Alphabet Inc’s Youtube said on Tuesday it is adding a link to provide information on the development of Covid-19 vaccines to the coronavirus panel on its site, expanding its efforts to combat misinformation related to the pandemic.
The link will send users directly to authoritative COVID-19 vaccine information from a third-party source like the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention or the World Health Organization (WHO), the company said in a statement.
Conspiracy theories and misinformation about the new coronavirus vaccines have proliferated on social media, including through anti-vaccine personalities on YouTube and viral videos shared across multiple platforms.
Last week, a study conducted in the United States and Britain found conspiracy theories and misinformation fuel mistrust in vaccines and could push levels that potential COVID-19 vaccines are taken below the rates needed to protect communities against the disease.
In October, the video platform said it would remove videos containing misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines, and ban any content with claims that contradict consensus from local health authorities or the WHO.
YouTube’s move on Tuesday follows promising results from two major vaccine efforts. Moderna Inc said on Monday its experimental COVID-19 vaccine is more than 94.5% effective based on interim data from late-stage trials. Last week, Pfizer Inc said its vaccine was shown to be more than 90% effective.
Mean-while, India’s COVID-19 caseload rose to 73,70,468 with 63,371 new infections being reported in a day, while the number of people who have recuperated from the disease crossed 64 lakh pushing the recovery rate to 87.56 percent, according to the Health Ministry data updated on Friday.
The coronavirus deaths climbed to 1,12,161 with the virus claiming 895 lives in a span of 24 hours, the data updated at 8 am showed. For eight days in a row, the active cases of COVID-19 remained below 9 lakh.
There are 8,04,528 active cases of coronavirus infection in the country which comprises 10.92 percent of the total caseload, while the recoveries have surged to 64,53,779, the data stated. The COVID-19 case fatality rate due to COVID-19 was recorded at 1.52 percent.