The deleted WeChat message that fueled the vaccine scandal in China

"People in leadership do not do their best by the people," said a user of Weibo, a Chinese social network like Twitter. "This is a series of scandals involving infant formula, fake vaccines, daycare abuses, sexual assault … everything we eat, wear and use puts us at risk. . "

need to start getting imported vaccines, "said another user of Weibo." Also leave the country for all our health needs. "Since 2008, when formula contaminated with chemical melamine has killed six babies and sickened 300,000 more, Chinese parents were wary of domestic formulas, those who can go to Hong Kong to buy infant formula, and since the news of defective vaccines broke out, clinics in Hong Kong have responded. calls from panicked parents in Mainland China Hong Kong clinic told South China Morning Post that her phone was ringing all the time

On Tuesday, Weibo users saw hashtags related to the scandal Vaccine More Than 600 Million Times, According to The Guardian An article by Weibo of the state newspaper People's Daily called for calm. "Do not sow panic and anger. The relevant departments must respond in a timely manner to updates, "reads the title.

WeChat's post, now deleted, still lives in some parts of the Internet, such as on the Ethereum blockchain, It's a conspiratorial plot, it's a long, complicated history of shareholders, amazing profits, mistresses, and more.Sometimes the language is straightforward: "Experts from the Center Peking University's health sciences have summed up the act of injecting inefficient vaccines into people in one word: murder. "And this has made visceral history to the readers: all circulate the days in you and your child's bodies. "

WeChat is ubiquitous in life in China, and it has become a major and decentralized source of information in China. (The application is essentially a messaging application, but it features features of Facebook, iMessages, Instagram, Venmo and Skype.) Columbia Journalism Review recently highlighted how the platform has enabled the creation of independent writers with no connection to traditional media. But it also allowed a type of news that is growing on social media. "Heavy on the emotion and light on accuracy, the most read and shared stories on the platform WeChat are often selective with details," writes Mia Shuang Li in CJR . Hoaxes such as stories about cancer-causing foods bloom on the platform. The bad news on WeChat is such a problem that fact checking sites have also emerged.

A section of the post WeChat, now deleted, tells the story of the death of several babies after immunizations against hepatitis B in 2013. These largely publicized deaths trigger their own panic. A subsequent government investigation published in The International Journal of Epidemiology concludes that babies died of unrelated causes – and that another baby suffered an allergic shock from the vaccine but recovered. "The speed of the investigation and its communication may have played an important role in the recovery of confidence and the use of the vaccine against hepatitis B," conclude the authors of the survey. study

. mentions that it was the government investigators who authorized it. For readers in China, confidence in the investigation only goes up to their confidence in the government that conducted it.