Conspiracy theorists spreading misinformation about Covid vaccines have been slammed as "unbelievable."
The comments were made by Northumberland county councillor Richard Dodd at a meeting of the authority's health and wellbeing overview and scrutiny committee on Tuesday.
Coun Dodd was quizzing Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust's executive medical director, Alistair Blair, on future plans for vaccination in the UK, and was concerned about the impact conspiracy theories could have on vaccine uptake.
He said: "Can I ask what the percentage of take-up is? We all know that there's a cabal who think lots of things that they've gleaned off the internet, that they're all going to be poisoned.
"When you talk to one or two of them it's unbelievable. Even the planes above are dropping particles that are going to take over your body.
"What percentage is there that won't be vaccinated or are in the cabal that are very anti-vax?"
Dr Blair explained that the region had very high vaccine uptake and that future doses of the jab would be targeted at those people more at risk, who also had higher take-up than other groups.
He added: "I think we will see a higher uptake then if it was open to the general population. We're just about to launch the spring boosters.
"My reading of the situation is that after this spring, Covid boosters will be an annual thing with flu jabs. Current strains of Covid along with the vaccines mean we aren't seeing anything like the previous mortality rates."
Independent fact checker Full Fact states that Covid vaccine misinformation is "dangerous and threatens to prolong the pandemic."
According to a vaccine surveillance report from the UK Health Security Agency published last April, booster vaccine effectiveness against hospitalisation for people aged 18 to 64 peaks at 82%. In addition, boosters' effectiveness against death from the dominant Omicron variant has been estimated at 95% two or more weeks after the booster.
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