Health misinformation on Facebook was viewed 3.8 billion times in the past year, peaking during the COVID-19 crisis, a report suggests.

Activist group Avaaz, which conducted the research, said Facebook posed a “major threat” to public health.

Doctors added false claims about vaccines on the social network could limit the numbers prepared to have a Covid jab if one became available.

Facebook said the findings did “not reflect the steps we’ve taken”

In a statement the firm said: “We share Avaaz’s goal of limiting misinformation. Thanks to our global network of fact-checkers, from April to June, we applied warning labels to 98 million pieces of Covid-19 misinformation and removed seven million pieces of content that could lead to imminent harm.

“We’ve directed over two billion people to resources from health authorities and when someone tries to share a link about Covid-19, we show them a pop-up to connect them with credible health information.”