Marc Veldhoen

How to Respond to Misinformation From the Anti-Vaccine Movement

Vaccines are one of the most crucial life-saving medical interventions. Perplexingly, they court more public controversy than their objectively excellent safety profile warrants.

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/00469580231155723
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May 28, 2024 at 6:20pmWeb
Show threadMarc VeldhoenMay 28, 2024
Bringing back an old one.
Opposition to vaccine policies, can be traced back at least to the mid-19th century, classic tropes; it transforms you/alters DNA, it is toxic, and one of the meanest; it causes infertility.
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Show threadMarc VeldhoenMay 28, 2024
Those making those claims, even though they may state they are not antivax, are at least contributing to the antivax movement. The claim that it harms young women with a child wish is one of the worst, since the immune system reduces in power during pregnancy.
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Show threadMarc VeldhoenMay 28, 2024
The consequences can be devastating for mother, baby and young family, Coming out of the worse peak of the pandemic, with rows of ambulances (many out of this picture sight from 02/ 2021), triage at the door, loosing many patients and colleagues under the enormous pressure.
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Show threadMarc VeldhoenMay 28, 2024
The vaccination campagne was just underway, physicians and scientists were working day and night, uninterrupted from March 2020. The vaccines were and are absolute life savers. The disinformation campaign against them which followed did a lot of harm, made hardship worse.
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Show threadMarc VeldhoenMay 28, 2024
Those claiming toxicity, altering DNA, that they did not work, and claims of them causing infertility (some out of the biological ignorance that cycle length indicates fertility) have a lot to answer for and caused a lot of bad feelings, anger. Their actions live on.
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Show threadMarc VeldhoenMay 28, 2024
They argued from political conviction, without biological understanding, they argued without any idea how bad the crisis was, kicking against governments. They leave a "legacy" of misstrust and declining national vaccination programmes. Inevitably, increasing infections and
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Show threadMarc VeldhoenMay 28, 2024
the misery and hardship that will accompany unnecessary suffering. Many are still active attacking the pandemic measures, ignorant of the hurt they are still causing, with total lack of any understanding. They attack doctors and scientists who worked hard to keep them save
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Show threadMarc VeldhoenMay 28, 2024
yet, many play the victim card that they were hard done by, their dis- and misinformation, although all over the place, was censored. Their unsubstantiated and wrong and dangerous claims were "attacked". It is terrible to see this continuing, re-writing history.
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Show threadMarc VeldhoenMay 28, 2024
It spells very bad news if a next pandemic, and there will be more, happens in this or the next generation. Yet, they will rely on the same scientists and doctor to keep them save, cure them. In the meantime, they continue their soulless and unjustifiable attacks, Terrible.
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Show threadPaulMay 29, 2024
@marc_veld if maddens me how little action is being taken against the spreaders of misinformation of those days. Indeed about infertility, about “immunity for Covid but the first regular cold will kill you”, against “millions of people will die” etc.
The people who spread misinformation were talking about tribunals. I’m against tribunals but they are the ones that should be charged. Not the doctors, the nurses and the scientists.