Disinformation and suspicion around vaccines and science will get worse as people no longer have an automatic trust in what they are told, the Irish head of the World Health Organisation’s health emergencies programme has said.
Dr Mike Ryan, a prominent voice during the Covid-19 pandemic, said while we were not living in an anti-vax world, a new approach was required to engage with people on the benefits of medical treatment.
Speaking during a WHO webinar on Monday organised by the Institute of International and European Affairs, he said vaccinations were the “most effective health intervention that’s ever been designed by humans”, saving hundreds of millions of lives.
“We [in health and public service] need to get better at our job rather than criticising those who are spreading a lack of faith or a distrust in science, or a distrust in vaccination. That’s always been there, it’s just been amplified by social media,” he said.
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“That is going to continue, it’s going to get worse. We have got to engage with, first of all, our communities to convince them that our information, and our data is to be trusted. I think we still, as well, have to engage with many people who are sucked into the disinformation side. Many people who are engaged in that would not have those views if they had access to better information, or at least those views would moderate.”
Since joining the WHO in 1996, Dr Ryan has gone on to lead its response to disease outbreaks, humanitarian crises and public health emergencies generally.
He said conspiracy theories around science had always existed and that health scepticism and hesitancy in taking vaccines was “not a bad thing” so long as it was followed by good information and decision making.
“Quite frankly I think public health, science and we in policy and public services have left a vacuum into which disinformation, misinformation and conspiracies have filled that vacuum,” he said. “I don’t think we have been fast enough, quick enough, agile enough in engaging with communities on their genuine concerns.”
Dr Ryan added that the public no longer had an automatic faith in what they were told – that the “era where people just accept the rote learning or our wisdom is gone”, and required a new engagement.
Meanwhile, he said progress had been made in negotiations on an international pandemic agreement for 2025, something that would underpin preparedness for the next Covid-19, or similar, outbreak.
Issues had arisen, however, around sovereignty, access and benefit sharing, intellectual property and equity among other things.
“If we can’t agree on what to do for the next pandemic then that is a real tragedy for the planet; it’s a tragedy for the next generation,” he said.
“We need to have the basic rules of the game in place. It won’t be perfect, nothing ever is, but without such an agreement we are going to go into the next pandemic with no playbook and that is not a good idea.”
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