With fake news, anti-vax discourse spreads in social media

Fake news of any kind is of great concern globally, but especially important in terms of health care and vaccination at a time of the COVID-19 pandemic and a decline in uptake for children’s and HPV vaccines.

According to a posting on Brazil’s Fiocruz website by the Institute’s Cristine Albuquerque, the plots are astonishing. In the USA, a 14-year-old girl - still a virgin, the message highlights - supposedly became pregnant after having her flu shot.

In another version of the story, the girls are Mexican and are between 11 and 17 years old. In this case, the culprit of the pregnancies is the HPV vaccine. With variations, false narratives such as these, absolutely devoid of scientific evidence, disseminate through social networks, supporting the anti-vax movement. However, a study that investigated posts on vaccines with highest number of interactions in social media shows the predominance of voices favorable to immunization.