A web of impunity and disinformation amid elections in Africa
Women in Libya are speaking out against human rights, Amnesty International is investigating the impact of internet shutdowns in Iran, and disinformation is influencing elections in Africa. These are some of the articles we've rounded up for you this week, along with our usual dose of COVID-19 explainers written by our in-house medical expert, Dr. Seema Yasmin.
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Your COVID-19 questions
Journalist and medical doctor, Dr. Seema Yasmin shares weekly highlights from Meedan's public health journalism tool, learnaboutcovid19.org.
What does it mean for Pfizer's vaccine results to be 90% effective?
Dr. Seema says: "Before we get into the weeds about what effective means compared to efficacious, a vaccine that is 90% “effective,” protects 9 out of 10 people from infection. But effective does mean something different than efficacy when it comes to vaccines. When we’re talking about how a vaccine fared in the context of a clinical trial of a few thousand people (in this case around 43,000), we’re talking about it’s efficacy in that controlled environment. Vaccine effectiveness, on the other hand, refers to how well a vaccine works in the real world, when it’s available to hundreds of thousands of people who are not enrolled in clinical trials. I mention this because the recent results tell us information about this vaccine’s efficacy, not its real-world effectiveness. The data is also based on an interim analysis, meaning the trial is not yet finished and these are early, incomplete data that have not been peer-reviewed. Beyond the challenges of trying to not reach assumptions based on an interim analysis, the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine has some logistical challenges. It requires two shots of vaccine — an initial shot followed by a booster shot — which can make it more difficult to get people fully immunized. It also has to be stored at -94 degrees Fahrenheit and goes bad within a few days of being thawed. An ideal vaccine would need just one dose and not require freezing or even refrigeration. As proof of concept that a vaccine can be developed for COVID-19, the Pfizer/BioNTech early data is a good sign that this is possible, but the trial still has to be competed and the data analyzed and peer-reviewed before it can go through the approval process. And then real-world data that tells us the true effectiveness of the vaccine, can be collected and studied." (Read more on what our experts say here)
Is the flu vaccine more important during the COVID-19 pandemic?
Dr. Seema says: "In a word: yes. Most of the 50 million or so people who died during the 1918 flu pandemic are now thought to have died from secondary bacterial infections which occurred as a result of the initial flu infection. Flu leaves your body more vulnerable to other infections, so getting flu this year would make you more susceptible to COVID-19. We are already seeing reports of people who were infected with both viruses. While the flu vaccine does not directly protect against the new coronavirus, it provides indirect protection by lowering your risk of contracting flu and keeping your body strong and more resilient. Fewer flu cases also protects health care systems from becoming overburdened." (Read more on what our experts say here)
Highlights from emerging economies
A Web of Impunity: The killings Iran's internet shutdown hid (Amnesty International)
A joint open-source investigation between Amnesty International and the Hertie School, in partnership with the Internet Outage Detection and Analysis (IODA) project has helped identify 304 of the countless men, women, and children who had been killed in November 2019 in Iran during anti-government protests amid a government-mandated internet shutdown.
"In November 2019, security forces in Iran killed at least 304 men, women and children during five days of protests which swept across the country....The deadly crackdown was accompanied by the authorities shutting down access to the internet for most of the population." — Amnesty International
Libya’s women face many dangers for speaking out – they need protection so they can help rebuild their country (The Independent)
Libyan women, often the staunchest defenders of human rights, are routinely threatened, kidnapped, disappeared, assaulted, murdered in the war-torn country. A long list of women have had to pay with their lives for the free speech, and now this list has also included outspoken dissident lawyer Hanan Al-Barrassi.
"She said after addressing the UN security council last November about violence against women and the need for freedom of expression, she was accused of being a spy for foreign countries on social media groups and by a well-known Libyan TV channel. She subsequently received death threats by people who said they knew where she lived."— Bel Trew, The Independent
Online disinformation campaigns undermine African elections (Bloomberg)
Social media platforms have become increasingly popular for Africans to get access to information, but these spaces are increasingly being used to spread false information and undermine electoral processes using disinformation, which is made worse by a lack of transparency over where the news circulating online is coming from. Some governments have taken to social media to dominate the narrative around campaigns, in the process hijacking these platforms to push certain agendas, as this article explains.
“The internet has become a welcome space for Africans to gain access to information and join political debates. But there’s growing unease about the darker side of social media in electioneering on the continent. Critics worry that online platforms have become yet another instrument for governments to tighten their grip—joining such traditional methods as controlling the content on state-run broadcasters and limiting the freedom of expression with draconian laws.” — Pauline Bax and Loni Prinsloo, Bloomberg
Platform detects hundreds of Brazilian Twitter accounts disseminating misinformation about the American election (Globo)
Christopher Bouzy, founder of the Bot Sentinel platform, which monitors robot activity on Twitter, warned that there are more than 1,000 Brazilian accounts trying to spread misinformation about the American election on the social network.
Among the examples are accounts that repeatedly publish the hashtag #BidenWasNotElected ("Biden was not elected"), a message that tries to corroborate Donald Trump's unproven allegations about an alleged "theft" in the presidential race to benefit Democrat Joe Biden.
"Since last week, we followed the activities of the elections and, since the first day, we realized that Brazilian accounts were spreading misinformation. But last week there were approximately 370-400 Brazilian Twitter accounts. Now there are well over 1000 approaching 2000," Christopher Bouzy, founder of Bot Sentinel.
Meedan Updates
MENA Community Knowledge Session: Independent Media in Lebanon After the Blast
On August 4, 2,700 tons of ammonium nitrate stored in Beirut’s port ripped through half of the capital, taking 200 lives, injuring thousands and rendering 300,000 homeless. The impact of the blast was also felt by independent media workers, who’d had – over the years – taken up headquarters in the neighborhoods that had been hit the most. In the midst of an economic collapse and a crippling pandemic, independent media workers have had to also adapt in the midst of a state of emergency, acknowledge the limitations of the current donor-based business model as well as deal with the trauma incurred by the blast.
This MENA Community Knowledge session (MENA CKS) will focus on:
The impact of the martial law on the security and freedom of independent journos after the blast
How the blast affected the business model of independent media outlets and the role of emergency funding for media
What kind of regional cooperation is needed in terms of archiving and journalistic collaboration and training
The impact of trauma on independent journalists