicycenter.org//CERL-Fellowsh Come join us!

Importantly, the conclusion of our research is not that trust of science is risky but rather that, applied broadly, trust in science can leave people vulnerable to believing in pseudoscience, write Tom O’Brien and Dolores Albarracín, a psychologist recently named director of the Science of Science Division of the The Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania.

House Republicans have sought to change the narrative on the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol by pro-Trump protesters, claiming that Speaker Nancy Pelosi is ultimately responsible for the breakdown of security at the Capitol. But their arguments overstate the role of the House speaker in overseeing the security of the Capitol and rely on speculation about Pelosi’s involvement and knowledge about intelligence warnings for which they have not provided any proof.

You don’t, when you’re a public health official, want to be saying, ‘Trust us, we know, we can’t tell you how,’ APPC Director Kathleen Hall Jamieson told the Post. The scientific norm suggests that when you make a statement based on science, you show the science. And the second mistake is they do not appear to be candid about the extent to which breakthroughs are yielding hospitalizations.

New: People who trust science are more likely to believe and disseminate false claims containing scientific references than people who do not trust science. Reminding people of the value of critical evaluation reduces belief in false claims, but reminding them of the value of trusting science does not. Findings from a study by University of Pennsylvania PIK University Professor Dolores Albarracin and Tom O'Brien of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. University of Pennsylvania University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania Penn Nursing