Facebook announces plans to aid COVID-19 vaccine rollout, fight misinformation

Image Source: Dado Ruvic/Reuters

Social media giant Facebook announced plans to help combat online misinformation regarding COVID-19 vaccines. It also announced plans to assist with the rollout of the vaccine.

In a blog post, Facebook confirmed that it add labels to posts discussing COVID-19 vaccines to show additional information from the World Health Organization. For instance, the company said posts that discuss the safety of COVID-19 vaccines will be hit with a label that notes the vaccines go through tests for safety and effectiveness before they’re approved.

“Today we’re launching a global campaign to help bring 50 million people a step closer to getting COVID-19 vaccines,” CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote in a Facebook post. He went on to state three pointers that Facebook would work on.

Today we’re launching a global campaign to help bring 50 million people a step closer to getting Covid-19 vaccines.

We’…

Posted by Mark Zuckerberg on Monday, March 15, 2021

Firstly, Facebook will launch a vaccine finder tool that would show users when and where they can get vaccinated. It would even provide a link to make an appointment for vaccination. This tool will show up in Facebook’s COVID Information Center, which appears on users’ news feeds.

Facebook has collaborated with Boston Children’s Hospital, which runs the VaccineFinder.org website, to offer the tool that identifies places nearby to get the vaccine.

Secondly, social media site Instagram, which is also owned by Facebook, will also feature the Covid Information Center.

Finally, the social media giant also intends to work with health authorities and governments to expand their WhatsApp chatbots to help people register for vaccines.

We believe this is a fantastic initiative by Facebook to help vaccinate as many people as possible against this deadly virus. Do you agree? What do you think of Facebook’s initiative? Let us know your views in the comments section below.

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