Social media giants must stand up to COVID vaccine conspiracy theorists

Women in their 30s are dangerously susceptible to internet scaremongering over COVID vaccines. They shouldn’t be, writes Louise Roberts.

You might think it extravagant that the federal government plans to spend 24 million of our tax dollars convincing Australians to get the COVID-19 vaccine when it is available.

But so critical is the need to quash the fear-mongering, it is cash well spent in order to get as many of us onboard with having the jab and ­developing herd immunity to coronavirus.

Vaccine-hesitant is the new vernacular and women aged 30 to 39 years are the key doomsayers, according to a recent survey.

A woman receives a dose of the Moderna coronavirus vaccine at a vaccination site in New York. Picture: Kena Betancur / AFP

At first blush, that concern seems legitimate. After all, these women are a key demographic for planning a family, being pregnant and breastfeeding.

A new vaccine, no matter its shiny promise and the speed with which it has thankfully been developed, is bound to stir some primal fears, such is our awkward history as modern parents for demonising inoculations.

But dig a little deeper and the reason for confusion is downright cruel and exploitative, thanks to our crazy old mates the anti-vaxxers and their anti-science social media tirades.

Be an influencer and start a debate about Kylie Jenner’s enhanced lips, sure.

Women in their 30s are the group most resistant to vaccination for COVID-19. Artwork: Terry Pontikos

A dull topic for many of us but relatively harmless unlike muddying the waters for a young woman who is now vacillating about a vaccine.

So the government has stepped in, rolling out a costly PR and marketing campaign to “build confidence” according to our Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly.

This includes ads targeting ­Indigenous and multicultural ­communities.

But here’s the big worry — 80 per cent of the 1000 people quizzed by Quantum Market Research said they would probably have the shot but 42 per cent of 30-something women said they were worried about it.

I’ve seen a dizzying rumour mill at work already, as infuriating as it is. Potential grandmas on social media tut-tutting the likes of Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna and “I’m warning my daughter who wants kids that no way she should have this needle”.

Please.

The MMR fiasco, which occurred when Dr Andrew Wakefield shamefully linked the combined measles-mumps-rubella vaccine to autism, is still fresh in many people’s minds, even though he was eventually discredited in 2010.

Dr Andrew Wakefield with his wife Carmel. Picture: Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images

The year 2004 was a terrifying time to hand over your child for their early shots. Your tears, their tears and the blunt disapproval of some GPs and other parents as I discovered with a new born in London.

It was peak hysteria that has underpinned my support for vaccines ever since.

Predictably, we know that when it comes to medical science, there are plenty of experts out there who know better than epidemiologists, emergency medics and in fact, the vaccine manufacturers themselves.

Even more treacherous than Dr Google are the Facebook conspiracy theorists.

And ironically, those very same social media platforms that were so quick to show their virtue in kicking off Donald Trump seem to be a lot less eager to crack down on dangerous anti-vax messaging that could see our path out of the pandemic jeopardised.

For the record, the drip feed of this latest deceit began when an ­erroneous link was made online ­between “the spike protein created by receiving the mRNA-based vaccines and blockage of a protein necessary for a placenta to adhere to the ­uterus”.

If you’re planning kids, don’t have a spike protein vaccine because it will make you infertile, they say.

Of course, this is not science — it is science fiction, in fact.

And a falsehood the government needs to act on swiftly because history tells us, every conspiracy theory begins with a microscopic element of truth.

To get technical, experts have distinguished that syncitin-1 is the protein that attaches a placenta to a uterus and therefore keeps the flow of blood and nutrients to a foetus.

Spike protein is a different thing altogether, even if the two share ­similar amino acids, a fertility expert told me.

And therefore we have an expensive mission ahead, as Dr Kelly acknowledges, “to dispel some specific fears held by certain cohorts of the community in relation to potential adverse side effects”.

It was sobering to read the view of University of Sydney vaccine hesitancy expert Julie Leask on this social media propaganda.

“If your peers or if you’re reading the media or if you’re on Facebook and the people you trust, the people who you see like yourself are showing hesitancy, that will affect you as well. That means you need to engage with influencers really early on, giving them the information and empowering them to be effective in being role models and advocates within their own communities.”

The browsability appeal of the ­internet is that you can filter information to justify your own theories or beliefs.

A passing thought that the vaccine is wrong becomes a hardwired ­passion dominating every waking moment. And we thus reap the world we have sown.

Or as Dr Kelly says: “We need to build confidence in this particular vaccine.

“The approvals and such have gone fast, much faster than usual — for a reason, because of that danger that we are in and trying to get back to some sort of normal life.

“But absolutely, and I’ll say this again, as we’ve said many times, there are no shortcuts.”

A salient point next time a social media numbskull pops up on your feed and says it is the vaccine that will kill you, not COVID-19.

@whatlouthinks