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.
Claims are spreading on Facebook and Twitter that asymptomatic spread of COVID-19 is not real, based on a research paper published in Nature in November. The paper analyzed the spread of COVID-19 in Wuhan, finding low asymptomatic spread. However, researchers stated that strict measures public health measures were successful in reducing the virulence of COVID in Wuhan and that asymptomatic people in Wuhan may have low viral loads - therefore, the finding cannot be applied to countries with large, active outbreaks. Throughout the pandemic scientists have been working to understand the risk of transmission by asymptomatic carriers, and have continued to find that asymptomatic spreading contributes to the ongoing case numbers.
Recommendation: 
A trending tweet questions whether flu cases are being misdiagnosed as COVID-19, with the tweet claiming it suspicious that flu cases have decreased so much in the current flu season compared to years past. Although the two illnesses have some similarities, swab tests to check for COVID-19 infection are highly specific and it unlikely that the flu would be misdiagnosed in a COVID-19 swab test. Experts also believe that flu cases are down this year because more people have gotten the flu shot and are wearing masks, two protective behaviors that reduce the spread of the flu.
Recommendation: 
Similar to the previous week, posts across social media, news, and blogs are reporting that COVID-19 vaccines contain microchips that will be used to track those who receive the vaccine. This misinformation is a distortion of the fact that vaccine containers will contain barcodes in order to track their distribution.
Recommendation: 
Two people in the UK have had severe anaphylactic reactions to the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine. These people had a history of allergic reactions to vaccines. The CDC recently stated that people who have experienced severe reactions to prior vaccines can still get the Pfizer vaccine but should talk with their doctors beforehand, and be monitored for 30 mins after injection.
Recommendation:
False claims are circulating on social media that the head of Pfizer's research department revealed their COVID-19 vaccine cause sterilization in females due to its inclusion of a protein called syncytin-1. The protein syncytin-1 is important in the creation of a woman's placenta. The actual Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine does not contain the protein, nor has the vaccine been associated with infertility. Claims around female sterilization from COVID-19 vaccines have persisted since vaccine trials first began.
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.