CDC Funded Pro-COVID Vaccine Podcasts and Ad Campaigns

Nonprofit organizations received millions of taxpayer dollars from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to support vaccine-confidence initiatives that included podcasts, paid social media advertisements, and other advertising campaigns designed to influence public attitudes toward COVID-19 shots and encourage Americans to comply with federal COVID shot recommendations and mandates. Among the initiatives were podcasts hosted by former CDC employees and promotional campaigns aimed at addressing what public health officials describe as “vaccine hesitancy.”^{1 2}

One of the podcasts, REACHing for Vaccine Equity, was produced by the Association of Immunization Managers (AIM) and hosted by Yabo Beysolow and Lisa Jacques-Carroll, two former CDC employees who worked on vaccine education and promotion programs. Another federally funded podcast series, At the Core of Care, was produced by the National Nurse-Led Care Consortium (NNCC) and featured nurses discussing vaccine confidence and community outreach.³

“Promoting Positive Vaccination Messages from the Pulpit”

According to independent reporting by journalist and former White House correspondent Natalie Winters, podcast episodes focusing on persuading people to get COVID shots featured dialogue with guests who suggested opportunities for promoting vaccination in everyday life, including “barbershops, church leaders, radio personalities, fraternities and sororities, billboards, buses, Instagram influencers and even comedians.”⁴

In one episode, a guest discussed promoting vaccination during church services. The transcript of the episode states, “We’ve also been engaged with church leaders and faith leaders who were promoting positive vaccination messages from their pulpit.”⁵

Winters wrote:

These were not balanced programs debating vaccine policy. Their stated purpose was to increase vaccine confidence, promote COVID-19 and flu shots and teach community groups how to persuade hesitant Americans.

CDC Funding Disclosures Likely Missed By “Ordinary Listeners”

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) advises influencers and advertisers to clearly and conspicuously disclose financial relationships that could affect how consumers evaluate endorsements. On social media platforms such as Instagram, disclosures may be as simple as “#ad” or a visible “Paid Partnership” label. The FTC also advises that disclosures should be difficult to miss and included alongside the promotional content itself, rather than buried in footnotes, lengthy descriptions, or external links.⁶

Although the FTC’s endorsement guidelines primarily address commercial advertising and may not govern federally funded public health campaigns, Winters reported that funding disclosures were not always apparent to podcast audiences. “The funding was disclosed—but largely in grant notices, episode footers and nonprofit reports that few ordinary listeners would ever read,” Winters wrote. She also reported that the podcast’s official outro identified CDC cooperative agreement 6NH23IP922569-05-03 and included the statement, “AIM controls all content on this podcast.”⁷

Winters continued:

The taxpayer-backed episode lineup read like a vaccine-persuasion playbook: “Building Vaccine Trust in the Rural South,” “Nurses Turn Skepticism Into Action,” “Identifying Trusted Messengers,” and “Leveraging Nurse Volunteers to Combat Vaccine Misinformation.”⁸

White House Announced $10 Billion Investment in COVID Shot Access and Confidence

The federally funded campaigns were launched as part of a broader effort by the Biden Administration during the COVID pandemic to increase COVID vaccination rates. In March 2021, the White House announced a “historic” $10 billion investment to “expand access to COVID-19 vaccines and build vaccine confidence in hardest-hit and highest-risk communities.”⁹

Of the $10 billion, $3 billion was allocated specifically to “bolster broad-based vaccine distribution, access, and administration efforts.” The taxpayer-funded initiative, made available by the American Rescue Plan and the Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act, provided funding to 64 jurisdictions to “launch new programs intended to increase vaccine access, acceptance, and uptake.”¹⁰

Federal Funding Included Door-to-Door Campaigns, Transportation to “Mass Vaccination” Sites

The federal funding requirements explicitly permitted partnerships with community-based organizations to increase vaccine acceptance and uptake, stating:

75% of the total funding must focus on specific programs and initiatives intended to increase vaccine access, acceptance, and uptake among racial and ethnic minority communities; and, 60% must go to support local health departments, community-based organizations, and community health centers.

Examples of programs the funding was intended to support included door-to-door outreach to encourage vaccination and facilitate appointments with local health centers, vaccine outreach and education for low-income individuals seeking food and housing assistance, and transportation for people with disabilities or limited mobility to a “FEMA-supported mass vaccination site.”¹¹

$3.33 Million CDC Award Used to Fund Podcasts with Few Listeners

According to the Association of Immunization Managers’ (AIM) 2023 annual report, its REACHing for Vaccine Equity podcast, which released eight episodes that year, recorded just 920 listeners. AIM disclosed receiving $3.33 million in CDC funding for the broader initiative, although the organization does not specify in its annual report how much of that funding was spent on producing or promoting the series.¹² The podcast’s Apple Podcasts page displayed only one rating as of Oct. 15, 2026.¹³
Other podcasts associated with federally funded vaccine-confidence initiatives included a series by the National Nurse-Led Care Consortium (NNCC) called At the Core of Care, which featured nurses as “trusted messengers” and averaged just over 300 listeners per episode. Episodes centered on building trust, combating “vaccine myths,” and behavioral techniques for increasing vaccine confidence.¹⁴

CDC-Funded Podcast Featured Criticism of People Who Declined COVID Shots

In one At the Core of Care episode, nursing professor Ali Tayyeb referred to people arriving at hospitals as “anti-vaxxers, anti-maskers” while describing challenges for nurses treating unvaccinated COVID patients. In the episode, titled “Burnout or Burndown? How to Support Health Professionals,” he criticized people who chose not to get COVID shots for occupying hospital beds that otherwise could have been made available for other patients.¹⁵

Tayyeb said, in the episode, “[Unvaccinated people are] taking the place of someone who is having a heart attack, stroke, or chronic condition that they need hospitalization for. You could be in a car accident. You may need to go to the ICU, but now the ICU is filled with people who are unvaccinated. They chose not to be vaccinated and now they are in the ICU as COVID patients.”¹⁶

According to Winters’ reporting, the NNCC received $2.425 million under a cooperative agreement with the CDC which, in addition to the podcast, included training sessions, paid social media ads, and vaccine education materials for nurses working with children.¹⁷

Federal Audit Fails to Assess Effectiveness of Vaccine Confidence Building Campaigns

A 2024 U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) Office of Inspector General audit examined CDC oversight of nearly $244 million awarded to 64 jurisdictions for implementing vaccine-confidence building strategies funded through the American Rescue Plan. However, the report did not evaluate the overall effectiveness of the campaigns in changing vaccination attitudes or behavior, nor did it include any sort of comprehensive accounting of the White House’s broader $10 billion vaccine-access and confidence initiative. It also did not establish the amount spent specifically on podcasts or paid media to sway public opinion and increased vaccination uptake.¹⁸

“It funded outside nonprofit media designed to persuade Americans, elevate selected “trusted messengers” and increase vaccine confidence,” Winters stated. “Calling these programs pro-vaccine is not interpretation. It was their stated mission.”

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