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| - In December 2025, a rumor spread that Irish actor Liam Neeson had narrated a documentary that made the case against vaccines using discredited science.
For example, podcast host Keith Olbermann posted a link to an article making the claim, adding "Goodbye, Liam Neeson" (archived):
Another post on X called the claim "AI slop," referring to junk news content generated with artificial intelligence (AI).
The rumor stemmed from a story by Important Context, a newsletter that describes its work as covering "stories related to money-in-politics, mis/disinformation, and public health, is dedicated to exposing injustice and bad actors." It is a project of the Accountability Journalism Institute based in Brooklyn, New York. The article included a clip from the supposed documentary and listed claims the film makes to back its case against vaccines.
The claim that Neeson narrated the film was true.
The website for the documentary, "Plague of Corruption," credited Neeson for the narration. We also found a clip of the documentary in which Neeson is heard narrating it with his characteristic voice and accent. The website dates the documentary to 2023 and says it is based on the book "Plague of Corruption" by Judy Mikovits, a researcher who came to prominence during the COVID-19 pandemic and whose work reputable scientists have discredited.
Over email, a representative of Neeson confirmed the actor narrated the film but said Neeson does not share the documentary's sentiment, writing, "he did not shape the film's editorial content." The spokesperson added:
We all recognize that corruption can exist within the pharmaceutical industry, but that should never be conflated with opposition to vaccines. Liam never has been, and is not, anti-vaccination. His extensive work with UNICEF underscores his long-held support for global immunization and public-health initiatives. He did not shape the film's editorial content, and any questions about its claims or messaging should be directed to the producers.
The representative evoked Neeson's work with UNICEF as proof that the actor stands in favor of vaccination. This is consistent with a 2022 statement Neeson made for World Immunization Week in his capacity as UNICEF g
In a video for UNICEF that same year, Neeson thanked Jonas Salk for the vaccine against poliomyelitis and Katalin Karikó for her "life's work on mRNA that helped us fight COVID." Karikó is a Hungarian-born biochemist at Penn University whose decades-long research on therapeutic ribonucleic acid (RNA) — and especially messenger RNA (mRNA) — led to the unusually rapid development of the first mRNA vaccines against COVID-19 (Moderna and Pfizer), whose success opened a new area of immunology therapeutics, including against cancer.
This acknowledgement directly contradicts Neeson's narration in the documentary. One clip the makers of the documentary posted on YouTube Shorts features Neeson saying that XMRV, a virus linked to chronic fatigue syndrome, was introduced in vaccines through "mouse tissue," and that "chronic fatigue syndrome was the biggest health crisis since HIV":
We asked Neeson's spokesperson why the actor would participate in an anti-vaccination documentary if he still supports vaccines. We will update this report should we receive a response.
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