SAO PAULO.— Brazil is experiencing an epidemic of vaccine misinformation, a new study finds. Conducted by Avaaz in partnership with the Brazilian Society of Immunizations (SBIm), the report, Is Fake News Making Us Sick?, finds many in Brazil cite social media and messaging apps as their top source of vaccination information. Shockingly, the report also found some of the most viral anti-vaccination posts on Facebook and the web in Brazil first originated in the United States.

The US website Natural News, for example, was the source of 32% of the report’s original misinformation sample. While Natural News’s Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube accounts were either removed or down ranked in the US this year amidst a move to crack down on pages spreading medical misinformation, the content from that site was found to still be spread widely on several Brazilian websites and Facebook pages.

The report findings include one of the most comprehensive polls to date on Brazilians attitudes toward vaccinations and their main sources of information, conducted by IBOPE, as well as an investigation into the top online misinformation in the country.

Nana Queiroz, Avaaz's campaigner in Brazil, says:
"Brazil is experiencing an epidemic of misinformation about vaccines. This is not a political problem, it's a personal one and it’s risking lives. Big platforms need to recognize anti-vaccination content is viral and contagious -- spreading from country to country. That’s why they must immediately begin showing corrections from fact-checkers to people exposed to vaccination misinformation and help officials to spread reliable content across the globe.”

Key findings include:

• 67% of Brazilians (7 in 10) believe at least one inaccurate statement about vaccinations.
• 13% say they have not vaccinated themselves or a child under their care, this represents over 21 million people.
• Among those who did not vaccinate, 57% reported at least one reason considered misinformation by SBIm professionals and the World Health Organization (WHO). The most common was: “I did not find the vaccine necessary (31%)” and “fear of having serious side effects after getting a vaccine (24%).”
• 48% have reported social media and WhatsApp as one of their main sources of information about vaccines, the second most popular means of getting informed about vaccines for Brazilians after mainstream news.

The misinformation content analyzed by Avaaz had massive reach in Brazil. The team began with an original sample of 30 online pieces of misinformation already debunked by fact checking agencies, including the Brazilian Ministry of Health. Those first 30 pieces of content alone were shared on multiple platforms -- YouTube, Facebook, WhatsApp, the web itself — reaching at least 2.4 million views on YouTube, 23.5 million views on Facebook (videos only), and 578,000 shares in Facebook.  In a further examination of YouTube videos, 69 top anti-vaccination videos were found to collectively reach 9.2 million views and 40,000 comments.

Much of the content was found on pages that describe a plan to create a “new world order” with vaccinations being part of the plot to control society.

On a hopeful note, people assessed in this study who saw negative news about vaccines on social media still tended to feel safe about vaccines if they also had access to doctors and other reliable sources.

Juarez Cunha, President of the Brazilian Society of Immunizations (SBIm), says:
“We need health professionals, experts and authorities to have the same readiness to teach and clarify vaccination information as those who spread false information. If we don’t, it is possible we could see the return of long eradicated diseases in Brazil and around the world -- as the measles return has already demonstrated.”

Nana Queiroz, Campaigner at Avaaz says:
"Platforms can significantly limit the impact of anti-vaccine misinformation by providing every user with corrections. Although platforms have moved to labeling and downgrading misinformation content, that is not enough and often too late - the platforms must in addition notify users who saw the content before it was flagged."

Isabella Ballalai, SBIm Vice President says:
“Vaccinations are an extremely important public health activity, so the government must strive to keep health care teams up to date. It is essential that health professionals are prepared to respond quickly to people's doubts in situations that do not have the slightest scientific basis."

To reach poll results for this report, IBOPE surveyed 2,002 people aged 16 years and over in all states and the Federal District, respecting the demographic characteristics of the country. The margin of error was plus or minus two percentage points, and the confidence level was 95 percent.

Notes to editor:

About Avaaz work on disinformation:  This report is part of an ongoing Avaaz campaign to protect democracies from the dangers of disinformation on social media. As part of that campaign, Avaaz investigations have revealed a huge disinformation network with half a billion views ahead of European elections; prompted Facebook to take down a network reaching 1.7m people in Spain  days before the election; released a report on the fake news (reaching 105m views) that fueled the Yellow Vests  crisis in France; and exposed a massive disinfo network (28 pages with 12.6m interactions) during the Brazil elections . Avaaz’s call for Facebook to Correct the Record as a primary solution to disinformation has been endorsed by people like EU Security Commissioner, Julian King .

For more information and interviews, please contact media@avaaz.org
Full report found here