Amazon and Barnes & Nobles searches for "vaccine" bring upanti-vaxx books .- Amazon's top search results include "Anyone Who Tells You Vaccines Are Safe and Effective is Lying Paperback" and "Jabbed: How the Vaccine Industry, Medical Establishment, and Government Stick It to You and Your Family."
- The US could start rolling out
COVID-19 shots as early as Friday, but President-elect Joe Biden has warned that the public is losing faith in the effectiveness of a vaccine. Barnes & Noble search results are ranked based on "the exact proximity of the title to the search term used," a spokesperson told Business Insider.- "Our shopping and discovery tools are not designed to generate results oriented to a specific point of view," an Amazon spokesperson told Bloomberg.
Amazon and Barnes & Nobles searches for "vaccine" bring up books that question the safety of shots.
Two of the top five books in Amazon's search results for "vaccine" promote anti-vaccine theories. Bloomberg first reported on the news.
The results include the 2019 release "Anyone Who Tells You Vaccines Are Safe and Effective is Lying" by Dr Vernon Coleman, who has been writing about vaccines for 50 years.
The news comes as the US awaits a potential approval of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine - which has already been rolled out in the UK - as early as Friday.
Hesitation to take a vaccine could derail nationwide progress in curtailing the spread of COVID-19, experts have told Business Insider. Only 58% of Americans would take a vaccine if it was available today for free, according to a November Gallup poll, and President-elect Joe Biden has warned that Americans are losing faith in the shot.
According to the description on Coleman's book page, he "used to debate vaccination on TV and radio but won every public debate and these days vaccine supporters will no longer debate with him."
He is also the author of "COVID-19: The Greatest Hoax in History: The startling truth behind the planned world takeover," which was released in September but is currently unavailable on the platform.
Beneath this in Amazon's search results is Brett Wilcox's "Jabbed: How the Vaccine Industry, Medical Establishment, and Government Stick It to You and Your Family," which came out in March.
According to its description on Amazon, the book reportedly proves that vaccines are "a racket run by criminals and gullible believers," creating a "breeding ground of tyranny."
On his Facebook page, Wilcox has spoken out against mask wearing, saying it "perpetuates the lie" that COVID-19 is more dangerous than seasonal flu.
"Our shopping and discovery tools are not designed to generate results oriented to a specific point of view," an Amazon spokesperson told Bloomberg.
"Similar to other stores that sell books, we provide our customers with access to a variety of viewpoints. We're committed to providing a positive customer experience and have policies that outline what products may be sold in our stores."
On Barnes & Noble's website, meanwhile, the top search result for "vaccine" is a book by Thomas Cowan, an American doctor who claims COVID-19 is caused by 5G technology. According to its description, in the book he argues that vaccination is "ineffective and harmful," and asserts that the medical establishment "robs parents of informed consent" by promoting vaccines.
A Barnes & Noble spokesperson told Business Insider that search results are ranked based on "the exact proximity of the title to the search term used."
"As a bookseller, we make available the many hundreds of thousands of titles that are published and do not expect any customer to assume a recommendation on our part simply because a book is listed in consequence of a general search," the spokesperson said.
"For each title, a sales ranking is given which gives indication of the popularity of the book."
The anti-vaxx movement could hinder attempts to fight the virus
Vaccinations could be crucial to curbing the spread of COVID-19, which has killed more than 1.5 million people globally.
The UK began rolling out Pfizer and BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine Tuesday morning, and the US's first inoculations could start as early as Friday.
During the pandemic, some groups have protested a potential COVID-19 vaccine, attempted to discredit scientists, and vowed they would not be vaccinated against the novel coronavirus.
President-elect Joe Biden warned last week that "people have lost faith in the ability of the vaccine to work."
Facebook has said it will start removing posts with false vaccine claims, but experts told Business Insider that Instagram will be the real battleground for COVID-19 vaccine misinformation.