Misinformation about COVID-19, vaccine driving increase in cases: WHO official

Misinformation about the coronavirus and COVID-19 vaccines is leading to an increase in infections around the world, a World Health (WHO) official said on Tuesday.

During a livestream Q&A, WHO official Marian Van Kerkhove said the misinformation leads to having less people take the COVID-19 vaccine.

Van Kerkhove, an Infectious Disease Epidemiologist, is WHO’s COVID-19 Technical Lead.

She said that in the past four weeks, the “amount of misinformation that is out there seems to be getting worse, and I think that’s really confusing for the general public.”

WHO says that “equitable access to safe and effective vaccines is critical to ending the COVID-19 pandemic, so it is hugely encouraging to see so many vaccines proving and going into development.”

According to a report by WHO, over 4.5 million new coronavirus cases were reported globally last week between August 16-22.