The Monitor

This volume explores narratives linking vaccines to autism and misleading claims about the benefits of raw milk. It examines how trust and perceived expertise influence misinformation and AI’s role in spreading false mental health information.

This edition examines the role of news influencers in spreading misinformation, misleading narratives about harm reduction amid disparities in opioid overdose, and biases in artificial intelligence (AI) in healthcare.

This volume of the Monitor explores the growing opposition to water fluoridation, how misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines is influencing public health policies and trust in health authorities, and the balance between free speech and mitigating health misinformation.

This volume addresses rising distrust in food safety, shifts in social media content moderation, and the trend of self-diagnosis and treatment based on social media videos.

This volume explores false claims suggesting abortions occur after birth, misleading narratives around the safety abortion pills, like mifepristone, and other tactics used to distort the safety of abortions. It also explores research on the acceptance of health misinformation and the proliferation of AI-generated fake news sites.

This volume explores politically motivated misinformation targeting gender-affirming care, transgender people, and its impact on online discourse, legislation, and health care access. We also examine Florida Surgeon General Ladapo’s recent misleading claims about mRNA vaccines and new technology that can predict if social media users will share disinformation.

This edition looks at how political rhetoric is driving misinformation about fentanyl and immigration, legal implications of fentanyl-laced counterfeit pills sold on social media, and myths about opioid exposure.

This edition highlights vaccine hesitancy and misinformation around MMR (measles, mumps, and rubella) vaccines as children return to school and measles cases resurge in parts of the U.S. It also examines emerging narratives around COVID-19 vaccine misinformation following the FDA approval of COVID-19 boosters and false claims linking mpox to the vaccines.

In this issue, we take a closer look at the reliability of artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots as a source of health information. We explore public opinion on chatbot accuracy based on KFF surveys and highlight recent examples of AI-generated election misinformation in the news. In addition, we share our firsthand experience querying AI chatbots on health topics and discuss research on gaps in safeguards.

In this Monitor, we explore how ongoing misinformation about the safety and efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines may affect the acceptance of new vaccine recommendations. First, we examine the false and misleading claims underlying the Kansas Attorney General’s lawsuit against Pfizer. We also discuss the CDC’s most recent vaccine.