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FACT BRIEF

Did the US government secretly pay media outlets to promote COVID-19 vaccines and suppress negative coverage?

By Ed Payne
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NO

The Biden administration's initiative to strengthen COVID-19 vaccine confidence is not a secret; it has been openly discussed in legislation, announcements and press releases.

A bill signed into law in March 2021 included $1 billion "to strengthen vaccine confidence in the United States." Federal allows such efforts to utilize "television, radio, the internet and other media and telecommunications technologies."

In April 2021, the Department of Health and Human Services announced that ads encouraging Americans to get vaccinated began to run.

There is no conspiracy to suppress negative coverage of vaccines — only to "combat misinformation about vaccines, and disseminate scientific and evidence-based vaccine-related information." COVID-19 vaccines continue to be regarded as safe and effective by medical authorities.

See a full discussion of this at Lead Stories
This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.
Sources
US House of Representatives Public campaign on the importance of vaccinations
US Department of Health and Human Services U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Launches Nationwide Network of Trusted Voices to Encourage Vaccination in Next Phase of COVID-19 Public Education Campaign
ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTOR
Lead Stories
Lead Stories is a fact checking and debunking website at the intersection of big data and journalism that launched in 2015. It scouts for trending stories, images, videos and posts that contain false information in order to fact check them as quickly as possible. It actively monitors the fake-news ecosystem and doesn’t wait for reader tips or reports before getting started on a story.
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About fact briefs published on Gigafact
Fact briefs are short, credibly sourced summaries that offer “yes/no” answers in response to claims found online. They rely on publicly available, often primary source data and documents. Fact briefs are created by contributors to Gigafact —a nonprofit project looking to expand participation in fact-checking and protect the democratic process. See all fact briefs here.