THE ECONOMIST | Covid-19: why vaccine mistrust is growing Learn More: The Anti-Vaxx Playbook TRANSCRIPT: 00:00 A vaccine is the world’s best hope of overcoming the covid-19 pandemic 00:05 More than 20 vaccines are in development, globally… 00:10 …but as scientists move closer to success… 00:12 Possible breakthrough in the development… 00:15 …of a coronavirus vaccine 00:17 …there’s a problem 00:18 Freedom 00:20 A growing number of people say they won’t take a vaccine 00:24 I don’t want to inject anything like this into my body 00:26 This is linked to declining trust in scientific experts and political leaders… 00:32 Hypocrite 00:33 …problems brought into even sharper focus by the pandemic… 00:37 I call it covid bollocks 00:39 …and fuelled by a spiralling infodemic 00:43 Take off your mask 00:44 Anybody who has trusted the president has been lied to… 00:48 …and many people like my dad have paid with their life 00:53 This crisis of trust could have catastrophic consequences 00:57 So, what can be done to rebuild trust in vaccines… 01:01 …and to protect the world from future disasters? 01:04 All vaccine advocates need to be more tech savvy 01:06 We have science and evidence and right and fact on our side 01:30 This is the front line in the race to find a covid-19 vaccine 01:35 Professor Jonathan Heeney is one of those leading the charge 01:39 It has very much been a race against time… 01:42 …and sometimes I wish time could stand still 01:47 The professor has been developing vaccines for over 25 years 01:51 Now we have representatives of those viruses… 01:55 …that are closely related to SARS-1 or SARS-2 01:58 But finding one to fight a virus… 02:00 …which has brought the world to its knees, feels different 02:04 I do know people who’ve had covid and it’s a terrible, terrible death 02:08 It is an agonising disease 02:13 This project in Cambridge is about to begin clinical human trials… 02:17 …and the stakes could not be higher 02:19 If we don’t have a vaccine, we will be stuck in this lifestyle of isolation… 02:25 …social distancing, masks for a long, long time 02:31 For a vaccine to immunise populations effectively against covid-19… 02:36 …around 70% of people need to be willing to take it 02:40 Trust is absolutely critical 02:43 If only part of the population is onboard… 02:46 …we’re never going to bring this virus to its knees… 02:49 …and control this epidemic 02:54 Choose your side, choose your side 03:01 But, in the rich world especially… 03:04 …polls suggest that persuading people to take vaccines… 03:07 …may be as difficult as producing them in the first place 03:11 Are you gonna take it? 03:13 No 03:14 Are you gonna let your kids have it? 03:16 No 03:17 What are they? 03:19 Liars 03:21 Many of these protesters belong to a growing minority… 03:24 …who believe a covid-19 vaccine… 03:26 …would actually be harmful to their health 03:29 Do I worry about vaccinations, this one in particular? 03:32 Yes, definitely 03:33 It’s been rushed and imposed on us… 03:35 …and I know I want to have my choice… 03:37 …and I don’t want to inject anything like this into my body… 03:40 …and into my children’s body 03:45 Some here see a vaccine as part of a wider government conspiracy… 03:49 …to exaggerate the dangers of covid-19 03:53 We do not consent 03:57 Many of these people have lost trust in their government 04:07 Take off your masks 04:15 I call it covid bollocks, what do you call it? 04:18 Covid bollocks 04:20 We want the truth 04:21 And we will not give up until we get the truth 04:24 We’re not going to stand for being lied to by our governments… 04:29 …by people that we should trust 04:31 They want us to trust but we can’t trust them 04:41 The views being expressed here are extreme and belong to a minority 04:46 The proportion of the global population opposed to vaccines generally… 04:49 …is estimated to be well under 10% 04:54 But anti-vaxxers, as they are often called… 04:56 …are a vocal minority and their views are increasingly… 04:59 …influencing broader society 05:03 Distrust can be infectious 05:07 A poll carried out in America in September… 05:10 …found that only 36% of adults said they would take a vaccine… 05:13 …when one becomes available… 05:15 …with 64% saying they wouldn’t take one or weren’t sure 05:21 In another survey under four-fifths of people… 05:24 …in 16 countries responded positively to the idea… 05:28 …of taking a covid-19 vaccine, if proven safe and effective 05:35 In the context of covid, I think empathy is absolutely crucial 05:40 Professor Heidi Larson is an anthropologist… 05:44 …and a leading expert on why significant sections… 05:46 …of the global population feel hesitant about vaccines 05:50 She says a failure to confront the root causes of “vaccine hesitancy”… 05:54 …as she calls it… 05:55 …is driving more of these people towards anti-vaccination views 06:00 The majority of the public that is questioning… 06:04 …they’re hesitant, they’re anxious 06:06 These are people who have genuine questions… 06:10 …who are open to vaccination… 06:12 …but are feeling they’re not getting their answers… 06:15 …and then migrate more to the more anti-end… 06:20 …that seem more acknowledging their concerns… 06:23 …endorsing their concerns 06:26 Professor Larson argues that one of the historic problems… 06:30 …has been a failure by the medical establishment to listen… 06:33 …to the concerns of parents who have doubts… 06:35 …about inoculating their children 06:38 A lot of parents feel like they’re being judged… 06:40 …called names for even asking questions 06:45 And that’s not at all been helpful… 06:47 …in trying to support people in their decision-making… 06:52 …and positive sentiments towards a vaccine 06:55 It’s really fundamentally about trust, relational trust 06:59 Breaking news… 07:00 …testing has been paused for one of the leading… 07:02 …candidates developed by Oxford University 07:06 In September a volunteer from a leading… 07:09 …covid-19-vaccine trial was admitted to hospital… 07:13 …and the project was temporarily halted 07:16 Professor Larson says an opportunity was missed… 07:19 …to build trust with the public 07:22 I wish in the news instead of just this is normal process… 07:28 …safety events happen, we’re taking care of it… 07:31 …that the voice of a participant said… 07:35 …I appreciate the care and the attention… 07:37 …that the clinical team gave to me during this uncertain time 07:42 The message is sent that there is a caring team 07:46 That they’re not just putting vaccines in people to count numbers… 07:50 …and get to the perfect vaccine 07:52 That there is human empathy in this 07:57 The medical and pharmaceutical professions… 07:59 …have been far from immune to missteps… 08:01 …during the history of vaccines… 08:04 …and this has helped fuel today’s climate… 08:06 …of vaccine hesitancy and opposition… 08:09 …not least the legacy of a British doctor… 08:11 …named Andrew Wakefield 08:14 In 1998 he published research in a highly respected medical journal… 08:19 …claiming there was a link between a measles vaccine and autism 08:24 Wakefield and colleagues altered facts about patients in their studies 08:29 But his research turned out to be highly compromised 08:32 Studies have shown no connection between the MMR vaccination and autism 08:39 The journal eventually retracted the research… 08:42 …and Wakefield was struck off the medical register in the UK in 2010 08:47 But, many members of the public continued to see Wakefield… 08:50 …as a credible expert 08:52 This guy has been set up, it’s nothing but lies 08:56 And millions across the world still have reservations… 08:59 …about taking the measles vaccine 09:02 It’s symptomatic of a wider decline in trust in traditional experts… 09:06 …and governments in rich-world countries 09:18 Dr Jonathan Kennedy is an expert in global public health… 09:22 …and has investigated the link between trust in government… 09:25 …and authorities and hesitancy about vaccines 09:28 In this class we’re going to talk about… 09:31 …the question of how to think critically about global health 09:37 Dr Kennedy analysed voting data and surveys on public confidence… 09:41 …in vaccines across 14 countries 09:45 He found a broad pattern 09:46 Where levels of electoral support for populist parties were higher… 09:50 …levels of mistrust in vaccines also tended to be higher 09:54 Populist sentiment, this distrust of elites and experts… 09:57 …isn’t just isolated in politics 10:01 The forces driving scientific populism… 10:03 …are all very similar to those that drive political populism 10:12 Dr Kennedy argues there’s a strong relationship… 10:14 …between vaccine hesitancy and political, social and economic crisis 10:23 At a time when trust between people and politicians… 10:25 …has been breaking down… 10:27 …a number of countries have seen a resurgence of measles 10:32 You trying to punch me sir? 10:33 I did not 10:34 How dare you 10:35 Yes, you racist 10:36 It certainly wasn’t a coincidence that the UK last summer… 10:40 …lost its measles-free status 10:42 How about that 10:44 At a time where there was massive conflict over Brexit 10:49 During the covid-19 pandemic… 10:51 …the response of governments has further decreased trust… 10:54 …in public-health experts and politicians… 10:57 …not least in some countries with populist leaders 11:00 If test and trace isn’t improved significantly… 11:03 …there could be a second wave 11:05 In Britain, under Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s leadership… 11:09 …public-health guidance has changed constantly… 11:11 …and confusingly 11:13 We’re constantly working to improve that delivery system… 11:16 …buying PPE from around the world 11:20 Creating a sense that the government is failing and incompetent 11:24 In a huge policy reversal affecting hundreds of thousands of pupils 11:28 What’s more, senior political figures… 11:31 …have failed to follow their own health guidelines 11:34 Trust in the British government as a reliable source of information… 11:37 …about coronavirus fell from 67% in April to 44% in August 11:46 Don’t let it dominate you, don’t be afraid of it 11:51 In America, false information about the virus… 11:54 …has flowed from a president… 11:56 …whose contempt for truth has done more than anything else… 11:59 …to sow distrust in politicians and experts 12:02 One month ago today President Trump said… 12:05 …that the coronavirus was “dying out” 12:07 I’ve read a lot about Hydroxy, I happen to think that it has an impact 12:13 And then I see the disinfectant, it knocks it out in a minute 12:19 Researchers at Cornell University analysed… 12:23 …38m English-language articles about the pandemic 12:27 They found President Trump was the single largest driver… 12:30 …of misinformation around covid-19 12:38 This is me and my mum and my dad in New York… 12:42 …where I graduated from college 12:44 For some this has had lethal consequences 12:48 In June, Kristin Urquiza lost her father Mark to covid-19 12:54 65-year-old Mark was a life-long Republican voter… 12:58 …and Trump supporter from Arizona 13:00 He died after Arizona’s governor reopened the state… 13:04 …encouraged by the president 13:05 When the governor and the president went around… 13:09 …pushing a reopening strategy and saying to the public… 13:14 …it was safe if you didn’t have an underlying health condition… 13:18 …it was safe to go out, resume normal activities… 13:22 …my dad listened and thought it was safe 13:27 Mark contracted covid-19 after visiting a karaoke bar 13:31 His daughter says placing trust in his political leaders… 13:35 …proved a fatal mistake 13:38 Both the president and the governor of Arizona… 13:42 …are on record through that time, downplaying the virus 13:44 Anybody who has trusted the president has been lied to… 13:49 …has been misled and many people… 13:53 …like my dad, have paid with their life as a result 14:00 While the actions of populist politicians have undermined trust… 14:03 …in public-health advice and institutions 14:07 There is another factor which has driven this trend… 14:10 …the unprecedented speed at which misinformation can spread 14:20 In February, the World Health Organisation warned of twin dangers… 14:24 …a global pandemic but also an infodemic 14:28 A crisis in accurate public-health information 14:31 These insufferable globalist elitists like Bill Gates 14:37 He tells us we need a nationwide shutdown for months 14:40 This foundation is leading the charge to lower the world’s population 14:46 Much of this infodemic is concentrated online 14:49 Social-media users… 14:50 …who may not hold strong views about particular issues… 14:53 …can rapidly be exposed to misleading and extremist content 14:57 Folks, I think they’re trying to force a vaccine on all of us 15:04 Neil Johnson is a professor of physics… 15:06 …at George Washington University 15:08 His research shows how fake news can gain the upper hand… 15:12 …in the online battle for hearts and minds 15:16 What we expected to find was that there’d be a core of communities… 15:22 …maybe public-health agencies… 15:24 …that were promoting vaccines and establishment-health thinking 15:29 And that around this central strong core… 15:32 …there’d be other opinions, sort of extremes 15:35 But that’s not what we found 15:37 We found that that was actually sort of inside out 15:41 Professor Johnson’s team mapped conversations on Facebook… 15:44 …about vaccines between 100m people all over the world 15:49 They discovered that misinformation… 15:50 …was exerting more influence than accurate information 15:54 In some sense it’s almost like a network of trust… 15:57 …and if they flipped either way of course… 15:58 …they could become red, they could become blue… 16:00 …and that completely changes the battlefield 16:02 On this battlefield map… 16:04 …red represents Facebook pages and members… 16:07 …with anti-vaccination views and their spread over time 16:11 Blue represents pages and members with pro-vaccination views 16:16 While green signifies the all-important groups of people… 16:19 …who are undecided 16:21 The undecided greens are more engaged… 16:24 …with the red anti-vaccination clusters… 16:26 …than the pro-vaccination blues 16:29 The reds, they are completely entangled with the greens… 16:34 …the not sures, the communities of pet lovers… 16:36 …parents groups, organic-blueberry lovers… 16:40 …the ones that can tip the balance one way or the other 16:44 The worry is, as we see the greens and the reds entangle… 16:48 …what we’re really seeing is a beginning of an entanglement… 16:51 …of trust away from establishment science 16:55 Trust is the glue 16:57 Because in the end, when we trust the community… 17:00 …if they happen to start talking about vaccines… 17:04 …which is something that I don’t ordinarily think about… 17:06 …I will follow them in their thinking 17:10 This entanglement matters 17:12 Research has found that online exposure to recent misinformation… 17:16 …about a covid-19 vaccine may significantly affect intent to take one 17:21 And Professor Johnson believes this kind of content… 17:25 …will continue to spread online with the result that… 17:27 …anti-vaccination sentiment could become the majority view 17:32 Within a few years, red with the concerned greens, will rise… 17:37 …to essentially dominate that space 17:40 And it’ll be very hard to reverse that 17:43 So something different needs to be done now 17:48 Social-media platforms have increased their efforts… 17:52 …to stop the spread of untruths about vaccines and covid-19 17:56 In April, Facebook put warning labels… 17:58 …on about 50m pieces of content related to the virus 18:03 The platform partnered with reliable sources… 18:06 …like the WHO and the NHS 18:09 And in October, Facebook banned anti-vaccine ads 18:14 Yet campaigners argue the platform isn’t going far enough… 18:18 …and is failing to take down… 18:19 …the majority of harmful content about vaccinations 18:24 More broadly, Facebook’s own algorithm… 18:27 …undermines efforts to stem the tide of the infodemic… 18:30 …says Fadi Quran, from the online political campaign group, Avaaz 18:35 Facebook’s algorithm is sabotaging the efforts… 18:39 …of the platform to fix the misinformation problem 18:43 It cares about keeping individuals engaged, interested and online 18:47 Sensationalist, outrageous content, not the CDC guidelines… 18:51 …but QAnon, for example, gets more engagement… 18:55 …and hence the algorithm pushes it up in your news feed 19:00 One solution might be to detoxify the algorithm 19:04 What Facebook isn’t doing is redesigning its algorithm… 19:08 …redesigning its business model… 19:11 …to ensure that it’s not continuing to amplify this content 19:15 And this does not mean that the algorithm… 19:16 …should be designed to censor content 19:19 It just means that the algorithm would downgrade… 19:22 …instead of putting this malicious content… 19:24 …at the top of one’s news feed… 19:26 …the platform would make sure that it is at the bottom of the news feed 19:31 Social-media platforms could save lives 19:35 They have the power 19:36 This is a problem that Mark Zuckerberg… 19:38 …and Jack Dorsey could literally say… 19:41 …we’re going to solve this right now 19:43 Yet redesigning algorithms and tightening regulations… 19:46 …on tech companies is unlikely to get to the root causes… 19:50 …of mistrust in vaccines 19:52 To do that health bodies and experts… 19:54 …will need to be proactive about building relationships… 19:57 …with the public, in person, and especially online 20:04 According to doctors at this paediatric practice in Pittsburgh… 20:08 …the key to tackling distrust, and misinformation… 20:10 …is to fight fire with fire 20:12 Hello, it’s a yucky doctor coming in 20:15 How are you guys doing today? 20:16 Good, how are you? 20:17 I’m doing ok 20:19 While it might look like any other children’s surgery… 20:22 …the Kids Plus practice has its own in-house video production suite… 20:27 …getting messages out to patients constantly and quickly 20:31 Vaccine advocates are online using our voices… 20:35 …not the same way we are in the office… 20:38 …we’re saving lives, we’re protecting them against mistruths… 20:43 …and disinformation that can literally kill people 20:48 I think all vaccine advocates need to be more tech savvy 20:52 Kids Plus routinely post evidence-based videos… 20:55 …and information about vaccines on all major social-media platforms 21:00 I’ll start things off until we see our questions start rolling in again… 21:04 …hello to TikTok, hello to Facebook live 21:06 And this presence allows them to respond to questions… 21:09 …from parents and families, who feel uninformed and concerned 21:14 Our parents, our families are living their entire lives right here… 21:19 …on their phones, on their tablets, on their laptops, their desktops 21:23 If people hear good evidence-based information… 21:27 …before they hear the mis- and disinformation… 21:30 …that mis- and disinformation is much less likely to affect them 21:34 What you’re essentially doing is inoculating them against that bullshit… 21:39 …before it can take root in them 21:43 These doctors also argue that it’s vital to take on the stream… 21:46 …of highly organised and targeted viral attacks from anti-vaccine forces 21:52 The reality of online vaccine advocacy right now is if you post it… 21:58 …they will come, the anti-vaxxers will find you and they will attack you 22:03 They want to terrorise providers into silence 22:08 It’s a challenge the practice knows all about 22:11 Together we can prevent cancer in your children 22:15 In 2017 Kids Plus released a video… 22:18 …promoting an HPV vaccine that prevents cancer… 22:22 …and faced a barrage of hostility 22:25 They attacked our posts 22:26 They attacked our Facebook page 22:28 They attacked the private pages of our families… 22:31 …and our patients who defended us on our post 22:33 They came right after our reputation 22:37 Kids Plus has since created a toolkit for health professionals… 22:41 …and built a digital cavalry of global-vaccine advocates… 22:44 …who can quickly come to the aid of those under fire… 22:47 …from anti-vaccine forces 22:50 Now, as a vaccine for covid-19 grows closer… 22:53 …Kids Plus and its self-styled “keyboard crusaders”… 22:56 …are steeling themselves for a bitter, but all important new fight 23:01 There is no vaccine yet 23:03 There’s no herd immunity for covid 23:05 And look, this is what life is like without herd immunity 23:08 This is what life is like without vaccines 23:12 Past evidence suggests some people could end up taking vaccines… 23:15 …after saying they might not 23:17 But herd immunity to covid-19… 23:20 …may require around 70% take up of a vaccine… 23:23 …and just a six percentage point decline in acceptance… 23:27 …could endanger this goal 23:29 And for many, alarm bells are ringing 23:32 We’re losing in large part… 23:33 …because the anti-vaccine forces are much more passionate… 23:36 …and organised than we are 23:39 There are far fewer of them than there are of us 23:42 We have science and evidence and right and fact, on our side 23:46 That’s how we win sibiu1182020-12-27T07:43:42+00:00November 18th, 2020|