The claim: USA TODAY reported Ben Carson created a ‘miracle’ Alzheimer’s treatment
A website (archive link) shows a USA TODAY logo above an article featuring celebrity endorsements for a nasal inhaler called AlzClipp. The article claims former U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson invented the product, which it calls a “miracle” Alzheimer’s treatment.
Similar articles claiming celebrity endorsements of the same product also appeared on other websites that used USA TODAY’s branding.
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Our rating: False
USA TODAY published no such article and has no affiliation with the website in question. A representative for Carson called the product a “scam and completely fake.”
USA TODAY hasn’t reported on Alzheimer’s treatment
USA TODAY hasn’t published an article focused on Ben Carson since his July 16 speech at the Republican National Convention.
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The URL of the AlzClipp article is part of a website that promotes the supposed treatment.
The USA TODAY logo on the page also doesn’t match the newspaper’s official branding. The logo above the AlzClipp article shows the words “USA TODAY” beside each other, while the real design has them stacked on top of one another.
“This company is using our branding and a fake USA TODAY story to promote their product – thereby disseminating misinformation,” a USA TODAY spokesperson said. “We will take appropriate legal action.”
The fabricated USA TODAY article quoted Carson saying “olfactory stimulation” can slow memory loss. Other versions of the article attributed the same quote to physician and author Jennifer Ashton.
“Dr. Carson has never created, endorsed or even heard of this product,” said Brad Bishop, a spokesperson for Carson’s nonprofit, American Cornerstone Institute. “This is a scam and completely fake.”
Contrary to claims on AlzClipp’s website, USA TODAY found no evidence the product is not approved by the Food and Drug Administration. It does not appear on the agency’s site or in a database of approved products.
At least one image in the article was also misattributed. One image of a brain scan supposedly from a “68-year-old woman with a 10-year history of cognitive issues” was featured in an August 2017 research article in the Journal of Nuclear Medicine. It actually shows a “65-year-old man presenting with confusion, seizures, and hyponatremia,” the article says.
USA TODAY reached out to AlzClipp for comment but did not immediately receive a response.
Our fact-check sources
- Brad Bishop, Dec. 16, Email exchange with USA TODAY
- USA TODAY spokesperson, Dec. 16, Message exchange with USA TODAY
- USA TODAY, July 16, Watch Dr. Ben Carson’s speech at the Republican National Convention
- Journal of Nuclear Medicine, August 2017, Diagnostic Value of 18F-FDG PET/CT Versus MRI in the Setting of Antibody-Specific Autoimmune Encephalitis
- FDA, accessed Dec. 16, FDA-Approved Drugs database
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