Misinformation forecasts and Uganda's social media order
We hope you're having a good start to the new year. This week we have news for you on Uganda's government orders to block social media, as well as news on Alphabet workers who are demanding a Trump ban from Youtube. We also have a bunch of forecasts from our fact-checking partners on trends to watch out for in 2021.
Don't forget to share this issue with friends and family!
Your COVID-19 questions
Journalist and medical doctor, Dr. Seema Yasmin shares weekly highlights from Meedan's public health journalism tool, learnaboutcovid19.org.
If someone receives the vaccine, can they still be a carrier?
Dr. Seema says: "Yes, it is possible that people who are vaccinated could still become infected and spread the virus to others. This is not because there is anything contagious inside the currently available vaccines. It’s because these vaccines can protect against disease but are not known to prevent a vaccinated person from transmitting the virus. Around 95% of those who receive the Pfizer/BioNTech or Moderna vaccines will be protected from severe disease but they may still become infected with the virus and they might still be able to pass it on to others through infectious droplets when they talk and breathe. The clinical trials for the currently available COVID-19 vaccines did not study the ability of the vaccines to prevent transmission, but we can learn this information through epidemiological studies in real-world settings now that vaccines are being rolled out."
Why was Pfizer's vaccine developed so quickly, and why should this speed not worry the public?
Dr. Seema says: "There’s a common misconception that COVID-19 vaccines are unsafe because they were developed “too quickly,” taking only 10 months compared to the average vaccine development time of 10 years. But this perspective misses crucial context. Here are six points that explain how COVID-19 vaccine development was safely accelerated.
1. Scientists around the world have spent years preparing for a situation exactly like this one, where they would have to produce a vaccine for a new virus causing a global pandemic. They called the situation Pandemic X and developed a strategy for being a few steps ahead, so that when the new pathogen emerged, it would require fewer steps—and less time—to create a vaccine.
2. Work on vaccines for the SARS epidemic of 2002 proved useful in developing vaccines for SARS-CoV-2 because the two viruses are related, and in particular, the spike proteins—the parts of the virus that most vaccines target—are very similar. This meant previous research on SARS accelerated vaccine development for SARS-CoV-3. Some phases of the clinical trials for COVID-19 vaccines were conducted in parallel—instead of sequentially, which is the norm—to save time. This does not mean the vaccines are unsafe and that the trials cut corners. It means the trials were done more efficiently in an emergency situation.
4. Unlike other kinds of vaccines, mRNA vaccines do not contain any live, weakened or killed virus. They don’t even contain any small proteins from the virus. This allows scientists to skip the time-consuming steps of having to grow lots of virus to include in vaccines.
5. Earlier work on mRNA vaccines paid off, big time. For example, when our cells receive the mRNA vaccine, they use the small piece of genetic code to churn out copies of the spike protein. Our immune system then “studies” these spikes and learns what to look out for should we encounter the spikes on the actual virus. But years ago, scientists discovered that the pieces of protein our bodies make from reading mRNA in vaccines aren’t exactly the same shape as the protein the virus would make; the versions made by the body in response to an mRNA vaccine were “less spiky.” Scientists spent years figuring out how to ensure the proteins made by our body are the exact same shape as the proteins on the surface of the virus, so that when our body is exposed to the spike protein on the virus, it knows exactly what to recognize. This is just one example of a scientific achievement made years ago that has paid off during the pandemic.
6. Finally, efforts to develop COVID-19 vaccines and end the global pandemic have received tens of billions of dollars in tax-payer funding, deprioritized other areas of science, and been the prime focus for thousands of researchers around the world. This level of global collaboration with incredible amounts of funding and streamlining of bureaucracies demonstrates just how quickly medical advancements can be achieved when the support and resources are made available. That it takes on average a decade to develop a vaccine; that there are no vaccines for diseases that kill poor people, such as malaria; and that we continue to use a century-old, not-so-great vaccine for another big killer, tuberculosis; are unacceptable norms that must be interrogated. "
The latest top stories
Alphabet Workers Union calls on YouTube to ban Trump (The Verge)
The Alphabet Workers Union (AWU) is calling on YouTube to permanently ban President Trump following a raid on the US Capitol on January 6th.
"Workers also called out YouTube’s role in allowing white nationalist movements to grow. 'YouTube must no longer be a tool of fascist recruitment and oppression,” they said. “Anything less is to countenance deadly violence: from Gamergate to Charlottesville, from Christchurch to Washington D.C., from Jair Bolsonaro to Donald Trump. Alphabet, in failing to act, has done tremendous damage: to the thousands of victims of hate and to the world.'”
WhatsApp’s new privacy policy: Yet another reason why India needs data protection law (The Hindu Business Line)
Recent updates in WhatsApp's privacy policy has brought back attention to India's poor data protection laws. The new update takes away the choice of users to not share their data with Facebook and third-party apps. According to experts, if India's data protection was in place, the new WhatsApp update would be have been illegal.
"While Facebook-owned WhatsApp’s updated privacy policy has been stoking concerns about privacy and data sharing with other apps, what is being missed amid the clamour is this: if India had a data protection law in place, WhatsApp would not have been able to go ahead with this update in the first place."
Uganda orders all social media to be blocked - letter (Reuters)
Uganda ordered internet service providers to block all social media platforms and messaging apps on Tuesday until further notice, a letter from the country’s communications regulator seen by Reuters said.
"A source in Uganda’s telecom sector said the government had made clear to executives at telecoms companies that the social media ban was in retaliation for Facebook blocking some pro-government accounts. The U.S. social media giant said on Monday it had taken down a network in Uganda linked to the country’s ministry of information for using fake and duplicate accounts to post ahead of this week’s election."
What to expect in 2021? Misinformation forecasts from our fact-checking partners
In 2020, online misinformation was one of the most daunting obstacles in the world’s battle against the COVID-19 pandemic. 2021 is already witnessing a wave of COVID-19 vaccine related misinformation. In order to find out more about the nuances and the complexities of the misinformation landscape ahead of us, we decided to turn to our fact-checking partners for their expert opinions on what we should expect in 2021. In this blogpost, we present to you some regional and global forecasts from our partners in the Asia-Pacific region.