The hesitation on childhood vaccination: A narrative review on the information published on social media regarding vaccination in modern times (original) (raw)
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Social Media and Health Communication: Vaccine Refusal/Hesitancy
Handbook of Research on Representing Health and Medicine in Modern Media
The content presented in the media, especially with the element of fear, appears to be the most important factor in the formation and spreading of phobias related to diseases. Especially when it comes to epidemics, the influence of the media increases remarkably. Individuals now use digital media as the initial reference source, especially on issues related to their health, and tend to see social media as a reference platform. However, uncontrolled information, conspiracy theories, and information pollution spread through social media make the subject difficult to understand; online shared manipulative news, excessive and unfounded information cause fear and panic. These posts about vaccines affect the perception and attitude towards vaccines. In this study, the comments and social media posts will be analysed using content analysis and discourse analysis methods in order to reveal the effect of social media in vaccine rejection and hesitation.
Vaccines
Twitter is a useful source for detecting anti-vaccine content due to the increasing prevalence of these arguments on social media. We aimed to identify the prominent themes about vaccine hesitancy and refusal on social media posts in Turkish during the COVID-19 pandemic. In this qualitative study, we collected public tweets (n = 551,245) that contained a vaccine-related keyword and had been published between 9 December 2020 and 8 January 2021 through the Twitter API. A random sample of tweets (n = 1041) was selected and analyzed by four researchers with the content analysis method. We found that 90.5% of the tweets were about vaccines, 22.6% (n = 213) of the tweets mentioned at least one COVID-19 vaccine by name, and the most frequently mentioned COVID-19 vaccine was CoronaVac (51.2%). We found that 22.0% (n = 207) of the tweets included at least one anti-vaccination theme. Poor scientific processes (21.7%), conspiracy theories (16.4%), and suspicions towards manufacturers (15.5%) w...
Online misinformation and vaccine hesitancy
Translational Behavioral Medicine, 2021
Lay Summary Vaccine hesitancy, the rejection or delay to get vaccinated even if there is an effective vaccine available, may be instrumental in the resurgence of vaccine-preventable disease. Studies have shown that the rise in nonmedical exemptions for vaccination increases rates of childhood vaccine-preventable disease. One factor that influences vaccine hesitancy is online misinformation. False or misleading information online regarding vaccines can be found in independent news outlets, websites, and social media. The spread of vaccine misinformation is especially important during the COVID-19 pandemic as false information can decrease pro-vaccine opinions. The recent announcement of an effective COVID-19 vaccine became a hot topic online, with many adults hesitant to take the vaccine. Public health experts, medical professionals, and pro-vaccine individuals can help curb the spread of misinformation by correcting false statements online. Social media companies can also aid in sto...
Factors Related to Vaccine Hesitancy in Anti-vaccine Group on Facebook
Jurnal Ners
Introduction: The current controversial issue regarding the anti-vaccine movement is the biggest challenge in implementing immunization in Indonesia because it influences the stagnation in the coverage of complete basic immunization. The World Health Organization (WHO) also states that the anti-vaccine group is one of the ten major threats to global health in 2019 since this phenomenon can cause rare diseases to become epidemic. This study aims at factors related to vaccine hesitancy in the anti-vaccine group on Facebook.Methods: This study used a descriptive correlational method with a quantitative approach. The sample in this study was 150 mothers who were members of the anti-vaccine group on Facebook social media, selected using a purposive sampling technique.Results: Demographic characteristics include religion, ethnicity, education, and income. Perceived susceptibility and perceived severity were assessed using Hwang’s Health Belief Model questionnaire, while vaccine hesitancy ...
Infodemic on Social Media and COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy
Journal of Medical Globalization, 2022
This study aims to understand the current COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy context and measures to overcome it. Assessing the challenge faced by campaigns against the vaccination on social media is vital, considering the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, though there has been substantial advancement in vaccines over the last century, the re-emergence of vaccine-preventable infections has prompted the World Health Organization to recognize vaccine hesitancy as a significant challenge to public health. The strategies among the general public for the hesitancy to use any vaccines for the initial period might well be fueled by health information gathered from a range of outlets, especially social media. This is a significant public health issue and may compromise people into not using the vaccines. Therefore, there is a strong need for social media to control that false plethora of information and promote the message from internationally recognized and trusted organizations and the government bodies of respective countries. This study explores infodemic in social media and its impact on utilizing the COVID-19 vaccine. This review results can benefit further public health interventions related to vaccine utilization.
Misinformation on the Internet?: A Study of Vaccine Safety Beliefs
2015
Author(s): Doty, Colin | Advisor(s): Lievrouw, Leah A | Abstract: Concerns about misinformation on the Internet usually focus on the amount of misinformation available, the ease of retrieving it, the speed with which it spreads, or the lack of editorial oversight. Yet none of these would be cause for concern if no one was misinformed. Indeed, what constitutes misinformation is often determined by who believes it. Hence the most important consideration may be a focus on why people believe. To explore this, this study reports results from a qualitative content analysis of online information about vaccine safety—with a particular focus on user comments—supplemented by exploratory interviews. The study examines how people on all sides of the debate use evidence to support their beliefs about vaccine safety. It also reflects upon the relationship between the Internet and those beliefs. The most common beliefs about vaccine safety are beliefs about toxicity, beliefs about the cumulative e...
A comparison between online social media discussions and vaccination rates: A tale of four vaccines
DIGITAL HEALTH, 2023
The recent COVID-19 pandemic has brought the debate around vaccinations to the forefront of public discussion. In this discussion, various social media platforms have a key role. While this has long been recognized, the way by which the public assigns attention to such topics remains largely unknown. Furthermore, the question of whether there is a discrepancy between people's opinions as expressed online and their actual decision to vaccinate remains open. To shed light on this issue, in this paper we examine the dynamics of online debates among four prominent vaccines (i.e., COVID-19, Influenza, MMR, and HPV) through the lens of public attention as captured on Twitter in the United States from 2015 to 2021. We then compare this to actual vaccination rates from governmental reports, which we argue serve as a proxy for real-world vaccination behaviors. Our results demonstrate that since the outbreak of COVID-19, it has come to dominate the vaccination discussion, which has led to a redistribution of attention from the other three vaccination themes. The results also show an apparent discrepancy between the online debates and the actual vaccination rates. These findings are in line with existing theories, that of agenda-setting and zero-sum theory. Furthermore, our approach could be extended to assess the public's attention toward other health-related issues, and provide a basis for quantifying the effectiveness of health promotion policies.
Vaccines and the social amplification of risk
Risk Analysis
In 2019, the World Health Organization (WHO) named "Vaccine Hesitancy" one of the top 10 threats to global health. Shortly afterward, the COVID-19 pandemic emerged as the world's predominant health concern. COVID-19 vaccines of several types have been developed, tested, and partially deployed with remarkable speed; vaccines are now the primary control measure and hope for a return to normalcy. However, hesitancy concerning these vaccines, along with resistance to masking and other control measures, remains a substantial obstacle. The previous waves of vaccine hesitancy that led to the WHO threat designation, together with recent COVID-19 experience, provide a window for viewing new forms of social amplification of risk (SAR). Not surprisingly, vaccines provide fertile ground for questions, anxieties, concerns, and rumors. These appear in new globalized hyperconnected communications landscapes and in the context of complex human (social, economic, and political) systems that exhibit evolving concerns about vaccines and authorities. We look at drivers, impacts, and implications for vaccine initiatives in several recent historical examples and in the current efforts with COVID-19 vaccination. Findings and insights were drawn from the Vaccine Confidence Project's decade long monitoring of media and social media and its related research efforts. The trends in vaccine confidence and resistance have implications for updating the social amplification of risk framework (SARF); in turn, SARF has practical implications for guiding efforts to alleviate vaccine hesitancy and to mitigate harms from intentional and unintentional vaccine scares.