{"id":28209,"date":"2021-01-29T17:22:24","date_gmt":"2021-01-29T21:22:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/?post_type=bu-article&p=28209"},"modified":"2021-08-23T13:13:05","modified_gmt":"2021-08-23T17:13:05","slug":"how-to-fight-vaccine-misinformation","status":"publish","type":"bu-article","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/articles\/how-to-fight-vaccine-misinformation\/","title":{"rendered":"How To Fight Vaccine Misinformation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Just after Christmas, a Wisconsin pharmacist attempted to destroy 570 doses of a COVID-19 vaccine<\/a>, yanking precious vials from a storage refrigerator. According to multiple reports, he\u2019d become convinced it could alter human DNA<\/a>. It can\u2019t. Nor, as other false rumors have claimed, will it allow the government to track you or fill your body with fetal tissue<\/a>\u2014but that hasn\u2019t stopped vaccine misinformation from spreading online, spooking people concerned about potential side effects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Misinformation is more impactful than the correction\u201d says Michelle A. Amazeen<\/a>, an associate professor of mass communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the past year, Amazeen and Arunima Krishna<\/a>, an assistant professor of public relations, have explored the spread of vaccine misinformation and the efficacy of different efforts to halt it. Although their study started before COVID-19 tore across the United States\u2014and their research has focused on vaccines in general\u2014Amazeen says the coronavirus pandemic has \u201cmagnified how important the work is that we\u2019re doing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Misinformation is more impactful than the correction.<\/p>Michelle A. Amazeen<\/em><\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

As part of their research, they created a fictitious Facebook post telling the emotional story of a boy who supposedly developed autism after receiving the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine. Amazeen and Krishna showed the post to around 1,000 participants, then tested three approaches to countering its false message: the story of an uneventful vaccine success (a kid got the vaccine, but nothing bad happened), a conversion event narrative (a reformed anti-vaxxer lauding the positive impact of a vaccine) and a factual chart listing the true numbers of adverse events. All were displayed as comments to the original post.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although they\u2019re still preparing the results for publication, Amazeen and Krishna found straight facts did little to shift opinions and that the personal stories were more effective. The researchers also tested what would happen if they changed the source of the rebuttal posts, swapping in a friend, a doctor, the government and a vaccine awareness group\u2014and sometimes giving no source.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe found that in roughly half the cases, a lot of people didn\u2019t notice the source, even if we told them to,\u201d says Amazeen, whose research focuses on persuasion and misinformation. That\u2019s important, she says, because of the way social media works, encouraging us to scroll through post after post. \u201cMisinformation is out there, it\u2019s amplified and social media platforms have been slow to respond,\u201d she says. \u201cAnd repetition breeds familiarity. You see this here, you see this there, and all of a sudden, \u2018Yeah, I\u2019ve seen that somewhere before, so it must be true.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although Amazeen says we should all pay more attention to where information comes from\u2014whether about vaccines or election results\u2014social media companies need to start taking a harder line on fast-spreading untruths, even if it hurts their bottom line.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For those who did notice the source, it mattered: they were more likely to trust a friend or known healthcare professional than a vaccine awareness group or the government. When it comes to the COVID-19 vaccine, says Krishna, it means local doctors are better placed than the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to correct misinformation and stop its spread.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAmong people who are vaccine hesitant, trust for their healthcare professionals, their doctors and nurses, is much, much higher than for the government, the pharmaceutical companies,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Amazeen says a recent coronavirus public health campaign that effectively pushed out valid information\u2014and cracked down on falsehoods\u2014was one developed by COM students, F*ck It Won\u2019t Cut It<\/a>. The effort, which included student-created posters and social media messages about masking, distancing and more, was recognized by the American Marketing Association and the CDC<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve done so much right, they\u2019ve been effective. They\u2019re using students to communicate with students,\u201d says Amazeen. \u201cYou don\u2019t have the administration telling students, \u2018Here\u2019s what you need to do,\u2019 you have peers.\u201d She touted the campaign\u2019s success in The COVID-19 Vaccine Communication Handbook<\/a>, a practical guide to countering misinformation she coauthored with scientists and experts from around the world. The handbook has advice for community leaders, healthcare professionals, policymakers, communications experts, and the general public to help them stay ahead of misinformation\u2014and fight back when they see it spreading.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the social media misinformation study wrapping up, Amazeen and Krishna are expanding their research to examine the role of race in vaccine communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe history of medical research is fraught for different communities of color,\u201d says Krishna. They\u2019ll be joined for that work by Rob Eschmann<\/a>, an assistant professor at BU School of Social Work and assistant director of research at the University\u2019s Center for Antiracist Research<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Just after Christmas, a Wisconsin pharmacist attempted to destroy 570 doses of a COVID-19 vaccine, yanking precious vials from a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1654,"featured_media":28219,"template":"","meta":{"bu_prepress_billboard":"","_bu_prepress_primary_term":"","_bu_prepress_primary_term_manual":""},"categories":[36,177],"tags":[1615,1486,1326,1203],"bu-publication":[],"discipline-type":[],"bu_edition":[],"media_type":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/28209"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/bu-article"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1654"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/28209\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28216,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-article\/28209\/revisions\/28216"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28219"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28209"},{"taxonomy":"bu-publication","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu-publication?post=28209"},{"taxonomy":"discipline-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/discipline-type?post=28209"},{"taxonomy":"bu_edition","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bu_edition?post=28209"},{"taxonomy":"media_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media_type?post=28209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}