Maseru, Sept. 22 — Misinformation does not only affects people in their different individual corners but also undermines efforts towards healthy nations, especially in news related to vaccines. The impact of misinformation on vaccines is best narrated by the World Health Organisation (WHO).
The health organisation says while best estimates conclude that vaccines have saved more than 150 million lives in the past 50 years, the potential for their impact for future decades is increasingly threatened by another type of contagion, misinformation.
Both misinformation and disinformation travel faster and further than truth and their potential consequences include reversals of hard-won gains in vaccine coverage and disease control established over these decades.
WHO further observed that vaccines have long been one of the most powerful tools in public health and they are arguably the most cost-effective public health intervention available, saving more than five lives every minute, protecting against severe disease and disability, reducing the burden on health systems, protecting families from sinking into extreme poverty, and contribute to economic growth.
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