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Natalie Winters@nataliegwinters · Sep 7, 2026

EXCLUSIVE: The CDC secretly bankrolled pro-vaccine podcasts with millions of dollars. The mission: “change hearts and…

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Summary

The CDC spent millions of dollars funding pro-vaccine podcasts and media campaigns designed to increase COVID-19 and flu vaccination rates, including shows hosted by former CDC employees that featured behavioral persuasion techniques and recruited influencers, barbers, and church leaders to promote vaccination messages.

Summarized by ThreadOut AI from the full thread. May miss nuance — read the thread below.

  1. #1

    EXCLUSIVE: The CDC secretly bankrolled pro-vaccine podcasts with millions of dollars. The mission: “change hearts and minds to improve COVID-19 and flu vaccination rates” and “promote trust in the COVID-19 vaccines.” Here’s what taxpayers funded. 🧵

  2. #2

    Here are actual episode titles from the taxpayer-backed lineup: ●“Building Vaccine Trust in the Rural South” ●“Nurses Turn Skepticism Into Action” ●“Identifying Trusted Messengers” ●“Leveraging Nurse Volunteers to Combat Vaccine Misinformation”

  3. #3

    One show, REACHing for Vaccine Equity, was hosted by TWO former CDC staffers: Yabo Beysolow and Lisa Jacques-Carroll. The podcast was supported through a $3.33 million award funded entirely by the CDC.

  4. #4

    Another $2.425 million CDC project included a 16-episode vaccine-confidence series on At the Core of Care. One episode featured TWO CDC employees discussing behavioral techniques to increase vaccine confidence. Another focused on “trusted messengers.”

  5. #5

    Guests described using barbershops, radio personalities, Instagram influencers and even comedians to promote vaccination. One guest described church leaders “promoting positive vaccination messages from their pulpit.”

  6. #6

    The nurse-led project also reported: ●63 training sessions ●29 paid social-media ads ●Vaccine-education materials for nurses working with children The podcast series was one part of a broader effort to persuade Americans to get vaccinated.

  7. #7

    Read the full investigation, with the shows, funding disclosures and episode receipts: nataliegwinters.substack.com/p/revealed-cdc…