Providing some optimism for an otherwise bleak year is the recent announcement about the vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech.
Perhaps now, with the promise of a potential vaccine, some of us might even allow ourselves to dream when this nightmare of a pandemic will end.
But until dreams turn into reality, we cannot afford to let our guard down and be complacent. Policymakers, while permitted to expect the best as humans do, need to prepare for the worst.
Relevantly, in preparation for the discovery of a vaccine — either the one above, or the dozens others currently going through trials — the government needs to lay the groundwork to simultaneously increase the public's awareness and appreciation of the need to vaccinate, while reducing the potential implications of anti-vaccine propaganda.
The latter is important as the anti-vaccine lobby in Malaysia is getting more organised, vocal and influential in recent years, and is now a growing threat in the control of vaccine-preventable diseases. Raising the alarm is how polio, which Malaysia had eradicated in 2000, had made a comeback in 2019 with four cases.
While there is no doubt that there are multiple causes behind people not getting vaccinated, we should not discount the role played, or could potentially be played, by anti-vaccine propaganda.
If propagandists manage to influence the decision-making of a minority of the population to put off Covid-19 vaccination, this can undermine our efforts to create herd immunity — as this requires a very high immunisation rate among the population.
This can come at the cost of prolonging the pandemic longer than necessary at the expense of our national economic security and even lives.
Nonetheless, there must be acknowledgements that a majority of the population believes in the need for vaccines. This necessitates a comprehensive, yet tailored approach to address the problem at hand.
In our upcoming policy paper on countering Covid-19 anti-vaccination propaganda, we outline four key strategies: (1) public communications; (2) inoculation measures; (3) fact-checking; and (4) punitive legislation. The explanation below presents a short summary.
FIRST, the government must be proactive in communicating to the public the importance of vaccinating, and emphasise the safety of any eventual vaccine chosen to be administered. This can preempt and curtail anti-vaccination propaganda and negative publicity. This is crucial to assuage concerns stemming from the breakneck pace of Covid-19 vaccine development.
In communicating these messages, the government needs to have all stakeholders to be part of, and take ownership of, the communications strategy. As different stakeholders possess rapport and enjoy trust with different audiences, this will ensure that the message is delivered from a credible source relative to them.
SECOND, the government must also include inoculation measures as part of its wider communications strategy. Inoculation works by exposing the public to a toned down version of potential mis- or disinformation in hopes of building society's cognitive ability to spot them "in the wild".
This can be done by shedding light on the various types of anti-vaccination propaganda and by educating the public about the various strategies these propagandists employ.
THIRD, there is greater room for cooperation in fact-checking initiatives between governmental and non-governmental fact-checkers.
This can include setting up a "common pool" of fact-checkers, reducing duplication of work; cross-posting of the outcomes of the fact-checks on the respective partner's platforms; and publishing in languages other than Bahasa Malaysia and English.
FOURTH, it could be argued that it is justified to prosecute those bent on spreading Covid-19 disinformation. Differentiating this category of false information from others seen during this infodemic is that anti-vaccine propaganda could reasonably cause harm to the public. But a punitive response must keep in mind principles of proportionality and be done as a last resort.
Preparing the public for the arrival of a Covid-19 vaccine needs to happen now, and the government needs to use its convening power to gather all stakeholders who can lend their respective expertise on this new frontline of the battle against Covid-19.
The writer is an analyst at the Institute of Strategic and International Studies Malaysia
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect those of the New Straits Times