CDC says vaccinated people can spread COVID, Twitter calls that 'misleading'

Update: Twitter later edited their guidance to read that "False or misleading claims that people who have received the vaccine can spread or shed the vaccine (or symptoms, or immunity) to unvaccinated people" would be labeled as "misleading."

The US Centers for Disease Control have stated outright that even those who are fully vaccinated can transmit COVID-19 to others, but for Twitter, any mention of that fact is misinformation and can get you suspended or even booted from the platform.

"If you are fully vaccinated and become infected with the Delta variant, you can spread the virus to others," the CDC states plainly on their website. "People with weakened immune systems, including people who take immunosuppressive medications, may not be protected even if fully vaccinated."

The CDC found that: "Fully vaccinated people with Delta variant breakthrough infections can spread the virus to others. However, vaccinated people appear to spread the virus for a shorter time: For prior variants, lower amounts of viral genetic material were found in samples taken from fully vaccinated people who had breakthrough infections than from unvaccinated people with COVID-19. For people infected with the Delta variant, similar amounts of viral genetic material have been found among both unvaccinated and fully vaccinated people. However, like prior variants, the amount of viral genetic material may go down faster in fully vaccinated people when compared to unvaccinated people. This means fully vaccinated people will likely spread the virus for less time than unvaccinated people.

But Twitter has other ideas about what is acceptable to say, and these facts are not among them.

In Twitter's rules and policies, they say that "When Tweets include misleading information about COVID-19, we may place a label on those Tweets that include corrective information about that claim. In cases where we determine there is potential for harm associated with the misleading claim, we will disable the ability for others to Retweet, Quote Tweet, or engage in other ways to prevent the spread of the misleading information. These tweets will accrue 1 strike in accordance with our strike policy..."

So what qualifies as "misleading information"? Anything that talks about face masks being breeding grounds for bacteria, suggestions of treatments that may not be approved, such as home remedies, etc., or, most notably:

"False or misleading claims that people who have received the vaccine can spread or shed the virus (or symptoms, or immunity) to unvaccinated people."

"False or misleading information that misrepresent the protective effect of vaccines, to make claims contrary to health authorities. Claims that misrepresent research or statistical findings pertaining to the severity of the disease, prevalence of the virus, or effectiveness of widely accepted preventative measures, treatments, or vaccines."

Mediaite writes that "The change was made on Dec. 2, according to Wayback Machine archives retrieved by Reclaim the Net. The policy contradicts the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidance, which notes the “risk for SARS-CoV-2 infection in fully vaccinated people cannot be completely eliminated as long as there is continued community transmission of the virus."