Financial Times: Anti-vaxxers distract from a more serious threat
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of the World Health Organization

“If everything you knew about vaccines came from social media, you could be forgiven for thinking global immunization rates are collapsing under a torrent of misinformation from anti-vaccine activists sowing seeds of doubt in the minds of parents. … Myths and misinformation about vaccines are a serious threat that the World Health Organization is committed to countering. But that’s only part of the challenge. The global vaccine crisis is not that rates are falling everywhere, it’s that they have stubbornly stalled. New data published on Monday by the WHO and UNICEF show that global vaccination rates have flatlined at around 86 percent for the past decade. … [C]lose to 20m children worldwide — more than one in 10 — are not getting the vaccines they need. For the most part, that’s not because their parents are being spooked by social media trolls. It’s because they simply can’t access vaccines. … But we must not let the vocal few who perpetuate misinformation distract us from addressing the main reasons why children are not vaccinated. That’s why WHO’s top priority is to support countries to achieve universal health coverage, so that everyone has access to essential health services” (7/15).