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.
A social media video that has racked up more than 81,000 engagements is claiming to provide instructions to reverse alleged “damage” from COVID-19 vaccines for those who regret getting vaccinated or were required to get vaccinated by their employer. The video falsely claims that taking a variety of supplements including zinc, activated charcoal, an antioxidant, and undergoing a week-long water fast will repair cell damage. The video also claims, with no evidence, that the instructions have been confirmed by health care providers to reverse the effects of the vaccine. There is no scientific evidence to suggest that any of the recommended supplements will have any effect on a person’s vaccination status. Water fasting can be very dangerous. Health care providers should be made aware of any supplement use.
Recommendation: 
Fake vaccination cards are flooding the online black market. Journalists have flagged the messaging app Telegram, among others, as a site where users can easily buy and sell counterfeit goods like forged vaccination cards due to the platform's security features and unwillingness to cooperate with law enforcement. Some sellers on the platform even claim that they can register the purchaser within the CDC’s vaccine data system and work with doctors to forge the cards. Buying, using, or selling fraudulent vaccine cards is a federal crime, but an increase in their use is expected as more government, public, and private institutions mandate vaccinations.
Recommendation: 
With COVID-19 cases on the rise, some social media users are accusing vaccinated people of driving up transmission rates, falsely claiming that the CDC admitted that the vaccines are failing. These claims are misconstruing the CDC's updated guidelines, which advise all people to wear a mask indoors regardless of vaccination status. The CDC updated its mask guidelines because, while vaccinated people are far less likely than unvaccinated people to contract COVID-19, those who are infected with the Delta variant can spread it to others. The vaccines provide protection against severe illness from the current COVID-19 variants.
Recommendation:
Vaccine mandate critics have weaponized the low vaccination rates among Black Americans to suggest that COVID-19 vaccine requirements will result in modern-day segregation. Sowing distrust among vulnerable and marginalized groups through half-truths and misleading data is a common tactic of misinformation agents. The Black vaccination rate is the lowest of any demographic at 38 percent due to a variety of factors including historic and justified mistrust in the government and medical institutions and long-standing barriers to access. Black people have also made up a disproportionately large number of COVID-19 infections, hospitalizations, and deaths. For many months now, the federal government, local and state government, and a vast number of community organizations and volunteers have worked to bring up vaccination rates in the Black community. In recent weeks, as Delta cases surged, Black people have made up a growing percentage of new vaccinations.
Recommendation:
In response to the CDC's new mask guidelines for the fully vaccinated, an article published by a site shown to spread misinformation falsely claimed that the CDC Director admitted that COVID-19 vaccines are failing. The article also claims that vaccinated people are super spreaders of COVID-19 and new variants. In a recent phone briefing, CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky stated that a small number of vaccinated people may become infected with the Delta variant and that vaccinated people who are infected with the Delta variant can have a similar viral load as infected unvaccinated people. But vaccinated people are three times less likely than unvaccinated people to contract Delta, making it much harder for them to spread it to others. The new mask guidelines were not an indication that the vaccines are ineffective; on the contrary, the vaccines were found to be about 88 percent effective at preventing serious illness and death from Delta. More than 90 percent of all COVID-19 infections, hospitalizations, and deaths are among the unvaccinated.
Recommendation: 
A misunderstanding of how variants are detected is fueling doubt that the Delta variant exists. Social media posts with thousands of engagements on multiple platforms have falsely claimed that health officials are unable to prove that the Delta variant is real because there is no specific test to detect it. In reality, routine clinical testing, usually via PCR, can detect Delta and other SARS-CoV-2 variants, but genetic analysis is required to determine the variant’s lineage. This additional analysis, which uses genomic sequencing to identify mutations in positive samples and compare them to the original viral strain, is important for the correct classification of positive COVID-19 samples and for the identification and tracking of emerging variants. The Delta variant is real, highly contagious, and currently accounts for more than 83 percent of new COVID-19 cases in the US.
Recommendation:
False claims that masks are dangerous for children are circulating online again, based on a study that was retracted for poor methodologies. The resurfacing of the claims is likely due to the fast-approaching start of the school year. The CDC and American Academy of Pediatrics recommend that all students attending school in-person wear masks, regardless of vaccination status.
Recommendation:
The federal worker vaccination mandate has been a source of misinformation and vitriol from anti-vaccination advocates. Some prominent figures questioned the constitutionality of the mandate, calling it a threat to national security and playing on the false narrative that the vaccines are experimental. Legal experts confirm that similar policies, which require proof of vaccination or regular COVID-19 testing, are legal. Mandating vaccinations, testing, and masks provide protection to civilian federal workers, who are largely in support of the mandate.
Recommendation:
As COVID-19 cases continue to rise due to the Delta variant, some social media users have resurrected the myth that the COVID-19 vaccines are responsible for new variants of the virus. One tweet that garnered over 23,400 engagements falsely claimed that there were no new variants until the vaccines were rolled out. Others have used health officials' recommendation that vaccinated people wear masks indoors in some situations as evidence that the vaccines do not work. It is important to remember that no vaccine can prevent 100 percent of infections. Although the vaccines are slightly less effective against the Delta variant, they are the best form of protection against COVID-19.
Recommendation:
A social media account with more than 240,000 followers posted claims that rising COVID-19 cases must be either fictitious or occurring among vaccinated people because those who are unvaccinated and don't wear masks also don’t get tested. This assertion is both illogical and untrue. The vast majority of new COVID-19 infections, hospitalizations, and deaths are among the unvaccinated. By most expert accounts, unvaccinated individuals make up more than 97 percent of COVID-19 hospitalizations and 99 percent of deaths.
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.