Covid vaccine: Fact checkers braced for spread of disinformation

'I wouldn't be surprised if we start to see false claims about it relatively soon,' says Full Fact editor Tom Phillips

A leading fact checking organisation has warned that disinformation linked to future coronavirus vaccines is likely to spread around the internet after pharmaceutical firm Pfizer announced promising results from a jab it is developing.

Full Fact, the UK's independent fact checking charity, said it was preparing itself for attempts by anti-vaxxers looking to sow public doubt.

"I wouldn't be surprised if we start to see false claims about it relatively soon,” said Tom Phillips, editor of Full Fact.

The warning comes after the jab from Pfizer was found to be more than 90 per cent effective, with the pharmaceutical giant and its partner BioNTech announcing on Monday interim results that showed their vaccine could prevent people developing the disease.

Vaccine misinformation has made up a "sizeable amount" of the content reviewed by Full Fact, Mr Phillips said, with pre-existing conspiracy theories now being attached to Covid-19.

"I suspect that we will see many of the same claims being ramped up - the claims that this was part of a plot to force a vaccination on the population," he told the PA news agency.

"You see misinformation about a mandatory vaccination when I don't believe any such decision has been taken, certainly not in the UK.

"That information can ruin lives and, in a public health crisis, that's clearer than ever before.

"If a vaccine is approved for use, if it is found to be safe, if it is found to be effective, then it has the potential to save lives. If misinformation discourages people from getting a safe and effective vaccine then that has the potential to cause real harm. It has the potential to cost lives."

The importance of countering misinformation has been highlighted by studies into attitudes towards vaccination which show that large numbers of people are unlikely to volunteer for a coronavirus jab.

Research involving more than 13,000 people in 19 countries carried out in June found that around three quarters of respondents (71.5 per cent) said they would be very or somewhat likely to take a Covid-19 vaccine. However that varied widely between countries, with acceptance rates ranging from almost 90 per cent in China to less than 55 per cent in Russia.

The study, published in the journal Nature Medicine, found that respondents reporting higher levels of trust in information from government sources were more likely to accept a vaccine.

Richard Horton, editor of medical journal The Lancet, said the report suggested “vaccine hesitancy is sufficiently high to render community immunity a challenging goal” in a number of countries and that “far too little has been done to prepare the public for the arrival of a Covid-19 vaccine”.

Last month YouTube pledged to remove videos that spread misinformation about coronavirus vaccines while Facebook said it would ban adverts that discouraged vaccinations.