Update on wikihow Article, “How to get vaccinated without parental consent! Yea! wikiHow did that!”

BY SIMONE J. SMITH

Where do I begin?

The last twenty months have been a total whirlwind. I can’t believe that it has been almost two years that we have been dealing with this pandemic, and many of you don’t know this, but if it wasn’t for all of the continued support, we probably wouldn’t have followed through with publishing the articles that we have.

Putting out the type of information that we have has been scary, and there were times that I questioned my writing, and the idea of publishing it. As I dove deeper into researching the stories coming out of this pandemic, I wrote more, and I wasn’t sure if people were even paying attention, but a most recent email proved to me that we are having an impact.

In September 2020, I wrote an article titled, “How to get vaccinated without parental consent! Yea! wikiHow did that!” (https://torontocaribbean.com/how-to-get-vaccinated-without-parental-consent-yea-wikihow-did-that/). WikiHow had created a how-to article that helped children, step-by-step get a vaccine without their parent’s consent. They went through THREE METHODS, and I shared them with you.

As I initially scanned through the article, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. The very first photo was of a young black woman, contemplating. The second photo was of two black parents talking to each other. As I scrolled through the article, I was horrified by what I saw. I am not a parent yet, but I thought that it was important for parents to know what is going on. If you don’t read anything else in the paper parents, read this article.

This article had seventeen co-authors, which are undisclosed, and when I wrote this article it had 168,000 views. It was appalling to read some of the suggestions provided by the “experts,” that wikiHow has written for them.

On October 15^th, 2021 at 2:50 pm, I received an email from Jayne, who was writing on wikihow’s behalf. Below is the email that I received,

Hello, In September 2020, your site published this piece https://torontocaribbean.com/how-to-get-vaccinated-without-parental-consent-yea-wikihow-did-that/ that talks about the wikiHow article “How to Get Vaccinated Without Parental Consent”. 

WikiHow is a website that accepts articles from our diverse, global community of readers and writers, and the articles on wikiHow cover a wide range of perspectives. It is a how-to website, not an advocacy site, and the existence of any article on our site does not mean that perspective is necessarily endorsed by wikiHow. 

However, we always do our best to ensure that we take on board feedback, and in this case, we removed the referenced article and advice that was written by volunteer contributors. We heard people’s concerns, and that title and advice no longer exists on wikiHow. 

However, it seems that the Toronto Caribbean piece is still in circulation, as we have been receiving numerous emails recently from readers who believe this wikiHow article is still published, and they have been referencing screenshots from your article. I was wondering if you might consider taking the piece down, or revising it to update that we took on board the feedback and no longer have the article available.

 It is disheartening to see old, and now inaccurate, screenshots being passed around social media, and referenced as though that is currently available on our site.

Thank you for your time!

I WOULD LIKE TO CALL THIS A WIN! It is you the readers who saw my original article and called wikiHow out on their foolishness. Now, they are asking us to take down this article because they realize the error in their ways. Well, it is not coming down, but I did promise Jayne that I would write an update to that article, and here it is.

Thank you to those who read this article and asked for it to be removed. You give me the courage and the belief that together we can make a difference.

Thank you to those who continued to encourage me from week to week.

Thank you to those who pick up our paper each week.

Thank you to those who recommend it to their friends and continue to spread the word.

Thank you to everyone who has taken time out of their day to read it.

Thank you to everyone who has sent me honest and kind words – it means more than you know.

When a win happens, we have to take it graciously. This my friends is a WIN