Sense effects of fake news against vaccines in the covid-19 pandemic

Abstract

Through the mainstream media, alternative media, in Brazil, in abroad, fake news circulate with varied enunciations and reach differents socials spaces and the most different strata of the population claiming for themselves the postulate of factual narratives, even if it is a falsification. In view of the advance of the new coronavirus pandemic and the challenges of vaccination, especially in emerging countries, this paper aims to analyze the meaning effects of fake news circulated in Brazil against vaccines, considering their implications for health. For this purpose, fake news notified by the “I inspect” application will be analyzed and presented on the website of the National Council of Health Secretaries. The analysis undertaken uses Michel Pêcheux's contributions as a theoretical-methodological framework to treat fake news as discursive materiality. We demonstrate that, in addition to producing a simulation of the real, fake news treating the false as true and reinforcing the population's ignorance, they imply the development of public policies, weaken the assistance processes of care for the population and submit the country to a prolonged and even more troubled period of health crisis.