KFF Health Misinformation Tracking Poll Pilot
The KFF Health Misinformation Tracking Poll sought to examine the public’s exposure to and belief in a number of health-related misinformation claims. The statements included in the survey were selected based on public media documentation that these are claims that have been shared and spread in recent years and have been shown to be false or inaccurate. Below are some of the documented sources used to establish the existence of these misinformation claims and sources used to document their inaccuracy.
| Statement | Source documenting presence in public health conversation | Source documenting falsehoods and inaccuracy of the statement |
| The COVID-19 vaccines have caused thousands of deaths in otherwise healthy people. | The Atlantic | John Hopkins Medicine; New York Times; CDC |
| Ivermectin is an effective treatment for COVID-19. | One America News Network; New York Times |
FDA; New England Journal of Medicine |
| The COVID-19 vaccines have been proven to cause infertility. | NBC News; American Medical Association |
CDC; National Institutes of Health |
| The measles, mumps, rubella vaccines, also known as MMR, have been proven to cause autism in children. | The Guardian; Health Affairs |
Annals of Internal Medicine; World Health Organization; |
| More people have died from the COVID-19 vaccines than have died from the COVID-19 virus. | Twitter/COVID Early Treatment Fund; Reuters; |
Reuters |
| Using birth control like the pill or IUDs makes it harder for most women to get pregnant after they stop using them. | .coda; In The Know (Yahoo) Media Matters |
Contraception and Reproductive Medicine Journal |
| Sex education that includes information about contraception and birth control increases the likelihood that teens will be sexually active. | Austin American-Stateman | American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists; American Academy of Pediatrics |
| People who have firearms at home are less likely to be killed by a gun than people who do not have a firearm. | New York Times | Annals of Internal Medicine; Scientific American |
| Most gun homicides in the United States are gang related. | Crime Prevention Research Center | CDC; National Youth Gang Analysis |
| Armed school police guards have been proven to prevent school shootings. | Politifact | JAMA |