In a Joe Rogan show interview, storied anti-vaxxer Suzanne Humphries claims that vaccines aren’t as safe or helpful as we are told, that they can cause health problems, were tested unfairly, and that cleaner living conditions—not vaccines—stopped many diseases.

Suzanne Humphries, a doctor with a background in nephrology (kidney medicine), says she used to give vaccines to her patients, but during the 2008–2009 flu season, she became convinced that vaccines cause kidney failure and high blood pressure. The problem is that she based this belief on personal stories, not real science. Personal stories can be wrong because of mistakes or bias. In fact, the National Kidney Foundation still says vaccines are safe and recommends them.

Humphries also claims it’s not a virus but toxins like DDT and arsenic that cause polio. But scientists have isolated the poliovirus from the bodies of sick people many times. They also did experiments where they gave the virus to monkeys, which then got the same kind of paralysis as people. So we know that poliovirus has caused polio in the past and the present.

She says that smallpox was eradicated because of better sanitation. But for that to be true, you would have to believe two things:

1. Better sanitation can stop a virus that spreads through the air
2. Every country in the world has good enough sanitation.

Since the worldwide effort to get rid of smallpox, there hasn’t been a single case anywhere, which shows it was vaccines—not just sanitation—that stopped it.

She also claims that tuberculosis is a side effect of the smallpox vaccine. This is impossible because smallpox has been completely eradicated, and we had over nine thousand cases of tuberculosis in 2023 in the U.S. alone.

Finally, she says that doctors give vaccines just to make money and that they get extra money when their patients are vaccinated. This is partly true, but it’s not as simple as it sounds.

Doctors are not paid by the companies that make vaccines. Instead, they may get small bonuses from health insurance companies. These insurance companies want people to stay healthy because it costs them less money in the long run if patients don’t get sick.

So the goal isn’t just to make money—it’s to keep patients healthy and avoid bigger problems later.

As always, when we are asked to follow the money, we should look into how some anti-vaxxers are selling fear of vaccines for profit.

A video featuring Brian Hooker and Polly Tommey claims that COVID-19 vaccines are linked to a rise in cancer cases, including rare and fast-growing types, especially after the vaccine was introduced in 2021.

The idea that COVID vaccines cause “turbo cancer” has no scientific backing. Even the most potent carcinogens take years to cause cancer. It would be some time before we saw spikes in cancer. Epidemiological data show no increase in cancer linked to the vaccines. Reports of rising early-onset cancers started in the 1990s, long before the COVID vaccines existed.

The video mentions a 40% rise in cancers based on military data, but this claim has already been looked into and proven false. The numbers were taken out of context, and later checks showed the data had errors. Government and health organizations like the CDC and the Department of Defense have confirmed there was no sudden increase in cancer because of vaccines.

A post with a graphic photo claims without any evidence that people vaccinated against COVID could experience worsened cases of shingles.

Shingles happens when the varicella-zoster virus (VZV)—the same virus that causes chickenpox—becomes active again in the body. After someone has chickenpox, the virus stays in the body in a resting state. It can become active again later in life, especially if the immune system is weak or under stress.

There have been a few reports of people getting shingles after receiving a COVID vaccine, but research shows that COVID infection itself may be more likely to trigger shingles.

The photo in the tweet shows a common case of shingles. It usually appears as a painful rash that follows a nerve path on one side of the body. There are many photos of shingles as severe taken before 2020–before the COVID vaccine existed.