As hundreds of thousands of Americans test positive for COVID-19 each day, public health officials are encouraging booster shots to prevent the spread of the highly contagious omicron variant.
But online, some still doubt the safety of the coronavirus vaccines.
"1 million COVID-vaccine injuries now reported on CDC's database," reads a Jan. 3 headline from WorldNetDaily, a website that has previously published false claims about COVID-19.
The article accumulated about 1,500 interactions on Facebook within two days, according to CrowdTangle, a social media insights tool. Politicians like Rep. Michael Cloud, R-Texas, and Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., have also promoted the claim on social media.
WorldNetDaily's article references genuine reports in the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, a database maintained by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration. But that doesn't mean serious COVID-19 vaccine side effects are widespread.
"One cannot assume that these reports are things caused by the vaccine," Daniel Salmon, director of the Institute for Vaccine Safety at Johns Hopkins University, said in an email.
USA TODAY reached out to WorldNetDaily for comment.
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