YouTube has removed over 30,000 videos during the past five months for containing misinformation about vaccines used to combat COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, the company said Friday.
Elena Hernandez, a YouTube spokesperson, said in a statement to The Washington Times that the videos “included claims about COVID-19 vaccinations that contradict local and global health authorities.”
“Overall, since February 2020, we have removed over 800,000 videos related to dangerous or misleading coronavirus information,” Ms. Hernandez added.
YouTube announced in October that it had updated its medical misinformation policy to prohibit content that includes false or misleading claims about coronavirus vaccines that could lead to harm.
Among the content prohibited under the medical misinformation policy are videos claiming that coronavirus vaccines are deadly, cause infertility or contain microchips, according to YouTube.
Public health officials stress that federally approved coronavirus vaccines being made available to Americans are safe, but a significant portion of the population appears unwilling to be inoculated.
Almost a quarter of 802 adults surveyed recently — 24%, specifically — said they likely will never be vaccinated against the coronavirus, the results of a new Monmouth University poll found this week.
The first FDA-approved coronavirus vaccine administered in the U.S. was given in December, nearly a year after the first cases of COVID-19 were reported in China before the disease rapidly spread.
President Biden said Thursday evening that all U.S. adults should be eligible to be vaccinated against COVID-19 starting May 1. About one in 10 Americans is currently fully vaccinated.
Axios first reported the YouTube removals Thursday.
• Andrew Blake can be reached at ablake@washingtontimes.com.
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