Dear Editor – Please do not print misleading articles such as the one about a mobile phone stuck to a girl’s arm after she had a Covid vaccination.
This story has been printed in multiple right wing media outlets in the US, and proven to be false many times:
Stories such as this are the reason for the terribly low vaccination rate in Solomon Islands.
In Fiji, people do not believe superstitions such as this. The vaccination rate is 95% (single jab), covid has been beaten and the country is opening up for tourism.
In PNG, where superstitions run rife, the vaccination rate is 1.7%, and thousands of people are dying.
There is a simple solution. Have your journalist go to visit the girl before you print the story. Have him put a range of metallic objects up to the girl’s arm, and see if there is a magnetic force. If not, don’t run the story.
When Covid enters Solomon Islands, and hundreds or thousands of Solomon Islanders die, it will be your newspaper, and your journalists, who will bear the responsibility.
I hope that when they face their Maker, they are able to explain to Him why you have sentenced innocent people to a horrific and needless death.
Michael McGrath
