What is the deal with anti-vax myths, and why won’t they die? Vaccine hesitancy is a severe and life-threatening issue identified by the World Health Organization as one of the top ten global health threats of 2019. Unvaccinated people are vulnerable to disease and place others at risk. The fewer people who get vaccinated, the higher the probability of more people contracting entirely preventable diseases. High vaccination rates are vital to maintaining community immunity, vaccine misinformation dramatically undermines vaccination rates.
Searching for answers as to why the anti-vax movement is such a difficult to uproot scourge, a group of researchers at the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg Public Policy Center tracked 2,500 adults during a measles outbreak in the United States. The nationally representative surveys of these people found that as many as 20% of respondents were at least somewhat misinformed about vaccines and that people who rely on social media for information were more inclined to be misinformed about vaccines than those who are dependent on traditional media. The research has been published in the inaugural issue of Harvard Kennedy School Misinformation Review.
The study of vaccine misinformation was conducted in the spring and fall of 2019, which is when the United States suffered its largest measles outbreak in 25 years. From one survey period to the next, 19% of the respondents’ levels of vaccine misinformation changed substantively. The other 81% believed the same thing in the fall as they had in the spring.
Amongst that 19%, nearly 64% were more misinformed in the fall than they were in the spring, while 36% were more informed. The people who reported sourcing their information about measles and the MMR vaccine on social media were the ones that grew more misinformed about vaccines.
Here’s what the 1 in 5 believes:
- 15% believe vaccines are full of toxins
- 18% believe vaccines cause autism
- 20% think vaccines can be delayed (vs. sticking to the official vaccine schedule from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) without risks
- 19% think it’s better to develop “natural immunity” by getting the disease itself
A person’s trust in medical experts also affected the prospect of their vaccination beliefs changing. If the level of trust is low they’ll be more inclined to believe vaccine misinformation.
These findings highlight the importance of social media companies increasing their efforts to tweak their algorithms to block vaccine misinformation and only allow links with scientifically accurate information. They are clearly not doing enough to keep false news from infesting their sites. The researchers conclude the study by suggesting national pro-vaccination campaigns in media of all types and insists that health professionals patiently address misinformation with patients.
