United States President President Joe Biden stated on Friday that Covid-19 vaccine misinformation on social media is “killing people,” and the White House stated that Facebook needs to clean up its act.
“They are killing people. We only have one pandemic, and it is among the unvaccinated. They are also murdering individuals “As he went for a weekend at the presidential retreat in Camp David, Biden addressed reporters at the White House.
Read more: Twitter will now ban users for spreading coronavirus vaccine misinformation
The White House is putting more pressure on social media firms to correct widespread misconceptions about coronavirus vaccinations, according to officials.
A recent surge in Covid-19 deaths and illnesses across the country, according to US health experts, is almost entirely affecting persons who have not been vaccinated.
“There is a clear message that is coming through: this is becoming a pandemic of the unvaccinated,” said Rochelle Walensky, head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, telling reporters on Friday.
Despite the fact that vaccinations are widely available across the United States, many people refuse to get them because they are afraid of the jabs.
Anti-vaccine activists’ misleading posts on the internet, as well as Republican politicians’ claims that immunizations are part of government control efforts, are fueling scepticism.
White House blames Facebook, YouTube for spreading vaccine misinformation
Facebook and others, according to White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki, are not doing enough to push back.
“Everyone has a responsibility to play in ensuring that proper information is available,” she stated.
Psaki said the White House was adopting a more proactive approach to addressing misinformation, but she stressed that Facebook, in particular, should respond more promptly to problematic content.
According to the covSpectrum tracker, the Delta variant is driving the latest wave, accounting for more than 80% of new cases.
