There's a ton of misinformation about vaccines floating around out there. And plenty of this good, old-fashioned misinformation is disinformation, which is the wing of the misinformation family that is purposefully dishonest.
Honestly, sometimes it's hard to tell the difference. When Greg Abbott or Ron DeSantis opens his mouth, is that misinformation flowing out or actual disinformation?
Whatever it is, it's sending plenty of those choosing not to get vaccinated - and, as collateral damage, kids who aren't yet eligible for vaccination - to the hospital. And plenty of them to the morgue.
In truth, other than for the innocent children and those who for whatever reason cannot be vaccinated, I don't have a ton of sympathy for the unvaccinated who take ill. I do not wish death upon them, or even a ventilator, but if death or a ventilator is the by-product of a deliberate decision to get vaccinated, so be it. And if they're wearing a DON'T FAUCI MY FLORIDA tee-shirt while dying or ventilating, then SO. BE. IT.
But I do have a modicum - a teeny-tiny modicum - of sympathy for those who've been on the receiving end of a solid dose of misinformation/disinformation from Fox, OAN, Newsmax, and those of our nation's so-called "leaders" who would rather see their fellow citizens die than let the Biden administration succeed with respect to wiping covid out. Sure, those being disinformed do have agency, and could be more careful of their sources, but in the post-truth world, it is admittedly difficult to figure out what's wheat and what's chaff. Until you find that you've been starving yourself to death on a steady diet of chaff.
Or you find that a ventilator is doing your breathing for you.
Social media is, of course, a major source of disinformation, as people carelessly pass around conspiracy theories and other nonsense, until enough people have seen it that it takes on an aura of truthiness. BS brought to you as received wisdom.
Facebook is, of course, a majorly guilty party when it comes to providing a platform for disinformation. (They have plenty of company, of course: Insta (which FB owns), Twitter, TikTok, YouTube, Reddit..)
However many thousands of employees Facebook has chasing down lies - and kiddie porn, and snuff images, and all sorts of other hideous stuff - they should hire more of them.
Disinformation is particularly severe when it comes to covid.
How else can you explain why so many otherwise potentially rational and not entirely stone-stupid people would embrace the anti-vaccine position, risking their own lives, not to mention the lives of everyone else on earth? If they're steadily bombarded with disinformation, eventually the disinfo sets in.
Facebook is doing a tiny bit to improve matters. Just recently, the company:
...has removed hundreds of accounts it said were part of a disinformation campaign largely run out of Russia that also used social media influencers to peddle fake claims about coronavirus vaccines, including that some shots could turn people into chimpanzees.
Investigators said they traced the origins of the campaign to Fazze, a subsidiary of a U.K.-registered marketing firm whose operations were primarily conducted from Russia. The operation “targeted audiences primarily in India, Latin America and, to a much lesser extent, the United States,” according to a report published Tuesday by the social media company. (Source: Washington Post)I guess the good news is that they weren't primarily targeting the U.S., as there are proportionally more poor and poorly educated in other areas. But I don't give Americans all that much credit, given that there are a lot of our fellow citizens who believe that Bill Gates is using vaccinations to inject people with a tracking device. Or whatever. (Never mind that most of us carry a tracking device with us 24/7: our phones.)
The Menlo Park, Calif.-based company banned Fazze because these actions violated Facebook’s policy against foreign interference through “coordinated inauthentic behavior on behalf of a foreign entity,” it said.
I'd be just as happy if they also banned inauthentic behavior on behalf of a domestic entity, but this is better than nothing.
Facebook has identified Russia - surprise, surprise - as the biggest producer of disinformation. And, within this world:
An analysis by the Center for Countering Digital Hate, a nonprofit, of a large sample of anti-vaccine content on Facebook and Twitter found that the majority of the posts could be attributed to just 12 individuals.
"Just 12 individuals" responsible for so much misery-causing blather. This crap goes viral with the same zeal as the coronavirus itself.
In case you're wondering - in case you're Moderna, Pfizer, or J&J - it's AstraZeneca that purportedly turns people into chimps.
AstraZeneca hasn't yet been approved by the FDA, so - if it turns out that it really does turn people into chimpanzees - there's no need to start checking for increased hirsuteness, the ability to swing through trees, and a tendency to pant, hoot, and hurl feces.
Not that there's anything wrong with being a chimpanzee,
Anyway, glad that Facebook's doing something about the vaccine disinformation that's been spreading on its platform. They could be doing more, but let's be thankful for small measures. (And, while I'm at it: Fuck Russia. Seriously.)
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