How Vaccine Myths Are Spreading In India

Not everyone is cheering the Covid vaccine rollout. A small but growing bunch of Indian anti-vaxxers is circulating misinformation on social media

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The video begins with a hit song from Bobby in which Rishi Kapoor and Dimple Kapadia croon ‘Pehle tum, pehle tum’. Cut to a shot of a grim-looking man named Biswaroop Roy Chowdhury who says the lyrics describe the attitude of doctors when it comes to the Covid vaccine in India. He goes on to list alleged adverse reactions of vaccines. “If anyone influences you to take the vaccine, he is part of a group that wants to end your life and property. Save yourself and your loved ones,” he declares.

This is one of the most widely circulated videos in anti-vaccine groups (or anti-vaxxers as they are known) on Facebook and messaging app Telegram. Over the last few months, Chowdhury, who says he has a PhD in diabetes from a university in Zambia, has put out several videos claiming that the Covid-19 vaccines are a strategy for population control and dubbing it just a flu. After his YouTube and social media channels were banned, he now shares these videos on his personal website and Telegram groups with thousands of followers.

Syed Nazakat, founder of fact-checking platforms DataLeads and Health Analytics Asia, which is working with doctors in 18 Asian countries to fact-check health and COVID-19 related content, says they have noticed conspiracy theories related to vaccinations in full swing. “Unlike Europe and the US where the anti-vaccine lobby is big, powerful and organised, there are splinter interest groups in India who discredit vaccines, mostly due to religious beliefs or their interest in alternative medicine. A lot of homeopaths and naturopaths are behind this anti-vaccine rhetoric.”