State health officials are battling misinformation efforts about COVID-19 vaccines.
Secretary of Health Kim Malsam-Rysdon says there are campaigns to mislead the public.
“We see a lot of that through social media. A lot of it is individually focused, ‘I heard this’ kind of thing. The other thing that we see pretty commonly is individuals assigning causal relationships to some kind of outcome to the vaccine.”
Malsam-Rysdon says the department is working with Native American tribes and federal entities to highlight the importance of getting vaccinated. That includes through social media, statewide public service announcements, mail and advertisements.
“If you get the vaccine, it primes your system to counteract the virus. If you become infected, it thus helps you build resistance towards it. 95 percent of doctors who have studied the vaccine have taken it. The quicker we put this pandemic behind us, the quicker we can get back to being our old selves and grow our community.”
Malsam-Rysdon says there are few risks to getting a vaccine shot. She points to the South Dakota Department of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and local health providers as trusted sources of information.