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| title | chunk | source | category | tags | date_saved | instance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Anti-vaccine activism | 6/8 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-vaccine_activism | reference | science, encyclopedia | 2026-05-05T09:10:46.395880+00:00 | kb-cron |
=== Use of misinformation in Philippine anti-vaccine activism === Anti-vaccine activism in the Philippines has been amplified through social media platforms such as Facebook, where misinformation spreads widely among low-income users with "free Facebook" access. Online groups like "NO TO VACCINE – PHILIPPINES" propagate messages about vaccine harms, while emotionally charged narratives rooted in the 2017 Dengvaxia controversy continue to undermine public trust in immunization programs. Health activists and pro-vaccine groups have pushed back: for instance, the Vaccine Solidarity Movement called on media outlets to stop amplifying unscientific anti-vax views and to rely on qualified experts. Misinformation about vaccine brands (such as Sinovac) and perceived regulatory failures contributes to hesitancy, a tactic leveraged by anti-vaxxers to sow doubt. In addition, some disinformation campaigns have geopolitical dimensions: a covert campaign reportedly run by the U.S. military in the Philippines spread fears that Chinese-made COVID-19 vaccines were unsafe. Community-level mistrust is also fueled by moral panic and institutional distrust. Ethnographic studies among Filipino parents document how fear from past vaccine controversies, such as Dengvaxia, continues to resonate in discussions about routine immunization. At the same time, negative vaccine narratives garner strong engagement: a content analysis of YouTube comments on national TV vaccination campaigns found that 80% of comments expressed vaccine-hesitant discourse, and these often received more engagement than pro-vaccine responses.
=== Legal action === After Republicans gained a majority in the U.S. House of Representatives in January 2023, the House Judiciary Committee used legal action to oppose both disinformation research and government involvement in fighting disinformation. One of the projects targeted was the Virality Project, which has examined the spread of false claims about vaccines. The House Judiciary Committee sent letters, subpoenas, and threats of legal action to researchers, demanding notes, emails and other records from researchers and even student interns, dating back to 2015. Institutions subjected to such inquiries included the Stanford Internet Observatory at Stanford University, the University of Washington, the Atlantic Council's Digital Forensic Research Lab and the social media analytics firm Graphika. Researchers emphasized that they have academic freedom to study disinformation as well as freedom of speech to report their results. Despite conservative claims that the government acted to censor speech online, "no evidence has emerged that government officials coerced the companies to take action against accounts". The actions of the House Judiciary Committee have been described as an "attempt to chill research," creating a "chilling effect" through increased time demands, legal costs and online harassment of researchers. A 2025 Associated Press investigation reported the filing in state legislatures of more than 420 bills that undermined established longstanding public health protections, on matters including vaccines, milk pasteurization, and water fluoridation. Many of these efforts were reported to have been connected to groups linked with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his "Make America Healthy Again" movement, which critics and professionals say disguises conspiracy theory-driven, anti-science ideas under the label of "health freedom". At the time of the report around 30 measures had already become laws in 12 states.
=== Harassment === Persons undertaking efforts to counter vaccine misinformation, including public health experts who use social media, have been targeted for harassment by anti-vaccine activists such as blogger Paul Thacker. For example, Slovak medical doctor Vladimír Krčméry was a prominent member of the government advisory team during the COVID-19 pandemic in Slovakia, and was the first person in that country to receive a COVID-19 vaccine. Due to his prominent role in the vaccination campaign, Krčméry and his family became a target of anti-vaccine activists, who physically threatened him and his family. In June 2023, Texas-based physician and researcher Peter Hotez tweeted his concerns about Robert F. Kennedy Jr. sharing misinformation about vaccines on Joe Rogan's podcast. Rogan, Kennedy, and Twitter owner Elon Musk asked Hotez to participate in a debate on the podcast. Upon declining the invitation, Hotez was harassed by their fans, with anti-vaccine activist Alex Rosen confronting him at his home. In his book The Deadly Rise of Anti-science: A Scientist's Warning, Hotez describes how he and other scientists who publicly defend vaccines have been attacked on social media, harassed with threatening emails, intimidated, and confronted physically by opponents of vaccination. He attributes the increase in aggressiveness of the anti-vaccination movement to the influence of the extreme wing of the Republican Party. Hotez estimates that roughly 200,000 preventable deaths from COVID-19, mainly among Republicans, occurred in the US because of refusal to be vaccinated. At the extreme end, opposition to vaccination has resulted in substantial violence against vaccinators. In Pakistan, "more than 200 polio team workers have lost their lives" (team members include not only vaccinators but police and security personnel) from "targeted killing and terrorism" while working on polio vaccination campaigns.