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 discredited research scientist best known for promoting health-related conspiracy theories recently accused Pfizer of “covering up” a batch of the diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis (DTaP) vaccines linked to sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) cases. According to the post, instead of simply recalling the batch, the company deliberately distributed it throughout the country to avoid clusters of injury and death and then recorded the plot in a memo. This claim is related to the recently resurfaced myth that the U.S. Supreme Court declared vaccines “unavoidably unsafe.”
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An informed consent advocacy group posted a series of images repeating a host of myths about vaccine safety. The post claims that pediatric clinical trials are short, lack controls, and do not include safety training, a previously debunked anti-vaccine argument.
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A conservative website claims COVID-19 vaccines caused 74 percent of deaths in vaccinated people. The post cites a non-peer-reviewed study that went viral after being pulled from the medical journal The Lancet’s website because its conclusions were unsupported.
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A video repeats the claim that public health experts discredited ivermectin to ensure that COVID-19 vaccines got emergency authorization.
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A prominent vaccine opponent claims that his study analyzing autopsies reports of people who died after COVID-19 vaccination found that vaccines caused 74 percent of the deaths. He further claims that the study was removed from the website of the prestigious medical journal The Lancet less than a day after it was published. The authors and their supporters now claim the “medical establishment” is censoring them.
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A low-quality screenshot of an apparent blood clot is being attributed to an embalmer who claims to have observed large clots in the bodies of people who have died from heart attacks or strokes since the COVID-19 vaccine’s rollout.
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An advocacy group founded to protest COVID-19 vaccine mandates is shifting its attention to routine vaccines. In a recent post, the group proposes a decades-old anti-vaccine argument that a decrease in infectious diseases was due to improved sanitation and hygiene rather than vaccines.
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In testimony before the Pennsylvania senate, a tech entrepreneur turned COVID-19 conspiracy theorist repeats the long-disproven myth that Amish children don’t have autism because they are not vaccinated. He also claims that the government is covering up data showing that these communities are healthier because of their low vaccination rate.
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News about the death of a Dominican basketball player is trending globally among vaccine skeptics, along with vaccine safety misinformation. The 28-year-old athlete reportedly died of a heart attack during a stress test. Before his death, the basketball player publicly stated that he was diagnosed with myocarditis, which he believed to be related to COVID-19 vaccines.
Recommendation:
A trending article claims that “new” emails reveal that CDC and NIH officials were aware of breakthrough COVID-19 infections in early 2021. The article and those sharing it insist that this knowledge makes vaccine requirements unnecessary. A post by a doctor best known for promoting vaccine misinformation claims that the article proves the vaccines didn’t save a “single life.”
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.
Vaccine Misinformation Guide
Get practical tips for addressing misinformation in this new guide. Click image to download.
Vaccine Misinformation Guide
Get practical tips for addressing misinformation in this new guide. Click image to download, or see highlights.