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Major Book Retailers Urged to Add Warning Labels to Anti-Vaccination Books

By March 7, 2021Literature, News

For a year now, the world has been gripped by the COVID-19 pandemic, which has taken the lives of millions of people since it first appeared.

It’s been a long, dark period, but there appears to be a light at the end of the tunnel in the form of a number of vaccines that have proven to be effective in keeping people safe from the virus.

It will come as no surprise that book sales relating to the virus, and more recently the vaccine, have spiked, but Anti-vaccination books have also seen an increase in sales, causing some to call on major book retailers to add warning tags to such titles.

Searching on Amazon for the term ‘vaccine’ will result in several books regarding the history of vaccines and how they work, but it also brings up several titles that claim vaccines are harmful to those who receive them.

You can find titles such as Raising a Vaccine Free Child, Vaccine Nation: Poisoning the Population, One Shot at a Time, and Anyone Who Tells you Vaccines are Safe and Effective is Lying, which is currently a best-seller. The books have gained a following and many of them are rated highly by customers, leading some to argue that retailers who sell these kinds of books should do so with a warning label that alerts buyers that what they’re reading is spreading misinformation.

Millions of people in the UK have received their jabs, but books such as these may prevent some from getting themselves protected, which will, in turn, help the virus continue to spread and put more people at risk.

As Sky News reports, Shadow health minister Alex Norris said: “Getting our population vaccinated is a massive priority and it is very sad to see these things so freely available.

“We would hope that retailers would act responsibly and have a look at whether they want to be associated with such products and whether they want to be seen to be profiting off such products.”

Many of the anti-vaccination books fail to inform readers that much of their content is strongly refuted by the medical and scientific community, meaning many readers may assume what they’re reading is factual. Norris has no wish to ban the books but believes a warning label would help readers make more informed decisions.

“This is anti-vax content,” he said, “Much of it has been very strongly rebuffed and debunked.

“I don’t think it would be a solution to burn the books or throw them all away because actually I think the mystique would grow in that. But instead, we’d really welcome a sense of proportionate health warnings as we’ve started to see emerge online.”

Books promoting the idea that the COVID-19 pandemic is a conspiracy have also become prevalent. One book, The Truth About COVID-19: Exposing The Great Reset, Lockdowns, Vaccine Passports, And The New Normal claims to show how coronavirus information has been “widely manipulated and misrepresented” and states “major safety questions have gone unanswered”.

A representative for the book’s author, who refused to identify themselves, denied the book pushed false information and accused Sky News of delivering “public relations messaging from the pharmaceutical industry”.

While many may oppose the message of these books, many are uncomfortable with the idea of them being outright banned. General secretary for the Free Speech Union, Toby Young, told Sky: “The problem with placing a limit on free speech and saying ‘we’re going to ban people who say or write things that are potentially harmful’ is that that word potentially is quite vague.

“If you grant yourself that right, you’re granting yourself the right to ban almost anything.”

He went on to say: “The second [issue] is, who defines what is harmful. We think that there is a scientific consensus around things like the COVID vaccines but actually science is constantly developing and evolving new information is coming to light.”

Sky reached out to several high-profile retailers for a response, including Waterstones and Foyles, who stated that the fact they sell a book does not mean they agree with its content.

Amazon stated that it encourages its customers to read official sources regarding the virus and says it will remove any products that violate its rules.

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