Facebook to debut educational pop-ups on vaccines

Facebook just announced that it’s launching a new pop-up to warn people about possibly misleading vaccine information. The feature will appear on Facebook and Instagram — which is owned by Facebook — when people search for vaccine-related information or visit pages related to vaccines. U.S.-based users will be directed to the CDC for more information, while non-U.S. users will be directed to a WHO site. The news comes amid attempts from governments and private companies to curb the spread of vaccine misinformation and hesitancy. Last week, Pinterest announced that vaccine-related searches would only yield results from public health agencies. And yesterday, the California state Senate sent to the governor's desk a contentious bill that places increased scrutiny on medical exemptions allowed by physicians.