A Facebook meme falsely claims a Colorado bill is “removing exemptions” for parents who don’t want to vaccinate their children in order to attend school. The bill adds new requirements to opt out of vaccinations, but does offer medical and nonmedical exemptions for religious or personal beliefs.
A bogus claim that “[v]accines are in direct violation of The Nuremberg Code” has been circulating on social media. Actually, the Nuremberg Code addresses the treatment of human subjects in medical experiments and says nothing about the use of tested and approved vaccines on patients.
A viral meme falsely suggests Dr. Anthony Fauci supports administering a COVID-19 vaccine before clinical trials are completed. Fauci supports the manufacture of vaccines while trials are underway — but only administering the vaccine once the trials are over and it is deemed effective and safe.
Facebook posts credit President Donald Trump with accomplishing a list of things that haven’t happened — claiming, for example, that he “cancelled” a proposed House bill on contact tracing and “expelled WHO.”
The first installment of a documentary called “Plandemic” stormed through social media this week. But the viral video weaves a grand conspiracy theory by using a host of false and misleading claims about the novel coronavirus pandemic and its origins, vaccines, treatments for COVID-19, and more.
A conspiracy theory falsely claims Bill Gates is plotting to use COVID-19 testing and a future vaccine to track people with microchips. The Gates Foundation has advocated for expanded testing and has funded vaccine research, but neither of those involves implanted microchips.
Posts across social media are falsely claiming that a vaccine trial for the novel coronavirus in Senegal resulted in the death of seven children. The video behind those claims does not show that. And there is no clinical trial for a potential vaccine currently taking place in Senegal.
Multiple social media posts are spreading a bogus conspiracy theory about the deadly Wuhan virus. The posts falsely claim that the virus has been patented and a vaccine is already available. That’s not true; the patents the posts refer to pertain to different viruses.
A popular Instagram post falsely claims “over 1,100 people died from reactions to the [flu] shot” in 2018, and suggests that the immunization gave some children polio. The flu vaccine cannot give anyone polio and there is no evidence to support the 1,100 figure.
A Facebook meme incorrectly blames the measles outbreak in the U.S. on immigrants from South America. The virus, however, was eliminated there in 2016. The recent uptick in measles cases is due to travelers returning from countries with outbreaks.