On July 3, a Colorado dairy farm worker became the fourth person to contract H5N1 bird flu in the U.S. this year. The person only reported eye symptoms and has fully recovered after treatment. The CDC reported that the risk to humans remains low and that farm workers who...
Last week, a Tennessee woman who had been fired from Blue Cross Blue Shield for refusing to receive a COVID-19 vaccine won a $700,000 settlement. Within a day, news of the settlement spread across multiple news outlets and social media platforms. Some social media users called the woman a...
Last week, the Wisconsin Department of Health Services (WDHS) announced that as of July 1, the state had 126 cases of whooping cough—more than double the number of cases last year—and recommended that residents stay up to date on whooping cough vaccines. WDHS shared its recommendations on social...
On June 24, the Supreme Court rejected a challenge to a 2021 Connecticut law that does not allow religious exemptions for vaccine mandates in schools, colleges, and daycare facilities. The “health freedom” group that filed the lawsuit argued that the law violated parents’ religious freedom. Within a day, news of...
Vaccine opponents are circulating a new Italian study that claims to have found a decrease in life expectancy following mRNA COVID-19 vaccination. The study assessed death from any cause in people who were unvaccinated and those who had received one or more vaccine doses, finding that a higher number of...
A widely-circulated blog post falsely claims that routine childhood vaccines have few benefits and many serious side effects. The article argues that vaccines are unnecessary because childhood diseases are no longer a threat and repeats myths about the safety of many vaccines. Recommendation: Trending blog posts promoting false claims about...
In late June, the CDC recommended that people 6 months and older receive updated COVID-19 and flu vaccines in the fall. Social media posts in English and Spanish criticized the recommendation, arguing that the vaccines are unnecessary and unsafe. Recommendation: News about the CDC’s fall COVID-19 vaccine recommendations may...
A recent study published in JAMA Pediatrics found that after Texas banned abortions after six weeks of pregnancy with no exceptions for congenital abnormalities, infant death rates in the state increased by 12.9 percent, while infant death rates only increased by 1.8 percent throughout the rest of the...
On June 25, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy issued an advisory declaring that gun violence is a public health emergency and cited data demonstrating that gun violence negatively impacts mental health. Within hours, several news outlets covered the advisory, and conversations about it spread across multiple social media platforms. The official...
On June 22, a post on X warned that “Narcan is less effective when put in high temperatures and exposed to sunlight,” and encouraged readers to keep their Narcan “somewhere cool and shady.” The post received 45,000 views; 1,800 likes; and 1000 shares as of June 27. In...
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