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The UK’s approval of Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine has been heralded by the government as a breakthrough for “humanity.” However, his announcement was met with a wave of skepticism about vaccines online.
Britain became the first country in the world to approve the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine for widespread use on Wednesday. The announcement was made in pompous style by the government, with Business Secretary Alok Sharma celebrating how “The UK has led mankind’s charge against this disease”, and Health Secretary Matt Hancock is volunteering to take the hit on live TV with ITV’s Piers Morgan.
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Not everyone was so happy. Shortly after the announcement, two curious terms started to be trending on Twitter: “Swine Flu” and “Thalidomide”.
Commentators dug a bit and realized that vaccines and drugs have, in the past, caused horrible side effects. In 2009, the UK government approved a swine flu vaccine made by Pfizer-linked drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline. The bullet left 60 people with brain damage in the UK and caused narcolepsy and cataplexy in around 800 children across Europe.
Many have spoken of thalidomide, a tranquilizer and pain reliever given to pregnant women in the 1950s and 1960s to treat morning sickness. Thalidomide, which is not a vaccine and has not been tested in clinical trials in pregnant women, has caused up to 10,000 cases of birth defects and death in newborns alone. United Kingdom.
If anyone trusts this vaccine and thinks that “the authorities will never approve of anything dangerous”, I have only one word: thalidomide. It took years of struggle and anguish for the victims to obtain compensation.
– Jim (@Hurtwoodsun) December 2, 2020
Outside of these trending topics, first-time users researching Pfizer came across a litany of misdeeds from the US pharmaceutical company, including the illegal marketing of its drugs, overcharging the NHS, testing dangerous drugs in Africa and bribing doctors to prescribe its products.
Some Twitter users did not have one. “If you are planning to turn down the Covid vaccine because of some garbage you read on the internet about thalidomide or swine flu, step aside,” we wrote. “I will gladly take your place in the queue.”
Don’t be a jerk and jump on the thalidomide bandwagon to try to justify your anti-vaxxer stance. Thalidomide is NOT a #vaccine and it has not undergone any of the tests modern drugs undergo. Thalidomide has changed the way drugs are tested, verified and passed.
– Shauny # SoftLad? (@ happyjack1981) December 2, 2020
If you are planning to decline the Covid vaccine because of some garbage you read on the internet about thalidomide or swine flu, then step aside. I will gladly take your place in the queue. In the meantime, put on your bloody mask.
– David Webb (@db_webb) December 2, 2020
And understandably, some blue-checked Twitter users blamed Russia for the surge in anti-vaccine comments, even as Russian President Vladimir Putin announced on Wednesday that large-scale vaccination would begin in the country as early as next week.
Thalidomide is all the rage on Twitter, which means Russian-backed anti-vaxxers are in full swing this morning. Can’t think of what rocked them so much, can you?
– Jakub Krupa (@JakubKrupa) December 2, 2020
Regardless of the relevance of these scandals for the next vaccine, a discussion like this poses a direct challenge to the UK government’s rollout of the vaccine, at a time when more than a third of the UK population is already saying it is uncertain or very unlikely to take the vaccine. stroke.
Hancock told LBC radio on Wednesday that the ‘anti-vaxx’ movement in the UK was not growing, and that “The number of people wishing to be vaccinated is increasing.”
Behind the scenes, however, the government doesn’t seem so confident. In parliament later on Wednesday, Labor Party leader Keir Starmer urged Prime Minister Boris Johnson to crack down “Dangerous and life-threatening disinformation” on vaccines, demanding fines for companies that disseminate such information. Johnson assured Starmer the government was already working to tackle these “Online prejudices.”
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The UK wants to use the literal military to tackle online “anti-vaccine propaganda”. Are we in a nascent totalitarian state?
Part of that effort, according to a recent Sunday Times report, is to mobilize an Army psychological warfare unit to hunt down anti-vaccine content online. The unit involved was originally created to help fight the Taliban and Al Qaeda, but before a vaccine was deployed, it was tasked with waging an information war closer to home.
Britain’s signals intelligence agency GCHQ has also been tasked with countering “disinformation,” the Times reported. As to what exactly the military and GCHQ will do once they find this content, it remains unclear.
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