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.
Several social media users are questioning what happened to monkeypox following the global outbreak earlier this year, with one viral post suggesting that the disease’s “marketing team” quit. The post suggests that monkeypox is not deadly and was never a real threat.
Recommendation: 
A widely shared video features an OBGYN claiming that many newborns of mothers vaccinated for COVID-19 have vaccine-induced AIDS (VAIDS). One post sharing the video claims that the vaccines have been a “disaster.”
Recommendation: 
In a video clip, a physician whose license was suspended for promoting COVID-19 misinformation claims flu vaccines are being used to experiment on people and that the government has been lying about the flu shot’s effectiveness for decades.
Recommendation: 
An image posted on social media claims to show abnormal blood clots that have been removed from the bodies of people vaccinated against COVID-19. The post claims that the vaccines caused an increase in fetal mortality.
Recommendation:
A widely shared video clip claims that a hospital in southern California has seen an increase in stillbirths since the COVID-19 vaccine rollout. A large social media account shared the video, which was viewed hundreds of thousands of times.
Recommendation:
An article published by an anti-vaccine organization claims that COVID-19 vaccines are causing first-time seizures. The article includes an anecdote about a friend of the author who had a seizure and claimed it might be related to his COVID-19 vaccination.
Recommendation:
In a social media post with tens of thousands of engagements, a user claims that her husband developed myocarditis and a chronic, fatal heart condition after receiving the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine. The account has frequently promoted misinformation about vaccine safety and, in the last year, has claimed that vaccines caused severe injuries to herself, her aunt, and even her dog.
Recommendation:
A physician-researcher who gained prominence for promoting COVID-19 conspiracy theories recently claimed that the flu vaccine is “built on a lie.” In a video clip, he falsely claims that the purpose of the vaccine is not to protect against the flu but to indoctrinate people into taking a vaccine every year.
Recommendation:
An anti-mandate account posted an image to social media mocking a person receiving a vaccination while wearing a mask for being injected with “unknown substances” while being “afraid to breathe air.”
Recommendation:
An image that is circulating on multiple social media platforms insinuates that COVID-19 vaccines are causing a global cancer epidemic. The image shows a fact-checking article from last year that debunked the claim that COVID-19 vaccines cause cancer next to a news headline about a study that found an increase in cancer worldwide in people under the age of 50. By placing the two headlines together, the post urges readers to assume causation.
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.