The September 18-19, 2025 ACIP meeting addressed three vaccine topics with the newly appointed committee presenting approximately 30 false or misleading claims that were subsequently amplified across media channels. These included misrepresentations about MMRV (measles, mumps, rubella, varicella) vaccine safety and febrile seizure risks, hepatitis B birth dose necessity citing inappropriate animal studies, and COVID-19 vaccine safety claims ranging from DNA contamination to fabricated syndromes. This fact-check brief documents specific falsehoods presented during the meeting, provides scientific corrections with peer-reviewed citations, examines departures from evidence-based evaluation processes, analyzes public health implications of the committee's decisions, and offers factual resources for health communicators countering vaccine misinformation.
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The September ACIP meeting is scheduled for September 18-19. Based on the released agenda, we anticipate three key vaccine safety topics to surface, along with several falsehoods likely to be raised and amplified on social media. These include the safety of the MMRV (measles, mumps, rubella, varicella) combination vaccine and its association with febrile seizures, Hepatitis B vaccine safety and necessity, in particular the birth dose, and both pediatric and adult COVID-19 vaccine safety, focused particularly on deaths. This report provides key background on each issue, anticipates falsehoods and rumors likely to arise or be distorted, summarizes current evidence, outlines possible policy implications, and offers communication guidance for public health leaders, media, and social media influencers.
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The Senate Finance Committee hearing with HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — focusing on the administration's healthcare agenda — provided Congress an opportunity to evaluate federal health policy trajectory under his leadership. Based on Secretary Kennedy's testimony and his positions on medical science, we documented 12 false or misleading statements about vaccines that were raised and amplified on social media. This report provides detailed fact-checking of each claim, addresses falsehoods and rumors that arose during the hearing, summarizes current scientific evidence with citations, and outlines the possible policy implications of the misinformation communicated from the highest levels of federal health leadership.

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Day two of the newly restructured ACIP committee concluded with discussions on RSV, influenza, and MMRV vaccines, focusing on disease burden, safety, and effectiveness. The meeting was marked by significant procedural irregularities and concerning misinformation. Most notably, the committee voted to remove thimerosal from flu vaccines despite a lack of evidence of harm and decades of safety data, setting a troubling precedent for policy decisions based on hypothetical risks rather than evidence. The meeting featured a controversial presentation by Lyn Redwood that bypassed normal review processes and contained cherry-picked, outdated data with clear anti-vaccine bias. We documented over 50 inaccuracies across both days, with at least 22 occurring today alone, requiring extensive real-time fact-checking. This debrief provides comprehensive fact-checking of claims made, contextualizes discussions within current scientific evidence, and offers guidance for public health leaders and media responding to the meeting's outcomes.
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Day one of the newly restructured ACIP committee focused on COVID-19 and RSV discussions, covering ongoing disease burden, vaccine safety, and effectiveness. While CDC presentations were thorough and professional, the meeting was disrupted by significant misinformation; we documented at least 28 falsehoods requiring real-time fact-checking. This debrief provides rapid fact-checking of falsehoods raised, contextualizes the discussions within current evidence, and offers communications guidance for public health leaders and media responding to meeting coverage and social media amplification of misinformation.

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The June ACIP meeting, the first with the newly appointed committee, is scheduled for June 25-26. Based on the makeup of the committee and last-minute changes to the agenda, we anticipate four key vaccine safety topics to surface, along with several falsehoods likely to be raised and amplified on social media: The MMRV (measles, mumps, rubella, varicella) combination vaccine and its association with febrile seizures, Thimerosal in flu vaccines, RSV protection during pregnancy and a new monoclonal antibody introduced without a placebo-controlled trial, and Covid-19 vaccines and spontaneous abortion, including a preprint released Friday, authored by a new ACIP member with a history of anti-vaccine rhetoric, a timing we believe is strategic, given its release just days ahead of the meeting. This report provides key background on each issue, anticipates falsehoods and rumors likely to arise or be distorted, summarizes current evidence, outlines possible policy implications, and offers communication guidance for public health leaders, media, and social media influencers.

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