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.
Misleading headlines are circulating on social media with the false claim that marijuana prevents COVID-19 infection. The posts are in response to a study that investigated whether certain cannabis extracts could prevent SARS-CoV-2 from entering cultured cells in a lab. While the study was peer-reviewed and its results do not appear to be in question, the issue is that none of the study’s experiments were conducted in humans and the cannabis extracts it examined are not the compounds ingested or smoked by cannabis users. This can be described as early stage research, perhaps opening the door to further research but itself providing no evidence that marijuana can prevent or treat COVID-19.
Recommendation: 
During the U.S. Supreme Court arguments on President Biden's workplace vaccine mandate, a Supreme Court justice falsely claimed that more than 100,000 children are hospitalized with COVID-19. According to the CDC, fewer than 100,000 children have been hospitalized with COVID-19 throughout the entire pandemic. An increase in infections due to Omicron has resulted in a very worrying spike in children hospitalized with COVID-19, but pediatric hospitalization rates are significantly lower than the Justice was aware.
Recommendation: 
A scientist known for promoting pseudoscience falsely claims that COVID-19 vaccines are not actually vaccines because they require multiple doses and it’s still possible for vaccinated people to contract and spread COVID-19. Many vaccines require multiple doses and boosters, including polio, measles, HPV, and hepatitis B. No vaccine is 100 percent effective against infection. COVID-19 vaccines dramatically reduce the risk of serious illness and death and boosters provide additional immunity against infection.
Recommendation:
Several misleading posts have used recent data from the U.K.'s Office for National Statistics to falsely claim that vaccinated people are at greater risk of contracting COVID-19 than unvaccinated people. The data showed that, among people who tested positive for COVID-19, vaccinated people were more likely to have Omicron while unvaccinated people were more likely to have other COVID-19 variants. The analysis also found that unvaccinated people were more likely to contract COVID-19 and far more likely to develop severe illness than fully vaccinated people.
Recommendation:
A group that claims to represent Canadian doctors and health care professionals produced a video that alleges the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine is dangerous and causes “more harm than good.” The video repeats several previously debunked myths about COVID-19 vaccine safety, including that the vaccine is unsafe for people who are pregnant or breastfeeding. COVID-19 vaccines are the best protection against infection, serious illness, and death. The benefits of vaccination far outweigh the risk of rare side effects.
Recommendation:
A U.S. senator’s misleading social media post claims that 1 million adverse events and more than 21,000 deaths have been reported following COVID-19 vaccination. The post received tens of thousands of engagements before being restricted and is still being shared online. The data referenced in the post is from VAERS, a database of self-reported medical events that occur after vaccination.
Recommendation:
A trending blog post falsely claims that no COVID-19 vaccines have been approved by the FDA. This misinformation has been circulating online since the FDA approval of the Pfizer vaccine in August. Vaccine opponents have since suggested that Comirnaty, the brand name of the Pfizer vaccine, is different from the vaccine that is being administered in the U.S. The Pfizer vaccine, like most drugs, was not marketed under a brand name until it received a non-emergency standard FDA approval. Similarly, the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine is marketed under the brand name “Spikevax” in the E.U., where it is approved for ages 12 and up, but not in the U.S., where it is still under emergency use authorization.
Recommendation:
Several widely-shared social media posts have falsely claimed that vaccines are ineffective against COVID-19, particularly the Omicron variant. One post with more than 70,000 engagements claims that there is no difference in the severity of COVID-19 in vaccinated and unvaccinated patients. This claim is false. Scientific studies and first-hand reports from hospitals and health authorities worldwide have shown repeatedly that vaccinated people are far less likely than unvaccinated people to be hospitalized, enter intensive care, require ventilators, or die from COVID-19. Although Omicron is more able to evade vaccines than other COVID-19 variants, the vaccine still provides significant protection against severe illness and death, and boosters increase protection against infection.
Recommendation:
In a viral video, a scientist well-known for attempting to discredit COVID-19 vaccines falsely claims that mRNA vaccines cause permanent damage to vital organs in children. This myth has been debunked repeatedly by independent fact-checkers but persists among vaccine opponents.
Recommendation:
An article published on a popular right-wing news site falsely claims that the NIH, under Dr. Anthony Fauci’s leadership, funded a clinical trial of a potential HIV treatment that resulted in the deaths of several HIV-positive foster children in New York between 1985 and 2005. A 2009 investigation of the clinical trial found that many of the children were extremely ill and had developed multiple AIDS-related complications prior to their enrollment in the trial. None of the deaths were a result of the treatment.
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.