MANILA: When Jenette Torres Odena\u2019s three-year-old son fell ill days after receiving a jab as part of a Philippine vaccination drive, his photograph quickly spread on Facebook alongside claims the inoculation had killed him.<\/p>\n
Doctors found no link between the boy\u2019s condition and the measles-rubella vaccine, and he went on to fully recover, but by then his image had appeared in anti-vaccine videos viewed hundreds of thousands of times.<\/p>\n
\u201cI felt like crying,\u201d Odena told AFP.<\/p>\n
\u201cI kept praying for my son to recover and suddenly they were killing him on Facebook.\u201d<\/p>\n
The videos were part of a wave of misinformation that accompanied a child vaccination campaign this year that saw more than seven million Filipinos inoculated. Some 230,000 declined the jab.<\/p>\n
The Department of Health said concerns about side effects accounted for 66 percent of refusals and called misinformation spread by social media influencers a \u201cmajor driver\u201d of vaccine fear.<\/p>\n The Philippines has struggled to restore routine childhood immunization rates after years of plummeting coverage, which contributed to a polio resurgence in 2019 and recurring measles outbreaks.<\/p>\n The claims circulated on social media recycled conspiracy theories that gained traction globally during the Covid-19 pandemic while tapping into lingering fears about vaccine safety after the botched rollout of a dengue vaccine in the Philippines a decade ago.<\/p>\n \u201cVaccine hesitancy should not simply be understood as a lack of scientific knowledge among the public,\u201d Daniel Fritz Silvallana, a health communication researcher at Deakin University, Australia, told AFP.<\/p>\n \u201cIn the Philippine context, it is also connected to questions of trust, politics, and people\u2019s previous experiences with vaccination and public health institutions,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u2018Everyday slaughter\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n Within days of the photo of Odena\u2019s son being shared online, Facebook content creator Maharani Sona Shiloh had incorporated it into a video, framing it as evidence the vaccination campaign was harming children.<\/p>\n To bolster her claims, Shiloh cited Trump\u2019s recent controversial move to reduce the number of vaccine doses administered to American children.<\/p>\n The video viewed hundreds of thousands of times paired the child\u2019s image with a photograph of US President Donald Trump and the words \u201cEveryday slaughter.\u201d<\/p>\n Facebook, which did not reply to AFP requests for comment, eventually took down the page.<\/p>\n Three affiliated pages remain active.<\/p>\n Shiloh rejected suggestions she was spreading harmful misinformation, describing herself as a human rights advocate.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople call us crazy,\u201d she told AFP. \u201cWhy is it that human beings don\u2019t have the right to challenge these things?\u201c<\/p>\n The 44-year-old said she became involved in anti-vaccine advocacy years before the pandemic, later connecting with church groups and \u201cadvocacy circles\u201d that also campaign against SIM card registration and other policies they associate with a treacherous \u201cNew World Order.\u201d<\/p>\n Videos posted by Shiloh, some with millions of views, claimed vaccines contained harmful substances including \u201chuman placenta\u201d and \u201cformalin,\u201d while warning the World Health Organization was trying to depopulate the planet.<\/p>\n One mother, who asked to speak anonymously to protect her children, told AFP she decided to hold off on vaccinating them after watching the videos.<\/p>\n \u201cI watched Ms Maharani\u2019s videos because I was looking for more information. They gave additional knowledge… so it helped me to think more carefully,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n A week after the Facebook page was shuttered, she said she remained undecided about vaccinating her children, explaining that she and her husband worried about possible side effects.<\/p>\n Rebuilding trust<\/strong><\/p>\n While Shiloh\u2019s claims quickly collapse under scientific scrutiny, vaccinologist Helen Petousis-Harris of the University of Auckland said such videos rely on fear rather than compelling evidence.<\/p>\n \u201cRecognized vaccine ingredients become mysterious contaminants. Rare adverse events become brain damage, epilepsy, organ failure and death,\u201d she told AFP.<\/p>\n For health workers on the frontlines, however, the videos are increasingly difficult to ignore.<\/p>\n \u201cThey get scared because the vlog said vaccines are fatal,\u201d said Wenna Mae Belen, a rural health worker in Sorsogon province.<\/p>\n Conversations with some parents have also become hostile, Belen added.<\/p>\n \u201cThey tell me if something bad happens, they\u2019ll make me suck the vaccines out of their kids\u2019 bodies.\u201d<\/p>\n While the 25-year-old said Facebook bore \u201cmajor responsibility\u201d for the spread of vaccine misinformation, she cautioned that picking fights with content creators like Shiloh and their followers was a losing battle.<\/p>\n Rebuilding trust will take time and patience, she said, calling for open, non-judgmental conversations with parents.<\/p>\n \u201cIt isn\u2019t enough for us to just say: \u2018We\u2019re the experts, so trust us\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n![\"Medical](\"https:\/\/assets.maestronewsroom.com\/media\/30f6532d-717b-4366-9158-9c455299fcd9\/1790910501582-41158d3d10ce8e37.jpg\")