Flawed reasoning
Reviews of content from
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Lacks contextThe World Health Organization states that COVID-19 vaccination for children is less urgent, but doesn’t recommend against it
Claim:
“The WHO says children should not receive COVID-19 vaccines”
Source: Instagram, Instagram user, 2021-06-22 -
Misleading
COVID-19 vaccines are effective at preventing illness and death; rare infections in vaccinated people can still occur, as seen in the Celebrity Millennium cruise
Claim:
“Passengers on first fully vaccinated [...] cruise ship test positive for COVID-19. Almost like the shot is useless.”
Source: Instagram, Instagram users, 2021-06-11 -
Misleading
No increased risk of miscarriage from COVID-19 vaccines or other safety concerns for pregnant women or their babies
Claim:
'920 Women Lose Their Unborn Babies After Getting Vaccinated'
Source: Instagram, Shannon Kroner, 2021-06-03 -
Inaccurate
COVID-19 vaccines don’t contain magnetic ingredients; dose volume is too small to contain any device able to hold a magnet through the skin
Claim:
COVID-19 vaccines contain metals or microchips that cause magnets to attach to the arm of vaccinated people
Source: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter/X, Facebook users, Instagram users, 2021-05-10 -
Inaccurate
Deaths are attributed to COVID-19 according to clinical symptoms and diagnosis; deaths that occur after vaccination are systematically reported and investigated
Claim:
“If you die within 20 days of testing positive for [COVID-19][...], you’ll be counted as a COVID death.”; vaccines are systematically dismissed as a possible cause of death.
Source: Instagram, Instagram users, 2021-05-02 -
Inaccurate
Scientific evidence demonstrates that COVID-19 and the virus that causes it exist and are different from the flu
Claim:
“We found no COVID-19 in any of the 1,500 [COVID-19-positive] samples” but influenza A and B; “what we're dealing with is just another flu strain like every year. COVID 19 does not exist and is fictitious”
Source: Instagram, Instagram users, 2021-05-02 -
Inaccurate
Vaccines do provide immunity and can be used to achieve herd immunity
Claim:
Vaccines don’t promise immunity and therefore “vaccine herd immunity doesn’t exist”.
Source: Instagram, Laura Elizabeth, 2021-04-24 -
UnsupportedInsufficient evidence to claim COVID-19 vaccines cause menstrual irregularities in vaccinated women; vaccinated people aren’t making unvaccinated people ill
Claim:
COVID-19 vaccines cause menstrual problems in women; vaccinated people are causing health problems in unvaccinated people around them
Source: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter/X, Social media users, Christiane Northrup, 2021-04-11 -
Misleading
COVID-19 vaccines don’t cause herpes infections; a possible association with the reactivation of herpes zoster in patients with rheumatic diseases remains unconfirmed
Claim:
“Herpes infections may be a side effect of a COVID-19 vaccine”
Source: Facebook, Instagram, New York Post, Social media users, Jackie Salo, 2021-04-20
