Superstitions – particularly those relating to health – can be found in just about every household in the Philippines, and this is thanks in part to our grandparents and yayas. Who hasn’t heard of how sleeping with wet hair can cause blindness? How washing your hands after doing any work like simple chores – can trigger the shakes? Or not drying off sweat with a towel immediately after a hot day outside can trigger pneumonia? While most of these beliefs are generally harmless, they do become problematic when they are spread by social media – which is already a hotbed for disinformation.
Consider the recent vaccination campaign against measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) carried out in August in Region 7. Health authorities had been looking to inocculate more than 600 thousand children between the ages of 6 months and under five years of age in a three week campaign to help prevent the spread of measles and rubella. The campaign was called “Ligtas Tigdas 2026”, and it reminded parents that protecting children through vaccinations was its parents responsibility. The timing of Region 7’s innoculation campaign is critical – the United States itself is battling a measles outbreak in levels that has not been seen in 30 years.
But just days after the program kicked off, it was clear the takeup wasn’t what medical workers had hoped – leading Cebu Province medical consultant Elisse Nicole Catalan to use her personal social media platform to dispel rumors surrounding the vaccine. She wrote: “Vaccines do not simply prevent an injection-day inconvenience. They prevent severe illness, complications, outbreaks and deaths. Smallpox once devastated families around the world.Today, most of us have never seen a single case because vaccination helped eradicate it…. It is understandable for parents to have questions. Ask your doctor, nurse or health worker about the benefits, possible side effects and recommended schedule. Good public health does not ask for blind trust. It provides honest answers based on evidence.”
There is good reason for Catalan to be alarmed. The Cebu Daily News reports that two days before the campaign wrapped up, one area, Mandaue City had reached just 37 percent measles-rubella vaccination coverage – with the actual coverage likely to be much lower. 95 percent vaccine coverage is necessary to achieve herd immunity – as many of us likely remember – or have forgotten – from the days of fighting the COVID-19 pandemic.
Getting the numbers to achieve the 95 percent needed for herd immunity will be a challenge, as multiple media reports show health workers have been threatened – and some fear for their lives. The Manila Times quotes Dr. Faith Curaraton, Department of Health in Central Visayas (DOH-7) Regional National Immunization Program medical coordinator, as saying “Even though we already know how parents are responding to us, they close their doors to the point that a BHW was almost bitten by a dog, and the safety of our teams is also at risk. Some were threatened with guns and bolos.”
How did we get here?
Medical workers in Cebu and Bohol have pointed to a social media disinformation campaign, that claim the vaccine is made “human placenta”, “human cells”, and potentially toxic chemicals like “formalin” and “dihydrogen monoxide.” News agency AFP, which featured and fact checked the report, debunked claims that the vaccine “causes seizures, severe allergic reactions, organ damage, brain injury and death”. One video was shared widely – racking up as much as 2 million views. Small wonder that the World Health Organisation, itself the target of disinformation from populist Western leaders, has identified disinformation as a global health risk.
When we’re faced with a health problem, we’re likely to turn to family and friends for health advice (disclosure: I’ve also seen mothers take digital images of their children’s illnesses to share via social media to ask for popular remedies to whatever ails them). But what happens when these friends and family members are no less informed than you are? And what happens when the source of disinformation are the public officials who are voted into office with the aim of protecting their constituents’ interests?
Distribution of information dissemination tarpaulins to different barangay building ang health centers. Collaterals/ tarpaulins of in Cebuano on information regarding the vaccine drive. courtesy Facebook/Cebu Provincial Government
To combat disinformation, the European Commission has come up with a simple, three point checklist to try and head off the worst of disinformation campaigns. It invites people to ask whether:
- the source is credible: if you cannot identify who is behind it, or if it provokes a strong reaction, be cautious
- it is up to date: health recommendations can change as new scientific evidence becomes available
- it aligns with reliable sources: fact check any strong claims by cross-referencing.
As parents, we know the stakes are high, and the list itself is not foolproof. But as James Campbell, head of the American Academy of Pediatrics tells Bloomberg, “At a time when the global public health goal is to reduce measles deaths, it is unacceptable that federal public health leaders have failed to meet this moment with the urgency, visibility, and leadership it requires.”
