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Politico issued a correction after critics called out the media for misattributing a COVID vaccine theory to Justice Clarence Thomas.
In Thursday, Supreme Court announced that it will not hear a lawsuit challenging New York’s vaccine mandate. In 2021, a group of anonymous health workers filed a lawsuit against the state, claiming that receiving the vaccine would violate their religious beliefs.
Thomas, along with Justices Neil Gorsuch and Samuel Alito, issued a dissent criticizing the decision for ignoring religious exemptions.
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Thomas included a description of health workers’ belief that some COVID vaccines were developed using aborted fetal cells.
“The petitioners are 16 health care workers who served New York City communities everywhere the COVID-19 pandemic. They object on religious grounds to all available COVID-19 vaccines because they are developed using cell lines obtained from aborted children,” Thomas wrote.
Associate Justice Clarence Thomas sits during a group photo of the justices at the Supreme Court in Washington, D.C., on April 23, 2021. (Photo by Erin Schaff-Pool/Getty Images) (Erin Schaff-Pool/Getty Images)
However, Politico, among other outlets, wrongly attributed the theory to Thomas rather than health workers, running the headline “Clarence Thomas suggests Covid vaccines were developed using cells from ‘aborted babies’.”
“Clarence Thomas argued in a dissent that Covid vaccines are derived from cells of ‘aborted children,'” Politico wrote in a now-deleted tweet. “No US Covid vaccine contains cells from aborted fetuses.”
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On Friday, Politico published a correction that read: “An earlier version of this report incorrectly attributed the claim that Covid-19 vaccines were ‘developed using cell lines obtained from aborted children’ to Thomas.” The headline and article have been updated to state directly that Thomas was referring to the petitioners’ claims.”
The headline was also changed to “Clarence Thomas cites claim that Covid vaccines were ‘developed using cell lines obtained from aborted children’.”
FILE – Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas delivers the keynote address during the dedication of Georgia’s new Nathan Deal Judicial Center in Atlanta, Feb. 11, 2020. (AP Photo/John Amis, File)
In addition to Politico, outlets like Axios and NBC News have similarly described Thomas as a promoter of the theory.
Axios published the headline, “Clarence Thomas Suggests COVID Vaccines Are Made With Cells From ‘Aborted Babies.’ However, an earlier version of the headline read “Clarence Thomas suggests COVID vaccines are made from ‘aborted babies.’ An editor’s note at the bottom of the article says: “The headline and lead of this story have been updated to note that Thomas referred to cells of ‘aborted children’ in his dissent.”
However, the Axios report acknowledges that some vaccines do use fetal cells in research.
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Meanwhile, MSNBC and NBC News insisted the claim was “discredited,” with MSNBC’s Steve Bennen adding that Thomas’ statement further “smeared” the court.
“Confidence in the Supreme Court was already suffering. The more judges publish factual errors, the more it further tarnishes the court’s reputation,” Bennen wrote in a piece titled “Clarence Thomas cites discredited claim on Covid vaccines.”
Benen called Thomas’ quote “unnecessarily inflammatory” and said it was “also not true.”
A man holds a sign during a vaccine mandate protest before the possible termination of New York City employees due to their vaccination status, Monday, Feb. 7, 2022, in New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura, File) (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura, File)
NBC’s headline reads: “Judge Thomas cites debunked claim that Covid vaccines are made with cells from ‘aborted babies'” and even wrote that “Judge Clarence Thomas expressed support Thursday for a debunked claim that all Covid vaccines are made with cells from ‘aborted children’ children’ before later admitting that Thomas was ‘quoting the claimants’.
The NBC report also explained that fetal cell lines were used in vaccine trials.
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“Pfizer and Moderna used fetal cell lines early in their Covid vaccine development to test the efficacy of their formulations, as have other vaccines in the past. The fetal tissue used in these processes comes from elective abortions that occurred decades ago. But the cells have since been replicated many times, so none of the original tissue is involved in making modern vaccines,” NBC reported.
NBC News later deleted “debunked” from its headline, but did not provide an editor’s note. NBC News did not immediately respond to Fox News’ request for comment.
Fox News’ Lindsay Cornick contributed to this report.
Joseph A. Wolfson is a media reporter for Fox News Digital. Story tips can be sent to joseph.wulfsohn@fox.com and on Twitter: @JosephWulfsohn.
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