Extracts below from France24 News. With thanks to Global Health Now. Read online: https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20230710-in-vaccination-champ-braz...
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Brazil’s vaccination success story is coming undone as overall vaccination coverage has plummeted from 95% in 2015 to 68% last year; officials blame the anti-vax movement that gained in popularity with support from former President Jair Bolsonaro.
Then an anti-vax movement started spreading around 2016, soon gaining outsize influence via a powerful ally: far-right leader Jair Bolsonaro, president from 2019 to 2022, who refused to be vaccinated against Covid-19, joking the jab could "turn you into an alligator."
... despite Bolsonaro losing a divisive 2022 election to veteran leftist Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, the anti-vax movement still thrives.
"We're facing a post-trust scenario, in which families are being attacked by disinformation and lies. It's not just the occasional fake news story, it's very structured," said Isabella Ballalai of the Brazilian Immunization Society.
"The consequences of that 'infodemic' will be worse than the pandemic itself."
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Best wishes, Neil
HIFA profile: Neil Pakenham-Walsh is coordinator of HIFA (Healthcare Information For All), a global health community that brings all stakeholders together around the shared goal of universal access to reliable healthcare information. HIFA has 20,000 members in 180 countries, interacting in four languages and representing all parts of the global evidence ecosystem. HIFA is administered by Global Healthcare Information Network, a UK-based nonprofit in official relations with the World Health Organization. Email: neil@hifa.org
