Correcting this week’s misinformation: week of October 29, 2026

For years, a conspiracy theory has claimed that people get vaccines without knowing it. A real program gives vaccines to children who are already asleep under anesthesia for medical care. This has stirred up more claims about secret shots. Some vaccine opponents are angry that the program exists. Lawyer Aaron Siri has even made an ad for his law firm aimed at people who believe they got vaccines under anesthesia without their knowledge.

• CHOP offers flu vaccines to children already asleep for another procedure, which can help those afraid of needles.
• Parents are always asked if they want their child vaccinated.
• Vaccine fevers and serious anesthesia reactions usually follow different patterns.

Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia has a program called “Close Your Eyes; We’ll Immunize.” It offers flu vaccines to children who are already getting anesthesia to help them sleep through another medical procedure. This can help children who are very afraid of needles. Parents must consent before their child gets a vaccine.

The program does not give children vaccines without their parents’ knowledge or permission. Getting anesthesia to sleep through a procedure does not mean a child will automatically get a vaccine. Vaccination is a separate choice that parents make.

One anesthesiologist raised a concern about the program. Vaccines can cause side effects, such as fever. The doctor worried that a vaccine fever could be confused with malignant hyperthermia, or MH. This is a rare but dangerous reaction to certain anesthesia medicines.

However, MH and vaccine fevers usually follow different patterns. MH can start during surgery or soon afterward. A fever from a flu vaccine usually starts about 12 to 24 hours later. Doctors also watch for other signs of MH, such as muscle stiffness, a fast heartbeat, and changes in breathing. Timing can help doctors find the cause, but they cannot rely on timing alone. A fever during or after surgery always needs careful attention.

A new article from anti-vaccine researchers, The McCullough Group, suggests that a person who has been vaccinated with an mRNA vaccine can spread it to others through breast milk and possibly saliva, breath, or sweat, and that the ingredients keep spreading between cells inside the body to cause harm.

• The article about COVID vaccine shedding has not been peer-reviewed.
• COVID vaccines cannot make a whole coronavirus that can multiply and spread.
• There is no evidence that everyday contact with vaccinated people causes vaccine side effects.

The paper shared by the McCullough Group is a preprint posted on Zenodo, a website for sharing research. Zenodo is not a scientific journal. Posting a paper there does not mean other experts have checked its methods or findings (https://help.zenodo.org/docs/deposit/about/).

There is no evidence that mRNA COVID vaccines spread through everyday contact or cause vaccine side effects in nearby people. The vaccines give cells instructions to make just one part of the coronavirus: the spike protein. They do not include the instructions needed to build the whole virus. The spike protein cannot multiply on its own or cause a COVID infection, so it cannot spread from person to person the way the virus does. Tiny amounts of vaccine mRNA have been found in some breast milk samples shortly after vaccination, but this does not show contagious “shedding” or harm to babies.

In a video, Brian Hooker and Polly Tommey claim that girls vaccinated against HPV had more ovarian problems and were more likely to catch HPV.

• Reports of ovarian problems after vaccination do not prove the vaccine caused them.
• A Danish study of nearly 1 million girls and women found no link between HPV vaccination and early ovarian failure.
• Studies in Sweden, Scotland, and the U.S. show that HPV vaccination helps prevent cervical cancer.

Hooker claims that a Florida database shows more ovarian problems and HPV infections among girls who received the HPV vaccine. However, he has not shared a study or explained how he analyzed the data, so we cannot check his claim. And we aren’t going to take his word for it, either.

A few reports of ovarian problems after vaccination do not prove that the vaccine caused them. These problems can also happen in people who have never received the vaccine. When millions of people get vaccinated, some will develop an unrelated health problem afterward by chance. To check for a link, researchers must compare vaccinated and unvaccinated people and account for other differences between the groups. Individual reports can raise questions, but larger studies are needed to answer them.

Those larger studies offer reassuring findings. A Danish study of nearly 1 million girls and women found no link between HPV vaccination and ovaries failing too early.

Research also shows strong protection against cervical cancer.

1. A Swedish study of nearly 1.7 million girls and women found an 88% lower cancer rate among those vaccinated before age 17. 
2. In Scotland, no cases of cervical cancer were recorded during the study among women vaccinated by age 13.
3. A U.S. study found that states with higher HPV vaccination rates generally had larger drops in cervical cancer rates.

Don’t take our word for it. Check the data yourself.