Read the following article and answer the questions to check your
comprehension.
Anti-vax movement called threat to vaccine
campaigns in
developing world
Elizabeth Payne March 27, 2019
Anti-vaccine beliefs — some fuelled by online Russian trolls — are beginning to spread to the
developing world, threatening efforts to vaccinate children in some of the poorest countries,
says the head of the global vaccine alliance, Gavi.
Seth Berkley, an epidemiologist and chief executive of the alliance that brings together the
public and private sector with the aim of vaccinating children in the world’s poorest countries,
said the anti-vaccine movement is a growing concern.
“It has been shocking,” he said of the trend toward vaccine hesitancy.
“For us, the real challenge has been to try to get the vaccines in place, but also to have the
parents want to get their children vaccinated.”
The anti-vaccination movement began among small groups of people in the world’s wealthiest
nations, most of whom had never seen childhood diseases because immunization had been so
successful. But the movement is beginning to migrate to parts of the world where childhood
immunization was not broadly available until fairly recently.
“Traditionally, in our countries, people would walk kilometres and kilometres and would stand
in line to have their children vaccinated. But the problem is that misinformation spreads at
the speed of light on the internet today, so we are beginning to see some of these problems in
developing countries,” said Berkley who is in Ottawa for meetings of the Gavi board this week.
Childhood immunization campaigns have been interrupted in Nigeria, India and Indonesia
because of misinformation spreading on Facebook and WhatsApp, he said.
In those cases, public health officials were able to reverse the concerns by getting local
experts to talk about why vaccination campaigns are important to their countries.
“But it is a really worrisome trend.”
The anti-vaccination movement complicates the already complicated job of raising
immunization rates in the developing world.
Since it was formed 19 years ago, Gavi has immunized more than 700 million children around
the world and prevented an estimated 10 million deaths.
https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/anti-vax-movement-called-threat-to-vaccine-
campaigns-in-developing-world
a. What is the main problem exposed in the article?
b. What are the reasons behind it?
c. What are the consequences and reactions to this problem?
comprehension.
Anti-vax movement called threat to vaccine
campaigns in
developing world
Elizabeth Payne March 27, 2019
Anti-vaccine beliefs — some fuelled by online Russian trolls — are beginning to spread to the
developing world, threatening efforts to vaccinate children in some of the poorest countries,
says the head of the global vaccine alliance, Gavi.
Seth Berkley, an epidemiologist and chief executive of the alliance that brings together the
public and private sector with the aim of vaccinating children in the world’s poorest countries,
said the anti-vaccine movement is a growing concern.
“It has been shocking,” he said of the trend toward vaccine hesitancy.
“For us, the real challenge has been to try to get the vaccines in place, but also to have the
parents want to get their children vaccinated.”
The anti-vaccination movement began among small groups of people in the world’s wealthiest
nations, most of whom had never seen childhood diseases because immunization had been so
successful. But the movement is beginning to migrate to parts of the world where childhood
immunization was not broadly available until fairly recently.
“Traditionally, in our countries, people would walk kilometres and kilometres and would stand
in line to have their children vaccinated. But the problem is that misinformation spreads at
the speed of light on the internet today, so we are beginning to see some of these problems in
developing countries,” said Berkley who is in Ottawa for meetings of the Gavi board this week.
Childhood immunization campaigns have been interrupted in Nigeria, India and Indonesia
because of misinformation spreading on Facebook and WhatsApp, he said.
In those cases, public health officials were able to reverse the concerns by getting local
experts to talk about why vaccination campaigns are important to their countries.
“But it is a really worrisome trend.”
The anti-vaccination movement complicates the already complicated job of raising
immunization rates in the developing world.
Since it was formed 19 years ago, Gavi has immunized more than 700 million children around
the world and prevented an estimated 10 million deaths.
https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/anti-vax-movement-called-threat-to-vaccine-
campaigns-in-developing-world
a. What is the main problem exposed in the article?
b. What are the reasons behind it?
c. What are the consequences and reactions to this problem?
