Sinovac skepticism and a Facebook ban on ad researchers
This week in The Checklist, we look at how skepticism and misinformation around the Sinovac vaccine has contributed to anti-vaccine propaganda on social media platforms in Indonesia and the Philippines.
We also look at how misinformation in Bolivia has affected the vaccination campaigns among the country's indigenous communities, and a Facebook ban on the personal accounts of academics who researched ad transparency and the spread of misinformation on the social network.
Additionally, we have an updates from Ethiopia, where the government has suspended the operations of two NGOs over allegations of spreading misinformation.
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How Sinovac Became the Poster Child of Anti-China, Anti-Vaxx Skepticism (Vice)
Experts maintain that one shot of Sinovac, which has an observed efficacy rate of 51 percent against symptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection and 100 percent against severe COVID-19 and hospitalization, is better than no vaccine at all.
However, in some of the world’s most vulnerable countries, the message isn’t getting through. People are reluctant to put their faith in what they’ve come to view as an inferior product. And in South East Asia, where vaccine hesitancy is already rife—due to a range of factors including religious propaganda, distrust in governments and poor public health messaging—such endemic skepticism poses a number of problems for public health.
"The more troubling consequence of Sinovac skepticism and anti-China sentiments, though: namely, that they’re fanning the flames of anti-vaxxer propaganda and disinformation, and dissuading people from getting the jab at all, particularly in countries with low vaccine uptake" —Gavin Butler, Vice news reporter
Covid: Indigenous people lagging behind vaccination due to misinformation (El País Bolivia)
In Tentaguazu and Tabazay, two Guaraní communities in the municipality of Entre Ríos, vaccination campaigns were already hampered by a lack of electricity needed to maintain the cold chain needed to preserve and distribute the vaccine, and rumours about adverse reactions to the vaccines have only worsened the situation
The electricity is irregular and continously cut, meaning that indigenous communities do not have the vaccine available every day. Paola Reyes, the head of the Entre Ríos Health Network, also pointed out that the main difficulty is misinformation.
"Given the circulation of false information, doctors work on education campaigns, so that there is no rejection of the vaccine" — Paola Reyes, head of the Entre Ríos Health Network
Ethiopia suspends two international aid groups over accusations of misinformation (Devex)
The Ethiopian government has suspended the operations of Doctors Without Borders (MSF) and the the Norwegian Refugee Council from working in the country over allegations of 'disseminating misinformation on social media and other platforms outside of the mandate and purpose for which the organisations were permitted to operate', according to a statement by the country's Agency for Civil Society Organisations.
"Ethiopia Current Issues Fact Check, a social media account that describes itself as a 'government website', tweeted that Ethiopia’s Agency for Civil Society Organizations accused the said organizations of disseminating “misinformation,” employing foreign nationals without appropriate work permits and that MSF “illegally imported” and used satellite radio equipment that wasn’t properly authorized" — Sara Jerving, Global Health Reporter at Devex
Facebook bans academics who researched ad transparency and misinformation on Facebook (The Verge)
Facebook has banned the personal accounts of academics who researched ad transparency and the spread of misinformation on the social network. Facebook says the group violated its term of service by scraping user data without permission. But the academics say they are being silenced for exposing problems on Facebook’s platform.
“Facebook is silencing us because our work often calls attention to problems on its platform, using user privacy, a core belief that we have always put first in our work, as a pretext for doing this. If this episode demonstrates anything it is that Facebook should not have veto power over who is allowed to study them" — Laura Edelson, researcher at the NYU Ad Observatory project
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Multi-language tiplines and media literacy: PesaCheck in Africa
PesaCheck, an initiative of Code for Africa, spans across 12 countries and is Africa’s largest indigenous fact-checking organisation. From running tiplines in multiple languages, conducting fact-check trainings for university students and supporting newsrooms and NGOs to set up their own fact-check teams, PesaCheck has adopted a multi-pronged approach to addressing misinformation in the regions that they work in.
In this blogpost, we speak to Enock Nyariki, Managing Editor of PesaCheck about the organization’s strategies and experience of combating misinformation in Africa.