COVID-19 Vaccine Misinformation Can Change Behaviors

The widespread acceptance of a vaccine for SARS-CoV-2 will be the next major step in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic. Achieving high vaccine uptake will be a challenge, impeded by online scientific-sounding misinformation, stated researchers in a new study published by the journal Nature on February 5, 2021.

To inform successful vaccination campaigns, these researchers conducted a randomized controlled trial of 8,000 people in the UK and the USA to quantify how exposure to online misinformation around COVID-19 vaccines affects an intent to vaccinate.

This study found that in both countries—as of September 2020—fewer people would ‘definitely’ take a COVID-19 vaccine than is likely required to achieve herd immunity. In the USA, females are more likely than males to lower their intent to vaccinate to protect others upon exposure to misinformation.

Furthermore, relative to factual information, recent misinformation induced a decline in the intent of about 6.3% among those who stated that they would definitely accept a COVID-19 vaccine.