Vaccine Misinformation Online

Ruth Jones Excerpts

Monday 19th October 2020 Commons Chamber

[Chris Elmore]

I agree with the hon. Gentleman and thank him for that intervention, for two reasons. First, it is very worrying that the UK no longer has measles-free status. That is a real worry for us all. Secondly, on education, there is a huge piece of work to be done where people are rightly questioning vaccine development processes. We are taught that it takes many years to develop vaccines. However, what people are not acknowledging through their legitimate questions is that the whole world is now looking for a vaccine. There is more funding and more availability of scientists working towards trying to solve this problem, so I agree with the hon. Gentleman entirely.

In private, I think even Ministers would agree that far too much of the Government’s response to the crisis has been typified by being too slow: too slow to lockdown, too slow to support business, too slow to test and trace effectively—but possibly too fast to Barnard Castle. But when all is said and done, I genuinely appreciate the huge pressure Ministers have been under over the past seven months. Mistakes are inevitable and hindsight is all too often a wonderful thing. The message I want to send to those on the Government Benches is that when it comes to the anti-vax movement, we do not need the benefit of hindsight. We simply cannot afford to be too slow yet again. We know that dangerous misinformation is eroding public trust in a potential future vaccine. We know that a lot of misinformation is being spread online and we know that the social media giants are systematically failing to act.

[Ruth Jones (Newport West) (Lab)]

My hon. Friend is making a powerful speech on a very timely topic. I was a paediatric physiotherapist and I have seen the devastating effects of brain damage caused by simple diseases such as measles. Does he agree that we need to publicise the lasting ill effects of measles and long covid, and demonstrate the benefits of vaccines?

[Chris Elmore]

I agree entirely with my hon. Friend. I have been contacted by other Members who could not attend this evening. My hon. Friend the Member for Bristol West (Thangam Debbonaire) has received correspondence from parents saying that they will not have the MMR, for reasons that can only be deemed to be false. As I said to the hon. Member for Totnes (Anthony Mangnall) and as I am sure the Minister will say, it is perfectly legitimate to question vaccines. What is not legitimate is to base views on falsehoods. My hon. Friend the Member for Newport West (Ruth Jones) is quite right, through her professional career before coming to this place, that catching measles can have a long-term negative impact.

With the benefit of foresight, and given the additional oxygen that the wild, ill-informed and baseless conspiracy theories will inevitably continue to receive over the next six months, the Government must bring forward a holistic cross-Government plan to counter this growing movement and bring the social media giants to heel. The anti-vax movement is nothing new—in fact, it has been around since the days of smallpox—but what we must not lose sight of in 2020 is the exponential levels of oxygen that the internet and in particular social media platforms give to such damaging falsehoods. As chair of the all-party group on social media, I have been keenly following the activities of various platforms since the pandemic began. It must be said that many sites have been doing some really positive work to try to promote reliable sources of information at a time when the need to tackle misinformation could scarcely be more crucial. Yet what many of the social media giants are repeatedly failing to do is proactively take down the burgeoning levels of misinformation about coronavirus vaccines spread on their platforms.

Anti-vax misinformation may not be displayed on billboards around the country, but growing evidence suggests it is starting to reach and influence as many people as if it were. We have already seen this digital pandemic spilling out on to our streets. The frankly scary protests we are seeing in ever greater numbers should alarm us all and underline the need for decisive action.