Google will soon launch a new feature that will make it easier to obtain information about licensed Covid-19 vaccines. The search engine giant will allow users to find a ready-made list of all the vaccines approved by the regulatory bodies, the ones available at their location, and additional information about them.
Google will roll out the feature in the UK first, as the government there has already approved and started administering the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine earlier this month. As more countries begin to vaccinate, the feature will become available, according to a Financial express report.
In a historic step to tackle the Covid-19 pandemic, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the emergency use of Pfizer’s vaccine in the country. This may mean that the US will be the next country where the feature is available.
This is Google’s way of combating misinformation about Covid-19 and the vaccines being developed by different pharmaceutical companies. This feature will appear at the top of the Google.com web page.
This is not the only step the tech giant is taking to curb fake news around Covid-19. Its video streaming platform YouTube also claims to have only authoritative information about the virus and pandemic on its dashboard. This panel was viewed by users more than 400 billion times.
There were reports from YouTube allowing videos on its platforms displaying misinformation and conspiracy theories related to the virus. Google recently stated that it removed up to 700,000 videos from its platforms that had misleading public health information. The company has committed nearly $ 5 million to make a Covid-19 vaccination media center.