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An Indonesian designer with over 180,000 social media followers recently posted a complaint about the vaccination requirements for performing the Islamic pilgrimage in Mecca. The Saudi government requires that all travelers from countries with poliovirus circulation, including Indonesia, provide proof of polio vaccination. The post falsely claims that COVID-19 vaccinations are also required to perform Umrah. Some posts call vaccines “fake” and “deadly,” while others suggest that vaccines only exist to make money. One commenter proposes going through Malaysia to bypass vaccination requirements. 

On June 3, Bill Gates was honored by the Nigerian government for his charitable work in the country, including his foundation’s efforts to eradicate polio. Although many responses to the news were positive, some commenters argued that vaccines funded by the Gates Foundation are dangerous. Several posts repeated the conspiracy theory that vaccines are part of a depopulation plot, while others claim that polio didn’t exist until vaccines were introduced.

Parents in Kenya continue to post online about their struggles to get their children vaccinated amid the ongoing vaccine shortage. In response to one such post, some commenters claim that polio vaccines are unnecessary and “control our DNA,” while others argue that vaccines are not necessary and that “a child cannot die from missing a vaccine.” Several replies state that the baby is “lucky” not to be vaccinated.

At a public relations event, a Pakistan Army spokesperson stated that “this army stands with the people on every front—from polio to terrorists.” The quote has been widely shared online, with some criticizing the official for equating polio eradication with terrorism. A Pakistani influencer with over 120,000 followers warned that the military shouldn’t administer polio drops because they are a “global biological weapon” targeting Pakistani children. The post received dozens of responses agreeing with the sentiment and claiming that polio vaccines are poison meant to make children infertile.

An influencer with a large Nigerian following falsely claimed that “polio became viral thanks to the vaccines.” The post suggests that vaccines are unnecessary because God created humans “without defect.” Responses to the post claim that polio never existed or was created in a lab to promote vaccines. Another popular post from a Kenyan astrologist calls polio vaccines “poison” and “bioweapons.”

A popular Indonesian social media account that frequently posts false and misleading claims about vaccines accused the media of “fooling the people” about the polio outbreak in Papua New Guinea. The user falsely claimed that the media previously declared vaccine-derived polio a “hoax,” a claim that is contradicted by decades of mainstream media coverage of vaccine-derived poliovirus cases.

In a video with over 20,000 views, a man claims that his child died after taking polio drops. The man is holding an apparently deceased child in the video. Many responses to the video expressed condolences. However, others argued that the polio vaccine is safe and the death was not caused by the vaccine because none of the children who received doses from the same vial were harmed.

As parents in Kenya continue to search for vaccines during the ongoing shortage, some online users claim that vaccines are “poison” that children don’t need. One post also claimed that vaccines are “contraceptives” meant to prevent births.