Government Transparency and Conspiracy Theories are Inextricably Linked
Bo Brusco | September 19, 2021
Conspiracy theories have become more pervasive and more threatening in recent years. The US Government is at least partially to blame due to pervasive ambiguity in its messaging.
The pandemic not only brought a deadly virus to the American people, but it has also brought with it a significant onset of confusion and distrust. The American Government and its medical institutions attempt to dispel such confusion by dismissing contrary ideas as conspiracy theories. But, as is blatant in the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) approval of a COVID-19 vaccine, the muddy communication from top officials may be a primary contributing factor to the spread of misinformation.
Misinformation in America
The US Government is painfully aware of how harmful conspiracy theories can be. In the aftermath of the January 6 siege on the nation’s Capitol building, for example, the FBI quickly found that many insurrectionists adhered to a Qanon conspiracy theory, as Reuters reported in the months following the attack.
Photo by little plant on Unsplash
Additionally, the country’s governing body is also wary of misinformation and conspiracy theories surrounding COVID-19 vaccines. In July, Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy with the Department of Health addressed such conspiracies and misinformation. “Health misinformation, including disinformation, have threatened the U.S. response to COVID-19 and continue to prevent Americans from getting vaccinated, prolonging the pandemic and putting lives at risk,” he said. But something US leaders may not be aware of is how their cloudy messages are helping to propagate such myths and conspiracies.
Misinformation surrounding vaccines and other COVID-19 related topics have circulated online since the first vaccine received Emergency Use Authorization from the FDA back in December 2020.
To grossly overgeneralize the issue, there are two sides. One is composed of government officials and medical experts telling the other side—the general population—to stop listening to noncommercial news sources regarding vaccines and adhere strictly to their official statements. The media has assisted the government’s side by labeling those alternative sources of information as “fringe” and calling the authors of such content “conspiracy theorists.”
The logic follows that if one side is “fringe” or otherwise nonfactual, then their counterpart must clearly be the voice of reason and the purveyor of facts. But that is not the case. Without disregarding the decades of study and research behind entities like the Center for Disease Control (CDC) and the FDA, or even pharmaceutical companies like Pfizer, the reality is that the side whose job it is to have the facts are not delivering said facts clearly. This lack of transparent communication provides fertile soil for growing conspiracy theories.
Essentially, the inability of governmental and medical entities to communicate facts clearly and directly is a major contributing factor to the continual growth of online misinformation. The logic follows that the less clear a message is the more opportunity its receivers have to misinterpret and misconstrue it.
FDA and Government’s Mixed Messaging of a Vaccine’s Approval
A very recent example of this confusing messaging comes from the FDA’s recent approval of a COVID-19 vaccine. On August 23, the FDA announced that it granted approval for a COVID-19 vaccine. The prevailing message has been that said approval was issued for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, as a New York Times’ headline reads, “F.D.A. Fully Approves Pfizer-BioNTech’s Vaccine, a First for a Covid-19 Shot.”
While the New York Times and other news outlets have reported as though the Pfizer vaccine has been FDA approved, the vaccine that is officially approved is called “COMIRNATY (COVID-19 vaccine, mRNA).”
This information is publicly available. The approval announcement on the FDA’s website reads, “On August 23, 2021, the FDA approved the first COVID-19 vaccine. The vaccine has been known as the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine, and will now be marketed as Comirnaty, for the prevention of COVID-19 disease in individuals 16 years of age and older.”
Despite this apparent marketing change of the vaccine’s name, the Comirnaty and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines appear to be two distinctly different vaccines. What’s more, not only are the vaccines different, but the FDA approved vaccine, Comirnaty, is not currently available for administration in the US.
Two Different Vaccines
Concerning this new marketing change, on August 23, the FDA stated in a letter to Pfizer that “the licensed vaccine (Comirnaty) has the same formulation as the EUA-authorized vaccine (Pfizer-BioNTech) and the products can be used interchangeably to provide the vaccination series without presenting any safety or effectiveness concerns.”
Photo by Spencer Davis on Unsplash
While the document claims that the two vaccines share the same formulation, the letter states in its footnotes that “the products are legally distinct with certain differences that do not impact safety or effectiveness” (emphasis added).
It is also clear that while the FDA states that the two formulations can be used interchangeably, the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine remains under the Emergency Use Authorization while the COMIRNATY (COVID-19 Vaccine, mRNA) is FDA approved.
This fact is reiterated throughout the FDA’s documentation. In their fact sheet for recipients and caregivers, for example, it reads, “The FDA-approved COMIRNATY (COVID-19 Vaccine, mRNA) and the FDA-authorized Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine under Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) have the same formulation and can be used interchangeably to provide the COVID-19 vaccination series.”
This is further emphasized with the statements “COMIRNATY (COVID-19 Vaccine, mRNA) is an FDA-approved COVID-19 vaccine made by Pfizer for BioNTech” and “Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine has received EUA from FDA” in Pfizer’s latest press release announcing collaboration with Brazil’s Eurofarma to manufacture COVID-19 vaccine doses.
This press release by Pfizer went on to state that, “This emergency use of the product has not been approved or licensed by FDA, but has been authorized by FDA under an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) to prevent Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19).”
This fact is also indicated in the product’s labeling. In FDA’s previously mentioned letter to Pfizer, it states that “The Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine vial label and carton labels are clearly marked for ‘Emergency Use Authorization.’”
Is the FDA-Approved COVID-19 Vaccine Available in the US?
Perhaps the most consequential difference between these vaccines is their current availability. “Although COMIRNATY (COVID-19 Vaccine, mRNA) is approved to prevent COVID-19 in individuals 16 years of age and older, there is not sufficient approved vaccine available for distribution to this population in its entirety at the time of reissuance of this EUA,” reads one of the footnotes on page 5 in the FDA’s letter.
Lack of Clear Facts Sews Confusion
The linguistic ambiguity afoot here is pervasive. As the Comirnaty and Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccines are both made by BioNTech and Pfizer, conflating the EUA vaccine with the approved one is concerningly easy. According to Pfizer’s website, the Comirnaty vaccine is “made by Pfizer for BioNTech.” Both could be referred to as the Pfizer vaccine or even BioNTech’s vaccine.
Going back to the FDA’s official statement of approval, the language is careful to state that a COVID-19 vaccine has been FDA approved without directly connecting that approval status with the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
President Biden used this same diction maneuver when he announced a Federal vaccine mandate on September 9. “Of the nearly 80 million eligible Americans who have not gotten vaccinated, many said they were waiting for approval from the Food and Drug Administration,” he said. “Well, last month, the FDA granted that approval.” A noticeable omission from the President’s statement is the name of the approved vaccine.
Image of President Biden during his September 9, 2021 address wherein he enacted a Federal vaccine mandate, from ABC News’ YouTube channel.
With no clear answer, the American people are left to wonder and theorize. News reporters have to ask themselves, “if I report that the Pfizer vaccine has been FDA approved, will I be publishing fake news?” Thus conspiracies sprout up like weeds and confusion ensues.
Clear Language is Key for Good Governance
The increasing polarization among political tribes is coinciding with a rapid decline of trust in government entities. While arguments surrounding collective safety and individual freedom are essential, their ability to be constructive is predicated on clear answers and transparent communication.
If the US government is interested in resolving extreme political tribalism, they must present information clearly and provide more transparency. How can the political left and right ever hope to agree on the facts if the facts remain opaque?
If President Biden wants to promote trust in his leadership and in the official medical community of the country, he must give careful attention to how he communicates with the American people. And as trust in fact-checking entities begins to wane, the need for change is urgent.
Finally, transparency and clear communication are key antidotes to stopping confusion, conspiracies, and misinformation. Someone who had an extraordinary intuition for language was the famous author George Orwell. Orwell warned against the dishonest use of language in politics in his essay, “Politics and the English Language.”
For Orwell, the erosion of language leads to the erosion of reason. “The slovenliness of our language makes it easier for us to have foolish thoughts,” he said. And what are conspiracies if not poorly reasoned, even foolish hypotheses?
When it came to political buzzwords, Orwell observed that they are often used in a “consciously dishonest way” (emphasis added). One has to wonder, then, are top US officials using “FDA approval” in a consciously dishonest way?
