Correcting this week’s misinformation: week of August 6, 2026

From TikTok to the New York Post, critics claim Fauci knew COVID might have come from a lab, hid risky U.S.-funded research in Wuhan, exaggerated its danger, and pushed vaccine rules. They say he did this even though the shots did not always stop the virus from spreading. They say that by pleading the Fifth, he proved these claims were true.

• Evidence favors an animal source for COVID.
• Early vaccine approval focused on safety and preventing illness.
• Later studies found that vaccination also reduced the spread of the virus.

COVID-19’s exact origin has not been proven. Scientists have not found clear signs that the virus was made or grown in a lab. Early cases were linked to a market that sold live animals, and two early forms of the virus may point to more than one jump from animals to people. Bats also carry many similar viruses, but the exact source is still not known for sure.

The first COVID vaccine studies did not prove the shots stopped the virus from spreading. In December 2020, the FDA said there was not enough information to know if vaccinated people could still spread the virus to others. The vaccines were approved because studies showed they were safe and helped prevent illness. Stopping the spread was seen as an extra benefit, but it was not required for approval. Researchers often study that effect after a vaccine is approved.

In an interview with Dana Bash, RFK Jr. suggested that measles outbreaks happen mostly in religious groups and that the MMR vaccine wears off enough to help cause outbreaks. He also said COVID-19 vaccines don’t help children.

• Measles spreads very easily, but two vaccine doses offer strong protection.
• Most measles cases occur in people who are not vaccinated or whose vaccine status is unknown.
• Evidence shows that COVID vaccines can also help protect children.

Measles spreads very easily. It’s one of the most contagious diseases we know. You can be ten stories above someone with measles and still catch it.

If the vaccine waned, or stopped working over time, vaccinated people would get measles as often as unvaccinated people. That is not what we are seeing.

One dose of the measles vaccine is about 93% effective. Two doses are about 97% effective. The number of measles cases matches this. About 93% of measles cases are in people who are not vaccinated or whose vaccine status is unknown. About 3% had one MMR shot, and only 4% had two shots.

RFK Jr. has also said that COVID vaccines do not help children. However, many studies show that they do provide benefits.

After reports that Dr. Anthony Fauci had a blood clot that damaged part of his lung sometime after a COVID vaccine, anti-vaccine activists like RFK Jr. claimed the vaccine caused it.

• Fauci’s diary appears to describe a real lung problem, but it does not say what caused it.
• Pulmonary infarction is not a known side effect of the Moderna vaccine.
• Large studies have not found a higher risk of lung blood clots after Moderna vaccination.

The Secretary of Health and Human Services should not guess about someone’s illness without examining that person. RFK Jr. is not a doctor and did not examine Fauci, so he cannot know what caused Fauci’s health problem.

Fauci’s diary says that on June 19, 2021, he had a pulmonary infarction. And we know he received his first COVID vaccine in December of 2020.

Pulmonary infarction happens when blood flow to a part of the lung is blocked. The diary also says he was treated with Eliquis, a blood thinner. However, the diary is not a full medical record. His doctors have not made a public statement about what caused the problem.

Pulmonary infarction is not a known side effect of the Moderna vaccine. The FDA warns about rare cases of myocarditis after Moderna vaccination. These cases usually begin within one week. Fauci’s problem happened about five months after his second shot.

Large studies have not found a higher risk of blood clots in the lungs after Moderna vaccination. One French study looked at 46.5 million adults. It found no link between the Moderna or Pfizer vaccines and lung blood clots during the three weeks after the first two doses.

A 2024 review said there was not enough evidence to prove or rule out a link between the Moderna vaccination and blood clots. Still, the studies did not find a higher risk of blood clots in the lungs.