A post with over 2.4 million views and 77,000 engagements claims that the federal government is going to use taxpayer money to “poison” food with “transgenic edible vaccines.” The claim cites a UC Riverside study that has been grossly misrepresented by vaccine opponents, which explores the use of vegetables to produce mRNA vaccines. A congressman with a history of promoting false claims about vaccines claimed that the House of Representatives passed a resolution to allow “franken-food-vaccine research.”
The high profile of the source increases the impact of the claims. Some variation of this false narrative has circulated continuously for the last two years. Debunking messaging may explain that while the eventual goal of the research is to grow certain edible vaccines in vegetables, these experiments are in very early stages and still many years from entering the market—if they ever do. Messaging may also emphasize that the research is simply exploring more cost-effective and practical ways to produce and deliver vaccines.
