ArgumentSamoa Has Become a Case Study for “Anti-Vax” Success
In Samoa, Facebook is the main source of information. Michael Gerson writes that it is thus not surprising that anti-vaccination propaganda, much of it generated in the United States, has arrived through social media and discourages Samoan parents from vaccinating their children. “This type of import has helped turn Samoa into a case study of ‘anti-vax’ success — and increased the demand for tiny coffins decorated with flowers and butterflies,” he writes, adding: “Samoa is a reminder of a pre-vaccine past and the dystopian vision of a post-vaccine future.”
In Samoa, Facebook is the main source of information. Michael Gerson writes in the Washington Post that it is thus not surprising that anti-vaccination propaganda, much of it generated in the United States, has arrived through social media and discourages Samoan parents from vaccinating their children.
“This type of import has helped turn Samoa into a case study of ‘anti-vax’ success — and increased the demand for tiny coffins decorated with flowers and butterflies,” he writes, adding:
Samoa is a reminder of a pre-vaccine past and the dystopian vision of a post-vaccine future. Its government has declared a state of emergency. Schools have been closed. Children under 17 have been banned from public gatherings. Unvaccinated families have been asked to hang red flags outside their homes so mobile vaccination teams can find them.
Gerson notes that when it comes to public health, science alone does not save lives. “This requires science, plus healthy social norms” he writes. Cigarette use, for example, was reduced (in part) through the application of stigma. “But vaccinations face a unique challenge. “Public health is always just a few years away from catastrophe, because vaccination rates against infectious diseases need to be so high each year (generally 90 percent to 95 percent) to maintain herd protection.”
He adds:
Across the world, social norms on vaccination have run headlong into social media. Given the unrivaled power of Facebook and other platforms to cultivate conspiratorial paranoias, it is not easy to get 90 percent of any human population to think or do anything, particularly when it involves the infinitesimal risk of a bad reaction. When it comes to public health, a destructive fanatic doesn’t need to win an election to hurt people, just gain the support of a fringe.
Dr. Sheldon Yett, the UNICEF representative to the Pacific, has put the case bluntly: “People who are spreading lies and misinformation about vaccinations are killing children.”
