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Unvaccinated Americans defend a litany of myths, explain their reluctance to vaccinate, and baffle health officials to combat another influx of coronavirus cases fueled by a more contagious delta strain.
At the White House, the concern is so great that President Joe Biden has publicly blamed Facebook Inc. for helping spread the misinformation.
“Whoever wants, starting with Bill Gates inserting a chip into the vaccine, I’ve heard it all. That’s silly,” said Tom Keller, CEO of Ozarks Health Care in southern Missouri, a region with low vaccination rates that is currently at the epicenter of the US delta outbreak.
“People listen to social media instead of listening to doctors,” he says. “A character with a million followers becomes a vaccine expert out of nowhere.”
Just as the US Biden administration is about to extinguish COVID-19, a shadowy disinformation pandemic threatens to prolong the crisis. By penetrating social media platforms like a virus, the miasma of doubt, rumor, and mere lies has taken over the imagination of Americans delaying vaccinations, slowing down the vaccination campaign for the American population.
Biden himself could no longer hide his frustration last week by accusing Facebook Inc. and other social media giants of “killing people” by allowing the distribution of posts spreading lies about the virus and vaccines.
July 21 At a dinner hosted by CNN, Biden said that “what we are trying to do is take all possible paths, public, private, governmental, non-governmental, to try to discover the real facts.”
He later softened his stance on Facebook when the company retaliated against him with a blog post, citing data revealing that the platform had actually helped increase vaccination rates and reduce consumer suspicions. In response, Mr. Biden cited a report from the Center to Fight Digital Hate, a non-profit organization with offices in London and Washington, which found that 12 key anti-vaccine individuals and organizations were responsible for up to 70 % of Facebook Content that discourages vaccination against COVID-19.
Facebook doesn’t kill people, Biden said. – People are being killed by these twelve, spreading misleading information that self-reported followers are hurting themselves. That is bad information. “
He added that “instead of accepting criticism in person,” Facebook should “do something with this misleading information.”
Vaccination slowdown in the US
The pre-vaccination campaign since April has contributed to a sharp slowdown in vaccination rates and has forced the government into what Biden calls walking door-to-door; some Republican leaders have even described the comment as a conspiracy. Although more than half of the US population has already received at least one dose of the vaccine, a recent Bloomberg analysis shows that among the least vaccinated US counties, the vaccinated population is only about 28 percent.
The political divide has also emerged: Polls reveal that Republicans are far less vaccinated than Democrats.
The conservative media and some Republican politicians are reinforcing misinformation or quietly feeding doubts about vaccines by refusing to vaccinate themselves or by admitting that they are vaccinated.
Several Fox News hosts, including Sean Hannity, urged viewers to get vaccinated after being criticized for previously broadcasting shows that downplay the threat of COVID-19 and question the need and safety of vaccines.
American surgeon Vivek Murthy has published guidelines on vaccine misinformation.
“Today we live in a world where misleading information represents a direct and covert threat to the health of the population of our country,” he said at a press conference at the White House.
About 150 of the most popular online antivirus accounts since 2019. December to 2020 has attracted more than 10 million followers on social media in December, mainly on Instagram and YouTube, reports CCDH.
Murthy has accused big social media companies of essentially designing their products to help spread misinformation.
“Modern technology companies have allowed misleading information to poison our information space without taking any responsibility towards consumers,” he emphasized. – They allowed people to deliberately spread misleading information, in other words disinformation, to ensure an impressive audience reach. They offer certain product features, such as “like” buttons that reward us for sharing emotionally charged content rather than actual content, and their algorithms provide even more opportunities to press those buttons, increasingly engaging us in the mud of misinformation. ” .
Ron Klain, director of Biden’s headquarters, recently criticized Facebook Inc. CEO Mark Zuckerberg for the role of the social media platform in spreading misleading information about vaccines.
“I would say that platforms should do more, especially Facebook,” he said. Klain told the New York Times. “I have no doubt that a lot of misleading information about vaccines comes from Facebook posts, and we are talking about a life and death situation.”
In a blog post on Saturday, Facebook said that more than 2 billion people worldwide viewed “authoritative information” about COVID-19 and vaccines using its platform, and that 3.3 million Americans used its reporting tool. Vaccine Search to find a vaccination site and get vaccinated.
“When we see misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines, we take action against it,” said Guy Rosen, the company’s vice president of integrity.
He added that the company had eliminated 18 million cases of COVID-19 misinformation since the start of the pandemic and reduced the visibility of 167 million messages “detected by our network of research partners.”
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Disagreement between the parties
Social media posts can reinforce existing questions about vaccines. The Kaiser Family Foundation conducted a survey of unvaccinated adults on June 30. reported that 53 percent. 53% of those surveyed believe that vaccines are too new and 53% worried about their side effects.
About 43 percent. responded that they simply do not want to be vaccinated, 38 percent. does not trust the government, 38 percent. they don’t think they need a vaccine, and 26 percent. stated that he does not trust vaccines at all.
A smaller percentage of people said they did not know where to get the vaccine, worried that they would not be able to go to work after being vaccinated, or feared having to pay for the vaccine. The vaccine is offered to all US residents free of charge.
Republicans, rural people, youth, and people of color are among the most cautious about COVID-19 vaccines, but demographics alone won’t explain the hesitation – or how to deal with them.
According to a Kaiser poll, two-thirds of Democrats live in households where everyone is vaccinated, and 39 percent. Republicans live in homes where no one has been vaccinated.
“Not everyone hesitates for the same reasons,” said Timothy Callaghan, a rural health student at Texas A&M University. – The most important thing we can do now is understand people’s beliefs. And then explain what is true and what is not. Ignoring human beliefs would be a very bad idea. “
For many undecided residents, the issue of vaccines is related to a fundamental mistrust, says Callaghan. This means that government messages on public health are often less effective than advice from a good friend, family member, or community leader.
Another survey by Kaiser found that people who were initially skeptical about the vaccine eventually got vaccinated because they saw that their friends or family did not experience any side effects after the vaccine.
Others were persuaded by friends or family, or changed their minds after talking to their doctor.
However, in communities where fewer people are vaccinated overall, family members are less likely to feel encouraged and encouraged.
“It just came to our attention then. Vaccine resistance is deeply ingrained in their beliefs,” says Callaghan. To change people’s opinions, it is now necessary to “restore trust and rebuild relationships,” he added.
Corrosive influence of social media
In pre-vaccination areas, social media has a corrosive effect on the entire vaccination campaign. Big social media is in no rush to fight unsubstantiated claims about COVID-19 and vaccines, and even if they step in, they are often too weak.
Instagram, for example, shut down famous vaccine opponent Robert Kennedy Jr. in February. account, but he keeps showing up on Facebook (which he owns on Instagram), and his organization runs on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube.
The Springfield Health Facebook account is trying to dispel absurd suspicions, including the alleged vaccine itself and the spread of the virus.
“Frankly, I don’t know how to trace the sources because we don’t see them,” says Katie Towns, deputy director of the Springfield-Green County Health Department in Missouri. “I don’t even know how to hold onto some of these things.”
To further complicate the situation, misleading information spread by vaccine opponents began to overlap with misinformation spread by conspiracy theories against the government and the far right, including the QAnon movement.
Misleading information about the effects of coronavirus vaccines on children particularly resonates with QAnon supporters, who believe prominent Democrats are involved in complex conspiracies to traffic children.
Some of the misinformation spread by vaccine opponents is just bizarre; For example, the widespread bullying of TikTok suggests that vaccines can be magnetized. In the Midwest and South regions, where large numbers of people avoid vaccination, questions are circulating about whether the vaccine does not affect fertility (there is no evidence) and whether it cannot (cannot) replace human DNA.
Politicians could intervene. The impact would be stronger if the most prominent Republicans supported vaccination, collaborated with local leaders, and stopped spreading misleading information themselves, says Matt Motta, a political science professor at Stillwater University in Oklahoma.
On the other hand, in many cases, the non-intervention of politicians benefits.
For example, K. Towns of Springfield says that one of the city’s most successful vaccination drives took place at a fire station – Americans still trust firefighters.
In Alabama, one of the least vaccinated states, health official Scott Harris says pharmacists, doctors and religious leaders are among the best vaccination lawyers.
“People who are not in a rush to get vaccinated or are actively opposed to vaccines,” he says, “just have absolutely no trust in anyone, including politicians.”
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