Emails obtained through Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests show that despite knowing that COVID-19 vaccine efficacy and side-effects were still an open question, CDC officials under the previous administration were still determined to paint concerns about the jab as “misinformation” as late as 2024.
In a virtual meeting on January 9, 2024, CDC public relations officials labeled concerns about effects of the coronavirus vaccines as “misinformation.” The timing of the discussions, obtained via FOIA by the Public Health Reform Alliance, is important — it occurred after the Surgeon General of Florida cautioned against the use of mRNA COVID-19 vaccines due to the potential health risks of DNA fragments, and after the CDC’s own research revealed natural immunity to be a better guard against the virus than vaccines.
An email for the meeting listed priority questions and how to respond to common questions about coronavirus vaccine safety. One such question was, “Should people believe online claims that doctors have already verified negative impacts from these DNA fragments in their patients?”
Christopher Voegeli, who led the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Health Integrity Team, said that the suggested response to questions about potential concerns over the coronavirus vaccines should be to note that “misinformation can prey on our fears.”
CDC public officials suggested that officials should create a social media message to combat this line of questioning, stating, “With so much rapid information circulating on social media, it’s crucial to double-check what you read about COVID-19 vaccines. They were developed swiftly, a true scientific breakthrough, but it’s natural to have questions — always turn to trusted health sources for accurate answers. In these uncertain times, remember, misinformation can prey on our fears; let’s focus on facts to keep our communities healthy and informed.”
CDC officials also called for a similar line of action when asking, “If mRNA COVID-19 vaccines are safe, why do claims like these keep emerging?”
In another internal discussion, CDC officials said they should deliberately avoid showing the precise “risk and protection scores” associated with COVID and COVID vaccines.
“Don’t want it to be too precise of a visualization such that people can infer an exact risk or protection score,” said the CDC officials.
CDC eventually appeared to settle on a simplistic graphic that separated protection levels into “some protection, moderate protection, and more protection.”
Media Literacy and Health Misinformation
From December 2022 to June 2023, Voegeli led the CDC’s Insight Unit, which led the agency’s COVID-19 State of Vaccine Confidence Reports (SoVC), and coordinated his team’s data collection about misinformation and disinformation circulating across the United States. He worked with outside partner groups such as the World Health Organization, North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), UK Cabinet Office, the American Psychological Association (APA), and more.
He wrote many articles and delivered many presentations, including one 2023 talk on how “misinformation can be deadly,” which explains strategies on how to prevent and address inaccurate health beliefs.
During one virtual panel with the American Psychological Association (APA) in 2022, Voegeli said, “We continue to make the case for is the need for science, government, the healthcare industry, to also think about building and maintaining trust as a way of building resilience to misinformation.”
He added, “Additionally, somewhere that psychology has a lot of influence is particular interventions, especially those that are building on metacognitive skills, teaching people how to think, which is at the core of these literacy interventions to address misinformation, digital health and media literacy.”
