Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, founded and funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, reposted an article criticizing meme creators for spreading anti-vaccine messaging and profiting from pandemic fears. Critics said it utilizes the “accusation in a mirror” tactic of attributing one’s misdeeds to opponents.
Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance took aim at “disinformation super-spreaders” in the “anti-vaccine movement” in an article it reposted Feb. 13.
“Memes have featured in anti-vaccine messaging for centuries and their power to spread harmful health disinformation is growing,” according to the article’s blurb.
The article warned that while memes are often associated with “cute cats and celebrities with funny captions,” they have “a more sinister function” as “part of a highly sophisticated strategy to spread and monetise health disinformation.”
Citing the “long history” of anti-vaccination memes, the article featured an image from 1802 depicting a vaccine monster being fed a basket of infants and “excreting them with horns,” and another from 1892 showing a vaccination serpent and a dancing skeleton threatening a mother and infant.
However, “The most infamous anti-vaccination meme,” the article stated, “emerged from a now discredited 1998 study that falsely linked the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine with autism.”