Epidemic of false rumors in Martinique
Audio 01:16
A member of civil protection helps a patient take his temperature in a vaccination center against the coronavirus (Covid-19) installed at the Palais des Sports in the town of Lamentin in Martinique on August 13, 2021. AFP - LIONEL CHAMOISEAU
Text by: RFI Follow
4 min
In the West Indies, a scourge is plaguing social networks: false information on the Covid and the vaccine.
Documents supposed to be confidential and videos of charlatans are shared endlessly on certain Facebook and WhatsApp groups.
Rumors in which many Martinicans believe, who prefer not to be vaccinated and against which professionals are trying to fight.
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With our special correspondent in Fort de France,
Pierre Olivier
Phone in hand, Geraldine, 40, shows us the video that convinced her not to get vaccinated. We see a man in a white coat commenting on graphics. “
The Covid-19 was manufactured in France,
explains the pseudo-scientist,
by inserting into its genome four sequences of the HIV, AIDS virus, with RNA.
“For Geraldine, this kind of video arouses fear. "
If we are given the vaccine which has HIV, excuse me, where are we going?"
"
Géraldine has a good situation, she is a graduate, but firmly believes in these videos.
A plague that worries Christian Rapha, biologist and mayor of Saint-Pierre: “
The fake news, here, explains the very low vaccination rate of the population.
It is not a story of culture, of illiteracy, it is people who are worried, who are wondering.
"
Tirelessly, Christian Rapha takes the time to deconstruct this false information with his constituents and thus re-build bonds of trust.
“
Indeed, that generates the disorder
, he underlines,
but at a given moment, one must trust in the scientific word.
Somewhere, some common sense.
To think that the President of the Republic cannot have asked two thirds of his population to be vaccinated, if he was convinced that these people would die in two years.
"
In Martinique, the local daily devotes several boxes to deny point by point this false information.
► To read also: Covid-19: in the West Indies, an "extremely serious" situation before the ministerial visit
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