Vaccine Information Failure

An article titled "'Science isn’t enough': Queensland Health admits vaccine info 'failure' " appeared in the online version of The Brisbane Times dated Sunday, December 15th 2019. The article begins:

Queensland Health admits it has failed to do enough to encourage vaccinations as it calls for social media companies to do more to stop the spread of misinformation. Queensland is experiencing one of its worst years for measles cases in the last two decades, with 71 cases recorded by the first week of December. It's the third-worst year for measles since 1997, when a spike saw 267 people diagnosed with the dangerous virus. There were 72 cases in 2014. But Queensland’s experience pales in comparison to that seen recently in Samoa, where a major outbreak has infected nearly 5000 people and claimed 72 lives, 61 of those children under four years old.

Figure 1

In the current Queensland "epidemic", no one has died or suffered any long term consequences but the example of Samoa is invoked nonetheless to remind the readership of might happen if they become complacent. Thankfully Instagram has come to the rescue of anyone who might inadvertently stumble upon anti-vaccination material (see Figure 1).

As Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital (RBWH) acting director of infectious diseases, Andrew Redmond, says:

... the idea there was a “debate” around vaccinations was entirely false.

As another spokesperson, Robert Hoge, the Executive Director of Queensland Health’s strategic communications branch, said in the article: "If you look at anything from obesity to climate change to vaccination the science isn’t enough. The science has to be accompanied by good and effective communication and storytelling."

Ironically, he's right about the "storytelling". For communication, one could substitute propaganda and it's the propaganda that is being lamented as being ineffective by these health administrators. The culprit of course is social media, lambasted recently by Sasha Baron Cohen in his ADL award acceptance speech. The mindless masses are being swayed by misinformation and disinformation in the debate over vaccinations.

However, as Andrew Redmond said, there is no debate. The science is settled. Why can't people just accept that and live up or line their children up for their vaccinations? Of course, this approach is entirely antithetical to the way science should operate. There should always be debate as well as proper studies regarding vaccine safety.

This is same approach that global warmists or global warming alarmists take against climate skeptics or climate deniers. There is no room for debate. The science is settled. Just accept the reality of anthropogenic global warming and get ready to make the necessary sacrifices. In both cases, science has become politicised and is no longer true science.

The article referred to in this post also carries a photo of a woman praying in front of a portrait of her child who she lost to measles in Samoa, earlier this month. To the Australian readership toward whom the story is directed, the implication is clear: get your child vaccinated or you could be doing the same.

The next stage in the propaganda war against rational debate on the subject of vaccinations or climate change is more and more interception and redirection of suspicious content toward approved sites. Inevitably, users who post this suspicious material will, if repeat offenders, have their accounts shut down and all of their content deleted. Thus chances of users of social media accessing alternative viewpoints regarding these subjects will continue to diminish.