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.
An account that has previously spread vaccine misinformation in the past is recirculating the claim that children who received the diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis (DTaP) vaccine have a higher mortality rate than unvaccinated children. The post includes a video featuring a prominent vaccine opponent claiming that children who received the vaccine were more likely to die from malaria and dysentery.
Recommendation: 
The FDA recently ended emergency use authorization (EUA) for the original Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines, amending the authorization to include only the newer bivalent vaccines. Some vaccine opponents, including several high-profile figures, have falsely claimed that the change was due to safety concerns.
Recommendation:
An anti-vaccine social media account claims that vaccines never save lives, using measles as an alleged example. The post includes a graph that cites an anti-vaccine book to claim that measles deaths have actually increased since the introduction of the measles vaccine. The graph misrepresents several important data points, including the date of the first measles vaccine.
Recommendation: 
Vaccine opponents continue to promote misinformation about the use of mRNA vaccines in livestock. Trending posts in English and Spanish falsely claim that farmers will be required to use mRNA vaccines in their livestock and that mRNA vaccines are “gene altering.” One post claims that the U.S. pork industry has concealed its use of mRNA vaccines since 2018, while another features a supposed farmer claiming that animals don’t need vaccines.
Recommendation:
An image carousel posted on social media promotes the myth that millions of Americans received polio vaccines contaminated with a cancer-causing SV40 virus.
Recommendation:
Images of health insurer incentive programs for providers to encourage their patients to get COVID-19 vaccines are circulating again. A sitting U.S. congressman who has promoted vaccine misinformation in the past shared the image with the claim that insurance companies are bribing doctors to vaccinate patients.
Recommendation:
A widely shared post is recirculating the long-disproven claim that mRNA vaccines alter human genomes. The post also repeats the false claim that mRNA vaccines will soon be added to the food supply.
Recommendation:
A far-right news site claims that the CDC Foundation funds organizations to target doctors who promote vaccine misinformation to be mass reported and stripped of their medical license.
Recommendation:
An anti-vaccine social media account claims that medical professionals falsely classify deaths caused by routine vaccines as sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). The account shared the story of a child who allegedly died within hours of receiving several vaccinations.
Recommendation:
A U.K.-based oncologist with a large following claims in a recent article that COVID-19 boosters cause more harm than good. He also falsely claims that the COVID-19 vaccines caused widespread injuries based on reports to Yellow Card, an adverse event reporting system similar to VAERS in the U.S. Finally, he repeats the myth that COVID-19 vaccines impair the immune system and increase cancer risk.
Recommendation:
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.
Vaccine Misinformation Guide
Get practical tips for addressing misinformation in this new guide. Click image to download, or see highlights.