How vaccine misinformation keeps growing in India

How vaccine misinformation keeps growing in India

Using multiple platforms and tricks to beat moderators, anti-vaxxers are spreading rumours about people turning impotent or magnetic after jabs

Sonam.Joshi@timesgroup.com

28.06.2021 

On June 9, Nashik resident Jayant Sonar saw the video of a man in Delhi who claimed to have acquired magnetic powers after getting vaccinated. Sonar stuck some coins, steel spoons and plates on his 72-year-old father Arvind, who had got his second jab a week earlier, though the same trick didn’t work on his vaccinated mother. The video went viral even though several experts pointed out that it was simple surface tension on moist skin that was causing some objects to stick.

In many ways, Sonar’s case is a classic example of how misinformation can grow around a kernel of truth and spawn a whole tide of untruths that finds its way into people’s minds through social media videos and forwards. According to recent research by BBC Monitoring, anti-vaccination pages in India grew by 50% in 2020, faster than 2018 and 2019.

TOI found a Google document, Twitter handle and Telegram channel counting ‘Covid-19 vaccine deaths in India’ from anecdotal and unverified sources. Vaccine-related misinformation is often closely intertwined with a range of conspiracy theories about “a new world order” and hidden “agenda”. It can vary from claims that vaccines don’t work to fear-provoking videos about vaccines containing tracking devices or altering our DNA. “Negative social media posts about vaccines have brought a troubling escalation of the anti-vaccine movement,” says Syed Nazakat, founder, Health Analytics Asia. He points out that the problem is not just that people believe these false claims. “It’s also making them less likely to accept truthful information,” he says.

Anti-vax messages are also being given a dangerous religious spin. A series of false online posts claimed that Covaxin contained cow blood based on an RTI filed by a person named Vikas Patni. On his social media channels, 30-year-old Patni describes himself as a ‘gausewak’. He has shared several vaccine conspiracy posts in the past, such as vaccines being a part of Microsoft founder Bill Gates’ depopulation agenda. The government was forced to issue clarifications on the RTI and the Covaxin manufacturing process.

To beat moderation algorithms, some YouTubers resort to code words like ‘CV’ instead of coronavirus or ‘vaxx’ in place of vaccine. Anti-vaccine groups and pages often have backup accounts, and even if one gets banned, another one pops up. Similarly, if a video is removed from YouTube, it can still be circulated on Facebook and Telegram groups.

Many manipulate news reports, headlines and photos without context. In one video, a YouTuber ‘Abbey The Great!’ with over 28,000 followers attributes a popular Tamil actor’s death to taking a Covid vaccine the day before without mentioning the fact that he had a heart problem.

Ironically, Nashik’s Sonar says he didn’t want to spread an anti-vaccine message but just find out why this was happening to his father. In fact, he credits vaccines for protecting his parents, when the family got Covid during the second wave in April, and his wife and child had to be hospitalised. “We appeal that people should take the vaccine and it is safe,” he says.

The magnet theory that Sonar fell for has its roots abroad, which isn’t unusual. Indian anti-vaxxer pages and groups frequently share vaccine misinformation from international groups. TOI also found videos from Kamalpreet Singh, a South Asian anti-vaxxer in Canada who claims to be a nutritionist and influenza care specialist. Singh makes videos in Hindi, English and Punjabi which allege that the Covid vaccines lack long-term safety data and may have side effects in the future.

“Misinformation doesn’t respect geographical, cultural or national boundaries,” points out Nazakat. “A rumour can start in Europe or in Africa and can instantly reach India and become viral here or it can happen the other way around.” For example, Microsoft’s Gates is central to many vaccine conspiracies around the world and in India.

However, misinformation can also be steeped in local insecurities. According to Anoushka Jha of Digital Empowerment Foundation, which has been running vaccination drives at over 1,000 digital rural centres across India, population control fears are rife. “People believe that the government wants to control the population, so they are forcing them to get vaccinated,” she says, adding that WhatsApp and Facebook are often sources of such rumours.

In the village of Bansa in Uttar Pradesh, similar conspiracies have been doing the rounds. Jatin Lalit Singh, founder of Bansa Community Library, which has been helping villagers enrol for vaccination, says that some believe that the fever caused as a short-term side-effect of the vaccines will cause their death. “Others fear they might become impotent or blind in the future,” he says.

Nazakat says that this misinformation has been fuelled by information deficit. Unscientific claims and statements by prominent people also created distrust. “During the second wave, people were desperately looking for accurate information, but there was an information vacuum and rumours took over,” he says.

RUMOUR MILL: Nashik-based Arvind Sonar’s family tried sticking spoons on him after seeing a similar video online

To beat moderation algorithms, anti-vaxxers use code words like ‘CV’ instead of coronavirus or ‘vaxx’ in place of vaccine. They also have backup accounts, so if one gets banned, another one pops up