We are also grateful to the fact-check agencies and other organizations for making available of the COVID vaccine misinformation and conspiracy theories related data online. Browse Subject Areas? Click through the PLOS taxonomy to find articles in your field. Abstract Introduction Rumors and conspiracy theories, can contribute to vaccine hesitancy.
Method In June , a multi-disciplinary team was formed to review and collect online rumors and conspiracy theories between 31 December —30 November Conclusions Rumors and conspiracy theories may lead to mistrust contributing to vaccine hesitancy. Funding: This work did not receive any funding from a donor.
Introduction Rumors and conspiracy theories, have been identified as precipitators for vaccine hesitancy [ 1 ]. Materials and methods Study design This was a mixed-method study where we utilized both quantitative and qualitative approaches.
Data collection A wide range of sources including Google, Google Fact Check, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, websites of fact-check agencies, websites of television and newspaper were reviewed. Data extraction and consistency Once the vaccine-related items were identified, the team made a list of weblinks.
Data analysis We descriptively analyzed the quantitative data using the open-source statistical package R version 4. Download: PPT. Table 1. Operational definitions of study sub-themes, 31 December —30 November Ethics Only publicly available information was collected. Results The surveillance identified rumors and conspiracy theories related to COVID vaccine in 24 languages from 52 countries Fig 1. Fig 1. Fig 2. Fig 3. Rumors and conspiracy theories related to COVID vaccine circulating on different social media platforms, 31 December —30 November Fig 4.
Rumors Of the items classified as rumors, we further classified them according to sub-themes Table 2. Table 2. Discussion This study identified numerous rumors and conspiracy theories that have the potential to negatively impact the confidence of populations towards the COVID vaccine.
Supporting information. S1 Data. References 1. Psychological Medicine. Can we capitalize on the virtues of vaccines? Insights from the polio eradication initiative. Am J Public Health. Jegede AS. What led to the Nigerian boycott of the polio vaccination campaign? PLoS Med. Eradicating polio in Pakistan: an analysis of the challenges and solutions to this security and health issue.
Global Health. World Health Organization. Immunizing the public against misinformation. Geneva: World Health Organization, 25 August. Report No. Misinformation on vaccination: A quantitative analysis of YouTube videos. Science audiences, misinformation, and fake news. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. A disease in the age of the web: How to help people with Multiple Sclerosis in social media interaction.
Mult Scler Relat Disord. Am J Trop Med Hyg. Fake news, influencers and health-related professional participation on the Web: A pilot study on a social-network of people with Multiple Sclerosis. The spread of medical fake news in social media—The pilot quantitative study.
Health Policy and Technology. View Article Google Scholar How trust in experts and media use affect acceptance of common anti-vaccination claims.
Epub January Durant W. How do we respond to the challenge of vaccine misinformation? Perspectives in public health. Health and social media: perfect storm of information. Healthc Inform Res. Roberts M. Coronavirus pandemic.
Measuring vaccine confidence: analysis of data obtained by a media surveillance system used to analyse public concerns about vaccines. The Lancet Infectious diseases. Nature Human Behaviour. PloS one. Wardle C, Singerman E. BMJ Clinical research ed. Understanding Conspiracy Theories. Political Psychology. Journal of Clinical and Translational Science. Wolff GG. Influenza vaccination and respiratory virus interference among Department of Defense personnel during the — influenza season.
Psychological science in the public interest: a journal of the American Psychological Society. Burki T. Vaccine misinformation and social media. The Lancet Digital Health. Lewis JR. Thigpen CL, Funk C. Wilson SL, Wiysonge C. Social media and vaccine hesitancy. BMJ Global Health. USA: First Draft, Group C. Kennedy J. Some conspiracy theorists have even speculated it was engineered as a bioweapon, although U. Zhengli also explained in detail why her lab could not have been the source of the virus in a lengthy response in Science.
In reaction to calls for an independent, international investigation into how the virus originated, China has invited researchers from the World Health Organization to discuss the scope of such a mission.
Myth 2: Wealthy elites intentionally spread the virus to win power and profit. In a video from a conspiracy theory film entitled Plandemic and a book she co-authored, a woman named Judy Mikovits, who once published a high-profile, now retracted study on chronic fatigue syndrome, makes unsubstantiated claims about National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director Anthony Fauci and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, suggesting they have used their power to profit from disease.
The video was widely shared by anti-vaxxers and the conspiracy theory group QAnon. It garnered more than eight million views on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram before it was taken down because of its false statements. Yet the large number of people who watched it suggests misinformation spreads perniciously. Starting in the early days of the pandemic, Trump repeatedly claimed that the disease is not more dangerous than seasonal influenza.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that the latter causes roughly 12, to 61, deaths per year in the U. Many people also have partial immunity to the flu because of vaccination or prior infection, whereas most of the world has not yet encountered COVID Although early guidance on masks from the CDC and the WHO was confusing and inconsistent, there is now a strong consensus among public health authorities—supported by numerous studies —that wearing a face covering can limit the transmission of the coronavirus through small exhaled droplets.
We now know that cloth face masks can be an effective alternative. But despite the evidence, many people still refuse to wear one, considering it a violation of civil liberties or emasculating. But as coronavirus cases have spiked around the U. Myth 5 : Hydroxychloroquine is an effective treatment. When a small, now widely criticized study in France suggested the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine might be effective at treating the disease, Trump and others seized on it and have continued to tout the medication despite growing evidence that it does not benefit COVID patients.
The Food and Drug Administration initially issued an emergency use authorization for the drug, but the agency later warned against its use because of the risk of heart problems and ultimately revoked its authorization. Several studies have shown that hydroxychloroquine does not protect against COVID in those who are exposed. And in June the National Institutes of Health halted its clinical trial of the medication, stating that while it was not harmful to patients, it did not provide any benefit.
Yet Trump continues to hype the drug. Just a few weeks ago, he retweeted a video— viewed tens of millions of times before social media companies took it down—featuring Stella Immanuel, a Houston, Tex. Myth 6 : The Black Lives Matter protests led to increased transmission. When thousands of people started taking to the streets in late May and June to protest the police killing of George Floyd and violence against Black Americans, some people questioned whether the mass gatherings would cause a spike in coronavirus cases.
Another conspiracy theory makes the ludicrous assertion that Gates has a secret plan to use vaccines to implant trackable microchips in people. Most Americans still support vaccination , but the few voices of opposition have been growing.
A recent study observed that although clusters of anti-vaxxers on Facebook are smaller than pro-vaccination groups, they are more heavily interconnected with clusters of undecided people. One Gallup poll found that one in three Americans would not get a COVID vaccine if it were available today and that Republicans were less likely to be vaccinated than Democrats.
Before a vaccine is approved in the U. The top COVID vaccine candidates are currently being tested in large-scale trials in tens of thousands of people. Why People Believe It: There is good reason to be cautious about the safety of any new vaccine or treatment, and the politicization of the fda under the Trump administration has raised legitimate concerns that any vaccine approval will be rushed.
Nevertheless, previous safety trials of the top vaccine candidates did not find major adverse effects; larger trials for safety and efficacy are now underway. Already a subscriber? Sign in. Thanks for reading Scientific American. Create your free account or Sign in to continue. See Subscription Options. Read more from this special report: Confronting Misinformation. Support science journalism.
Knowledge awaits. See Subscription Options Already a subscriber? Create Account See Subscription Options. Continue reading with a Scientific American subscription.
0コメント