We were surprised that two anecdotes from 2023 continue to bring a large amount of traffic to our website in 2025. The first is about 8-year-old Yonatan Ehrlichman, son of a pediatrician who had a heart attack after receiving four vaccines.

The social media posts connecting this boy’s death to vaccination use a trick called appeal to emotion. It tries to link a very sad death to vaccines, even though there is no evidence that vaccines caused it.

News reports explain what really happened. The 8-year-old boy went into cardiac arrest at home and nearly drowned in a bathtub. He was taken to the hospital but died a few days later. Doctors and news sources did not say vaccines caused his collapse or death.

The only link to vaccines is that the child had been vaccinated at some point in the past. But millions of children are vaccinated every year. Millions upon millions of children under age 12 have received COVID vaccines. Being vaccinated does not mean a vaccine caused a medical emergency.

There is no medical evidence showing that a vaccine caused this child’s cardiac arrest or death. Claiming otherwise adds fear without facts.

The second story involved the case of Alexis Lorenze. Alexis claimed that after receiving three vaccines for meningitis, pneumonia, and tetanus, she experienced a severe reaction, including swelling and pain, which she believes worsened her condition, Paroxysmal Nocturnal Hemoglobinuria (PNH).

Alexis has a rare blood disorder called Paroxysmal Nocturnal Hemoglobinuria (PNH). In this condition, the immune system attacks the body’s own red blood cells. Red blood cells carry oxygen throughout the body, so when they break apart, serious health problems can happen. These problems can include dangerous blood clots and damage to organs, such as the liver.

Based on her TikTok videos and medical records, Alexis had been feeling unwell for several weeks before she went to the hospital. She says doctors would not begin treatment unless she received certain vaccines. But why would vaccination be required when someone is already seriously ill?

The reason is connected to how PNH is treated. Common PNH treatments weaken the immune system, which makes it much harder for the body to fight infections. Because of this, doctors routinely give vaccines against especially dangerous bacteria, such as meningococcal and pneumococcal infections, before treatment begins. These infections can be life-threatening for people with weakened immune systems, so preventing them is standard medical care.

Alexis believes the vaccines caused her injuries because she developed a rash within about 10 minutes of receiving them. However, reactions caused by vaccines usually do not happen that quickly. A more likely explanation is that she tested positive for parvovirus B19, a virus known to cause rashes, fatigue, and problems with blood cells.

Her lab results also show she already had blood-clotting problems before the vaccines were given. Blood clotting issues can lead to bruising and skin changes, which may explain the symptoms she later noticed.

Believe it or not, a twenty-some-year-old rumor that a secret CDC meeting was held to figure out how to hide the harms of thimerosal in vaccines is still trending.

Over the years, scientists have carefully studied vaccines to make sure they are safe. One topic that often comes up is thimerosal, a preservative that was once used in some vaccines. Thimerosal contains ethylmercury, which is not the same as the harmful mercury called methylmercury that can be found in some fish. Ethylmercury leaves the body quickly and has been used safely since the 1930s in vaccines, medicines, and contact lens solutions.

In 2000, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) held a two-day meeting at the Simpsonwood Conference Center. The purpose of the meeting was to review early data from the Vaccine Safety Datalink. Scientists wanted to see if there might be any link between thimerosal and neurological problems in children. The meeting included experts from public health groups, universities, and vaccine companies. It was a normal scientific meeting where researchers discussed data and asked questions.

Years later, the meeting became a focus of the anti-vaccine movement. In 2007, the U.S. Senate HELP Committee reviewed these claims. The committee found that the accusations had little or no truth. They concluded that the CDC did not interfere with studies, did not pressure scientists to change results, and did not hide data. Claims that the meeting was meant to cover up a link between vaccines and autism were also not supported by evidence.

Since then, many large studies have been done. These studies show that thimerosal does not increase the risk of autism. In fact, thimerosal was removed from routine childhood vaccines in the United States by 2001. Even after its removal, autism diagnosis rates continued to rise. This shows that thimerosal was not the cause. The increase in diagnoses is mostly due to better awareness, improved screening, and changes in how autism is defined.

Scientists now know that autism is linked to genetics and brain development before birth, not vaccines. Research has also found that brain differences related to autism begin during pregnancy, long before any childhood vaccines are given.