‘Misinformation Poses an Imminent and Insidious Threat to Our Nation’s Health’
Biden administration sharpens focus against disinformation which is turning Americans away from COVID vaccination
Republican Rep Madison Cawthorn, of North Carolina, has been spreading a false and completely fictional claim that President Biden’s plan to send people door-to-door to offer vaccines is a plot to confiscate the Bibles and guns belonging to Americans.
Meanwhile, conservative author Alex Berenson actually got the crowd at last weekend's Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Dallas pumped up with excitement by telling them, “The government was hoping that they could sort of sucker 90 percent of the population into getting vaccinated,” and getting applause with the line, “And it isn't happening.”
In a similar vein, the darling of the political right, Rep Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga) recently told an enthusiastic crowd, “And then they come and intimidate you to take the vaccine by day. Well, you got to tell them to get the hell off of your lawn.”
This drumbeat of misinformation — and often, outright disinformation — is having a definite effect on exacerbating vaccine hesitancy.
“A month ago we were in good shape, and all of a sudden these two factors that came into play,” Asa Hutchinson, the Republican governor of Arkansas, said recently. “And so we’re mounting, again, another significant campaign, going to the communities, listening to them, trying to list different strategies to encourage everyone to get vaccinated.
“And it’s the misinformation that’s out there, everything from the vaccination will lead to mind control, to misinformation in terms of consequences and infertility. And we want everybody to go to their trusted physician, go to health care advisor, get good advice on this. We believe that will lead to vaccination,” the governor added, without naming his fellow Republicans as the source of the disinformation. “What we’re seeing, though, is that as the risk increases, vaccination rates will go up. It’s sad to say, but as we see more cases, more hospitalizations, that could be the impact.”
As a result, from the US surgeon general on down, it's forced the Biden administration to begin confronting it head-on.
“Surgeon General advisories are reserved for urgent public health threats. And while those threats have often been related to what we eat, drink and smoke, today we live in a world where misinformation poses an imminent and insidious threat to our nation’s health,” Surgeon General Vivek Murthy said Thursday, from the White House briefing room. “Health misinformation is false, inaccurate, or misleading information about health according to the best evidence at the time. And while it often appears innocuous on social media apps or retail sites or search engines, the truth is that misinformation takes away our freedom to make informed decisions about our health and the health of our loved ones.
“During the COVID-19 pandemic, health misinformation has led people to resist wearing masks in high-risk settings, it's led them to turn down proven treatments and to choose not to get vaccinated,” Murthy added. “This has led to avoidable illnesses and death. Simply put, health information has cost us lives.”
Nearly every death “could have been prevented”
This fight is a personal one, according to the surgeon general, who noted that he's lost nearly a dozen family members to COVID-19.
“On a personal note, it's painful for me to know that nearly every death we are seeing now from COVID-19 could have been prevented. I say that as someone who has lost 10 family members to COVID-19 and who wishes each and every day that they had had the opportunity to get vaccinated,” he said. “I say that also as a concerned father of two young children who aren't yet eligible for the vaccine. But I know that our kids are depending on all of us to get vaccinated to shield them from this virus.
“Every week I talk to doctors and nurses across our country who are burning out as they care for more and more patients with COVID-19 who never got vaccinated, all too often because they were misled by misinformation,” Murthy added. “We must confront misinformation as a nation. Every one of us has the power and the responsibility to make a difference in this fight. Lives are depending on it.”
Practically, one major front in the war on vaccine disinformation involves the Biden administration working closely with the major technology companies, so as to weed disinformation out of social media.
“First, we are in regular touch with these social media platforms and those engagements typically happen through members of our senior staff but also members of our COVID-19 team, given, as Dr. Murthy conveyed, this is a big issue of misinformation, specifically on the pandemic,” said White House press secretary Jen Psaki. “In terms of actions that we have taken or we are working to take, I should say, from the federal government, we’ve increased disinformation research and tracking within the Surgeon General’s Office, we’re flagging problematic posts for Facebook that spread disinformation.”
The most effective means to combat vaccine disinformation would be to impose a vaccine mandate, according to Andrew Ross Sorkin, financial columnist for The New York Times and a co-anchor of CNBC's Squawk Box.
“The only way to change the dynamic, especially in places where there is a hesitancy, is to have a requirement. If you can’t walk into a Walmart or work at a Walmart without a vaccination, especially in states where there is a hesitancy, that’s going to actually change the dynamic,” he said in an interview. “If you can’t get on an airplane without a vaccination, that is going to change the dynamic. The airlines took an enormous amount of taxpayer money, enormous amount of taxpayer money we have all supported them.”
The Biden administration has already taken any sort of national mandate off the table, although it supports mandates imposed on a local level.
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The vaccines have proven to be safe! The FDA just completely approved the Pfizer vaccine- not just “emergency authorization “ but FULL AUTHORIZATION.
At this point, the antivaxxers are just selfish & ignorant. They pose risks to everyone around them - especially children who are too young to be vaccinated at this point- so the decision is really NOT up to them. If they want to be ignorant & get very ill & possibly die w/o affecting anyone else, I wd say Great! Die! but that’s not the case.
They’re also straining hospital capabilities & capacities with their selfishness. These poor health professionals are burnt out after 1.5 years of this pandemic. But of course when the antivaxxers get sick, they rush off to the hospital & expect miracles.
In my opinion, they should not be treated. If these people were spreading misinformation, infecting others all while refusing to be vaccinated then they can handle their COVID all by themselves.
You reap what you sow.
I didn't read your entire article it will just say this. The vaccine is not a solution for a mass. Simply because each body are made the same we are different in the state health. That difference is what has the vaccine having negative effects on the individual. Does the vaccine adjust itself according to the condition of the body it's injected into? No medication I've see is worth the risk. The pharmacy really need to be set on the shelf for a while. I'm sure their pocketbook can handle it. The commercials are going strong with pills that are trying to fix symptoms with side affects like organ failure, depression, suicide, and death. What's the point of taking the pill if the illness and the pill both have death as a equation. Antibiotic abuse has lead is to where we are health wise. Over prescribing and misdiagnosed illnesses that antibiotics were a fix all avenue. What it did was wipe out the humans ability to fight any kind of germ or virus. Putting it into the meat also killed our immune system. We have all been walking around for years like ticking time bombs. Every little germ has taken hold in our bodies without any resistance. People say they never get sick. Well how would you get sick with no immune system to respond to the germs that snuck in. You need a immune system to create a fever to kill the invader or certain good bacteria to do the work of digestion. Antibiotics are not particular on who they kill they wipe out all bacteria in your body. It is your responsibility to replenish the good with probiotics and such. The pharmacists does not tell you this and I'f you can't afford the follow up guess what you will end up with a disease from the bacteria in your gut being backed up with IBS . Constipation is common and obesity is being full of shit too. I don't trust the pharmacy because that are just trying to mop up the mess they made in the first place. And with what the same dirty mop from the first mistake. No thank you. I don't want anymore antibiotics in my system.
And I live in America which is a free country. Forcing the people to believe that the vaccine is the answer to our problem is absurd.
We really need to open our eyes and see that the bottom of our shoes is the biggest spreader of germs. Stepping in spit,shit, and landfill gunk is a factor that nobody even cares to realize.
Take a look around at the trees, lakes, and the sea off the coasts. Stop pushing for Big Pharma to make another buck and make them pay for the cleaning of the environment. The pills theyake are destroying and my leaders who are supposed to be for the people support their bright ideas.
Better yet why don't you look at the scientist out in Antarctica who are reviving billion year old organisms. Have the president slap them before they wake something up that has him and everyone else bleeding from their eyes. Their are things in the permafrost that are deadlier than the Corona virus. That cannot be killed. Stop modifying mosquitoes. If you believe that every solution is made in a lab then there is no hope for the people. Its only about the rich invested in the pharmacy and the poor being forced to take their pills. This is not a shut up and take your medication Civilization.