the intersection of accusations between Joe Biden and Facebook for the drop in vaccination rates

One day later the brutal accusations against social media the President of the United States, Joe Biden, has been around the world, Facebook has taken his defense.

While the US president claimed that social media is “killing people” by allowing false information about coronavirus vaccines to proliferate on their platforms, the social network argued that the numbers tell a different story: “The data show that Mark Zuckerberg 85% of Facebook users in the United States have been vaccinated or wish to be vaccinated against Covid-19 “The Menlo Park company said in an article on its corporate blog by Vice President Guy Rosen.

“President Biden’s goal was for 70% of Americans to be vaccinated by July 4. Facebook is not the reason this goal was missed. “

Misinformation about the coronavirus pandemic has spread like wildfire on portals such as Facebook, Twitter or YouTube, all over the world and in particular in the United States, where conspiracy theories they’ve always had an audience. Researchers and lawmakers across the country have long accused Facebook of failing to monitor harmful content on its platforms.

Biden launched his accusations at a time when vaccination has stagnated with 50% of the population vaccinated nationwide, which records some resistance to vaccines in conservative states, where there are more followers of former President Donald Trump, friend of the conspirators.

The company introduced rules against misrepresentation specific about the disease covid and its vaccines, and says it gives people reliable information on these topics.

The delta variant of the coronavirus is now the dominant strain worldwide, accompanied by an increase in deaths in the United States almost entirely among the unvaccinated. Infections rose 70% on Friday from the previous week and deaths by 26%, with outbreaks occurring in parts of the country with the lowest vaccination rates, such as in southern states.

Presidential anger

“The only pandemic we have is the unvaccinated one. “Biden said Friday, in remarks similar to those made earlier by Dr Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The increase in numbers is due to the existence of major sources of infection among the more than 90 million Americans who are allowed to be vaccinated but have not yet done so. Four states with low vaccination rates They made up 40% of new cases last week, and nearly half of them were from Florida.

However, there is little will in the White House to reimpose broad mandates for masks or other measures, since 161 million Americans are fully immunized.

The government’s new expression of frustration comes amid near disbelief that tens of millions of Americans continue to refuse to be vaccinated, which unnecessarily prolongs the pandemic and it costs lives, as health officials point out that almost all severe cases and deaths are now preventable.

Over 99% of deaths for COVID-19 and 97% of hospitalizations occur in unvaccinated people, according to the CDC.

The pandemic is now “the one that mainly threatens unvaccinated people”, White House COVID-19 coordinator Jeff Zients said Friday.

Says the Biden administration expect cases to increase in the coming weeks due to its spread in communities with low vaccination rates. However, Zients added that there is a sign that the increase in cases is prompting more people in these communities to seek the vaccine, noting that “states with the highest case rates are seeing their vaccination rates rise more. faster than the national average.

Source: La Vanguardia, AFP and AP

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