In 2019, international vaccine deniers descended on the Pacific island of Samoa.
In the measles outbreak that followed, 1 in every 150 babies aged 6-11 months died.
My piece on a cautionary tale as anti-vaxxers exploit the pandemic for platforms and power.
irishtimes.com/news/world/eur…
The WHO produced guidelines to help public health officials deal with vocal vaccine deniers in 2016.
It explains how to counter the false claims, and that the audience is not the vaccine deniers (who will not be convinced) but the broader listening public
who.int/immunization/s…
Some interesting observations from the WHO:
- the arguments of vaccine deniers have not changed much since the invention of vaccines
- out-and-out vaccine deniers are a very, very small group. But they can influence a much larger group of people who are persuadable either way
In 2016 vaccine deniers were isolated individuals who in no way constituted a "movement" in Europe, the WHO wrote.
I think the social media attention economy and circumstances of the pandemic have created a vast new audience and opportunity for political relevance, unfortunately.

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More from @NaomiOhReally

12 Apr
I think the evidence that Covid spreads through air, which has been apparent since the earliest days of the pandemic, was ignored and denied because its implications required institutional change. 'Distance and wash hands' puts emphasis on individual.
We knew how to reduce transmission in schools last summer before they went back and just... didn't do it
I'm not saying there was a deliberate conspiracy or something. Just a kind of laziness, cowardice, preference for whatever requires the least action -- basically a lack of leadership.
Read 9 tweets
30 Mar
France vaccinated 400,000 people in a day this week.
For context, by population size that's the equivalent of the United States vaccinating 2 million people a day, which is the rate the US hit this month.
To compare to a closer neighbour with the same size population, the UK's daily record was 844,285 in a day on March 20. However, the NHS has warned of a "significant reduction in weekly supply" of vaccines in April.
Let's see some other countries.
Belgium vaccinated 39,000 a day in its best week, which is the equivalent of 1.1 million a day in the US in proportion to population -- the rate the US hit in January.
There are strong regional variations in Belgium, with Wallonia currently leading
Read 9 tweets
29 Mar
In Ireland we don't have a coherent national medical data system. So how does someone who eg knows they are group 5 for vaccination, but also knows they aren't on the records of those giving the vaccines, make their presence known?
There are different ways of doing medical/official records. I think Ireland should look to Estonia and the Nordics for inspiration for how to do it well and securely. It's too late to build one for this pandemic, but still useful for the future
As soon as you introduce this kind of thing, 'you have to call 'your' consultant' (assumption of a consultant, access, a team taking the calls, a phone, time, organisation, the instruction reaching people that they must call) you're adding delay and exclusion into the system
Read 4 tweets
28 Mar
The idea of a vaccine pass is alluring to many, seeming like a get-out-of-jail free card from the pandemic.
But when you look at the practicalities, there are deep pitfalls and tradeoffs, and the resources required to do it are immense.
Remember the contact-tracing apps?
They were hard enough to get off the ground and they didn't have nearly as many thorny rights and liberties questions.
I do struggle to see the proposed pan-EU system becoming a reality by this summer.
I think the countries pushing hardest for it, e.g. Greece, will probably just go ahead and introduce a vaccine exception for tourists.
And just like with test certs for travellers now, in some places recognised proof of vaccination won't be available, and in some places it will.
Read 5 tweets
27 Mar
"The plan was described by a British cabinet minister as a "poke in the eye for Brussels" because it could disrupt EU unity" hmm
The key question is when.
If "spare" means "after all adults in Britain have been offered one" it means after July, under the UK's current schedule.
Ireland's plan is 80% of adults by the end of June.
The supply squeeze is really the next 4-6 weeks.
Read 6 tweets
27 Mar
I'm told this is related to the large number of doses that were in the Rome finishing site
The background is that a Dutch factory waited until this week to apply for cert to supply the EU, for unexplained reasons. It was approved yesterday, bringing it into the EU AZ supply chain
The Dutch Halix site previously sent a small number of doses to Britain, the kind of amount you would send for quality control, before following with a big batch.
Then the EU introduced a system that would require AstraZeneca to request a permit to send any such batch to UK.
Next thing, Italian authorities find an unexpected trove of 29 million doses in a Rome finishing site.
AstraZeneca announced that 13 million of these were for Covax and 16 million were for the EU.
Read 6 tweets

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