Outsourcing disinformation
What a year it's been. In 2020, we relaunched this newsletter with new content and a new design, and the response from our readers was even better than expected. Now we have more than 1,000 Checklisters, and we appreciate each and every one of you for giving us a small space in your busy lives. This year, amid the COVID-19 crisis, we introduced Dr. Seema Yasmin's weekly column on pandemic science. More recently, we started introducing specific regional highlights to look at issues happening in the world's emerging economies.
Our question to you, before we take a two week hiatus for the holiday season, is: What should we cover in 2021? Please email us and let us know what you want to see in your inboxes every week.
And don't forget: you still have time to sponsor a scientist and contribute to digital health equity by making an individual end of year donation to Meedan's Digital Health Lab. We expect the Lab to be just as important next year as it has been this year for improving information access during health crises.
Stay safe and happy reading.
Your COVID-19 questions
Journalist and medical doctor, Dr. Seema Yasmin shares weekly highlights from Meedan's public health journalism tool, learnaboutcovid19.org.
What do we know about the Pfizer vaccine so far?
Dr. Seema says: "Two health care workers suffered an allergic reaction after receiving the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine on the first day of the UK’s COVID-19 vaccination program. The UK medicines regulator quickly issued a warning advising anyone with a history of significant allergic reactions to a vaccine, food or drug, to not get the vaccine until more was understood. (Since then, it has said the guidance will be tweaked to say food allergies should not prevent a person from being vaccinated.) The two health care workers had a history of allergic reactions, severe enough that both carried adrenaline autoinjectors (commonly known as EpiPens). It’s hard to know exactly why an allergic reaction occurred, especially because Pfizer’s trial excluded people with a history of significant adverse reactions to vaccines in general and the ingredients of Pfizer/BioNTech’s experimental vaccine specifically. Overall, the safety data from the trail in 44,000 people was showed that very few who received either the placebo or the actual vaccine developed an allergic reaction (0.63% of participants in the vaccine group, and 0.51% of people in the placebo group).
Some doctors are concerned the news of allergic reactions will deter those who should be vaccinated. Here’s the latest advice: if you have a history of severe allergic reactions and carry an adrenaline auto-injector, such as an EpiPen, delay receiving the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine until more is understood about the reactions. Everyone else who is offered the vaccine should receive it, including those with food allergies. Once more is known about the vaccine and allergic reactions, even people with a history of allergies could receive the vaccine in a controlled setting, under medical supervision, in which case immediate treatment of any allergic reaction would be offered. The same is done with other vaccines where people are immunized in a medical setting and asked to stay for 30 minutes to an hour after vaccination in case of an allergic reaction."
What do we know so far about how the U.K. is approving and rolling out vaccines?
Dr. Seema says: "The announcement that the UK was the first Western country to grant emergency use authorization for a COVID-19 vaccine was met with celebration and some skepticism. Dr. Anthony Fauci, America’s top infectious disease expert, said UK regulators had “rushed” approval of the vaccine and did not review the vaccine data "as carefully" as US regulators. (He later apologized and said he had "no judgement on the way the UK did it.”) In fact, UK regulators do review vaccine trial data differently to US regulators. In the UK, regulators rely on analyses provided by drug makers, whereas in the US, regulators request raw data from the vaccine maker which they reanalyze.
UK officials defended their emergency authorization of the vaccine and said they conducted a rolling review of the data, meaning information was reviewed while the trials were ongoing in an effort to expedite the process—without cutting corners. Considerable logistical challenges remain with storing and transporting a vaccine that has to be kept colder than winter in Antarctica. Consider this: one vial of vaccine contains five doses and must be stored at -94F until its ready for use. Once defrosted, the vial must be used within five days and it can’t be refrozen. Each vial is packed in a box, a bit like a pizza box, that contains 195 vials for a total of 975 doses. Five of these pizza boxes are transported in a box that contains dry ice. That means facilities receiving the box must have sufficient storage at the right temperature to maintain the vaccine, or they must plan to use up all of the doses within five days of them defrosting. That means vaccinating a few thousand people within days of receiving, and thawing, the doses. (Some UK vaccination sites have been told they’ll only get a seven day heads up that thousands of doses are incoming.) Many healthcare facilities don’t have freezers at -94F so the UK is suggesting only 50 vaccination centers are used. But that means many people in the UK’s highest priority group—those over the age of 80 years—won’t get vaccinated as they won’t be able to travel to one of the designated vaccination centers.
The same logistical challenges will apply in the US where the FDA issued emergency use authorization for the Pfizer/BioNTech on December 11 for people 16 years and older. But the agency’s director, Dr. Steven Hahn, came under fire from some for not granting emergency use authorization sooner, while others are worried the agency buckled under political pressure. (The EUA was expected on Saturday but came on Friday, hours after President Trump tweeted that the FDA was “still a big, old, slow turtle. Get the dam [sic] vaccines out NOW, Dr. Hahn.”) The highest priority groups in the US are the 3 million residents of long-term care facilities and approximately twenty million front line health care workers."
Today's top stories
The dead professor and the vast pro-India disinformation campaign (BBC)
The EU DisinfoLab, a Brussels-based NGO, has reported the expose a 15-year old global disinformation campaign to serve Indian interests. The report claimed that the 'large network' of defunct organizations and 750 fake media outlets was designed to disseminate propaganda against Pakistan and to influence decision making in the United Nations (UN). The chairman of one of the organizations was listed as a participant at a 2007 UNHRC session, though he died the previous year. Researchers traced the operation of this campaign to a Delhi-based Indian holding company, the Srivastava Group (SG). The campaign was revealed to be running in at least 116 countries and targets members of the European Parliament and the UN.
"The primary news agency re-packaging and boosting pro-India content related to SG appears to be ANI, established in 1971, which describes itself as "South Asia's leading multimedia news agency, with more than 100 bureaus in India, South Asia and across the globe". Indian news media, especially broadcast media, thrive on content provided by ANI."
Outsourcing disinformation (Lawfare Blog)
In this important piece, Stanford Internet Observatory research scholar Shelby Grossman and disinformation analyst Khadeja Ramali explain how digital marketing firms hired by several countries in the Gulf have pushed disinformation campaigns meant to sow conflict and discredit grassroots movements in key NAWA countries like Sudan and Libya.
"As social media companies increasingly attribute disinformation campaigns to digital marketing firms, journalists can play an important role in uncovering the firms’ connections to state actors and provide insights into how these firms function."
A glimpse into the future of government propaganda (Mail & Guardian)
Ethiopia's government has set up a number of social media accounts branded as fact-checking pages in a move that appears to usurp the role of independent media, repurposing the work of verifying information and turning it into government propaganda during the Tigray conflict. This move comes as both pro- and anti-government actors have taken to social media to try to control the narrative around the conflict, and the situation has been made worse by a communications shutdown making it impossible to get credible information from the ground.
“As more and more governments are engaging with PR companies for image management, it is difficult to know who is doing what without the work of independent journalism. The reason they do this is because there is a narrative to control and the first thing you do is discredit anyone who has a dissenting opinion or message, [and] that seems like what this Ethiopian initiative is trying to do. If it was truly interested in fact checking it would work with the journalists working in Ethiopia who are working to fact check information. It feels very disingenuous, very hypocritical," - Eric Mugendi, Meedan
Donate to Meedan's Digital Health Lab
Every year, Meedan has launched or expanded a new aspect of our work. 2020 was a year centered on health information equity and closed messaging fact-checking. Help us welcome 2021 with a one-time donation to support our next project!