How organisations promoting vaccination respond to misinformation on social media: a qualitative investigation

Abstract Background Vaccination misinformation is associated with serious public health consequences, such as a decrease in vaccination rates and a risk of disease outbreaks. Although social media offers organisations promoting vaccination unparalleled opportunities to promote evidence and counterbalance misinformation, we know relatively little about their internal workings. The aim of this paper is to explore the strategies, perspectives and experiences of communicators working within such organisations as they promote vaccination and respond to misinformation on social media. Methods Using qualitative methods, we purposively sampled 21 participants responsible for routine social media activity and strategy from Australian organisations actively promoting vaccination on social media, including government health departments, local health services, advocacy groups, professional associations and technical/scientific organisations. We conducted semi-structured, in-depth interviews to explore their perspectives and practices. Applying Risk Communication principles as a lens, we used Framework Analysis to explore the data both inductively and deductively. Results Organisations promoting vaccination face multiple challenges on social media, including misinformation, anti-science sentiment, a complex vaccination narrative and anti-vaccine activists. They developed a range of sophisticated strategies in response, including communicating with openness in an evidence-informed way; creating safe spaces to encourage audience dialogue; fostering community partnerships; and countering misinformation with care. Conclusions We recommend that communicators consider directly countering misinformation because of the potential influence on their silent audience, i.e. those observing but not openly commenting, liking or sharing posts. Refutations should be straightforward, succinct and avoid emphasizing misinformation. Communicators should consider pairing scientific evidence with stories that speak to audience beliefs and values. Finally, organisations could enhance vaccine promotion and their own credibility on social media by forming strong links with organisations sharing similar values and goals.

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Examining local perspectives on the influence of climate change on the health of Hamer pastoralists and their livestock in Ethiopia

Pastoralism Research Policy and Practice ◽

10.1186/s13570-021-00191-8 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Samuel Lumborg ◽

Samuel Tefera ◽

Barry Munslow ◽

Siobhan M. Mor

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Water Scarcity ◽

Health Workers ◽

Animal Health ◽

Disease Outbreaks ◽

Vulnerable Groups ◽

Local Health ◽

Framework Analysis ◽

Healthcare Facilities ◽

Grazing Lands

AbstractThis study explores the perceived influence of climate change on the health of Hamer pastoralists and their livestock in south-western Ethiopia. A combination of focus group discussions and key informant interviews were conducted with Hamer communities as well as local health workers, animal health workers and non-governmental organisation (NGO) staff. Thematic framework analysis was used to analyse the data. Reductions in rangeland, erratic rainfall, recurrent droughts and loss of seasonality were perceived to be the biggest climate challenges influencing the health and livelihoods of the Hamer. Communities were travelling greater distances to access sufficient grazing lands, and this was leading to livestock deaths and increases in ethnic violence. Reductions in suitable rangeland were also precipitating disease outbreaks in animals due to increased mixing of different herds. Negative health impacts in the community stemmed indirectly from decreases in livestock production, uncertain crop harvests and increased water scarcity. The remoteness of grazing lands has resulted in decreased availability of animal milk, contributing to malnutrition in vulnerable groups, including children. Water scarcity in the region has led to utilisation of unsafe water sources resulting in diarrhoeal illnesses. Further, seasonal shifts in climate-sensitive diseases such as malaria were also acknowledged. Poorly resourced healthcare facilities with limited accessibility combined with an absence of health education has amplified the community’s vulnerability to health challenges. The resilience and ambition for livelihood diversification amongst the Hamer was evident. The introduction of camels, increase in permanent settlements and new commercial ideas were transforming their livelihood strategies. However, the Hamer lack a voice to express their perspectives, challenges and ambitions. There needs to be collaborative dynamic dialogue between pastoral communities and the policy-makers to drive sustainable development in the area without compromising the values, traditions and knowledge of the pastoralists.

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Real-time clinician text feeds from electronic health records

npj Digital Medicine ◽

10.1038/s41746-021-00406-7 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 4 (1) ◽

Author(s):

James T. H. Teo ◽

Vlad Dinu ◽

William Bernal ◽

Phil Davidson ◽

Vitaliy Oliynyk ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Social Media ◽

Electronic Health Records ◽

Real Time ◽

Capacity Planning ◽

Low Cost ◽

Disease Outbreaks ◽

Record System ◽

Health Records ◽

Keywords And Phrases ◽

Electronic Health

AbstractAnalyses of search engine and social media feeds have been attempted for infectious disease outbreaks, but have been found to be susceptible to artefactual distortions from health scares or keyword spamming in social media or the public internet. We describe an approach using real-time aggregation of keywords and phrases of freetext from real-time clinician-generated documentation in electronic health records to produce a customisable real-time viral pneumonia signal providing up to 4 days warning for secondary care capacity planning. This low-cost approach is open-source, is locally customisable, is not dependent on any specific electronic health record system and can provide an ensemble of signals if deployed at multiple organisational scales.

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Why has COVID-19 not hit the countries like Nepal yet?

Reviews on Environmental Health ◽

10.1515/reveh-2020-0085 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 0 (0) ◽

Author(s):

Krishna Prasad Pathak ◽

Tara Gaire ◽

Mu-Hsing Ho ◽

Hui chen (Rita) Chang

Keyword(s):

Health Services ◽

Social Distance ◽

Scientific Evidence ◽

Local Health ◽

First Case ◽

Populations At Risk ◽

Test Kit ◽

Health Services Need ◽

The Government ◽

Google Search

AbstractNoble CORONA Virus (COVID-19) is an infectious disease similar form of pneumonia/ SARS-CoV-2- impacting globally. The fear of coronavirus looks pandemic, but its severity is uncertain. Nepal was one of the first nine countries outside of China to report a COVID-19 case. Also, its unpredictability of mode or range of surface, the lifespan of the virus, objects of transmission (a distance of air/air currents, living duration in air, humidity, duration on objects, surface). The first case was found in Wuhan in December 2019 in China. The purpose is to summarize the current information about COVID-19 and to explore in terms of why Nepal is not hitting severely, while other countries are on death toll? We summarized the published articles form the web sources and news, Academic Journals, Ministry of health and population Nepal, WHO/CDC update reports/guidelines, Google search engine. Thematic analysis is made to explore the situation. Although, Nepal has a lack of health services, testing kits, advance lab and protecting equipment (PPE), why COVID-19 does not hit Nepal than China, Europe and North America, it still tremendous uncertainty. Is lockdown, isolation, social distance and quarantine the best ways of prevention? The hypothesis is floating globally – do BCG vaccinated countries are safer than non-user OR due to not having enough kits to screen populations at risk for the virus – while lack of testing a big cause for missing case OR Nepalese have better immune systems? It has attracted global attention. We believe that the COVID-19 is still evolving and it is too early to predict of an outbreak in Nepal. The government needs to increase funding for local health departments, begin planning for future epidemics and be prepared to bolster the economy by supporting consumer spending the midst of a serious outbreak. COVID-19 is a serious health challenge for Nepal, but so far the number of death has been lower than was foretell. It is, therefore essential to carry out more scientific evidence to explore results. Nepalese health services need to maintain up than today and follow lockdown, isolation, social distance and an advance screening test kit through the country.

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Distance-based outliers method for detecting disease outbreaks using social media

SoutheastCon 2016 ◽

10.1109/secon.2016.7506752 ◽

2016 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Xiangfeng Dai ◽

Marwan Bikdash

Keyword(s):

Social Media ◽

Disease Outbreaks

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Le Bon’s crowd psychology and post-truth

Theoria Beograd ◽

10.2298/theo2101149p ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 64 (1) ◽

pp. 149-160

Author(s):

Dusko Prelevic

Keyword(s):

Social Media ◽

Deliberative Democracy ◽

Public Discourse ◽

Negative Impact ◽

Scientific Evidence ◽

Technological Innovations ◽

Psychological Mechanisms ◽

Public Debates ◽

Crowd Psychology ◽

Philosophical Community

The phenomenon of post-truth, in which truth (or facts or the best scientific evidence) is brushed aside in public debates, has recently caught the eye of many philosophers, who typically see it as a threat to deliberative democracy. In this paper, it is argued that Gustave Le Bon?s remarks on crowd psychology, which had been very popular in past (and brushed aside later on), might be relevant for a better understanding of psychological mechanisms that lead to post-truth. According to Le Bon, crowds are often irrational, whereas those who try to convince them to do something should use specific techniques of persuasion, such as affirmation, repetition, contagion and prestige, of which the last one can be undermined either by fiasco (the fastest way), or by critique (a bit slower, but nonetheless effective way). It is the age of posttruth that goes towards the neutralization of any critique (Le Bon himself considered such neutralization devastating for democratic societies), which has been, according to some authors, affected to a great extent by technological innovations in media, such as social media that some authors consider anti-social due to their negative impact on society. I argue that Le Bon?s insights might be useful to members of scientific and philosophical community in their attempts to eliminate the spreading of quasi-scientific views in public discourse.

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Predicting Disease Outbreaks Using Social Media: Finding Trustworthy Users

Proceedings of the Future Technologies Conference (FTC) 2018 - Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing ◽

10.1007/978-3-030-02686-8_29 ◽

2018 ◽

pp. 369-384 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Razieh Nokhbeh Zaeem ◽

David Liau ◽

K. Suzanne Barber

Keyword(s):

Social Media ◽

Disease Outbreaks

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Antecedents of Vaccine Hesitancy in WEIRD and East Asian Contexts

Frontiers in Psychology ◽

10.3389/fpsyg.2021.747721 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 12 ◽

Author(s):

Daniel S. Courtney ◽

Ana-Maria Bliuc

Keyword(s):

Public Health ◽

Social Media ◽

Science Communication ◽

East Asian ◽

Vaccine Hesitancy ◽

Mmr Vaccine ◽

Specific Context ◽

Vaccination Rates ◽

Key Factor ◽

Effective Science

Following decreasing vaccination rates over the last two decades, understanding the roots of vaccine hesitancy has become a public health priority. Vaccine hesitancy is linked to scientifically unfounded fears around the MMR vaccine and autism which are often fuelled by misinformation spread on social media. To counteract the effects of misinformation about vaccines and in particular the falling vaccination rates, much research has focused on identifying the antecedents of vaccine hesitancy. As antecedents of vaccine hesitancy are contextually dependent, a one-size-fits-all approach is unlikely to be successful in non-WEIRD (Western, Educated, Industrialised, Rich, and Democratic) populations, and even in certain (non-typical) WEIRD sub-populations. Successful interventions to reduce vaccine hesitancy must be based on understanding of the specific context. To identify potential contextual differences in the antecedents of vaccine hesitancy, we review research from three non-WEIRD populations in East Asia, and three WEIRD sub-populations. We find that regardless of the context, mistrust seems to be the key factor leading to vaccine hesitancy. However, the object of mistrust varies across WEIRD and non-WEIRD populations, and across WEIRD subgroups suggesting that effective science communication must be mindful of these differences.

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Multi-Platform Social Media Use: Little Evidence of Impacts on Adult Well-Being

10.31234/osf.io/r46nd ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Sophie Lohmann ◽

Emilio Zagheni

Keyword(s):

Social Media ◽

Media Use ◽

Scientific Evidence ◽

General Social Survey ◽

Well Being ◽

Young Female ◽

Social Media Use ◽

Social Media Platforms ◽

Data Source ◽

Using Data

Social media have become a near-ubiquitous part of our lives. The growing concern that their use may alter our well-being has been met with elusive scientific evidence. Existing literature often simplifies social media use as a homogeneous process. In reality, social media use and functions vary widely depending on platform and demographic characteristics of users, and there may be qualitative differences between using few versus many different social media platforms. Using data from the General Social Survey, an underanalyzed data source for this purpose, we characterize intensive social media users and examine how differential platform use impacts well-being. We document substantial heterogeneity in the demography of users and show that intensive users tend to be young, female, more likely to be Black than Hispanic, from high SES backgrounds, from more religious backgrounds, and from families with migration background, compared to both non-users and moderate users. The intensity of social media use seemed largely unrelated to well-being in both unadjusted models and in propensity-score models that adjusted for selection bias and demographic factors. Among middle-aged and older adults, however, intensive social media use may be slightly associated with depressive symptoms. Our findings indicate that although mediums of communication have changed with the advent of social media, these new mediums are not necessarily detrimental to well-being.

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