The COVID 19 Vaccine and Conspiracy Theories

 

By Francis EKONGANG Nzante

Conspiracy Theories have not only questioned the very existence of COVID 19 but have gone ahead to actually hinder the acceptance of COVID 19 Vaccines across the globe. In Cameroon for example, the belief that COVID doesn’t affect the African as much as it affects persons of the White Race have been widely peddled and this pushed many to drop their guard resulting in the rising number of infected people that has been noticed recently. 

Many people who are sick in Cameroon are actually afraid to go to the hospital because they believe they will be injected and then declared COVID 19 positive. Some even believe (correctly or incorrectly) that it is an international scam used by countries to receive funds in efforts to fight against COVID 19, thus presenting a grim picture in which human life is toyed with for money. 

This has not been helped by the halt in the roll out of the  Oxford-Astra Zeneca Vaccine in at least five European countries. At the time of writing this article, Spain, Norway and Germany amongst others had joined the increasing list of countries that had suspended the vaccination process due to cases of reported blood clots following the taking of a jab of the Oxford-Astra Zeneca Vaccine.

The WHO according to BBC reports has however advised countries to continue using the Vaccine stating that the percentage of people affected by blood clots is relatively small while no direct link have yet been established between the blood clots and the Oxford-Astra Zeneca jab. Discontinuing the vaccine rollout remained a matter of serious debate at the time this article was being crafted. 

The countries that have halted the vaccination process maintain that they want to observe the situation for a while before going ahead with the vaccination process.

From an article written by Ashley Welch and fact checked by Danna Cassel on the situation in Pakistan, this reporter gleaned some facts on how conspiracy theories are hampering COVID vaccine drive in Pakistan.

Pakistan is aiming to vaccinate 70% of its population by the end of this year, but conspiracy theories, myths and disinformation are impeding the mass inoculation drive.

The Pakistani government launched its COVID-19 vaccination drive in February, starting with frontline health workers. After successfully inoculating 37,289 by mid-February, the authorities started registering other civilian groups.

The government hopes the COVID vaccine will be able to contain the spread of the coronavirus, but not everyone is willing to get a shot.

Conspiracy theories related to the vaccine abound in the Muslim-majority country. According to a report published by Gallup Pakistan, 49% of the population is reluctant to get vaccinated even if the vaccine is offered free of cost.

Experts say that misinformation and religious beliefs are responsible for people's mistrust of the vaccine.

Pakistan, a country of 220 million people, has so far recorded over 600,000 coronavirus cases and 13,430 related deaths.

Many people in the country believe the pandemic does not exist. Rumours are also rife that Western countries want to insert a "surveillance microchip" in the human body through vaccine shots.

Rumours hold that the mass vaccination drive could be an attempt by global powers to spy on the world’s population and many are also concerned about the vaccine's side-effects.

Some Pakistanis say the vaccine is "haram" (forbidden in Islam) due to yet to be proven claims that it contains pig gelatin and human fetus tissues.

The main source of misinformation about COVID vaccines is WhatsApp, which is used by 39% of the country's population. Unsubstantiated claims about vaccines are also circulating on YouTube and Facebook.

Naila Tariq, a Professor of Pathology at Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Hospital in Karachi, Pakistan says the misinformation on Social Media poses a challenge to health officials in educating people about the vaccines.

Vaccine Politics has also come into play. Pakistan so far has secured 17 million doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine. The country has also approved China's Sinopharm and Russia's Sputnik V vaccines.

"Some people are skeptical of the Sinopharm vaccine because it is made in China. Some don't want the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, as it is being manufactured in India," Tariq Tariq said.

Zoraiz Raiz, the founder of Corona Recovered Warriors, a group that coordinates plasma donations for COVID-19, said Pakistan's geopolitical relations also play an important role in the people's perception of the vaccines. conspiracy theories

In Cameroon, everyone is exposed to media and even educated people believe in Corona related myths. The gullible population searches for information about COVID vaccines on the internet, and believe in almost anything they come across talking about COVID 19.

In Cameroon even ahead of the beginning of a vaccination Programme, Politicians  have been doing much to dispel myths about COVID vaccines and educate people about its safety and efficacy.

Cameroon's Minister of Public Health Dr M. Malachi has hinted that the country has accepted the use of vaccines but that it is going to be a voluntary affair.

Public opinion sampling in Cameroon show that if politicians and religious leaders do not counter the spread of misinformation about COVID 19 and its vaccines on media which dominantly say it is a plot against humanity, people will certainly hesitate to get vaccinated.

Meantime thanks to articles written by Ashley Welch on February 2, 2021 and fact checked by Dana K. Cassell, of Healthline, “Cameroon Hospitals and Doctors” learnt that

 “Vaccine Hesitant Groups are exploiting the deaths of people who died of old age or underlying health conditions after receiving the COVID-19 shot to undermine trust in the vaccines.

Vaccine-hesitant groups are peddling misinformation and conspiracy theories aimed at eroding trust in the COVID-19 vaccine and the public health systems that are disseminating them.

In the latest attempts to undermine the vaccination rollout, activists are exploiting the deaths of those who died of old age or underlying health conditions after receiving the shot.

In some instances, vaccine-hesitant activists are manufacturing stories of deaths related to the vaccine that never happened.

These groups are also latching onto reports of real deaths following the shot, blaming the vaccine and disregarding medical information that other causes are to blame.”

“The vaccine has been disproportionately given to the population that is disproportionately dying,” said Dr. Jill Foster, a pediatric infectious disease physician with the University of Minnesota Medical School and M Health Fairview, who studies vaccine misinformation.

“Older people in nursing homes are being prioritized for the vaccine because they’re the ones that are dying at the highest rates from COVID,” Foster said. “But when you think of a population that is mainly over the age of 75 and debilitated already because they’re in a nursing home, that’s a group of people who are dying at a higher rate already.”

Ignoring that important context is a strategy vaccine-hesitant groups have been using for years, said Kolina Koltai, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow and misinformation researcher at the Center for an Informed Public at the University of Washington.

“This is the difficult part because most people think misinformation just means something is fake, but there are a lot of ways that misinformation can take shape,” she told Healthline.

“On the surface, a lot of anti-vaccine misinformation can be very convincing because they [activists] can take a quote or a bit of misinformation and isolate it, focusing on just that bit and removing all the other context,” Koltai added.

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