Correcting this week’s misinformation: week of July 16 2026

Anti-vaccine lawyer Aaron Siri has a new video claiming that vaccines have not saved as many lives as experts say. He argues that the estimates are wrong and says that better sanitation and antibiotics deserve more credit.

One of the biggest problems with Siri’s argument is that he misunderstands what the study is measuring. The study does not say that more than a million people died between 1994 and 2023 and were saved by vaccines.

Instead, it follows millions of children born during those years and estimates how many illnesses and deaths vaccines will prevent over their entire lives. For example, a baby protected from hepatitis B today may avoid liver cancer or liver failure many decades from now. Those future lives saved are included in the estimate.

Better sanitation, cleaner water, healthier food, improved medical care, and vaccines all helped save lives from infectious diseases. Clean water and sanitation were especially important for diseases spread through dirty food or water, like typhoid and severe diarrhea.

But many diseases dropped much faster after vaccines became available. For example, polio cases fell sharply after the polio vaccine was introduced, and measles cases dropped from hundreds of thousands each year to very low numbers after children began getting vaccinated routinely.

The World Health Organization also says that widespread diphtheria vaccination greatly reduced both the number of people who got diphtheria and the number who died from it, even in countries with very different levels of sanitation and healthcare.

Anti-vaccine activists are claiming that the COVID vaccine caused Lindsey Graham’s aortic dissection, which led to his death over the weekend.

It is very easy to claim that a vaccine caused someone’s death without any proof. In this case, Lindsey Graham got a vaccine at some point in the past and later had an aortic dissection, which is a tear in the wall of the aorta, the body’s largest blood vessel, which carries blood from the heart to the rest of the body.

But there are some major problems with saying the vaccine caused it. If he received a COVID-19 booster shot at all, it was likely almost a year earlier, when the updated vaccine became available in August. Also, aortic dissections happen most often in men over 60 years old.

The medical examiner, the doctor who investigates causes of death, found that the aortic dissection was caused by arteriosclerotic cardiovascular disease. This disease happens when fatty deposits, called plaque, build up inside the arteries over many years. The plaque makes the arteries hard and stiff, which can weaken the wall of the aorta and increase the risk of a tear.

RFK Jr. recently announced plans to expand the list of injuries covered by vaccine court. That has people asking: What are the real risks of getting a COVID vaccine?

COVID vaccines, like any medicine, can have side effects. Most are mild and go away within a few days. Some people have a sore arm, fever, headache, or feel tired after vaccination. Serious allergic reactions are rare, but they can happen, which is why people are asked to wait for a short time after getting vaccinated.

Scientists have carefully studied the safety of COVID vaccines. They have found one rare but real risk with the mRNA vaccines: myocarditis, which is inflammation of the heart muscle. This happens most often in teenage boys and young men after vaccination. Most people recover quickly with treatment. Studies also show that getting COVID itself is much more likely to cause myocarditis than getting the vaccine.

Some people noticed small changes in their menstrual cycles after vaccination. Their periods might come a little earlier or later, or the flow might be a little heavier or lighter. Studies of thousands to millions of women found that these changes were usually mild and returned to normal within one or two cycles. Researchers have found no evidence that COVID vaccines cause infertility.

COVID vaccines have also been carefully studied during pregnancy. Large studies involving more than 149,000 pregnant women found no increased risk of miscarriage, stillbirth, or other pregnancy problems after vaccination. In contrast, getting COVID during pregnancy increases the risk of serious illness for both the mother and baby and may increase the risk of miscarriage.

Researchers have also looked for links between COVID vaccines and autoimmune diseases, which happen when the immune system mistakenly attacks the body’s own tissues. After studying millions of vaccinated people, scientists have found no evidence that the vaccines increase the risk of developing autoimmune diseases. In fact, COVID infection itself appears to raise that risk more than vaccination.

Scientists have also studied whether COVID vaccines increase the risk of Bell’s palsy, a temporary weakness of the muscles on one side of the face. Most studies found no increase in risk. Some reviews found a very small increase, but the risk of Bell’s palsy after COVID infection is much higher than after vaccination.

Overall, the evidence shows that COVID vaccines carry a few rare risks, but for most people, the benefits of vaccination far outweigh the risks.