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Tuesday, Mar. 22, 2022

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

Ed Payne, Lead Stories

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.

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