Misinformation Regarding Vaccine In India
By: Vanshika Tomar
The Covid-19 vaccine does not generate magnetic properties in the human body. Lemon juice up in the nose won't kill the coronavirus. Nor will keeping bundles of cloves, cardamom, camphor and mace in the pocket. Over a year and a half into the pandemic, India has emerged as the biggest source of Covid misinformation, with 1 in 6 pieces of fake information coming out of the country.
The study found social media to be the biggest producer of misinformation, accounting for 85% of it. Internet-based sources make up 91% of all Covid fake news. Among countries, India is the biggest source (18%), followed by Brazil (9%) and the USA (8.6%). The amount of misinformation is also the highest in India, at 16%, followed by the USA (9.7%) and Brazil (8.6%).The reason behind these huge numbers is believed to be weak information and communication infrastructure, less (digital) information literacy and information awareness among the people along with the living prejudices in the societies like India.Also, it is possible that the spread of misinformation in the countries mentioned is associated with how bad the pandemic is in a country. Misleading information surges when a crisis first appears, people become nervous or frightened, and reliable information is not readily available or cannot be provided like what happened when Covid-19 was at its peak. However, no country has suffered so much because of misinformation related to the pandemic as India. As soon as the first infection was registered in January 2020, a torrent of fake news rose from its origin and spread to its cure have flooded in every major means of communications, posing an additional challenge for the government who were already under pressure due to the rising pandemic. This is large because of the country's growing religious and political polarization and absent regulation of social media channels that populate fake news. It is noteworthy to mention that with more than 400 million active users of social media channels, particularly Facebook and Twitter, and twice this number having access to the internet and digital media, India is on the radars of most big tech and social media companies. However, compared to many countries, Indians are more susceptible to falling prey to fake news and misinformation.To illustrate how misinformation created multiple hurdles to India's tough fight against the pandemic, take a glance at some of the major incidents right from the beginning. A prominent fake message that drew a lot of attention was how Vitamin C could curb infections. Similarly, a flood of fake news, particularly sensational videos advocating a miracle cure by Gaumutra (Cow urine), began populating in nearly all prominent social media channels. Such dangerous misinformation prompted the country's top medical body ICMR (Indian Council for Medical Research) to issue appeals to people not to self-administer medicine. Not only this, authorities had to issue a series of complaints and notifications to print and social media platforms to curb fake April Fools' jokes on COVID-19. These warnings didn't have any positive effect as in April 2020, a number of doctored videos were found on the likely imposition of emergency law by the government and takeover by the military.Far worse was the misinformation on non-vegetarian food, particularly regarding the eating of chicken and eggs spreading the infection. This dangerously motivated fake news was easily believed by many people causing major harm to the poultry industry. This episode led poultry farmers to cull millions of birds and in some cases setting them free. According to one estimate, poultry farmers had to incur a loss of Rs. 2000 crores.However, the most debilitating COVID-19 misinformation was the Tablighi Jamaat incident in March. The controversial Tablighi Jamaat Islamic seminary congregation held in Delhi, which led to a major uptick in COVID-19 infections in the country, prompted many individuals and groups to populate social media, particularly WhatsApp groups, with doctored videos and fake messages depicting the group as a vector for the virus. Also, due to farmers' protests, Covid-19 cases increased drastically.
As India gets closer to vaccine breakthroughs and eventual nationwide rollout, it must brace up to tackle vaccine misinformation on a war footing. Given India's troubled past with regard to vaccination where a sizeable population have a strong hesitancy to vaccination, some people are particularly likely to resort to falsehoods, conspiracy theories and wild rumours about the efficacy and side effects of COVID-19 vaccines. The best course for the government and its agencies handling COVID-19 is to take cues from the manners and modes in which fake news and misinformation were populated by social media platforms during different stages of the pandemic. In this regard, the government needs to proactively engage with major tech platforms, social media companies to stem the rot before they go viral. While it is a welcome sign that key tech platforms like Facebook and Twitter have already announced their plans to quickly pullout fake news related to vaccination, India's real challenge is to prevail over other spurious mediums particularly WhatsApp, which by far remains the biggest source of misinformation in the country.
To conclude, India's greatest challenge to mass vaccination against COVID-19 is not logistics or supply chain, rather fake news, misinformation and the vaccine naysayers.
The study found social media to be the biggest producer of misinformation, accounting for 85% of it. Internet-based sources make up 91% of all Covid fake news. Among countries, India is the biggest source (18%), followed by Brazil (9%) and the USA (8.6%). The amount of misinformation is also the highest in India, at 16%, followed by the USA (9.7%) and Brazil (8.6%).
The reason behind these huge numbers is believed to be weak information and communication infrastructure, less (digital) information literacy and information awareness among the people along with the living prejudices in the societies like India.
Also, it is possible that the spread of misinformation in the countries mentioned is associated with how bad the pandemic is in a country.
Misleading information surges when a crisis first appears, people become nervous or frightened, and reliable information is not readily available or cannot be provided like what happened when Covid-19 was at its peak.
However, no country has suffered so much because of misinformation related to the pandemic as India. As soon as the first infection was registered in January 2020, a torrent of fake news rose from its origin and spread to its cure have flooded in every major means of communications, posing an additional challenge for the government who were already under pressure due to the rising pandemic. This is large because of the country's growing religious and political polarization and absent regulation of social media channels that populate fake news. It is noteworthy to mention that with more than 400 million active users of social media channels, particularly Facebook and Twitter, and twice this number having access to the internet and digital media, India is on the radars of most big tech and social media companies. However, compared to many countries, Indians are more susceptible to falling prey to fake news and misinformation.
To illustrate how misinformation created multiple hurdles to India's tough fight against the pandemic, take a glance at some of the major incidents right from the beginning. A prominent fake message that drew a lot of attention was how Vitamin C could curb infections. Similarly, a flood of fake news, particularly sensational videos advocating a miracle cure by Gaumutra (Cow urine), began populating in nearly all prominent social media channels. Such dangerous misinformation prompted the country's top medical body ICMR (Indian Council for Medical Research) to issue appeals to people not to self-administer medicine. Not only this, authorities had to issue a series of complaints and notifications to print and social media platforms to curb fake April Fools' jokes on COVID-19. These warnings didn't have any positive effect as in April 2020, a number of doctored videos were found on the likely imposition of emergency law by the government and takeover by the military.
Far worse was the misinformation on non-vegetarian food, particularly regarding the eating of chicken and eggs spreading the infection. This dangerously motivated fake news was easily believed by many people causing major harm to the poultry industry. This episode led poultry farmers to cull millions of birds and in some cases setting them free. According to one estimate, poultry farmers had to incur a loss of Rs. 2000 crores.
However, the most debilitating COVID-19 misinformation was the Tablighi Jamaat incident in March. The controversial Tablighi Jamaat Islamic seminary congregation held in Delhi, which led to a major uptick in COVID-19 infections in the country, prompted many individuals and groups to populate social media, particularly WhatsApp groups, with doctored videos and fake messages depicting the group as a vector for the virus. Also, due to farmers' protests, Covid-19 cases increased drastically.
As India gets closer to vaccine breakthroughs and eventual nationwide rollout, it must brace up to tackle vaccine misinformation on a war footing. Given India's troubled past with regard to vaccination where a sizeable population have a strong hesitancy to vaccination, some people are particularly likely to resort to falsehoods, conspiracy theories and wild rumours about the efficacy and side effects of COVID-19 vaccines.
The best course for the government and its agencies handling COVID-19 is to take cues from the manners and modes in which fake news and misinformation were populated by social media platforms during different stages of the pandemic. In this regard, the government needs to proactively engage with major tech platforms, social media companies to stem the rot before they go viral. While it is a welcome sign that key tech platforms like Facebook and Twitter have already announced their plans to quickly pullout fake news related to vaccination, India's real challenge is to prevail over other spurious mediums particularly WhatsApp, which by far remains the biggest source of misinformation in the country.
To conclude, India's greatest challenge to mass vaccination against COVID-19 is not logistics or supply chain, rather fake news, misinformation and the vaccine naysayers.
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