Vaccines and disinformation: the enemy is at the door

With the arrival in Italy of the first shipment of vaccines, a new hot front of disinformation arises. It will be, if possible, even hotter than the previous ones. If the misinformation on Covid has already done damage, in fact, that on vaccines could be extremely deleterious both for the delays it will cause and for the possible social tensions it could provoke.

Misinformation and vaccines

In the eyes remain the images of the van with the first vaccines, which arrived in Italy a few hours ago. But the horizon is already clear: distorted data, reinterpreted images and theorems without scientific basis will be built starting from the old conspiracies and recontextualized on everyday life, becoming an important vehicle of traffic, gain and consent that too many will not want to give up.

In light of all this, it may therefore be useful to start from an essential (and not exhaustive) list of sources which, according to NewsGuard analyzes, in recent months have spread disinformation on the coronavirus theme:

AmbienteBio.it AutismoVaccini.org ByoBlu.com CaffeinaMagazine.it ComeDonChisciotte.org ControInformazione.info Contro.tv Corvelva.it Dagospia.com DataBaseItalia.it Disinformazione.it FanMagazine.it FonteVerifica.it GospaNews.net IlPopulista. it IlPrimatoNazionale.it ImolaOggi.it Infosannio.com It.SputnikNews.com JedaNews.com LaCrunaDellAgo.net LaVerita.info LaVoceDelTrentino.it Read it.org SitoCommune.net MaurizioBlondet.it MedNat.org NoGeoingegneria.com Oltre.tv PandoraTv.it Renovatio21. com ScenariEconomici.it SegniDalCielo.it StefanoMontanari.net StopCensura.info ViralMagazine.it VoxNews.info NewsGuard itself has measured a multiplied attention for this type of sources during 2020: disguised as "counter-information", disinformation has easily breached in the midst of the pandemic and now risks having a tail of harmful effects during the vaccine distribution phases.



The risks are at this stage: the confidence cor pink and the mental fatigue resulting from these months of opinion bulimia, in fact, have created the best substrate so that new mistrust can take root. But from now on, every delay and every "no" between the teeth, even if free and legitimate, will be paid for with problems of multiplied impact. Never as in this phase will it be important to draw from science, and not from opinions, the bases for the formation of reasoning.

But public opinion is not ready for all this: the experience of this last says year. And that's a problem.

Source: NewsGuard