Public Health Communications During Emerging Infectious Disease Outbreaks
The need for rapid public health literacy became evident at the onset of COVID-19 and the gap in the general public’s knowledge and understanding of public health remains as society navigates vaccine hesitancy, medical treatments, effective infection prevention strategy, science literacy, political divisions, and public policy recommendations. Promoting evidence- and science-based communication is vital to infectious disease preparedness and recovery both as a way to generate a greater and more accessible understanding of basic science and as a way to combat mis and disinformation. Despite its vital role during outbreaks, amplifying evidence-based public health literacy is nonetheless insufficient in meeting the grave and detrimental consequences of state-sponsored mis and disinformation.
CEID’s research in this space aims to measure the public impact of mis- and dis- information (with a focus on vulnerable populations) as well as identification of best practices to share information with the general public as well as specific stakeholders during a fast moving infectious diseases crisis.
Our Current Work In This Space:
Social Media Analysis of Misinformation and Vaccine Hesitancy in Three Middle-Income Countries
Overview
Misinformation fuels vaccine hesitancy across the world, but the mechanism by which misinformation inhibits vaccine uptake is largely under-studied, specifically in middle-income countries. The slow rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine in middle-income countries presents fertile ground for misinformation to proliferate. Moreover, social media usage in middle-income countries is projected to grow whereas usage has plateaued in high-income countries. Political leaders as well as religious personalities play a critical role in health decision making and dissemination of health information. Anecdotal evidence suggests that when some religious personalities espouse views contrary to science, it can have significant consequences to the wellbeing of large segments of the population, but this has not been empirically demonstrated. These conditions present a unique opportunity to study the impact of social media misinformation from key influencers on vaccine hesitancy in middle-income countries.
This research project will develop a big data methodology to measure Twitter-based COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and related political- and religious-based COVID-19 vaccine misinformation for three middle-income countries: Brazil, Indonesia and Nigeria. The researchers will also identify shared misinformation themes across the three foci countries, and use mediation analysis to test the hypothesis that vaccine hesitancy mediates the relationship between misinformation and vaccine uptake and other behaviors related to COVID-19. This research builds on CEID’s core pillar of trust.
Faculty & Collaborators
- Traci Hong, MA, PhD, Associate Professor, Media Science
Boston University College of Communication, CEID Faculty
- Derry Wijaya, PhD, Assistant Professor, Computer Science, Boston University College of Arts and Sciences
- Veronika J. Wirtz , MSc, PhD, Professor, Department of Global Health, Boston University School of Public Health, CEID Faculty
Principles of Rapid Public Health Literacy During EID Outbreaks
Overview
Supported by a CEID pilot grant, this research seeks to identify best practices in public health literacy within the context of emerging infectious disease outbreaks. This research builds in part on the experience of BU COVID Epi Corps and is led by Dr. Jennifer Weuve and Dr. Ellie Murray.
Faculty & Collaborators
- Jennifer Weuve, MPH, ScD, Assistant Professor of Epidemiology, Boston University School of Public Health
- Ellie Murray, ScD, Assistant Professor of Epidemiology, Boston University School of Public Health