There is no shortage of myths and misinformation surrounding COVID-19 as even experts struggle to sort fact from fiction during the pandemic. According to Dr. Perri Klass, a noted pediatrician and writer, parents are confused about how to keep their children safe amidst a flood of misinformation on social media. Some people bleach their produce, she says, or avoid all outdoor activities, and some don’t think the virus is a real threat.

In an article she wrote for The New York Times, Klass says her colleagues are hearing both “excess of concern and excess of lack of concern.” Dr. Dipesh Navsaria, a pediatrician and associate professor of pediatrics at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, says “There’s a definite fear that seems to go in two very different directions. ‘My child is absolutely fine and doesn’t need to do any of these things,’ or ‘my child is going to die if they spend five minutes within 20 feet of a stranger.’”

Pediatricians say that one of the big concerns for parents is the safety of the COVID-19 vaccine. People who have had no qualms about vaccinations in the past are now questioning their doctors about the safety and speed of vaccines in development. This has spread to mistrust over vaccines in general, causing what experts term “vaccine hesitancy.”

Dr. Kelly Fradin, M.D., author of Parenting in a Pandemic, told Klass that she’s hearing from parents who are worried that isolation hurts a child’s developing immune system. She says parents wonder if masking and social distancing will prevent their children from getting frequent infections common to kids under normal group settings which would boost their overall immunity.

Navsaria had a patient ask him about using mouthwash to prevent COVID-19. He indicated that the study in question was performed in a laboratory setting on other viruses, and not COVID-19.

“I pointed out to her, this is a respiratory virus, I hope no one’s pouring mouthwash in their nose, and she stopped and thought about it — it was fairly obvious to this layperson that it doesn’t make sense,” he said, according to the Times.

Other myths about COVID-19 and children have been debunked by the experts at Johns Hopkins Medicine on their website.