in the midst of the current coronavirus
outbreaks we are all concerned about the
consequences of this disease and what is
everyone looking for a vaccine that can
stop the spread of this illness however
and people would imagine that once there
a vaccine
everyone would actually take it without
any hesitation
however we as human beings are not
always logical when it comes to our
decisions we our brains are subject to
emotions cognitive biases that impact
our ability to take a rational decision
and results in irrational decisions just
to illustrate this I'd like you to have
a look at this cube try to look at these
two pieces do you see the same color or
different colors who sees the same color
raise your hand if you do if you see the
same color who sees different colors
okay
almost everyone and unfortunately all of
you are wrong they are identical exactly
the same colors it's unbelievable you
look at it on and on again and in case
you're concerned that I've thought a
shot this I haven't I actually have two
screenshots of these two pieces they are
identical yet our brain fails to see
them as as being the same why due to the
context so if we are actually subjected
to these biases when it comes to looking
at colors something very objective
imagine how our decisions are influenced
by biases so let's move on to talk about
a different virus now the measles virus
measles is actually more contagious and
more serious and lethal compared to
coronavirus it spreads so quickly
and prior to vaccines prior to the
availability of vaccines measles was the
leading cause of death of childhood
death it's good that we now have very
effective vaccines that were work
extremely well as you can see from this
example and that led took place in Wales
and England once you introduce the
devack's
missiles rate go extremely low we have
the ability to completely eradicate
missiles now the question is were we
successful in eradicating missiles we do
have very effective vaccines however we
haven't in 2018 there were a hundred and
forty thousand deaths from measles not
people infected people died from measles
despite the availability of the
availability of this effective vaccines
so what is the reason what is one of the
reasons is that there is a mental virus
that spreads prior to the actual virus
and leads to measles so let's start with
us with a story from a country in the
Pacific Ocean
Samoa so more is a beautiful country and
in 2019 August as we can see here they
had zero cases of measles in September
30th of 2019 there was only one case one
person had measles
what happened following this by December
there were more than five and a half
thousand people infected by measles just
in this country making up to 2% of the
total population it's really scary how
fast this disease can spread was it a
benign disease
not at all more than 80 people died from
measles within the short time frame and
guess what most of them were
unfortunately children so this is a
really serious disease and as we can see
in this illustration what happened is
that Misa started to spread let's say
around the end of 2019 but prior to this
there was a mental virus that started
spreading there were people actually who
started scaring frightening parents and
telling people convincing people that
vaccines as part of an agenda to infect
their their population and it's a crime
against the citizens and they started
scaring people from vaccines and
actually giving them alternatives
including taking vitamins for example or
papaya leaves or even immune protective
water whatever this means so they were
really
other strategies that are not effective
and people were scared the vaccination
rates went down and therefore measles
actually started and increased another
quick example from the Somali population
of Minnesota and the US or what happened
some time not long ago a strong person
who's an anti-vaxxer visited Minnesota a
Somali population and convinced them
that the reason for the autism rates
they had was actually because of the
vaccinations which is absolutely not
correct but what happened to people they
were afraid they were scared
therefore they started D creating their
children so the vaccination rate
actually went down and what would happen
consequently as we showed measles is
highly contagious and dangerous so the
rate of Mizer's went up quickly making
up maybe the largest the biggest
outbreak of measles and you in the u.s.
recently and this is the global rate so
the question is why do these ideas or
mental viruses spread how are they made
up we know we know a lot about the
measles virus and about vaccines but
what makes up these viruses the mental
viruses that actually are implemented in
people's brains and heart and then moved
from one person to the other causing
fear and reluctancy and hesitancy in
vaccinating this will be the topic today
vaccine hesitancy has been labeled by
the whu-oh as one of the top ten public
health problems again it's one of the
biggest challenges to public public
health it's not the measles or the the
virus itself is the hesitancy to take
vaccines I am a child and adolescent
psychiatrist from the United Arab
Emirates and I work in Dubai and
unprivileged to work with families and
children with autism spectrum disorder
one of the things that is striking is
that I've noticed in the UAE and where I
where I was trained in Canada and
everywhere else in the world when we
travel and present conferences is that
there are the same ideas and theories
related to fact related to autism that
keep coming up so one of the frequent
questions we were asked almost every
time we
we meet with these families does my
child have autism because of vaccines
now we know the answer is unequivocally
no we have strong evidence that there is
no link but why does this wrong idea
persist in people's mind and lead to
vaccine hesitancy so parents love their
children it's a natural tendency for
parents to protect their children to
provide their love and compassion to
their children and it's it's a feeling
across all species
so even vaccine hesitant parents
actually they're hesitant they do not
vaccinate their children out of their
love because they think that this is the
best thing to do to protect their
children so it's out of their love and
compassion for their children so what
we're going to talk today about is how
can we understand more about this virus
and how it spreads how it makes itself
to people's minds and brains and heart
and it spread from one person to the
other and across continents in order to
do this
I'd like you to engage with me in an
exercise where we're going to use our
cognitive empathy so let's try for the
next few minutes to put ourselves in the
place of those people who actually
promote anti vaccine agenda so ladies
and gentlemen here is your ten step
guide secret recipe to create and spread
mental viruses okay so let's start step
one you have to come up with a pseudo
scientific idea so come up with any idea
it just have to sound scientific even if
it had absolutely no credibility at all
it doesn't matter come up with numbers
from your pocket from here and there
present slides just make up something
that sounds scientific step two you have
to believe in your idea to the core and
consistently repeat your idea one time
after the other what happens people are
said to have a lot of biases as we saw
earlier so when they hear about an idea
repeating they end up believing it it
becomes they become familiar with this
idea and also there is the the fire
hosing effect if you made them a very
wrong idea and if you lied about it if
you just keep repeating it on and on and
on again people will end up
believing that step three you stories
stories are much more powerful than
numbers and statistics and there are
some important characteristics and the
stories that you should use which is you
have to you have to use emotional
stories so you have to tap into their
fields and make them really scared so
you can show them for example before and
after photos of vaccine injury
regression terrible consequences of
vaccines and this this is how you can
install fear in people and then guilt
guilt is very very powerful
so no parent want to feel guilty about
something that they do for their kids so
one thing you can do you can make
parents feel really guilty if they
vaccinate their kids and then your your
way to spread this idea will be through
using empathy empathy is a very powerful
tool but there is one key a key idea
here when using empathy which is focus
on one story one single individual when
you apply the previous concepts so one
story a specific child or individuals
people can identify can actually
identify with one person they can
empathize with one person but difficult
to empathize with two or three or ten or
millions and as one person previously
said if one person dies it's a tragedy
if a million died it's a statistic and
this is why our data that we have don't
actually resonate and work very well
with these families next and this is the
bonus use more biases so for example
these parents are desperate to have an
idea about what caused autism in their
kids and and and scientists would tell
them well we don't know for sure it's
90% genetic but we're still looking for
ideas and and then you can actually use
this and tell them well I have the
reason the reason is what did you do
right before your child had autism tell
me a few months before and they say oh
we took them for the vaccine and
automatically people make this
association we are subjected all of us
to their biases and we think that they
are actually causal and then play the
nature card so whenever you talk about
something that's natural this is very
powerful people perceive things
that are natural as less harmful that
think that that are invented by human
beings so you can talk about natural
immunity for example and and frame it
this way so if you instead of talking
about vaccinating your child and
protecting your child versus subjecting
your child to viruses most parents will
pick up the vaccines but if you say that
oh how about you either develop your
child's natural immunity which is
incorrect but but you can again doesn't
have to be correct develop your child's
natural immunity live naturally versus
injecting your child with toxins who's
gonna select the second option so this
is the framing effect that that is also
powerful to be used number six if you
really want this to work you need
lawyers followers you need to create a
movement you need to be a rock star
really you need to make sure that people
who attend your presentations are loyal
to your ideas and big believers and in
fact if someone is hesitant and
reluctant you have to send them out of
the room don't do it yourself have your
other loyal followers send them out
basically so you'll end up being
surrounded by people who are big
believers in your idea and will spread
this further and also tell them always
that you know something that no one else
about you know a secret
that Big Pharma is hiding from them that
corporates are hiding from them and that
they're not going to hear this idea from
anyone else tell them that autism is due
to vaccines but Big Pharma does not want
to tell us and I'm gonna tell you this
so so so and it's a big cover-up as
ridiculous this idea is you'll be
surprised how to actually resonate with
a lot of people and then raise money but
you have it has to be discreet so you
have to show that you're doing this for
the good cause of people and step eight
is extremely important get celebrities
on board it's very important so if when
said you'll be shocked that celebrities
actually have the spotlight and they can
and this day and a to go on TV and on on
television and so and say whatever they
want they can just give their opinion
and discredit the scientist and people
would are tempted to believe believe in
these celebrities because there are all
models for many people
and then you have to go viral literally
go viral use the Internet create media
that is with scary music dark lighting
really dramatic effective media and use
social media really effectively create
hashtags one after the other more
importantly encourage your followers to
create their own content which is known
as web 2.0 through the comments through
creating new ideas a new hashtag and you
a new Twitter account and this is a new
social media content this way your idea
is literally gonna go viral
so now congratulations you're a rock
star you're famous you have a lot of
money you have not only followers but
people who worship you and this there
were studies that done we're done for
these individuals and and their
followers would describe more or less as
worshipers so what's next there is one
last step maintain your success because
there are people who will try to stop
you so you have to have good
relationship with lawyers because you'll
need them and your fight against doctors
Pharma tech companies etc and make sure
that your rhetoric your story your
mental virus is alive and nourished and
change your skin from one time to the
other so if anti-vaccine is for example
not permitted on a specific social media
platform well you can use parental
choices medical freedom pro health any
other title that actually works now what
the result is that this person is using
ideas that resonate with people and
actually tap into people's deepest fears
and anxieties intentionally and their
cognitive biases intentionally and this
is why these ideas easily transmitted
from one person to the other
and once this happens you cannot stop it
measles you cannot transfer measles
online through email or social media but
vaccine hesitancy can go viral literally
through social media so these ideas
would go and what's the result decrease
rate of vaccinations as we saw
eventually people actually dying of
of little-little disease so if we see
vaccine hesitancy as the tip of the
iceberg and we have to definitely
address this with love and empathy
these parents again they want their best
for their children so we need to listen
to them empathize with them
there are many research also that was
done on using motivational interviews
and also also including policies that
support easy decision-making that is
supportive of protecting children and
vaccinating their children so our
approach should be based on love and
empathy however when it comes to the
other question which is what is below
this vaccine hesitancy where did these
ideas come from who is behind these
ideas who is spreading these ideas
should this be allowed or not our
interventions should be very different
and harsh and clear against those who
actually produce and promote these ideas
because as we Illustrated these ideas
can actually eventually kill people and
we should approach this with no
hesitation
we should not hesitate in in dealing
with with this through disrupting the
flow of disinformation and fake news
through on social media and also
educating parents and people that look I
am subjected to all these biases I can
fall them fall for these biases or these
ideas in one day one way or the other as
well as all of us Ted is about ideas
that are worth spreading the ideas that
we spoke about are terrible mental
viruses that are not only not worth
spreading but are actually harmful and
lethal and made for personal gains and
we should therefore collectively stand
up to confront this deadly virus and
face it dead on if you now feel that you
have a little bit more insight about the
significance and importance of spreading
these dangerous ideas you every one of
you and everyone who is watching online
you are uniquely positioned to enlighten
people around you and contribute to a
safer future for our children
thank you very much
[Applause]