Ministry criticizes anti-vaccine doctors and dissemination of fake news

Brasília (DF) – The director of the Department of Immunizations of the Ministry of Health, Éder Gatti, during a session at PAHO. Photo: Júlia Prado/Mistério da Saúde The director of the Department of Immunizations of the Ministry of Health, Éder Gatti, criticized, this Thursday (20), the lack of attitude of the Federal Council of Medicine (CFM) in relation to anti-vaccination doctors. “We are very sorry for the inertia of the Federal Council of Medicine in the face of medical professionals who spread lies, who make economic exploitation of this situation. And we hope that the Federal Council of Medicine will review its position”. Gatti stated that he has been calling for a change in the CFM’s posture and hopes for the establishment of a dialogue with the entity. “For the council to exercise its function”, remembering that CFM is a public authority. “CFM’s main objective is to supervise and guarantee the proper practice of medicine to protect our population. So, I hope that the Federal Council of Medicine will do that”. The statement was given during the press conference to publicize the report ‘State of the World’s Children 2023: For every child, vaccination’, by the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef), at the headquarters of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO /WHO), in Brasilia. Partnerships with other medical entities Éder Gatti also highlighted that the folder has signed partnerships to recover the vaccination coverage rate and reverse the drop in the number of children without immunization indicated by Unicef. The director pointed out that, last Tuesday, the Ministry of Health, the Brazilian Medical Association (AMB), the Brazilian Society of Immunizations (SBIM) and other scientific entities announced joint action to support the recovery of vaccination coverage in Brazil. “This paves the way for us to establish relationships with medical societies. From there, we will have actions to approach the category, in the sense of promoting the vaccine as something safe, something that promotes life, and bring education to medical professionals”. And he highlighted the role of the health professional. “The medical category enjoys good trust from the population and when it promotes vaccination, it strengthens the strategy”. Fake News and hate speech The Ministry’s Health and Environmental Surveillance Secretariat, Ethel Maciel, said that anti-vaccination groups mobilized on social networks, such as Telegram, are being monitored. “Many groups have no regulation at all. So the contents circulate freely,” she said. According to Ethel, a study by the Laboratory of Studies on Image and Cyberculture, at the Federal University of Espírito Santo (UFES), on the subject will be published soon. Investigations indicate that virtual groups link the anti-vaccine movement in Brazil to the circulation of hate messages and neo-Nazis. “They will be the object of an investigation that is already in the STF [Supremo Tribunal Federal] and will be investigated from a judicial point of view”, he declared. “Unfortunately, what is happening in Brazil is something criminal. It’s not spontaneous. It is being done with intention, with method, in specific groups. Therefore, they need to be investigated and that they respond in justice for these crimes”, he added. CFM response In a note to Agência Brasil, the Federal Council of Medicine reported that it responded to a request for information from the Ministry of Health, made official on March 30. In a document addressed to the Secretariat for Health and Environment Surveillance, it reported that it considers “the role of vaccines in disease prevention to be important, individually and collectively, CFM understands that physicians, aware of their ethical, technical and legal responsibilities, and the population must attach importance to vaccination actions”. In the same document, the council details the actions it has taken to “guide patients on the importance of immunization, against fake news or rumours, and addresses how complaints should be made to professionals”, at the Regional Council of Medicine (CRM) of the state where the alleged irregularity had occurred. The CFM also stated that “the favorable understanding of vaccines is shared by the vast majority of the more than 550,000 doctors, and positions that contradict this perception can be considered as exceptions”.

Agência Brasil