People from a wide range of political backgrounds came together to express their skepticism about vaccines.Experts caution that five years after the Covid-19 pandemic, a fringe anti-vaccine movement used it to spread hazardous disinformation about life-saving vaccinations and expose conspiracy theories to a much larger audience.
The epidemic "served as an accelerant, helping to turn a niche movement into a more powerful force," according to a 2023 research published in The Lancet journal, but vaccine skepticism existed long before COVID.Because children were frequently the ones who received the most vaccinations, anti-vaxers who had previously targeted parents changed their tactics during the pandemic.
However, many nations implemented mandatory immunization for adults after next-generation vaccines were developed in record time to help eradicate COVID-19.
People from a wide range of political backgrounds came together to express their skepticism about vaccines.
Romy Sauvayre, a French sociologist who specializes in vaccination hesitancy, stated, "During this period, we observed several bubbles with normally well-defined borders converge towards anti-vaccine beliefs."
Conspiracy theorists, proponents of "alternative medicine," politicians, and even certain medical professionals and researchers spread misleading information regarding vaccines and COVID during the pandemic.
For instance, in a preliminary study that was since withdrawn, controversial French researcher Didier Raoult claimed that hydroxychloroquine may cure Covid.
Those who then advocated the drug included Donald Trump, the US president at the time who will take office again on Monday.
Sociologist Jeremy Ward, who has been researching vaccination in France since 2020, stated that "there are broader issues of trust in health authorities behind these sometimes quite radical media doctors."
"The foundation of vaccine disinformation"
According to health psychology expert Jocelyn Raude, "this movement has mainly been structured around the defense of individual freedom" in addition to health-related issues.
This was evident during the pandemic, when demonstrations opposing vaccination requirements and lockdown protocols grew in number.
On the far-right, the anti-vaccine movement was especially strong, with some of its supporters rising to the highest positions of authority.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump's choice for health secretary, has propagated anti-vaccine conspiracy theories on numerous occasions, including the idea that Covid is a "ethnically targeted" virus.
RFK Jr. and his anti-vaccine organization Children's Health Defense, from which Kennedy has temporarily withdrawn, were dubbed one of the "disinformation dozen" of prominent online anti-vaxers by the Center for Countering Digital Hate.
Kennedy's "accounts were some of the fastest growing anti-vaccine accounts during the pandemic," according to Callum Hood, chief of research at the center, which reached millions of people.
"That is a really strong position to be in when you start to look to build a support base for his political ambitions."
"Social media has been the backbone of vaccine misinformation efforts," according to Noel Brewer, a professor of public health at the University of North Carolina and one of the authors of the study published in The Lancet.
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It is challenging to estimate the effects of this widespread disinformation.
"Some researchers believe that repeated exposure to false information can cause people to not get vaccinated, while others believe the effect is relatively weak because it would only allow them to justify pre-existing vaccine hesitancy," Raude stated.
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