A group called Gavi, The Vaccine Alliance, which has partnered with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, is now targeting memes.
Gavi republished an opinion piece from The Conversation, which claimed memes may have a “sinister function” and “form part of a highly sophisticated strategy to spread and monetise health disinformation.”
“Memes may appear trivial, but they should be taken seriously,” the statement continues. “Dismissing them as harmless jokes is to grossly underestimate their influence – and bolsters their power to spread potentially harmful health messages.”
The group added that memes have been used to “vilify the government and social institutions, portraying them as corrupt and politically compromised. Anti-government sentiments were used to support several claims.”
“These included claims that the government is corrupt and tyrannical; that vaccines are unsafe and ineffective and that the government is using vaccines as a form of state surveillance, for control and profit.”
Explaining the threat of “disinformation” present in memes, the article claimed, “Memes are powerful propagators of disinformation because they allow influencers to claim plausible deniability. Under the protective guise of humour and satire, memes can evade fact checkers and content moderators while promoting anti-vaccine myths and unauthorised treatments.”
The Gates Foundation has given millions of dollars to Gavi since 2000.
That year, the foundation provided $750 million to Gavi. Another $50 million was given to the vaccine group in 2007, which launched the first Advance Market Commitment (AMC) to expedite the development and availability of pneumococcal vaccines.
More than $1 billion was granted to Gavi by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation between 2011-2015.
“In June 2014 the foundation committed an additional US $241 million to Gavi towards its complementary role on polio eradication, including support for IPV, over the period 2015–2018. This is complementing GPEI’s work on strengthening routine immunisation and introducing inactivated polio vaccine (IPV) in Gavi-supported countries,” reads a donor profile page.
In 2015, the Foundation gave $1.55 billion to the vaccine organization for the 2016-2025 period and provided another $1.6 billion to Gavi to be used between 2021-2025.
“In addition to this funding, the foundation pledged US$ 150 million in support of the Gavi COVAX AMC to ensure equitable access to vaccines for AMC-eligible economies,” the profile notes.
