Misinformation has historically been intimately intertwined with pandemics and immunisation programmes and has been among the foremost bottlenecks before for the health system in the recorded history of the modern medical practice, which has also risked the lives of millions of children, men and women. And this time in the Covid-19 situation, the scale of misinformation has been disturbingly huge.
The pandemic in this information technology age, when the virus was unknown and so many people were quite under the grip of panic and paranoia, has led to a flood of misinformation.
In view of such a phenomenon, the World Health Organisation has coined a term, “infodemic”. And the consequence of such ‘infodemic’ has been quite fatal; for example, many died in Iran after consuming toxic methanol, believing on the basis of a rumour that it could cure them of the disease.
With the Covid vaccines starting to roll out, there will be a deluge of rumour-scaremongering. In fact, much before the rumours against the novel coronavirus had appeared in the social media, conspiracy theories were being floated about vaccines being tailored to implant microchips in human body those could be tracked and used to steal critical information and that there were also rumours about the usage of m-RNA technology by vaccine-makers to alter the recipient’s DNA.
There is no other way to contain such misinformation other than transparent sharing of scientific data about the vaccines, their properties and the purpose they seek to achieve, and this should be disseminated in a language and manner easily understood by the common man and that could popularly resonate across the communities. Not only the privileged but the most common man has a right to information about what constitutes the vaccine, the way it will be administered, and the way it will work in the body, which also includes dependable information on the possible reactions or side-effects, and what kind of medical support is to be sought if anything untoward happens.
The Covid-19 vaccination drive is supposed to involve the administration of many doses of the vaccine. It is a voyage that starts from the registration for the vaccination to the moment one develops immunity against the disease.
It is, therefore, important to ensure the safety of those vaccinated through the entire process of vaccination, as their experiences will shape the decisions of millions of others who may subsequently prefer or may not prefer to get themselves vaccinated. Government cannot alone persuade people to participate in the immunisation programme until and unless proper feedback is received from the pool of people who get vaccinated in the first phase, as any negative feedback may dissuade many from being vaccinated.
Actually, the Government must make it clear that preferring to go for Covid vaccine is completely “voluntary” and “discretionary” on the part of an individual; and in fact, every individual should keep in view the best interest of his/her personal health and that of their family while taking a decision to that extent. In fact, changing the scene from an imposition-era as regards vaccination is concerned to a responsible choice making avenue shall deter many from spreading misinformation.
The success of many vaccination programmes has so far depended on taking community leaders, civil society organisations and religious heads into confidence in the process of execution and implementation of the programme as lot of them enjoy high credibility among the people.
Taking them into confidence also helps in curbing spread of lot of misinformation, the same religious and community leaders could as well be the source and cause of such misinformation. Therefore, at times, an alliance with such non-state actors also becomes important to help in mobilising the masses for vaccination, be it Covid-19 vaccination or any other.
Such endeavours can significantly help in making a successful outreach to the members of the underprivileged sections of society, to those living in rural belts.
Additionally, members of the academia, civil society and corporate houses, all should participate in dissemination of scientific information to their employees and should credibly associate with the Government to promote and sponsor spread of awareness related information about the Covid-19 vaccination through mass media and social media.
It is also imperative for the Government to augment its vigilance mechanism to bring under radar any of the unwanted, sporadic or isolated incidents which cannot be denied in toto in such a large-scale programme and an apparatus should be developed for immediate redressal of such situation through medical and administrative intervention.
The Governments at the Centre and in the States, irrespective of political differences, should work in tandem to develop a pan-India approach towards scientific data-based awareness on the Covid-19 vaccination process, maintenance of cold chain, training of the personnel involved in the process and developing an effective risk management system to face any emergency.
The national policy to handle the vaccination drive should ideally reflect the national response to the mass vaccination and our commitment to defeat the pandemic and should lay down an example of consensus building and setting the common ground of convergence to defeat the pandemic irrespective of the democratic differences.
(The writer is a lawyer and public policy expert and a Distinguished Adjunct Professor of Law and Media Studies at School of Mass Communication, KIIT University. He can be reached at sjyotiranjan3@gmail.com.)