Anti-vaxxers
Truth about anti-vaxxers: Content posted by 'anti-vaxx' groups, pictured, could be 'reduced or removed' from Facebook, the social media giant said
Facebook is considering taking action against harmful and misleading content posted by 'anti-vaccination' activists on the social network.

Democrat US Congressman Adam Schiff had written to Facebook, as well as Google, asking them to address the issue of 'anti-vaxx' content on the platform.

In its response to Schiff, Facebook wrote that it is looking into removing misinforming content about vaccinations from recommendations to its users and to 'demote' it in searches on its platform.


Comment: Misinformation abounds all over mainstream media where Big Pharma owns 70% of the advertising and therefore the narrative.


In a letter to to Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg and Google's CEO Sundar Pichai, Schiff wrote: 'As a Member of Congress who is deeply concerned about declining vaccination rates, I am requesting additional information on the steps that you currently take to provide medically accurate information on vaccinations to your users, and to encourage you to consider additional steps you can take to address this growing problem.

In a statement released in response to Schiff, Facebook said it is 'exploring additional measures to best combat the problem,' according to Bloomberg.

That might include 'reducing or removing this type of content from recommendations, including Groups You Should Join, and demoting it in search results, while also ensuring that higher quality and more authoritative information is available.'

This follows a warning by the World Health Organization yesterday that efforts to halt the spread of measles is 'backsliding', including in wealthy nations where vaccination coverage has historically been high - as a result of 'anti-vaxx' campaigns.

Up until 2016, the number of measles cases had been steadily declining, but since 2017 the number has soared, according to Katrina Kretsinger, who heads WHO's expanded immunization program.

In Europe and other wealthy areas, meanwhile, experts blame the problem in part on complacency and misinformation about the vaccine.


The resurgence of the disease in some countries has been linked to medically baseless claims linking the measles vaccine to autism, which have been spread in part on social media by members of the so-called 'anti-vax' movement.

'We're backsliding on the progress that has been made,' O'Brien said.

'And we're not backsliding because we don't have the tools to prevent this. We do have the tools to prevent measles,' she said.

'We're backsliding because of the failure to vaccinate.'


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Measles is a highly contagious disease, which can cause severe diarrhea, pneumonia and vision loss and can be fatal in some cases, and remains 'an important cause of death among young children,' according to WHO.


Comment: Government research confirms measles outbreaks are transmitted by the vaccinated
Not only does the MMR vaccine fail to consistently confer immunity, but those who have been "immunized" with two doses of MMR vaccine can still transmit the infection to others - a phenomena no one is reporting on in the rush to blame the non- or minimally-vaccinated for the outbreak.



This is frustrating since the disease can be easily prevented with two doses of a 'safe and efficient' vaccine that has been in use since the 1960s, the UN agency said.