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.
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: Narratives with widespread circulation across communities, high engagement, exponential velocity, and a high potential to impact health decisions. Are often more memorable than accurate information.
- Medium risk alerts: Narratives that are circulating in priority populations and pose some threat to health. Potential for further spread due to the tactics used or because of predicted velocity. Often highlights the questions and concerns of people.
- Low risk alerts: Narratives that are limited in reach, don’t impact your community, or lack the qualities necessary for future spread. May indicate information gaps, confusion, or concerns.
A September 7 video from a popular conspiracy theorist claims without evidence that COVID-19 vaccines were designed to weaken the immune system and make recipients more susceptible to other illnesses. The video has been viewed 1.5 million times and received hundreds of responses falsely claiming that the vaccines trigger an AIDS-like immune condition.
Recommendation: 
On September 5, a self-described “alternative news source” shared a video of the New York governor getting an updated COVID-19 vaccine and encouraging other New Yorkers to do the same. The video garnered over 185,000 views and hundreds of comments expressing negative attitudes and false claims about COVID-19 vaccines. Some posts speculate that the governor didn’t actually get vaccinated and questioned the safety of getting the COVID-19 and flu vaccines together, while others insist that the pandemic is a “scam” and COVID-19 is the same as the flu.
Recommendation:
Canadian health officials instructed all provinces to remove from the market and destroy all outdated COVID-19 vaccines that target XBB subvariants beginning September 1. The government is preparing for the rollout of the updated COVID-19 vaccines, expected to be available in Canada next month. Some have expressed concern that Canadians will be unable to get vaccinated this month as COVID-19 levels remain high throughout the country. Several vaccine conspiracists have insinuated that the withdrawal is “destroying the evidence” that the vaccines are harmful.
Recommendation: 
In an interview posted online last week, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. falsely stated that vaccines cause autism, claiming that over 400 studies have found a link. He also claimed, without evidence, that it’s virtually impossible for a healthy child to die from measles, that WHO says that vitamin A is an “absolute cure” for the disease, and that “lots of studies” show that people who had measles as children are healthier and more resistant to cancer and heart disease.
Recommendation:
An August 15 Annenberg Public Policy Center report found that a rising percentage of the U.S. population believes false claims about COVID-19 vaccine safety and are unwilling to get vaccinated. More than one in five believe that getting COVID-19 is safer than getting vaccinated, and 28 percent believe the vaccines have caused “thousands of deaths.” Acceptance of false claims about the vaccines has increased since 2022, including the belief that COVID-19 vaccines alter DNA, which nearly doubled from 8 percent to 15 percent. As distrust in COVID-19 vaccines rises, the willingness to get vaccinated has unsurprisingly fallen. Only 20 percent of respondents were concerned that they or a loved one might get COVID-19, and less than half said they were likely to get an updated COVID-19 vaccine. Responses to the survey on social media expressed distrust in pharmaceutical companies as well as in COVID-19 and other vaccines.
Recommendation:
Several posts with identical wording claim that “Japan Media” aired an hour-long segment about the alleged “harms” of mRNA COVID-19 vaccines. The posts and replies promote multiple hoax stories that have circulated in the last two years about COVID-19 vaccines in Japan, including debunked claims that the country banned COVID-19 vaccines and declared a state of emergency over vaccine-related injuries and an “explosion of cancer cases.”
Recommendation:
Several posts are circulating the debunked myth that COVID-19 vaccines cause infertility. A social media user with 2.4 million followers falsely claimed in a viral post that COVID-19 vaccines “caused widespread infertility.” Other popular posts claim, without evidence, that COVID-19 vaccines are “chemically castrating men” and disrupting menstrual cycles, causing sterility. One post references a researcher who claimed that vaccine spike proteins “replace sperm,” while others include videos that claim to show self-assembling nanostructures from mRNA vaccines present in sperm.
Recommendation: 
A post with over 40,000 engagements claims that nicotine destroys so-called “nanobots” present in mRNA vaccines. Several popular accounts have circulated the false claim in recent posts.
Recommendation:
Massachusetts health officials announced on August 16 that a human case of the rare and potentially fatal viral infection Eastern equine encephalitis had been detected in Worcester County. A horse and mosquitoes in the region also tested positive for the virus, leading officials to raise the risk level in surrounding communities to high and issue a voluntary dusk-to-dawn curfew in several towns. The state issued similar guidance for EEE outbreaks in 2005, 2012, and 2019 without issue. This year, however, some residents and online commentators are protesting the voluntary curfew, claiming it is unnecessary government overreach and fearmongering. One post attempted to connect the latest EEE case to Bill Gates, falsely claiming that the billionaire uses genetically modified mosquitoes to spread disease.
Recommendation:
After news broke over the weekend that former NIAID director Dr. Anthony Fauci was hospitalized with West Nile virus, some vaccine opponents recycled the myth that COVID-19 vaccines are depleting people’s immune systems. Some social media posts speculated that the more vaccine doses a person has received, the higher their risk of contracting COVID-19 and other illnesses. None of these posts provided sources to support this claim.
Recommendation:
Alerts are categorized as high, medium, and low risk.
- High risk alerts: Narratives with widespread circulation across communities, high engagement, exponential velocity, and a high potential to impact health decisions. Are often more memorable than accurate information.
- Medium risk alerts: Narratives that are circulating in priority populations and pose some threat to health. Potential for further spread due to the tactics used or because of predicted velocity. Often highlights the questions and concerns of people.
- Low risk alerts: Narratives that are limited in reach, don’t impact your community, or lack the qualities necessary for future spread. May indicate information gaps, confusion, or concerns.
Monthly Misinformation Report
Explore Public Good Project’s report highlighting high-level health trends. This report captures information from May 6th – July 7th, 2024.
2023 Trends in COVID-19
Vaccine Opposition
This new report details the trends in 2023 discussions about COVID-19 vaccines, identifying both persistent, recurring themes from previous years and new themes that emerged within the year. The goal is to equip public health professionals with information to help navigate future discussions around COVID-19 vaccines.
Categorizing Public Conversation
on Vaccine Opposition to Inform
Health Communications Strategies
This new report leverages PGP’s advanced media monitoring platforms and expertise in vaccine opposition to categorize narratives into patterns. These patterns can help health communicators plan messaging approaches and strategies to improve vaccine uptake.
Vaccine Misinformation Guide
Get practical tips for addressing misinformation in this new guide. Click image to download, or see highlights.
