Boris Johnson has promised to crush online vaccines disinformation that could scupper the chances of beating Covid-19 in the next few months.
His pledge comes as the UK prepares for mass use of the Pfizer/BioNTech coronavirus vaccine.
It is hoped by the government that millions of us will decide to be vaccinated.
Boris said that online “anti-vaxxers” were a problem and promised to deal with them.
Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer has also called for emergency legislation to fine social media firms who keep publishing ‘fake news’ about Covid and vaccination.
In Slovakia, hailed just a few weeks ago as an example to the world for its mass-testing programme, more than a quarter of people questioned said they had no faith in jabs.
Slovakia has ordered 2.44 million shots.
Research published in September showed that a fifth of the UK population would also probably refuse a Covid ‘cure’.
Because of the – sometimes insane – claims on sites like Facebook and twitter, hoards of people around the world believe Covid was created deliberately and has killed far fewer people than reported.
Others say it is a hoax and that the world is run by a secret cabal.
A YouGov-Cambridge Globalism Project and Guardian survey of 26,000 people in 25 countries has found massive scepticism about vaccine safety.
Among the most widely believed conspiracies is that the death rate of the virus has been “deliberately and greatly exaggerated”. For instance 60% of respondents in Nigeria said this was definitely or probably true, along with more than 40% in Greece, South Africa, Poland and Mexico. About 38% of Americans, 36% of Hungarians, 30% of Italians and 28% of Germans feel the same.
An How are you, Slovakia? survey for the MNFORCE, Slovak Academy of Sciences and the Seesame agency, showed vaccine hesitancy was directly linked to trust in the government.
The Health Ministry has said the first Slovak batch will be administered to health care workers. Everyone else should get their turn in spring next year.
Social media is undoubtedly a breeding ground for Fake News promoted by science deniers and conspiracy theorists. And their unfounded claims have spiralled out of control in a world already fearing for the future
He said: “It is not going to help you if you don’t take it. Low uptake will almost certainly mean restrictions will last longer.”
But while Boris almost begged people to get the jab, he stressed that it isn’t mandatory, adding that compulsion was “not part of our culture or ambition”.
So, what are the biggest myths online about Covid and why are they just wrong and dangerous?
The Covid vaccine is another Thalidomide scandal
But Thalidomide was marketed as a treatment for morning sickness in pregnant women in the 1950s and 60s. It later caused birth defects – but experts say it cannot be compared to a vaccine.
Thalidomide went into the bloodstream whereas the Covid vaccine gives antibodies to fight off the virus.
Thalidomide was never properly tested. And a consultant for the Thalidomide Society said the comparisons were “insulting”.
Dr Ruth Blue, consultant for the Thalidomide Society, said: “The outcome of Thalidomide completely changed the way drugs are tested and are passed.”
Regulators cut corners
However, since the virus began circulating, scientists have been working 24/7 to find a treatments.
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has been able to test the vaccine faster than usual because clinical trials have over-lapped.
Bill Gates is using the vaccine to microchip the world
There is no evidence that Mr Gates or anyone else is trying to microchip people through the use of a vaccine and Mr Gates has denied these claims.
The theory originates from a study that was funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation which states the team developed an “approach to encode medical history on a patient” by including a small amount of dye with a vaccine.
But it never experimented on humans and did not include any hardware technology, such as microchips.
One of the first participants in a vaccine trial has died
This is false and Dr Elisa Granato is still alive.
The false claims of her death prompted her to tweet that she was “very much alive” and “having a cup of tea”.
Vaccines alter your DNA
The vaccines do not alter your DNA. They comprise mRNA that gives the body instructions on how to make proteins on the surface of the virus.
The Oxford vaccine contains parts of aborted foetus
Facebook has been awash with this myth after a user falsely claimed the vaccine uses MRC-5 cell lines, which were “originally developed from research deriving lung tissue of a 14-week-old aborted Caucasian male foetus”.
AstraZeneca said its vaccine was not developed using MRC-5 cell lines but does use a different cell strain, taken from a female foetus aborted in the 1970s.
The cells do not make it into the final jab – so they would not be injected into a patient. They are cell lines that have been grown in a laboratory from a primary cell culture originally taken from a foetus.
Evan Burgess
Why have you picked the most straw man arguments circulating as why people are hesistant to take vaccines? The vaccine court has paid out billions of dollars of compensation in the US, vaccine spread polio is rife in Africa and the side effects of vaccines are sent to GPs in the UK, which Vernon Coleman read out and include but are not limited to heart attacks, strong auto immune issues and many many more. Perhaps if you want to pursue your hobby you can try to avoid your best impression of a 50 center.
Evan Burgess
There is a lot happening but if you focus on only the ridiculous or disengenous it isn’t really helping. Vaccines are a very contentious subject where one side, the one pushing for them, uses the same logic as the doctors cutting out tonsils and dentists fillilng people with lead. It doesn’t mean that vaccines don’t have a place, however it’s a one size fits all strategy and it isn’t right for most people.
A typical example is in the world of animals, cat and dog owners are constanstly sold junk vaccines to their pets. The pets have reactions to them and the next year the vet tries to sell it again, “He went really ill last time.” “ah, shit happens. you don’t want your dog to die because you didn’t get a fresh vaccine though do you?”
It is a guilt trip and it has been proven that vaccines don’t work as they are supposed to (gotta love the nasal spray that was so hailed, then a few years later derailed as having a 3% success rate whilst also infecting people with the disease) and seasonal flus alleged 30% success rate.
If you simply watch the first reports about nasal spray flu vaccines, then a few years later you see the stupidity and there is not reason not to apply that to that logic to other vaccines.
There are multiple serious issues, and what you’re writing about is serving to make anyone with pertinent points get lumped into a category of “anti science” when vaccines aren’t very scientific in the first place.
They are essentially hit or miss, and medicine is at such a poor level that it cannot answer the question “who would actually benefit from this and who is this negative or pointless for?”
Again, you go read through a few of the court cases that were paid out for by the US vaccine court (because manufacturers are not culpable, why would that be if vaccines are so great?) and perhaps add a serious point not microchips and world domination.
Evan Burgess – well, we publish stories every day giving an overview of what’s going on in the world – i’ve been doing it for a long time and news is about looking at things from different points of view … i personally am uncertain about vaccines but if it is possible that they might help us all out of this crisis – no matter who or what created it – then so be it. There is no doubt that the internet is filled with negativity and lies, one reason Trump adopted it instead of traditional media – discredit the press and go to social media where it is a lot simpler to confuse and bamboozle people…. we write a lot on Trump too – and broadcast and make TV programmes! If you want to have your say, pm me and let’s see if you want a voice and a chance to share your opinion.