High Egg Prices Blamed on Biden Plot to Kill Chickens
PLUS: Measles Vaccine Gets a Faulty Misdiagnosis; Target Did Not Lose Billions Over DEI Policy Switch
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Today:
Biden falsely accused of killing chickens to make egg prices soar under Trump
Measles vaccine has not caused more deaths than measles
Liberal sources falsely claim Target lost billions after dropping DEI policies
And More …
Today’s newsletter was edited by Eric Effron and Sofia Rubinson.
1. Chicken Slaughter Under Biden Was Not a Plot to Raise Egg Prices and Sabotage Trump
By Sarah Komar
What happened: Conservative and conspiracy theory-oriented social media users are falsely claiming that former President Joe Biden ordered the killing of tens of millions of chickens in order to raise egg prices and undermine President Donald Trump’s incoming administration.
Context: Between February 2022 and January 2025, U.S. egg prices skyrocketed from an average of $2.00 per carton to a record-high $4.95 per carton, according to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data. The price continues to accelerate. They are now averaging $5.90 per carton.
A closer look: The claim began to spread in February 2025 and received a push after X owner and Trump confidant Elon Musk posted on March 6, “There was an insane slaughter of 150 million egg-laying chickens ordered by the Biden administration” — a statement that did not directly make the false claim that Biden did this to hurt Trump and that garnered 77.5 million views. But many others did.
Rogan O’Handley, a conservative and pro-Kremlin commentator, shared Musk’s post and stated: “Joe Biden killed 150 million healthy chickens, and now families can’t afford eggs. It’s called starving your own people b/c they voted for the other guy.” O’Handley’s post received 1.7 million views and 72,000 likes in a day.
“Reminder that Joe Biden put down 150 million chickens so that egg prices would rise when Trump got into office,” conservative X user @akafaceUS, who NewsGuard has found to frequently post misinformation about U.S. politics, said on Feb. 16.
Actually: It’s true that nearly 150 million chickens and other poultry birds were killed during Biden’s presidency. However, the purpose of the culling was to mitigate the spread of the highly infectious bird flu, not to drive up egg prices, according to agricultural experts.
Culling a flock as soon as bird flu is detected mitigates the amount of viral load in the atmosphere and protects farm workers and others who come in contact with the infected flock, University of Arkansas agricultural economics and agribusiness professor Jada Thompson told PolitiFact (NewsGuard Trust Score: 100/100).
Millions of U.S. poultry birds have been culled during previous bird flu outbreaks.
More than 50 million birds died from the virus or were killed during a 2014-2015 outbreak, and nearly 253,000 birds died or were culled in a March 2017 outbreak — during Trump’s first term — according to USDA reports.
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2. Anti-Vaccine Activists Twist Data to Claim Measles Vaccine is Deadlier than the Disease Itself
By Elisa Xu
What happened: Anti-vaccine activists are baselessly claiming that measles vaccines have caused more deaths than measles itself, misrepresenting data from the U.S. Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS), a frequently misused government database.
A closer look: Sources advancing this claim cited a graph (above) that purported to show 144 deaths caused by measles vaccines, compared to nine deaths from measles itself from 2000 to 2025.
The graph originated in a March 3, 2025, article published by USMortality.com, a Substack website that frequently publishes vaccine and health misinformation. The USMortality.com article cited VAERS as its source for the number of vaccine deaths.
A March 4, 2025, X post from Nicholas Hulscher, an epidemiologist at the anti-vaccine organization the McCullough Foundation, included the graph and said, “U.S. Government Data Shows Measles Vaccine May Have Caused 1,600% More Deaths Than Measles Infection Since 2000.” The post received 152,400 views and 3,200 likes in two days.
Actually: There is no credible evidence that measles vaccines have caused more deaths than measles itself.
Reports submitted to VAERS, a federal database designed to detect possible safety issues with vaccines, are unverified and can be submitted by anyone, including anti-vax activists, without including any proof that the vaccine was responsible for an adverse effect. (Reality Check members can read NewsGuard’s related Misinformation Fingerprint about misrepresentations of VAERS here.)
In fact, vaccines are responsible for dramatically reducing the number of measles deaths in the U.S., according to multiple health authorities.
A November 2024 fact sheet from the Infectious Disease Society of America said: “U.S. measles-related deaths have been increasingly rare — because the vaccine has prevented people from getting measles in the first place.”
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that as of March 6, 2025, 222 measles cases have been recorded in 12 states this year, leading to two deaths — both in unvaccinated individuals, according to local health authorities.
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3. Liberals Falsely Claim That a Boycott Objecting to Target’s DEI Policy-Reversal Cost the Company $15.7 Billion in Sales
By Nicole Dirks
What happened: Left-leaning social media users are baselessly claiming that Target lost more than $15.7 billion in revenue since the company’s Jan. 24, 2025, rollback of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies, a decision that prompted boycotts from liberals.
Context: Under pressure from the Trump administration, Target announced in January 2025 that it would roll back programs aimed at promoting racial equity among staff and suppliers, saying that the move was “in step with the evolving external landscape.”
A closer look: Social media users cited Target’s purported $15.7 billion loss in revenue to claim victory in the boycott movement.
A Feb. 13 X post by liberal user @RegisterChic stated, “Target drops DEI and learns there are harsh consequences. Target has lost $15.7 billion since ending their DEI initiatives.” Actually target did not “lose” $15.7 billion, which implies it lost that much in profits, which is the difference between revenue and expenses. And it did not lose $15.7 billion in “revenue” either.
Liberal X user @Suzierizzo1 stated: “TARGET has lost over 15.7 billion dollars in revenue since ending DEI on January 24th. So everyone has been boycotting them thank you and it’s definitely hitting them where it hurts!” The post garnered 1.7 million views and 39,000 likes as of March 4.
Actually: The $15.7 billion figure has been misrepresented.
On Nov. 20, 2024, Target stock plunged and as a result its total market value — not its revenues, let alone its profits — dropped by $15.78 billion, from $71.78 billion to $56 billion. The drop came after Target released its third quarter earnings report that showed the company’s operating income dropped 11.2 percent compared to the same quarter the previous year.
The stock-price drop predated the company’s DEI decision by nine weeks.
Target has not released financial data for the period since its DEI policy change, but a loss in revenue of $15.7 billion would be virtually impossible. The retailer reported an average of $8.9 billion in monthly net sales for the 12 months ending Feb. 1, 2025.
Target spokesperson Jim Joice told fact-checking site Snopes (Trust Score: 100/100) in February 2025 that the claim that Target’s revenue declined $15.7 billion after ending its DEI policies was “inaccurate.” Target did not respond to three emails and three phone messages from NewsGuard in March 2025 seeking comment on the revenue loss figure.
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