Idaho Doctor Makes Baseless Claims About Safety of COVID-19 Vaccines
SciCheck Digest
A viral video features a doctor making dubious claims about COVID-19 vaccines and treatments at a forum hosted by Idaho’s lieutenant governor. Dr. Ryan Cole claims mRNA vaccines cause cancer and autoimmune diseases, but the lead author of the paper on which Cole based that claim told us there is no evidence mRNA vaccines cause those ailments.
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More than 565,000 people have died from COVID-19 in the U.S., but two effective mRNA vaccines are now available. Some treatments for certain patients, such as those hospitalized or receiving oxygen, have also been approved or authorized by federal agencies, and they continue to be studied.
Since the pandemic began, however, politicized social media posts have featured doctors, some looking authoritative in white coats, spreading dubious claims about both vaccines and treatments for COVID-19. The most recent example in this misinformation niche is Dr. Ryan Cole, who owns a medical lab in Idaho.
Cole is featured in a video that has amassed more than a million views. He makes a variety of claims, some of which we’ve addressed before.
The was recorded while he spoke at a on March 4 hosted by Idaho’s lieutenant governor, Janice McGeachin, a Republican, and it
