How vaccine disinformation, hesitancy is undermining Southeast Asia’s virus response

People in some of the region’s Covid-19 hotspots like Indonesia, the Philippines and Malaysia are being swayed by the anti-vax movement

Southeast Asian countries are struggling with outbreaks of new variants, vaccine shortages, lagging vaccination rates and global isolation

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A health worker prepares a dose of a Sinovac Covid-19 jab at a car park in Manila. In the Philippines, 68 per cent of people are either uncertain or unwilling to take vaccines, a polling company found. Photo: EPA-EFE

Published: 12:30pm, 1 Jul 2021Updated: 10:18pm, 1 Jul 2021

Though Gerry Casida is on the priority list for a free Covid-19 vaccine in the Philippines because of his asthma, he is not planning to get the shot any time soon. A video he found on social media of a woman claiming vaccines are being used for genocide helps explain why.

“I’ve read a lot of posts on Facebook about how many died in other countries because of vaccines, and how that’s being concealed,” the 43-year-old construction worker from Manila said. “My mom also consulted a folk healer, who said the vaccines could affect my heart.”

Millions of people like Casida in some of the worst Covid-19 hotspots in Southeast Asia are in no rush for inoculation or just saying no, swayed by disinformation on social media from both local sources as well anti-vaccination movements in the US. Those false claims are fuelling vaccine hesitancy in some pockets of the region, undermining efforts to vaccinate some of the most vulnerable people in Asia and end a pandemic that has stalled the global economy.

Despite some of the highest rates of new cases in the world, recent surveys have shown vaccine resistance is prevalent in the region. In the Philippines, 68 per cent of people are either uncertain or unwilling to take the shots, according to polling company Social Weather Stations. A third of Thais have doubts or refuse to be vaccinated, according to the Suan Dusit Poll, while a separate survey in Indonesia showed nearly a fifth of the population hesitating.

Anti-vaccination propaganda is a big reason for that hesitancy, which has further slowed take-up in countries already struggling with limited supplies. Less than 10 per cent of the population in Thailand and the Philippines have received even one shot.

“It is a polluted media landscape,” Melissa Fleming, the United Nations’ under-secretary-general for global communications, said at a virtual forum in May. “This infodemic has shifted now, and the focus is misinformation on vaccines. It’s about instilling fear in people.”