Correcting this week’s misinformation: week of September 17, 2026

The CDC has warned that, compared to last year, more people across the country may have been exposed to rabies, and more are getting treatment to prevent the disease. When should someone get a rabies vaccine?

• Rabies spreads through infected animal saliva and is almost always deadly once symptoms begin.
• Quick treatment with rabies vaccines and other medicines is needed to prevent the disease after exposure.
• If you may have been bitten or scratched, especially by a bat, seek medical advice right away.

Rabies is a virus that attacks the brain and nervous system. It affects mammals and is almost always deadly once symptoms begin. The virus spreads through the saliva of an infected animal. It can enter the body through a bite, a scratch, broken skin, or the eyes, nose, or mouth. Bats, raccoons, skunks, and foxes are common carriers, but almost any mammal can get rabies.

Rabies can be prevented after an exposure, but you must act quickly. Treatment includes a series of rabies vaccines and, in some cases, a medicine called rabies immune globulin. The virus slowly travels through the nerves toward the brain. Once it reaches the brain and symptoms begin, treatment is usually too late. This can take weeks, months, or even a year. The timing depends on factors such as where the bite happened and how much virus entered the body.

It is not always easy to know whether you were exposed. If a wild animal bites or scratches you and cannot be safely captured, contact a healthcare provider or local public health department right away. The same is true if a pet bites you and there is no proof that it received a rabies vaccine. An animal may need to be watched or tested for rabies. Testing usually requires examining the animal’s brain after it has died.

Bat bites can be very small and hard to see. And they don’t usually turn you into a vampire. If you wake up in a room with a bat or cannot rule out direct contact, ask a healthcare provider or public health official what to do. If you may have been exposed to rabies, do not wait for symptoms. Get medical advice as soon as possible.

Also, vaccinate your pets.

In an interview on Not Just Football with Cam Heyward (starts around 1m47s), Aaron Rodgers suggests COVID vaccines do not work because vaccinated people can still catch and spread the virus, and he claims health officials misled people about that.

• No vaccine prevents every case, and protection can differ by vaccine.
• COVID vaccines lower the risk of severe illness, hospitalization, and death.
• Health advice changed as scientists learned more about the new SARS-CoV-2 virus.

No vaccine prevents every case of disease. Some vaccines, such as the measles vaccine, give most people strong and lasting protection. Protection from COVID vaccines starts strong but can decrease over time. This happens because the virus changes and can sometimes avoid parts of the immune response. COVID vaccines may not prevent every infection, but they still lower the risk of severe illness, hospitalization, and death.

When COVID vaccines first became available, studies found that they offered strong protection. COVID was caused by a new virus, so scientists could not know exactly how the virus or vaccine protection would change over time. Health officials updated their advice as they learned more. However, COVID became highly political, which made clear public communication more difficult.

Vaccine injury lawyer Aaron Siri claims Amish children do not get vaccines and are much healthier than other children, 2 in 5 of whom have a long-term health problem.

• Many Amish families vaccinate their children, and Amish children can have autism.
• Studies find no link between vaccines and autism or other health problems.
• Vaccinated children gain protection from serious diseases.

The claim that Amish people do not vaccinate is not true. Amish communities are not all the same. Each family makes its own healthcare choices. Vaccination rates are often lower in Amish communities, but they are not zero. In one Ohio study, 68% of Amish parents said all their children had received vaccines. Only 14% said their children had received no vaccines.

The claim that Amish children do not have autism is also false. One study screened children in an Amish community and found children with signs of autism. Autism may be harder to identify in some Amish communities. Families often value privacy, and autism screening and support services may be harder to find.

Researchers have also studied autism in children who have received no vaccines. They found no evidence that autism is more common in vaccinated children.

Large studies provide even more evidence. A Danish study followed more than 650,000 children for about 10 years. It found that the MMR vaccine did not raise the risk of autism. This was also true for children who had an autistic sibling. Other studies from Germany, the Philippines, and U.S. healthcare systems have compared vaccinated and unvaccinated children. These studies have not found that vaccines make children less healthy. The clearest difference is that vaccinated children are better protected from the diseases vaccines prevent.

Vaccines give the immune system a safe practice lesson. They contain antigens, which are harmless parts of or copies of germs that teach the body what to fight. Children meet thousands of antigens through the air, food, and things they touch. Vaccine antigens do not overload the immune system.

Studies have found no evidence that vaccines cause more allergies, autoimmune diseases, or developmental conditions. Vaccines do protect children from infections that can damage the lungs, harm the brain, or cause death.

The evidence is clear: Amish children can be vaccinated, and Amish children can have autism. Studies comparing vaccinated and unvaccinated children do not show that vaccines cause autism or make children less healthy. Vaccination protects children from serious diseases, while avoiding vaccines offers no proven health benefit.