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 trending post is claiming that a 2011 study found that the aluminum additives in vaccines cause autism. The study concludes that "Clearly, we cannot draw definite conclusions regarding the link between aluminum adjuvants and autism based on an ecological study such as the present one, and hence the validity of our results remains to be confirmed."

Recommendation: Medium Risk Read More +

A television and podcast host promoted an upcoming episode to his more than two million followers. The episode features a physician who is best known for circulating misinformation about COVID-19 and vaccines and who claims that data on vaccine safety is "not very reassuring."

Recommendation: Medium Risk Read More +

The CDC updated its routine immunizations recommendation list for children and adolescents to include COVID-19 vaccination. The agency’s advisory committee voted to approve the update in October, and the changes were finalized last week. Anti-vaccine organizations and high-profile misinformation accounts are falsely claiming, just as they did in October, that the update will require children to receive COVID-19 vaccines.

Recommendation: High Risk Read More +

A case study published in 2021 is circulating among COVID-19 vaccine skeptics online. The report details an incident at a COVID-19 vaccination clinic in Thailand where a health worker dropped a vial containing Coronavac, a COVID-19 vaccine developed by the Chinese pharmaceutical company Sinovac. The vial broke, and the evaporated vaccine caused skin and eye irritation in several health workers near the accident. A popular anti-vaccine social media account recently shared the report, claiming that it proves that the vaccine, which is not used in the U.S., is unsafe.

Recommendation: Low Risk Read More +

The hashtag "pfertility" trended on social media in response to video footage released by a right-wing activist group known for producing deceptively edited video clips. In the heavily edited clip, a purported Pfizer employee expresses concern about women’s reproductive health following COVID-19 vaccination. The unedited footage has not been released, so the context of the conversation is unclear. All that can be seen are several snippets of a conversation edited together, including the phrases: "Something irregular about their menstrual cycles,” “...concerning…” “vaccine shouldn't be interfering…” and “It has to be affecting something hormonal..."

Recommendation: High Risk Read More +

A widely shared social media post includes a graph of the low rate of flu infections in the 2020-2021 flu season, implying that the missing cases were being counted as COVID-19 infections.

Recommendation: Medium Risk Read More +

Several high-profile right-wing news outlets and social media accounts are circulating a blog post with the misleading claim that the CDC has begun tracking people who refused COVID-19 vaccination. 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: High Risk Read More +

A video clip of Bill Gates speaking at a global health forum discusses the limitations of COVID-19 vaccines, specifically that they are not very effective at preventing infection against later variants, that their effectiveness wanes over time, and that they do not provide sufficient, long-term protection to those who are most vulnerable. A popular anti-vaccine site is using the quote to falsely claim that Gates said that the vaccines “don’t work at all.”

Recommendation: High Risk Read More +

A video circulating on multiple social media platforms features a social media influencer who is pretending to be a medical expert. The man claims that flu cases are being miscategorized as COVID-19. The person claims to have collected 1,500 positive COVID-19 samples that, when viewed under a microscope, were all actually influenza viruses.

Recommendation: Medium Risk Read More +

A heavily edited viral video produced by a right-wing activist group that is notorious for releasing misleadingly edited secret recordings claims to show a top Pfizer executive saying that the company had plans to mutate the COVID-19 virus to test vaccines on more potent variants. The video has been shared and viewed millions of times across multiple social media platforms.

Recommendation: High Risk Read More +

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