To be clear, the difference between "disinformation" and "misinformation" is that the former is a deliberate attempt to deceive via false information. The latter is if someone simply gets some information wrong by mistake. I believe the anti-vax movement has way more disinformation than misinformation, and whatever kernels of actual truth it contains are only very basics such as that the virus exists, and are not enough to legitimize the movement.
Here are the articles with some excerpts:
Experts Debunk Claims From New Anti-Vax Documentary
A so-called documentary about COVID-19 vaccines prompted the latest social media effort by physicians to dispel dangerous medical misinformation.
Jonathan Laxton, MD, of the University of Manitoba Max Rady College of Medicine in Winnipeg, is one of those experts leading the effort to set the record straightopens in a new tab or window. He called the claims made in the film -- titled "Died Suddenlyopens in a new tab or window" -- "blatant lies."
"My first impression was it's just basically over-the-top lies made to scare people away from getting the COVID-19 vaccine," Laxton told MedPage Today. "I think it's so over-the-top that it actually won't convince anybody who doesn't already believe it."
"Died Suddenly" was simultaneously released on Twitter and Rumble on November 21, and has been viewed more than 12 million times.
It features several embalmers and funeral directors who claim to be coming forward for the first time to share their concerns over supposedly unusual blood clots found in deceased individuals they prepared for burial. But the main individual featured in the film is Ryan Cole, MD, who has a history of promoting false claimsopens in a new tab or window about the COVID vaccines and cancer.
Katrine Wallace, PhD, an epidemiologist at the University of Illinois -- Chicago School of Public Health, debunked several of the claims from the filmopens in a new tab or window on her social media accounts, where she has become known for her work in pushing back against public health disinformation. She said the film follows a consistent pattern for disinformation campaigns.
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Microchips, Magnets And Shedding: Here Are 5 (Debunked) Covid Vaccine Conspiracy Theories Spreading Online
Despite efforts from social media platforms and top health officials to combat disinformation, conspiracy theories about the coronavirus vaccine continue to spread rapidly across the internet—here’s a look at some of the recurring falsehoods threatening the U.S.’s inoculation drive.
That the vaccine includes a microchip, a wild conspiracy theory stemming from years of baseless misrepresentation of Microsoft billionaire Bill Gates’ vaccine advocacy efforts as a cover for establishing a global surveillance system that has continued to resurface with new and easily disproven claims, including that people can use magnets to identify the microchips in their arms.
That the vaccine alters your DNA, a claim that has circulated on social media since last year—based on multiple pseudoscientific posts and statements falsely attributed to Moderna’s chief medical officer—that experts have debunked as a fundamental misunderstanding of mRNA vaccines, which do not change a person’s DNA.
That the vaccine can be “shed” from one person to another, a claim that gained enough prominence through boosts from popular anti-vaccine activists that it prompted a Miami school to ask vaccinated teachers to keep their distance from students and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to specify shedding can only occur when a vaccine contains a “live virus,” which the approved Covid-19 vaccines don’t.
That the vaccine is causing Covid-19 variants, a falsehood that picked up steam in May after Nobel-prize winning French virologist Luc Montagnier (a past participant in anti-vaccination protests) insisted in an interview “vaccination is creating new variants,” a claim other medical experts have deemed unscientific and “completely bonkers” as variants occur randomly and independently of vaccinations.
That the vaccine has already led to a large number of deaths, a claim buoyed by prominent conservatives including Fox News’ Tucker Carlson and Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisc.) that is based on the thousands of deaths listed on the CDC’s Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS), though the database does not display verified information and the CDC has reported “no causal link” between the listed deaths and the Covid-19 vaccine.
CRUCIAL QUOTE
On Thursday morning, CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky debunked a new and bizarre claim originating from TikTok that the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine makes recipients Bluetooth connectable. “That’s ridiculous,” she told CBS “This Morning’s” Gale King. “We’re not being injected with chips. What we’re being injected with is this incredible scientific breakthrough that keeps us safe.”
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