A ameaça da não-vacinação na sociedade digital e da desinformação

Abstract

Vaccination is one of the most relevant public health interventions, with an extremely important impact on reducing mortality and morbidity from infectious diseases and oncological diseases. As is often the case in measures of great social scope, led by public policy decisions, vaccination has allowed a balance of justice and equity in access to health that should not be underestimated or overlooked. Countless advanced democracies have implemented complete immunization plans and their respective operational mechanisms for acquisition, distribution, administration and impact assessment. The way health interacts with populations is, however, a reflection of the shared thinking of the community. Modern times, marked by the rapid dissemination of information and disinformation, are associated with feelings of individualism and devaluation of formal scientific knowledge. The algorithms for suggesting content on social networks have been producing division and feeding undesirable tribalisms. This work tries to understand the motivations behind the anti-vaccination movements and summarizes proposals that can contribute to the debate and the resolution of this problem, which is nowadays spreading with particular prominence through digital networks.