October 26, 2020
Social Media and Vaccine Hesitancy
Category: Article Summary
Topic: Vaccines and Immunity
Keywords (Tags): vaccines
Communities with a greater use of social media to organize offline political actions had more public concerns about vaccine safety in a cross-national analysis of social media and vaccine hesitancy. Additionally, foreign disinformation campaigns were found to be significantly associated with declining vaccination rates. The study found that a one-point shift upward in the five-point disinformation scale was associated with a 2% drop in mean vaccination coverage and a 15% increase in tweets containing negative content about vaccines. The study findings were not specific to SARS-CoV-2 vaccines, though the authors emphasize the importance of combating disinformation during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Wilson and Wiysonge. (Oct 2020). Social Media and Vaccine Hesitancy. BMJ Global Health.