The impacts of fake news on child vaccination in Brazil: an analysis of discourses against vaccines

Abstract

In the eighteenth century the smallpox was the most serious threat that existed, at this time ran the invention of the so-called variolization, primary method of immunization which was fundamental to greater advances in immunology, which is responsible until today for its great role in the containment and eradication of diseases such as measles, polio and recently the greatest demonstration of its effectiveness by its role in the pandemic of Covid-19. Vaccination is one of the most important artifices in the fight against diseases and Brazil has numerous campaigns of its own, in recent years, however the country had a drop in the number of childhood vaccination, one of the apparent reasons was the great dissemination of fake news that circulated in social media, such as Whatsapp and Facebook. Since 2016, fake news has grown exponentially, and resulted in the aid of countless social, economic, political problems, and in the area of health it would be no different, it is investigated to identify the negative impact they caused in vaccination goals understood as ideal by the Ministry of Health.In view of this, this research aimed to analyze which factors were determinant for the decline in childhood vaccination in Brazil since 2015. To achieve this, a literature review on fake news was conducted, in addition to a survey of data from Agência Senado and the World Health Organization (WHO). Furthermore, Discourse Analysis (DA) was used as part of the research method, and later, analysis of the speeches made in relation to childhood vaccination. Currently, society is faced with the so-called post-truth era, in which opinions, beliefs, and ideologies are more important than the facts themselves; in this sense, fake news and speeches (especially those of hate and those without any real scientific basis) have influence and negative effects on the rates of childhood vaccination.At the end, the reasons we found that could perhaps justify the low level of vaccinated children were 1) the widely disseminated official communication from public health agencies has declined, which has possibly opened a space for 2) creation and propagation of fake news about vaccines given to children; 3) a false sense of security for not having suffered or seen someone in their social circle suffer from vaccine-preventable diseases. The continuity of attention to vaccines is considerably relevant, because while the rates were declining there was no national relevance about, and with Covid-19 it was neglected. However, with the numbers under control in Brazil, it is time to turn the focus on leveraging these numbers again, because if there is no special attention to this topic, diseases that were previously eradicated or under control in Brazilian territory, may resurface and reach those most vulnerable to them, because they have not received their due protection, as is the case of children.