Vaccine misinformation a top-ten threat to health

Vaccination against the Covid-19 disease led to the activation of a group in society called anti-vaccines. Although it has always existed, during recent months its role has been more noticeable  says La Prensa

Since 2019, the World Health Organization (WHO) has the movement on the list of the 10 greatest threats to health. The list includes dengue and cancer.

The misinformation shared ranges from: “vaccinated people will die in two years,” to: “fatal side effects with the Covid-19 vaccine is roughly 10 times higher than the death rate from the infection”.

Panamanian researchers maintain that most of the beliefs of this anti-vaccine group are based on unverifiable anecdotal testimonies and conspiracy theories.

Paulino Vigil De Gracia, of the National Research System of the National Secretariat of Science, Technology, and Innovation, explained that there are multiple criteria that a person must have to evaluate a scientific article before sharing.

Aspects that must be taken into account when it was published, which journal it was published in, or whether it was published in an indexed journal and its impact.

Vigil De Gracia explained that there are many predatory magazines, some false and others that only publish with payment. If it is one of these, the content will surely be far from the truth.

You also have to know if the article is a preprint –that has not been reviewed by experts–; check if the results show comparisons; analyze the results very well, and see if there are statistically significant differences.

Anti-vaccine groups take advantage of health crises to attract attention and access publications with a low level of evidence and are usually unaware of critical reading of the medical literature.

The anti-vaccines think that everything is black or white and science is not like that. A vaccine can be effective, even very effective, and have rare side effects. This in science is normal, but for the anti-vaccine, that vaccine is no longer useful, said Vigil De Gracia.

He cited as an example that the AstraZeneca vaccine, which is close to 80% effective, also has the risk of thrombosis for every 80,000 vaccinated. This very rare side effect is used massively by anti-vaccines and possibly that information and not the positive effect that reaches many people, he said.

Anti-vaccines appeared when Edward Jenner (late 18th century) carried out the first immunization in history against the smallpox virus. At that moment voices appeared opposing them out of misinformation and fear.

These groups grew stronger from an article by Dr. Andrew. Wakefield, published by the scientific journal The Lancet, on 12 children vaccinated against measles who developed autistic behaviors and severe intestinal inflammation. The author proposed the vaccine that had been used as a possible cause, so many parents were afraid and stopped vaccinating their children. In 2004, the Institute of Medicine in the United States concluded that there was no scientific evidence for the hypothesis that Wakefield had proposed and The Lancet rejected the work.

Vigil De Gracia argued that anti-vaccines can be identified because they respond with questions, denigrate medical and scientific organizations, use articles published in indexed or predatory journals, or withdrawn or retracted articles. They also have web pages (which make them look serious) and a network that spreads their manipulated information very quickly.

In addition, they constantly repeat the same, such as that vaccines kill, that they are experiments, that they have not been tested in such a condition, that they produce severe complications and have a great impact on health over time. Everything is false, he said

Xavier Saéz-Llorens, infectologist, pediatrician, and advisor to the Covid-19 Vaccine Research Consortium, stressed that to stop misinformation, education, participation of the scientific community and vaccine experts in social networks and media spokespersons are required; the commitment of the media to the verification and dissemination of reliable information; and the censorship of digital platforms that broadcast hoaxes and false news.

Saéz-Llorens recommended that the population seek reliable international and national scientific sources; verify information with experts before sharing it on networks; and calibrating the credentials of the spokespersons (their academic degree, research skills and evidence-based medicine, number and impact of publications on the subject).

He explained that the anti-vaccine groups are organized, they use trained people to ensure good articulation of their message, they are subsidized by organizations lacking academic prestige.

He stressed that they focus on discrediting the safety and benefit of vaccines and attack the pharmaceutical companies that produce these vaccines. These individuals are not necessarily opposed to other scientific advances and expert consensus in other medical fields, he said.

La Prensa has received emails in which people argue that the side effects of the Pfizer and AstraZeneca  vaccine killed more than 10,000 people due to the messenger RNA vaccine and the numbers of notifications of adverse reactions from February to March have increased fivefold.

One of the readers maintains that the messenger RNA vaccine is discouraged because it is experimental.    This has been propagated in  Newsroom reader comments.