Misinformation Alerts
Knowing what misinformation is being shared can help you generate effective messaging.
These insights are based on a combination of automated media monitoring and manual review by public health data analysts. Media data are publicly available data from many sources, such as social media, broadcast television, newspapers and magazines, news websites, online video, blogs, and more. Analysts from the Public Good Projects triangulate this data along with other data from fact checking organizations and investigative sources to provide an accurate, but not exhaustive, list of currently circulating misinformation.
Alerts are categorized as high, medium, and low risk.
- High risk alerts: We recommend directly addressing and debunking the misinformation
- Medium risk alerts: We recommend monitoring the situation but not actively engaging.
- Low risk alerts: Provided for informational purposes. We do not recommend additional action at the moment.
A popular social media account that frequently promotes vaccine misinformation claims the CDC lied about the effectiveness of the HPV vaccine. The post claims that the rate of HPV-related cancers has increased since the vaccine’s rollout, and that the vaccine has serious safety concerns. The HPV vaccine was approved in 2006 and is recommended for children ages 9 and older.
Recommendation: Misinformation about the HPV vaccine has increased in recent weeks as social media accounts with large numbers of followers promote disproven claims about the vaccine. The potential for this misinformation to lead to vaccine hesitancy increases its risk. Messaging may emphasize that, while it is true that rates of some HPV-related cancers have increased in recent years, that trend began before the vaccine rollout and does not appear to be affecting the population targeted by HPV vaccines. Among young women, in particular, cervical cancer rates have decreased significantly since the vaccine’s approval. Explaining that multiple large-scale studies found that vaccinated women have lower cervical cancer rates, including a U.K. study that found an 87 percent reduction in cervical cancer among women who were vaccinated at age 12, is recommended. Messaging may also explain that, in the 17 years since the HPV vaccine’s approval, no serious safety concerns have been reported. Fact-Checking Source(s):
The recent death of a 60-year-old actor has prompted some anti-vaccine proponents to baselessly claim that COVID-19 vaccines are to blame. The actor’s cause of death is unknown.
Recommendation: As with other celebrity deaths that were baselessly linked to COVID-19 vaccines, there is no evidence that COVID-19 vaccines played a role in the actor’s death. The death of any person is tragic, and it’s up to health and legal authorities to determine whether an adverse side effect occurred after vaccination. Continuing to emphasize key messages is recommended: COVID-19 vaccines are safe and effective. Over two-thirds of the world’s population has been fully vaccinated safely. The protection that vaccines provide against serious illness and death far outweighs the risk of extremely rare side effects. Fact Checking Source(s): Forbes
Social media posts trending in English and Spanish are circulating the claims of a supposed “WHO whistleblower” who previously promoted hoax vaccine detoxes. The claims include many disproven conspiracy theories, including that COVID-19 vaccines contain graphene oxide, radiofrequency trackers, toxic metals, and nanochips. One post claims COVID-19 vaccines originated as a military experiment using CRISPR DNA editing technology. A video clip in one post that has been viewed 1.2 million times includes the bizarre claim that the vaccines contain the eggs of a tentacled parasite.
Recommendation: The so-called whistleblower has been making baseless claims for two years. In the nearly two and a half years since the vaccines became available, there has been no evidence to support any of the claims made in these posts. The ingredients of all COVID-19 vaccines have been available online for over two years. Independent analysis of the vaccines has shown that they do not contain any toxic ingredients, including graphene oxide, heavy metals, tracking devices, or parasites. No COVID-19 vaccines were developed using CRISPR. The vaccines underwent rigorous testing for safety and effectiveness before they were authorized for use. Fact Checking Source(s): AP, Health Feedback
A well-known anti-vaccine advocate is claiming that the hepatitis B vaccine is responsible for an increase in autism diagnoses over the last few decades. The video claims that children who received the vaccine as infants were more likely to be diagnosed with autism. One clip from the video has been watched over 700,000 times.
Recommendation: The high profile and widespread nature of the misinformation elevates its risk. Debunking messaging may emphasize that there is no evidence to support the claim that hepatitis B vaccines—or any other vaccine—causes autism. Autism spectrum disorders have been increasing steadily since the mid-1970s, nearly two decades before the CDC began recommending that newborns be vaccinated against hepatitis B. Since the vaccine rollout in the 1990s, infections in children have dropped 95 percent. Serious side effects have been reported in less than one in a million children vaccinated. Fact-Checking Source(s):
An image circulating online claims that the World Health Organization is tracking people who are not COVID-19 vaccinated. The claim is based on WHO’s International Classification of Diseases (ICD) codes, which include a designation for people who are unvaccinated or not fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
Recommendation: Messaging may explain that ICD-10 codes date back to 2015 and are used to consistently classify thousands of medical diagnoses and symptoms in hospitals worldwide. Emphasizing that the codes are important for monitoring national and international health trends and have been assigned to many vaccines is recommended, as is clarifying that WHO introduced several new ICD codes in 2021 related to COVID-19 diagnosis, complications, and vaccination status. These codes are used to document health issues that arise after COVID-19 infection or vaccination. Fact-checking sources:
A hoax news site is claiming that a Philippines “heinous crimes court” issued an “international arrest warrant” for Bill Gates on “premeditated murder” charges related to COVID-19 vaccines. The story has been picked up by several large right-wing social media accounts.
Recommendation: Responding to every piece of misinformation may detract from priority talking points. If a response is needed, emphasizing that the story is entirely fabricated is recommended. The only source for the story is a fake news website. No court has issued an arrest warrant for the billionaire. International arrest warrants and heinous crimes courts do not exist. Fact-checking sources:
A social media account that frequently promotes vaccine misinformation posted a video claiming that COVID-19 vaccines have increased rates of cancers. The video, which has been viewed nearly half a million times, claims that doctors are reporting more cases of vaginal and uterine cancer than ever.
Recommendation: The persistence and high engagement of this misinformation increases its risk. Debunking messaging may explain that anti-vaccine advocates have claimed for decades that vaccines cause cancer. No studies have ever supported these claims, which are based on speculation, anecdotes, and unverified data. Emphasizing that there is no evidence that COVID-19 vaccines are unsafe and that they have never been linked to any cancer is recommended. Fact-Checking Source(s):
A video claims to show 96 children who died from injuries related to COVID-19 vaccines, including 77 in the last three months. Like many false claims, the video uses fear mongering and emotional appeals without any evidence to support its claims.
Recommendation: While any death is a tragedy, there is no evidence linking these deaths to COVID-19 and no data about the children’s cause of death or vaccination status. Messaging may explain that the increase in sudden deaths began early in the pandemic before COVID-19 vaccines were available and closely mirrors COVID-19 waves, not vaccination rates. Fact Checking Source(s): WBUR, ABC News, YLE
A video clip of two anti-vaccine figures promotes the baseless claim that vaccines make children more susceptible to chronic illnesses. In the video, which suggests questioning everything, including childhood vaccines, they say that in the last 40 years, the rates of childhood chronic diseases have increased from 6 percent to 54 percent. They note that this period coincided with the addition of several new vaccines to the routine immunization schedule, insinuating that the rise in illnesses was caused by vaccines.
Recommendation: Emphasizing that vaccines have been monitored for safety and effectiveness for decades, and there is no evidence that any routine vaccine causes chronic illnesses in children, is recommended. While it is true that reported rates of chronic illness rates have increased in the last 40 years, the sources of the two numbers were looking at different types of data and can’t be used for comparison. The definition of chronic illnesses in children varies widely. Some definitions include only illnesses that cause disability, while others include seasonal allergies, chronic ear infections, and overweight BMIs. Fact Checking Source(s): FactCheck.org
An image trending on social media claims that Pfizer’s respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccine, which is currently under FDA review for use in older adults, is dangerous for pregnant people. The basis of this claim is that a clinical trial for an RSV vaccine developed by a different pharmaceutical company, GSK, was suspended last year due to safety concerns in pregnant people.
Recommendation: Emphasizing that there is no evidence of safety concerns related to Pfizer’s RSV vaccine is recommended. Prebunking messaging may explain that the purpose of the clinical trial and FDA approval process is to identify potential safety issues for new vaccines. It is not possible to draw conclusions about a vaccine based on data about a different vaccine developed by a different organization. RSV is a respiratory virus that affects millions of people each year and is one of the leading causes of death in infants worldwide. Fact Checking Source(s): Reuters, The Conversation
Alerts are categorized as high, medium, and low risk.
- High risk alerts: We recommend directly addressing and debunking the misinformation
- Medium risk alerts: We recommend monitoring the situation but not actively engaging.
- Low risk alerts: Provided for informational purposes. We do not recommend additional action at the moment.
Vaccine Misinformation Guide
Get practical tips for addressing misinformation in this new guide. Click image to download, or see highlights.