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United States President Joe Biden has criticized social media platforms like Facebook for spreading misinformation about the coronavirus and vaccines, as his administration has blamed them for stalling US vaccine rates.
According to a report by ANI, Biden was asked by reporters at the White House on Friday afternoon what his message is to social media platforms on coronavirus misinformation.
“They’re killing people,” Biden said when asked by reporters what his message was to social media platforms like Facebook on the spread of false and misleading claims about the virus and the safety of vaccines that prevent it.
“I mean they really, look, the only pandemic we have is among the unvaccinated, and that’s -they’re killing people,” Biden said on the south lawn of the White House.
Biden’s comments on Friday afternoon echoed those of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky, who warned earlier in the day that COVID-19 is “becoming a pandemic of the unvaccinated.”
“We are seeing outbreaks of cases in parts of the country that have a low vaccination coverage, because unvaccinated people are at risk,” Walensky told reporters during a public health briefing.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki during her daily press briefing said that Facebook was not doing enough to stop the spread of false information on the coronavirus.
Psaki added that the White House made a number of recommendations to Facebook and other platforms to address the spread of misinformation, including removing 12 people who she said were responsible for almost 65 percent of anti-vaccine misinformation on social media platforms.
