Polio Pulse

Polio Pulse provides social listening insights to support GPEI’s polio interventions on disinformation, crisis communication, and strategic communication. Data is monitored from polio-endemic and outbreak countries and geographies classified by GPEI, covering 12 major languages spoken in these regions. The platform is managed by the UNICEF Digital Community Engagement (DCE) team.

Medium Risk

Post accuses the media of lying about the Papua New Guinea polio outbreak

Geography
Indonesia
Themes
Effectiveness

Analysis

A popular Indonesian social media account that frequently posts false and misleading claims about vaccines accused the media of “fooling the people” about the polio outbreak in Papua New Guinea. The user falsely claimed that the media previously declared vaccine-derived polio a “hoax,” a claim that is contradicted by decades of mainstream media coverage of vaccine-derived poliovirus cases.

Recommendations

Reports of cVDPV cases often lead to misleading claims about the safety and effectiveness of OPVs. Health communicators may explain that OPV is responsible for the elimination of polio in most of the world, including Indonesia, which has not had a wild polio case in three decades. Explaining that communities with low polio vaccination rates are at risk for cVDPV and that the best way to prevent any type of polio outbreak—whether wild polio or cVDPV—is to vaccinate children is recommended, as is emphasizing that vaccinated children are not at risk of cVDPV.