Social media users perpetuate ‘long vax’ myth

The NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene shared a post about long COVID on the department’s social media page. Several comments on the post falsely claimed that long COVID is caused by COVID-19 vaccines, not by COVID-19 infection. 

Recommendation: 

These types of posts promote confusion about the cause of long COVID and may discourage people from taking effective steps to protect themselves from long COVID. Ensuring that informational materials, including websites and any FAQ materials, use prebunking messaging to explain what long COVID is and how vaccines help to protect against it is recommended. Debunking messaging may emphasize that reports of long COVID predate COVID-19 vaccines by nearly a year, and there is no evidence that the condition is a vaccine side effect. Communication campaigns promoting COVID-19 vaccines may emphasize that vaccination dramatically reduces long COVID risk.