Name: Social media chatter skyrockets among Australian ‘anti-vax’ groups
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Social media chatter skyrockets among Australian ‘anti-vax’ groups

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Social media chatter skyrockets among Australian ‘anti-vax’ groupsWe’re sorry, this feature is currently unavailable. We’re working to restore it. Please try again later.DismisscloseAdvertisementBy Log in, or to save articles for later.Normal text sizeLarger text sizeVery large text sizeAdvertisementSocial media chatter among Australian anti-vaccination groups skyrocketed in the past week as the first doses of the Pfizer vaccine were delivered amid false claims that the jab would be mandatory.An independent project monitoring online vaccine sentiment for the federal government has reported that comments and other interactions surged from about 200 a day to almost 6000, within 20 key Australian anti-vaccination Facebook groups open to the public.It is only the second time since the pandemic began that such a notable jump has been observed, and the first time in almost a year.But researchers from the University of Western Australia leading the Coronavax project say the number of people in Australia’s anti-vaccination community, while growing, was still relatively small. There are around 300,000 followers in the public Facebook groups.They are also hopeful that when the local vaccine rollout begins to gather pace, social media will help normalise vaccination rather than stoking fear, as people begin to share their experience having the jab.“If enough of us do it, then it will become like the Ice Bucket Challenge,” said Dr Katie Attwell, chief investigator for the Coronavax project, referring to a viral social media challenge raising awareness for motor neurone disease.Thousands of doses of the Pfizer vaccine, , were rolled out to frontline health and border workers and aged care residents in the past week.The Coronavax project has been tracking vaccine sentiment since November, following Google trends and activity on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. What they learn about people’s concerns about the vaccine is then fed back to the Australian and Western Australian governments.AdvertisementDr Tauel Harper from the University of Western Australia said the information was given to governments “not so they can bury that or hide it under the table, but so they can confront any potential issues”.For example, one of the issues he identified centres on a myth that the mRNA vaccines approved such as the Pfizer jab will change people’s DNA. A similar claim was made at a protest at Health Minister Greg Hunt’s electoral office on Saturday.But as University of Queensland virologist associate professor Ian Mackay explained, this is not how they work: “These vaccines don’t introduce their payload into the nucleus, where the chromosomes are and our DNA is,” he said.“What happens is the RNA gets delivered into the cytoplasm, which is the outside soupy part of the cell … and the cell machinery finds it and reproduces because of the way it’s been designed to be reproduced, and then it breaks down and goes away.”Dr Harper’s work has seen him wade into the wild world of conspiracy theories, and he said this is at the heart of the largest and most fervently followed Facebook groups.But he said the posts that tended to spill over into the feeds of more Australians weren’t such radical conspiracies, rather those that play into the idea that the government has been overly repressive in its response to coronavirus in Australia (where they have been 909 COVID deaths, compared to more than half a million in the US).Dr Harper said the post that had received the greatest number of shares compared governments’ response to hunger with responses to coronavirus.Another thing he said received more widespread attention was false assertions the vaccinations would be made mandatory.The Australian government has insisted the coronavirus vaccine won’t be made mandatory.. Institutions could also introduce their own rules for participation, like a student college in Melbourne .On Saturday, a Health Department spokeswoman said: “While the government supports immunisation, it is not mandatory and individuals maintain the option to choose not to vaccinate.”She said that the Australian government was actively considering the factors that may contribute to vaccine hesitancy, and the Health Department was in regular discussion with social media platforms to combat the spread of misinformation.“All departmental pages are regularly monitored and misinformation posts are reported as false information using the report button provided by each platform. The post is then hidden from public view. Issues that are escalated to the platform providers via email are responded to within a 24-hour time period,” she said.Dr Attwell said the focus on mandatory vaccines appeared to have been imported from America, borrowing the language of women’s rights proponents by framing it as an issue of personal choice.“That part is interesting, because no state or federal government in Australia has said that [the vaccine] is going to be mandatory and indeed they haven’t in America either,” she said.“And yet in both places we’re seeing a constituency preparing themselves for what they must believe is the likelihood that’s going to happen.”Dr Attwell, an expert in vaccine uptake, said that this could lead to misinformation circulating about what the government policy actually was on this issue. suggested almost a quarter of Australians could be hesitant or resistant to getting the coronavirus vaccine.Epidemiologist with Victoria’s La Trobe University, associate professor Hassan Vally, said governments needed to be prepared to openly and honestly respond to every query people have about the vaccine, a view shared by Dr Harper who called for a website where the public could have their questions exhaustively answered.Professor Vally said many of those with doubts about receiving the jab would still be receptive to public health advice, and estimates only tiny fringe groups were anti-vaccination.“They are the ones spreading and fuelling all the conspiracy theories about the virus,” he said.“So there’s a big difference between intention and behaviour. We’re going to find out the extent to which people are hesitant by the way in which they embrace the vaccine in the coming weeks when it’s their turn to be vaccinated.”Our Morning Edition newsletter is a curated guide to the most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up to The Sydney Morning Herald’s newsletter , The Age’s , Brisbane Times’ , and WAtoday’s .Log in, or to save articles for later. is health editor with The Age and a former city reporter. is The Age's health reporter.Advertisement

Social media chatter skyrockets among Australian ‘anti-vax’ groupsWe’re sorry, this feature is currently unavailable. We’re working to restore it. Please try again later.DismisscloseAdvertisementBy Log in, or to save articles for later.Normal text sizeLarger text sizeVery large text sizeAdvertisementSocial media chatter among Australian anti-vaccination groups skyrocketed in the past week as the first doses of the Pfizer vaccine were delivered amid false claims that the jab would be mandatory.An independent project monitoring online vaccine sentiment for the federal government has reported...

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Social media chatter skyrockets among Australian ‘anti-vax’ groups

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