The FDA Did Not Say Unvaccinated People Are More Knowledgeable About Vaccines

Rebecca Bowen

Health

27th September 2021

The FDA Did Not Say Unvaccinated People Are More Knowledgeable About Vaccines

The statement was taken out of context (Getty Images).

The Claim

An advisory board for the FDA said that unvaccinated people are more educated on the vaccine.

News posted on

Emerging story

Last week, social media users began sharing a screenshot of a tweet from a deleted account which reads, “FDA advisory board said Friday unvaccinated are more educated on the vaccine than most people who have gotten it, and ‘we cannot adequately refute their concerns, which should make us all very uncomfortable.’”

A supporting image within the article body

Misbar’s Analysis

Misbar’s investigation could find no instance of anyone from the FDA stating this. It was taken out of context from a similar statement by Dr. Joseph Fraiman, who is an Emergency Medicine Physician in New Orleans. “I know many think the vaccine-hesitant are dumb or just misinformed but that’s not at all what I’ve seen,” he said. “In fact, typically, independent of education level, the vaccine-hesitant I’ve met in the ER are more familiar with vaccine studies and are more aware of their own COVID risk than the unvaccinated.”

He said this during a presentation on September 17, in front of an FDA Advisory Committee for Vaccines and Related Biological Products, which took place virtually. He said he works in a mostly unvaccinated area and is “asking for help to reduce vaccine hesitancy.”

Dr. Fraiman went on to discuss why larger studies are needed to show the vaccine-hesitant how few risks are presented by getting vaccinated. Dr. Fraiman’s words were taken out of context to support vaccine hesitancy, which is diametrically opposite of his intention. As this was done intentionally, this viral post is disinformation, rather than misinformation — it attempts to intentionally deceive the reader.