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Source: https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/measles-vaccination-information-wars-social-media-1.5037006
'It's a war around the truth': Health experts, Facebook and YouTube play catch-up with anti-vaxxers
Anti-vaccination groups have been 'very savvy' at manipulating social media, experts say
Nicole Ireland ? CBC News ? Posted: Mar 01, 2019 4:00 AM ET | Last Updated: 18 minutes ago
With 15 cases of measles now reported in a British Columbia outbreak, both the medical community and social media companies need to step up their game in combating anti-vaccination misinformation that continues to spread ? largely uncensored ? on platforms such as Facebook and YouTube, experts say.
"This is huge," said Fuyuki Kurasawa, director of the global digital citizenship lab at York University in Toronto. "It's a war around the truth and around information and it's a major public health crisis."
Because of the widespread availability of vaccinations, "measles was actually declared eliminated in Canada in 1998, and the cases that we still do see are linked to travel. When outbreaks occur, they tell us that some groups of people do not have adequate immunity," the Public Health Agency of Canada said in a statement.
If vaccine coverage drops below 95 per cent in a community, the risk of infection rises, the agency said, noting the current national level of coverage is 89 per cent.
Measles killed more than 110,000 people around the world in 2017 ? most of them children under five, according to the World Health Organization. This year, the organization has identified the reluctance or refusal to vaccinate against preventable diseases ? known as "vaccine hesitancy" ? as one of the top 10 threats to global health.
Social media showdown
Yet, despite the fact they're on the wrong side of the scientific evidence, Kurasawa said, anti-vaccination advocates ? also known as "anti-vaxxers" ? have gained the upper hand in a raging social media battle.
That's because public health authorities have been "relatively slow" to respond to anti-vaccination propaganda in ways that are appealing to social media audiences, he said. Instead, they have relied on the assumption that "putting out the truth and factual information" is enough...
'It's a war around the truth': Health experts, Facebook and YouTube play catch-up with anti-vaxxers
Anti-vaccination groups have been 'very savvy' at manipulating social media, experts say
Nicole Ireland ? CBC News ? Posted: Mar 01, 2019 4:00 AM ET | Last Updated: 18 minutes ago
With 15 cases of measles now reported in a British Columbia outbreak, both the medical community and social media companies need to step up their game in combating anti-vaccination misinformation that continues to spread ? largely uncensored ? on platforms such as Facebook and YouTube, experts say.
"This is huge," said Fuyuki Kurasawa, director of the global digital citizenship lab at York University in Toronto. "It's a war around the truth and around information and it's a major public health crisis."
Because of the widespread availability of vaccinations, "measles was actually declared eliminated in Canada in 1998, and the cases that we still do see are linked to travel. When outbreaks occur, they tell us that some groups of people do not have adequate immunity," the Public Health Agency of Canada said in a statement.
If vaccine coverage drops below 95 per cent in a community, the risk of infection rises, the agency said, noting the current national level of coverage is 89 per cent.
Measles killed more than 110,000 people around the world in 2017 ? most of them children under five, according to the World Health Organization. This year, the organization has identified the reluctance or refusal to vaccinate against preventable diseases ? known as "vaccine hesitancy" ? as one of the top 10 threats to global health.
Social media showdown
Yet, despite the fact they're on the wrong side of the scientific evidence, Kurasawa said, anti-vaccination advocates ? also known as "anti-vaxxers" ? have gained the upper hand in a raging social media battle.
That's because public health authorities have been "relatively slow" to respond to anti-vaccination propaganda in ways that are appealing to social media audiences, he said. Instead, they have relied on the assumption that "putting out the truth and factual information" is enough...