With the global effort to immunise 8 billion people leaving the station the challenges involved are immense.
Two of the many crucial strategies needed are of particular importance. To generate the ‘herd immunity’ needed to deprive the virus of hosts in which it can multiply we will need 70% of the community to be vaccinated. We also need communities to achieve this figure over a short period of time as antibodies levels generated by a vaccine will inevitably wane over time. We need high levels of protective antibodies in 70% of the community simultaneously.
To achieve this goal, distribution efficiency will be critical but so will the population’s confidence that the vaccine is safe and effective. As if the pandemic itself is not challenging enough, we must reckon with the dangerous misinformation campaigns from anti-vaccination advocates around the globe aimed at destroying the needed confidence.
While a relatively small, though not insignificant, number of people are irrevocably opposed to any form of vaccination, most damage is done in producing a lack of confidence that results in hesitancy that can make it more difficult to quickly immunise sufficient people to have vaccines maximally effective.
With the Covid virus killing more than 3000 people daily in the US, the country’s Surgeon General addressing the imminent rollout of a Covid vaccine noted: “A vaccine is of no use if you are dead and no use to you if you don’t get vaccinated.” The latter point was important as some 42% of Americans are voicing reluctance to be vaccinated.
Watching Fox News in the US is a masochistic exercise, for frustration levels are almost unbearable as the channel’s hosts pour out dangerous misinformation about the public health efforts needed to contain the Covid epidemic. There can be no doubt that their sycophantic promotion of President Trump’s politicisation of the epidemic has contributed to the US having the most lethal epidemic in the world.
In a display of irresponsibility, outrageous even for Murdoch’s Fox news channel standards, Fox personality Laura Ingraham recently interviewed a ‘retired microbiologist’ with no established credibility, who warned viewers that Covid vaccines are too dangerous to use and urged avoidance. “Why is that?” asked Laura, obviously enjoying the controversial moment. “Well,” said the microbiologist, “your producer told me the interview was limited to three minutes and it would take about 15 minutes to explain my concerns.”
Laura apologised for the brevity required and promised a follow-up interview with more time. Not a hint that she was distancing herself from this dangerous nonsense. A few days later she was discussing vaccination with arch Trump supporter Sean Hannity and told her unfortunately large audience that she would not be willing to be vaccinated.
There is nothing new about anti-vaccination propaganda. During the height of the smallpox epidemic in the UK at the end of the 19th century, charlatans were warning of the damage the vaccine would cause and offered ‘alternative’ but useless options. Major newspapers in London at the time were delighted when they could report that a doctor, a very vocal critic of vaccination, had in fact had himself vaccinated!
Today, as the Covid-19 pandemic roars across the planet, scaring people away from being vaccinated is particularly dangerous. While a few countries such as our own have used successful, if at times draconian, public health measures to contain the local epidemic, weariness with this approach or an erroneous ‘fingers crossed’ reliance on herd immunity developing and containing the epidemic tell us that vaccination is the only remedy likely to end the Covid scourge.
The dangerous misinformation being peddled by anti-vaccination advocates includes claims that the Covid vaccines contain mind-altering substances (or even microchips) that will make it easier for governments to control their citizens. Then there is the frequent suggestion that the vaccine will trigger autism and autoimmune diseases. The enormous popularity and involvement of so many in various forms of social media have provided anti-vaxxers with the ideal tool they wanted to influence millions of people.
The epidemic of misinformation, often delivered with much vitriol, has led to the creation of an organisation called the ‘Centre for Countering Digital Hate’ (CCDH). The principals involved have strongly criticised social media companies for allowing the anti-vaccine movement propaganda to remain on their platforms. Their research shows that social media accounts held by so-called anti-vaxxers have increased their following by at least 7·8 million people since 2019. They report that “The decision to continue hosting known misinformation content and actors online left anti-vaxxers ready to pounce on the opportunity presented by coronavirus”. The WHO has warned of an ‘infodemic’ of false information about COVID-19 spreading online.
The CCDH notes that 31 million people follow anti-vaccine groups on Facebook, with 17 million people subscribing to similar accounts on YouTube. They have calculated that the anti-vaccine movement could realise US $1 billion in annual revenues for social media firms. As much as $989 million could accrue to Facebook and Instagram alone, largely from advertising targeting the 38·7 million followers of anti-vaccine accounts.
A recent report found that around one in six British people were unlikely to agree to being vaccinated against Covid-19. A similar proportion had yet to make up their mind. The survey found that individuals who relied on social media for information on the pandemic were more hesitant about the potential vaccine. A recent six-country study reported that around a third of respondents had seen “a lot or a great deal of false or misleading” information about COVID-19 on social media during the previous week.
It is reasonable to anticipate that widespread vaccination will be available to the Australian public by April or May of 2021. Although we have high rates of vaccination we must not presume that Australians are immune to anti-Covid vaccine propaganda. In May rallies around Australia organised by the Australian branch of ‘Millions March Against Mandatory Vaccinations’ saw, in Sydney, a crowd of several hundred voicing their concerns about, not just vaccinations, but the dangers of 5G wireless technology, the coronavirus lockdown and general government overreach into people’s lives.
Clearly, we need to start our own pro-vaccination advocacy now emphasising both the safety and the importance of a massive uptake of the opportunity to be vaccinated. A media blitz from the Federal Department of Health on the benefits of Covid vaccination that would include social media platforms should be an urgent priority.
Professor John Dwyer AO, is an Immunologist, Emeritus Professor of Medicine at UNSW and for many years heavily involved in efforts to improve the delivery of healthcare in Australia. He was the founder of the Australian Healthcare Reform Alliance.
Comments
14 responses to “The global effort by anti-vaxxers to destroy confidence in Covid-19 vaccines”
As a scientist and supporter of vaccination in general, I would have more confidence in the rushed process of certifying the safety and effectiveness of Covid-19 vaccines if the expert proponents were franker about the possible risks. Vaccines do have adverse effects, even though they may be uncommon, but there is no mention of that in Prof. Dwyer’s article. The attitude of many expert proponents seems to be: “Don’t discuss adverse effects openly, because that would encourage the antivaxxers”. To the contrary, I suggest that more honesty would reduce support for those who oppose all vaccinations.
It’s the mainstream media that takes distrust in the community to the next level. It’s the MSM that is constantly proven to be the conveyor of fake news. Saddam’s WMDs, Osama did 911, there is no election fraud in the US and that vaccines are safe and effective. All bullshit. The MSM is not reporting on the thousands of adverse reactions now being documented after the administration of the new Covid vaccine across North America. The MSM is not informing the public about what a MRNA vaccine really is. It’s a vaccine that will program the recipient’s DNA, i.e., the recipient will be genetically modified.
The Covid vaccine is experimental, with no longitudinal studies to demonstrate its effectiveness nor safety. The recipients of the vaccine are no more than lab rats. The UQ vaccine contained two proteins from the HIV virus. How’s that for a trust builder? Big Pharma has a criminal rap sheet that would make Al Capone blush. They’ve been fined tens of billions of dollars over the last 20 years for just about everything from fraud, false claims, off-label promotion and kick backs. Big Pharma owns medical science. One example is the removal of research papers, without any accompanying explanation, that produce negative data on vaccine safety from medical journals after review and publication (Grant 2016).
With a gravy train for the political class straight to the boardrooms of Big Pharma, there can be absolutely no conflict of interest. A former staffer with NSW senator Bill Heffernan, Nick Campbell, is executive director of corporate and governments affairs for Johnson & Johnson … David Miles, a former advisor in John Howard’s office, is the communications boss at Pfizer. Brendan Shaw, head of Medicines Australia, the peak group for drug manufacturer, previously worked with the then minister for small business and consumer affairs Craig Emmerson. Then there is Catherine McGovern,a former staffer in SA Liberal senator Nick Minchin’s office, who now works for GlaxoSmithKline….(Ferguson and Johnston 2010: online)
The ‘No jab no play’ and ‘No jab no pay’ campaigns were entirely constructed by the Murdoch Press with no actual public health issues evident but with the end result being increased profits to Big Pharma and opening up career paths for the political class. It has been flagged that you will not be able to travel internationally without a Covid vaccination nor retain employment. You can bet that soon you will not be able to travel domestically; enter a shopping centre, theatre or restaurant or receive any social welfare. Non vaxxed people will be unemployed, sitting in their home confines ordering food online given that even their credit card will work if they are not vaccinated, given that they will have any money at all. Vax or starve.
This level of coercion is repugnant to Article 6 of the UNESCO
Universal Declaration on Bioethics and Human Rights (UDBHR) (2005) and the Nuremberg Code. That’s how far down the road to fascism we have come. We have arrived.
There is a shortage of vaccines and will be for some time. In these circumstances it would be better not to counter the antivaxers and leave enough for sensible people
I also think better to ignore anti-vaxxers
and waiting in Western Australia until there seems a significant outbreak of Covid 19.
by then hopefully one or more vaccines will have shown their safety, efficacy and general usefulness
as a kid I had measles and I think my siblings also had mumps (before vaccines existed?) so I guess I am still immune to them
I think my mother made sure we were protected from polio
In my twenties and later I remember travelling carrying a yellow fever card and more recently protecting against malaria because I was on a trial drug for a minor but reccurrent cancer this last year I had my first flu shot which had no side effect…. prior to that, except for the cancer chemo and travelling drugs, I have rarely needed drugs at all in my 78 years.
The most recent report on Covid 19 from the coal face that I have seen comes from Dr Negin Halizadeh at the Feinsten Institute in New York. She is treating severely ill patients with corticosteroids and a drug called tocilizumabufen. She is a lung specialist, like the first doctor in New York I saw reporting from bedside, and she notes the same symptoms. Instead of protecting the individual, the immune system turns on its host. Steroids calm down the immune system. It is still early days in the science of Covid 19 but Prof Dwyer need not worry. People are scared and will form queues to take a vaccine. I won’t be joining them.
I take comfort from the fact that to marshal a rent a crowd of several hundred, one needs to muster the ill-informed on several unrelated issues not supported by evidence.