Minister for Health meets with social media companies to discuss anti-vaccination misinformation
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From: Department of Health
- Published on: 25 November 2019
- Last updated on: 25 November 2019
Minister for Health, Simon Harris TD, has today (Monday) met with the social media companies, Facebook, Twitter, and Google, to discuss the measures they are taking to combat anti-vaccination misinformation on social media platforms.
Vaccine hesitancy has been identified by the World Health Organization as one of the ten leading threats to global health in 2019.
The Minister outlined his concerns:
"The progress we have made in reducing, and in some cases eradicating, vaccine-preventable diseases will be in vain if we allow our immunisation programmes to be undermined by misinformation and disinformation about the benefits and safety of vaccines, particularly on social media.
"Social media is an incredibly powerful tool that can also be harnessed to direct people to sources of factual information about vaccination, so they can make informed decisions. It is in this context that I met with the social media companies today.
The Minister commended the social media companies for being proactive and putting in place measures to tackle this issue and he welcomed their commitment to work with the Department of Health to make further progress.
However, he added:
"The companies themselves acknowledged they have a responsibility to their users in the area of public health. While some of them have taken measures to combat vaccine misinformation, they acknowledged there was much more work to be done and agreed to liaise with the department regarding the work of the Vaccine Alliance and with the HSE to progress further initiatives.
"We must do everything we can to ensure people get accurate and reputable information on public health."
ENDS
Notes to the Editor:
- after clean water, vaccination is the most effective intervention for saving lives and promoting good health
- vaccination currently prevents 2-3 million deaths every year. An additional 1.5 million deaths could be avoided, however, if global vaccination coverage improves
- in 1950, there were approximately 5,000 cases of rubella reported in Ireland, along with 500 cases of diptheria and 500 cases of polio. By comparison, in 2017, there were no cases of diptheria, rubella or polio. The last reported case of polio in Ireland was in 1984
- if 1,000 people get Meningococcal C infection, 50 will die. If 1,000 people are immunised, 50 will have discomfort, redness and swelling where the injection was given or will have a fever
- one in 1000 cases of measles is fatal. 72 children and adults died from measles in the European Region in 2018
- there has been a 72% decrease in cases of rotavirus since the vaccine was introduced for babies in 2016
- there were 69 cases of whooping cough in 2017 in babies less than 6 months of age. All pregnant women should get the whooping cough vaccine to give their baby the best protection during their first few months of life
- each year in Ireland 300 women develop cervical cancer and 90 die from the disease. The HPV vaccine protects against 7 out of 10 cervical cancers