Category: Misinformation, Disinformation, and Conspiracy Theories
West Texas children treated for vitamin A toxicity as medical disinformation spreads alongside measles outbreak
Texas Standard Medical disinformation connected to the West Texas measles outbreak has created a new problem. Children are being treated for toxic levels of vitamin A. Medical disinformation connected to the West Texas measles outbreak has created a new problem. Children are being treated for toxic levels of vitamin A. Covenant Children’s Hospital in Lubbock […]
Apr 2, 2025
Health misinformation and disinformation: How to avoid it
Medical News Today In the age of viral content and fast and furious social media communication, disinformation and misinformation, including about health matters, are spreading more widely than ever. Why is this the case exactly, and how can we learn to spot inaccurate and even malicious health information? Why do we fall so easily for […]
Apr 1, 2025
Who Is David Geier, the Man Leading Federal Autism-Vaccine Study?
Medical News Today Discredited researcher, vaccine skeptic was disciplined for practicing medicine without a license. David Geier, a man without a medical degree who once was disciplined by the Maryland State Board of Physicians for practicing medicine without a license, reportedly will lead a new HHS study to identify whether a relationship between vaccines and autism exists. […]
Apr 1, 2025
Vaccine skeptic hired to head federal study of immunizations and autism
Washington Post A long-discredited researcher and vaccine skeptic will conduct a government study on whether vaccines cause autism. A vaccine skeptic who has long promoted false claims about the connection between immunizations and autism has been tapped by the federal government to conduct a critical study of possible links between the two, according to current […]
Mar 26, 2025
Kennedy Instructs Anti-Vaccine Group to Remove Fake C.D.C. Page
NYT Children’s Health Defense, founded by the health secretary, had published online a vaccine-safety page that looked like the agency’s but that suggested links to autism. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the nation’s health secretary, on Saturday instructed leaders of the nonprofit he founded to take down a web page that mimicked the design of the […]
Mar 25, 2025
Vaccine hesitancy is about much more than misinformation
STAT When the first Covid-19 vaccines were developed, I felt cautiously optimistic. As a sociologist focused on public health, I believed these scientific breakthroughs would mark the beginning of the end of the pandemic. Yet vaccine hesitancy presented an ongoing obstacle to public health efforts. Public discussion names misinformation and political polarization as the primary […]
Mar 19, 2025
Indiana: State Veterinarian Kyle Shipman Responds to Bird Flu Misinformation
Hoosier Ag Today More than a dozen major commercial poultry production facilities all across Indiana have been hit with Bird Flu since the beginning of the year. Not only are State Health Officials trying to battle the virus, but they’re also trying to battle the mountain of misinformation that’s being spread on social media. “That’s the […]
Feb 26, 2025
Influential podcasts fuel ‘harmful’ health misinformation
France 24 Unfounded cancer cures, dubious anti-vaccine narratives, and false claims that neurological disorders can be “reversed” through diets: influential American and European podcasters are peddling harmful health misinformation while largely escaping scrutiny, researchers say. The problem will come under the spotlight this week as Robert F. Kennedy Jr, a vaccine skeptic with a longstanding […]
Jan 29, 2025
Vaccine misinformation: a lasting side effect from Covid
AFP A fringe anti-vaccine movement took advantage of the Covid-19 pandemic to bring conspiracy theories to a much wider audience, propelling dangerous misinformation about life-saving jabs that still endures five years later, experts warn. Vaccine scepticism was around long before Covid but the pandemic “served as an accelerant, helping to turn a niche movement into […]
Jan 22, 2025
Why do false claims that vaccines cause autism refuse to die? Here are nine reasons
The Conversation The idea that autism is caused by vaccines has recently been revived by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the presumptive nominee for US Secretary of Health and Human Services, as well as by president-elect Donald Trump. When asked about vaccines at a recent press conference, Trump reportedly said there was “something wrong” with rising autism rates, […]
Jan 15, 2025