The World Health Organization (WHO) warned in a statement Tuesday in Geneva that dangerous information about vaccines could be spread on social media.
WHO Director-General Tidros Adhanom Ghebresius said the outbreak was just as dangerous, praising the role of the Pinterest platform on communication in protecting public health by providing evidence-based information, hoping the rest of the world would follow it.
The WHO official said misinformation about vaccination had spread quickly and quickly on social media platforms in many different countries, including during critical vaccination campaigns such as polio campaigns in Pakistan or yellow fever in South America. It has brought the world to the brink of polio eradication and has helped reduce rates of many other diseases, including measles, where vaccines save at least 2 million lives annually.