US: Biden Calls On Technology To Stop Vaccine Hoaxes: “They’re Killing People” | International

The White House is grappling with social media because of false news and the lethal effect it has on the population who choose not to be vaccinated against covid-19. With coronavirus cases on the rise in the United States and stagnant vaccination rates, the Joe Biden administration believes that at this time, the coronavirus crisis has turned into an “unvaccinated” pandemic.

As he left the White House to fly to Camp David (the presidential residence), the President of the United States approached the microphone of a journalist on Friday who asked him what his message was for platforms like Facebook. Biden was very explicit: “They kill people.” After these words, Biden turned and began to board Marine One, the helicopter used by the President.

The Democratic administration has decided to increase the pressure on Silicon Valley, to deal with false and pernicious information which is mainly disseminated by a dozen people who are nicknamed “the 12 of disinformation”. As White House Chief Press Officer Jen Psaki said last Thursday, “about 12 people produce 65% of vaccine fraudulent information on social media platforms.”

The statistics provided by the president’s spokesperson come from the Center to Counter Digital Hate (CCDH) organization, which had already demanded last March that Facebook and Twitter close all pages administered by this dozen people. Among those “twelve” is Robert F. Kennedy, the president’s nephew, John F. Kennedy, and the son of the former’s brother, who was also assassinated while running for president.

The 67-year-old environmental lawyer saw how Instagram closed his account last February. At the time, a spokesperson for Facebook, which owns Instagram, said the anti-vaccine activist’s controversial account was being deleted “for repeatedly sharing discredited claims about the coronavirus or vaccines.” However, Kennedy can still use Facebook, where he has more than 300,000 followers, to broadcast his opinions.

Covid-19 vaccines do not cause infertility

The White House press chief insisted that Facebook and other social media companies were not doing enough to tackle the disinformation generated by their platforms. “We are reporting problematic posts to Facebook for spreading disinformation,” Psaki said. “We work with physicians and healthcare professionals to connect recognized experts and deliver accurate information and reliable content to the public. The spokesperson again denied one of the most popular reports among the unvaccinated population, which claims that vaccines can cause infertility. “This has been refuted time and time again,” Psaki insisted.

In addition to the awareness campaign designed by the White House, the director of the Center for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC), Rochelle Walensky, assured that the current situation “is turning into a pandemic of unvaccinated people”. According to Walensky, 99% of recent deaths from covid-19 respond to unvaccinated people. Data from the CDC shows that COVID-19 cases rose 11% last week and saw even larger increases in areas of the country where immunizations do not exceed 40%.

For White House coronavirus response coordinator Jeffrey Zients, the solution is only in which more people get vaccinated. “While fully vaccinated people have a high degree of protection against serious illnesses from COVID-19, including the delta variant, the unvaccinated are not protected against these illnesses. “

The highest American health authority, Vivek Murthy, warned Thursday of the “urgent threat” posed by disinformation. “It costs us our loved ones, it costs us lives,” lamented Murthy, who lost ten family members to illness, at a press conference. Murthy urged tech companies and social media giants to change their algorithms to avoid spreading fake data and increase access to trusted sources that provide data and answer questions.

Foreign media and anti-vaccine activists are also trying to cast doubt on the safety and effectiveness of vaccines made in the United States and Europe. On Friday, Psaki accused China and Russia of spreading misinformation on social media about the side effects and effectiveness of vaccines created in the West to promote their own serums against covid-19. “We found out that Russia and China have been promoting their own vaccines through messages that undermine the origin of Western vaccines to help expand their programs,” said Psaki, who said they were based on data collected by the State Department.

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