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Italians decided to fight a conspiracy theory. Here’s what happened next.

Overview

In 2017, Italy suffered a large outbreak of measles. One Italian doctor developed an "in your face" pro-vaccination campaign, while a science journalist and writer ran a "kinder and gentler" pro-vaccination campaign. This article chronicles the results of the pro-vaccination campaigns.

Why is this important?

"In a world where conspiracy theories — medical, scientific and, of course, political — are proliferating, this is more than just a useful insight. It should be the beginning of a new way of thinking about long-term strategies to deal with disinformation more generally. Italian vaccination rates are up, epidemics are down, and it took different kinds of people using different kinds of language to make that happen."

Creator

Anne Applebaum
Image Credit: Jason Taix from Pixabay

Publication Date

August 8, 2019