Incorrect information is being disseminated online from reasonable cell phones and loose Facebook plans used by millions of others in the Philippines, convincing many others to reject polio and other deadly diseases.
Immunization rates for young people have fallen in the country, from 87 to a penny in 2014 to 68 cents, resulting in a measles outbreak and the recurrence of polio last year.
A highly politicized crusade that led to the withdrawal of the Dengvaxia dengue vaccine in 2017 is widely noticed as one of the drivers of the fall.
But fitness experts also point to an explosion of incorrect vaccine-related information that has undermined confidence in all vaccines.
Online misinformation drives influential vaccine movement in Philippines Photo: AFP/Ted ALJIBE
In the northern city of Tarlac, government nurse Reeza Patriarca watched in horror at the effects of Facebook posts falsely claiming that five others had died after receiving an uns specified vaccine.
The messages, which have been shared thousands of times, were posted online in August, weeks after a World Health Organization-backed polio vaccination crusade was relaunched.
Tarlac’s government and the National Department of Health issued statements that no one had died, however, the Patriarchate said the incorrect information turned out to be more powerful than the fact for many parents.
“This has spread like madness. At the time of the week, more and more people refused,” said Patriarch, 27, whose aptitude administered the vaccine in nine neighborhoods.
Cheap mobile phones and loose Facebook plans have played a major role in spreading incorrect information Photo: AFP/Ted ALJIBE
“Some other people believed the explanation (of the government), others did not. We couldn’t force them. “
Tarlac’s false report even deterred others from getting vaccinated against the flu in the nearby town of San José del Monte.
Health worker Rosanna Robianes said the other older people who lined up at her center to take her picture didn’t show up.
“They said it on Facebook that there was a report that other people who had been vaccinated in Tarlac had died,” he said.
Public aptitude worries an outbreak of primary infectious disease next year Photo: AFP / Ted ALJIBE
Interest in online anti-vaccine content increased pandemic as scientists around the world rushed to expand effective inoculation.
The number of subscribers to anti-vaccine equipment and Facebook pages in the Philippines has increased from 190,000 to approximately 500,000, according to the latest knowledge of the CrowdTangle social media tracking platform.
The pages have attracted 8 million interactions (reactions, comments and actions) since the onset of the pandemic.
Graphs showing decreased vaccination rates against polio and measles in the Philippines Image: AFP / John SAEKI
April Villa, a 40-year-old mother and mother of two children from the northern province of Laguna, belongs to the anti-vaccine movement.
Villa follows the Facebook “NO VACCIN – FILIPINAS”, created in July and which has more than 2,000 members.
He said he joined the organization to “get information that our education formula may never teach. “
“It’s poisonous to the human body, it kills herbal antibodies,” Villa told AFP, explaining his perspectives on vaccines and adding that he would refuse an injection of Covid-19 if available.
Most of the millions of Internet users in the Philippines have a Facebook account, according to British media consultancy We Are Social.
Almost the entire site on their cell phones, where Facebook gives loose knowledge to a limited edition of its platform and others decided on websites.
Many poorer Filipinos rely on Facebook’s Free Basics plan to use the Internet, trapping them in the social media giant’s bubble.
Facebook’s leading executive, Mark Zuckerberg, defended the service, saying it gives others who may not have a different opportunity to use the Internet.
Posts about President Rodrigo Duterte flooded Facebook in 2016 and it was noted that playing a key role in their election victory, and officials say it has also been a boon for vaccine groups.
Wilda Silva, head of the fitness department’s vaccination program, said fake news about vaccines “travels faster and more widely than the right information. “
“Once this factor of concern has been exploited, people’s minds are temporarily replaced and concern remains in their minds for a long time,” said Silva, who is involved in a primary epidemic of preventable diseases next year.
Public fears may also be the adoption of a Covid-19 vaccine, even among those who help with vaccines, in a country with the highest infection rates in Southeast Asia.
“I accept 100% vaccines as true,” said Jett Bucho, from a poor community in San José del Monte, after her one-year-old daughter was vaccinated against polio.
But the 26-year-old said online conspiracy theories that a coronavirus vaccine could be used only to implant fleas and humans had sown doubts in her mind.
“On Facebook, if you stay on the move, you see it,” he says.
“It’s scary. “