“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,” said Mr Harris.
“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 look forward to working closely with the Department of Health to make continued progress in this area and building on the resources Facebook has already put in place.”
“As a company, our main priority is to protect the health of the public conversation - this includes surfacing credible public health information,” it said. The new tool referenced by Twitter gives prominence to credible public health information about vaccines to people in Ireland who search the topic on the platform.
Lies, misinformation, quackery and falsehoods propgate much more quickly than true facts and sound medical information,