We Say – Vaccination vitriol

Vaccination vitriol

Seldom has this newspaper received such a vitriolic reaction to its news coverage as was provoked by the last issue. Singly, and as ‘the media’ collectively, through emails and phone calls, our many faults apparently include unprecedented levels of bias and bigotry, creating a health apartheid system, inciting civil unrest and supporting a myth that vaccination is safe. But by far and away the most repeated accusation was that our coverage was creating dissension. “You may as well have come out and said anyone unvaxxed should wear a yellow star,” was how one correspondent put it. Somehow, the stories about how local bars and restaurants, churches, schools and early childhood centres will cope with the new Covid mandates hit a very raw nerve. By the tone of the phone calls and emails, you could have been forgiven for thinking that it was Mahurangi Matters that had mandated the Vaccination Certificates.

It would be easy to write off this reaction as just the grumblings of a disgruntled minority. After all, first vaccination rates in Tamaki Makaurau are now well above 90 per cent. We could also suggest that the only people feeling alienated in the community is this small group who have chosen to put themselves in this position. The rest of us are just getting on with our lives as best we can. But these people remain members of our community and our families, and if we can avoid leaving them behind, then we should at least make the effort. Offering to print their emails was not an option, however, as none of our critics wanted their comments repeated in the paper.

So how do we interact with this vaccine-hesitant group if they don’t trust doctors, scientists, government sources or the media? Identifying where the distrust comes from might be one place to start and it seems the internet has a lot to answer for in this regard. Saint James School of Medicine researchers in the US found that a Google search for the term “vaccination” yielded 71 per cent anti-vaccination pages and only 29 per cent pro-vaccination pages.

A study along similar lines done here at Canterbury University found that the one defining difference between those who were vaccinated and those who were not wasn’t gender, education, social status or financial wellbeing, but where they sourced their news. For the vaccine hesitant, it was Facebook. For the vaccinated, it was bona fide media. And as we have learned from the Facebook Files, the Facebook algorithms are far from benign. In fact, they are designed to funnel specific information to users who show an interest in that information, no matter how misinformed or dangerous that information might be.

Being mandated out of your job, your sport or your position on the local fire brigade, as well as being banned from your favourite bar, hair salon or entertainment venue is a tough pill to swallow. The rest of us have taken the jab to keep each other safe and avoid that pill – perhaps now it is time for the vaccine-hesitant to shut down Facebook and revisit the facts from more credible sources.