Thread by @gbrumfiel

Today on @MorningEdition, I walked through the life cycle of a vaccine lie.

It starts with a kernel of truth: After vax, many women anecdotally reported heavy periods. That's plausible, says @aliceluculligan, because immune cells aid in menstruation.

npr.org/sections/healt…

But the clinical trials never asked women about their experiences with menstruation, so there's no data.

That created an opportunity for misinformation, says @MelanieFSmith (then at @Graphika_NYC).

For misinfo to thrive "there is always that gap of knowledge," she says.

@MelanieFSmith @Graphika_NYC There was plenty of chatter around the question of periods in groups and message boards. But one Facebook group turned out to be particularly influential. It was frequented by anti-vaccine activists who quickly picked up on the idea and ran with it...

@MelanieFSmith @Graphika_NYC Things really got going when Naomi Wolf, feminist author turned vaccine skeptic, sent this tweet on April 19th. The tweet did 2 things:

1. Raised questions without supplying answers about vaccine safety...

2. Inserted a myth: that vaccinated people can spread side-effects.

@MelanieFSmith @Graphika_NYC Wolf kept tweeting more misinformation in the coming hours and days (She's since been suspended from twitter for spreading misinformation about vaccines).

Soon other influencers started to pick it up.

@MelanieFSmith @Graphika_NYC But what really launched the myth into the stratosphere was when it hit the MSM. A Miami Private school announced it was banning VACCINATED teachers from the classroom. The school's owner is a well known anti-vaccine advocate, but the media covered the story anyway...

@MelanieFSmith @Graphika_NYC It's a dilemma says @skirkell. On the one hand, it's the media's job to tell people what's happening. On the other... "the lie spreads faster and more people see it and more people pick up on it," Sell says.

And that's just what @Graphika_NYC's analysis showed. The Centner story boosted myths about vaccines, infertility and vaccine shedding/spreading to communities all over the world.

"This is the point at which we start to see Spanish and Portuguese content," says Smith.

Over the next few weeks, the myths also filtered into right-wing media, fake news sites, and a few other spots... Often they were adapted to the audience. Alex Jones added on some stuff about a global plot by social media companies to depopulate the earth...

But the fertility stuff didn't stick around. It started to fade. And that too is a feature of misinformation, Smith says. It's single purpose it to shock and engage... so once it's spread, it just vanishes.

Or rather it fades into the background, while another lie gets boosted.