Health information-seeking behavior on online platforms puts users at risk of being exposed to misinformation that could potentially threaten public health. Health information circulating on online platforms are often amplified by rumors and conspiracy theories that are not always based on scientific evidence. During a pandemic, people may use social media to improve their knowledge about the disease, transmission, and prevention mechanisms. Social media platforms have become a common source for health information. However, continuous exposure to social media and online anti-vaccine movement may influence people to share and communicate vaccine misinformation and conspiracy theories. Whether a person believes the misinformation or not is dependent on the individual’s level of health literacy and their risk perceptions. Rumors often challenge the health policies and interventions of government and non-government officials and international health agencies such as the World Health Organization (WHO). A boycott of the polio vaccine due to rumors that the vaccine caused infertility led to increased polio cases in Nigeria, Pakistan, and Afghanistan.

Historically, negative claims about vaccine effectiveness have affected vaccine uptake. People may decline immunizations due to false claims that vaccines contain infertility agents or can spread an infectious pathogen such as human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Rumors and conspiracy theories, have been identified as precipitators for vaccine hesitancy. The commercial affiliation of the authors did not play a role in our study, and this does not alter our adherence to PLOS ONE policies of sharing data and materials. This work has been a voluntary contribution from all authors. She has also participated in an advisory board meeting for Sanofi Pasteur. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.ĭata Availability: All relevant data are within the paper and its Supporting information files.įunding: This work did not receive any funding from a donor.Ĭompeting interests: Associate Professor Holly Seale has previously received funding from drug companies for investigator-driven research and consulting fees to present at conferences/workshops and develop resources (Seqirus, GSK and Sanofi Pasteur).

Received: FebruAccepted: ApPublished: May 12, 2021Ĭopyright: © 2021 Islam et al. PLoS ONE 16(5):Įditor: Luigi Lavorgna, Universita degli Studi della Campania Luigi Vanvitelli, ITALY (2021) COVID-19 vaccine rumors and conspiracy theories: The need for cognitive inoculation against misinformation to improve vaccine adherence. Citation: Islam MS, Kamal A-HM, Kabir A, Southern DL, Khan SH, Hasan SMM, et al.

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