How the CDC responded to concerns about a faulty news release The release of the CDC's 2021 Youth Risk Behavior Survey last month spawned banner headlines about teen girls in the United States being swamped in a wave of violence and trauma. The survey showed a sharp increase in the percentage of girls who have considered suicide or have felt persistently sad or hopeless. The survey also suggested a dramatic increase in the percentage of girls who had been raped. But in a statement to The Fact Checker, a CDC spokesman acknowledged that the rate of growth highlighted in the news release was the result of rounding the numbers from more precise decimal-point results. After our inquiry, the CDC revised its news release to remove all references to percentage changes in the data. Some experts also have questioned whether the results have been affected by many schools refusing to ask the question about rape, so we dug deep into the data. The CDC ended up with Two Pinocchios. Click the link to learn why. Enjoy this newsletter? Forward it to someone else who'd like it! If this email was forwarded to you, sign up here. Did you hear something fact-checkable? Send it here; we'll check it out. Three reasons to doubt Biden's story on his father and a gay kiss At least since 2014, President Biden has told a version of a story about words his father spoke after a teenage Biden saw two men kissing each other in the early 1960s. The most recent version came during an interview on Comedy Central's "The Daily Show." Kal Penn asked the president what your "evolution was like on marriage equality." "I can remember exactly when my epiphany was," Biden responded. "I was a senior in high school and my dad was dropping me off. I remember about to get out of the car, and I looked to my right and two well-dressed men in suits kissed each other. They gave each other a kiss. … I turned and looked at my dad. 'Joey, it's simple. They love each other.'" From the context, it's unclear if Biden is saying he had an epiphany as a teenager on same-sex marriage — or on gay relationships. But there are three reasons to be skeptical of this story as Biden retells it. We did not award Pinocchios but readers can draw their own conclusions. We're always looking for fact-check suggestions. You can reach us via email, Twitter (@GlennKesslerWP and @AdriUsero) or Facebook. Read about our process and rating scale here, and sign up for the newsletter here. We're taking a break for the next two weeks so the newsletter will return April 7. Scroll down to read other fact checks on fishy government numbers and other statistics. | 
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