What is the role of cancel culture in the propagation of anti-vax narrative

Background:

When Edward Jenner introduced vaccination in the early 16th century, people rose against him due to the whole process of immunization. “In (which he used) material from cowpox pustules to protect against smallpox” (The Immunisation Advisory Centre, 2020). Though, surprisingly this mindset continued to grow and evolve that, as of now, it is being supported to a whole new extent, known as cancel culture.

Following the increasing trend of cancel culture and the rise of anti-vaxxers in this domain presents new challenges to tackle, from local diseases to global pandemics. The anti-vaxxers have widely been observed
spreading propaganda through social media pages. They have also been kept in organizing several rallies in the US in late 2019 outside the New Jersey Senate in opposition to a vaccination bill, according to The Washington Post on 13th December 2019.

According to research by Johnson’s team in 2020, “anti-vaccination (social media) pages tend to have fewer followers but are more numerous than pro-vaccination ones, and are more often linked to discussions on other Facebook pages — such as parent associations at schools — whose stance on vaccination is undecided” (Johnson, 2020, as cited in Ball, 2020).

For this reason, doctors, health experts, and organizations need to speed up the pro-vaccination campaign to tackle the canceled culture spreading around vaccination.

Pro-vaccination campaign

To achieve the goals of the pro-vaccination campaign, we also need to investigate the circumstances that further support the argument of anti-vaxxers. One of which is the spread of mistrust in science among the public. At this stage, the world has witnessed the anti-vaxxers spreading wild conspiracy theories that underplay science and the world leaders who have become a part of it.

During pandemic:

During the Corona Virus Pandemic, Judith Enck, former regional administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency of the United States, told Guardian news that

The underestimation of science further reinforces the narratives that require confrontation through science. The anti-vaxxers, at the very first, get organized because they lack basic scientific information and reasoning regarding the need for vaccination. Backing up the pro-vaccination awareness through scientific reasoning will
further strengthen the pro-vaccination narrative required to challenge the anti-vaxxers and the cancel culture they are upholding. Thus, pro-vaccination awareness can only become successful if counter-narratives are challenged as scientific reasoning validates the vaccination logically and scientifically.

Campaigns through Social Media:

In this regard, global organizations, NGOs, and even social media companies need to step in to propagate the pro-vaccination narrative by spreading awareness regarding the importance of vaccination and the consequences if the immunization is abandoned.

They can also play a vital role in stopping the spread of misinformation on social media platforms which will be mutually beneficial to tackle the cancel culture and anti-vaxxer narrative, as both elements are dependent on each other. Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), a nonprofit organization based in London, has revealed in a recent report that the anti-vaxxer pages on social media have increased their followers by 7.8 million people since 2019.

“The report noted that 31 million people follow anti-vaccine groups on Facebook, with 17 million people subscribing to similar accounts on YouTube” (Burki, 2020).

Final words:

This increment level is alarming; besides tackling the spread of political misinformation, the same level of effort also needs to be focused on the space of other types of misinformation. This step will mutually tackle anti-vaxxers and cancel culture as both narratives are based on widespread misinformation. In contrast, the implementation of cancel culture in the idea of vaccination is the end goal of anti-vaxxers.