The fight against misinformation on Covid-19 vaccine

The new year offers some hope. Hope that the government could soon get the Covid-19 vaccines and make them available to people. We must prepare ourselves with accurate, science-based information from credible websites endorsed by the Vaccine Safety Net (VSN; https://www.vaccinesafetynet.org/). Started by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2003, the VSN’s mission is to help internet users find reliable vaccine safety information tailored to their needs. The Philippine Foundation for Vaccination (https://www.philvaccine.org/) is one of the 94 member-websites in 41 countries.

Vaccine hoaxes and misinformation are all over social media. In October 2019, The Lancet journal published “Vaccine misinformation and social media.” In its report, the WHO no longer considered the United Kingdom to have eliminated measles. Confidence in vaccines wavered not only there, but also in Ukraine. Vaccine hesitancy could be due to conspiracy theories, general distrust, belief in alternatives, or concerns about safety. The WHO defines this as a “delay in acceptance or refusal of vaccines despite availability of vaccination services.”