COVID-19 Inquiry will not shy from criticising social media disinformation, Sky News told
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The chair of the UK COVID-19 Inquiry will not "hesitate to make recommendations about the use of social media" and its role in spreading "misinformation and disinformation" around vaccines, the secretary to the inquiry has told Sky News. The independent public inquiry resumes on Tuesday with Module 4 looking at Vaccines and Therapeutics.
Ben Connah, secretary to the inquiry, said: 'In this module, we will be looking specifically at misinformation and disinformation and whether that led to vaccine hesitancy. "If the chair, Baroness Hallett, thinks there are recommendations to be made about the use of social media, then she won't hesitate to do that. She's got a very broad scope and she's determined to use it.".
The inquiry has been set up to examine the UK's response to and impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and to learn lessons for the future. This includes the way the government used public health messaging to engage with sometimes hard-to-reach communities. The lessons learned during the pandemic can be applied to encourage vaccine uptake for childhood immunisation programmes for diseases like polio and measles.
One of the reasons that this inquiry is looking specifically at vaccines is to make sure that the UK is in the best position possible going forward when it comes to not just a COVID vaccine, but that of other vaccines. Scottish government to ban WhatsApp on official devices.
