Researchers specializing in science communication are interested in the increase in vaccination refusals. According to them, the internet and social networks largely explain this anti-vaccine phenomenon.
Always more mistrust and diseases that have almost disappeared are coming back: vaccines are no longer popular. In recent years, the refusal to be vaccinated has become a major public health issue in France and in other developed countries. As proof, the World Health Organization has listed mistrust of vaccines as a global health threat in 2019 and measles is on the rise.
Anti-vaccines have been around for a long time, but social media would have allowed their messages to spread wider and faster. Marina Joubert and Francois van Schalkwyk, researchers from Stellenbosch University in South Africa decipher in The Conversation the relationship between anti-vaccine theories and the internet.
Dissemination of militant or unverified information
Social networks allow everyone to disseminate information online or to share it, militant discourse mixes with others without clearly showing their intentions. In his thesis, François van Schalkwyk explains that members of the anti-vaccine movement select articles from scientific journals, taking only those that are likely to support their opinions, and share them to sow doubt in people who are not yet convinced .
It is possible for many topics related to health and science in general to find favorable or unfavorable studies, for some it will depend on the rigor of the publication, for others it is still source topics debates in the scientific community. South African scientists point out that with social networks, it is the mixing of genres and truncated information: the verification of information and its quality disappears. It is thus difficult to discern militant discourse from that which is objective and verified.
The concept of “echo chamber”
On many social networks, such as Facebook which has more than 2 billion users, it is possible to create groups. The latter create what researchers call “echo chambers”: the information shared reinforces the beliefs of adherents, such as anti-vaccines, because dissenting opinions are few, if any, present.
The researchers explain that with these modes of exchange, the top-down communication system cannot work: providing other scientific evidence to contradict statements would only reinforce the mistrust of Internet users. A study published in the journal Pediatrics, shows that trying to change an anti-vaccine person’s mind only makes the situation worse. When the belief is ingrained in a person’s head, it is very difficult to get them to change their mind.
New research and government measures
Within Stellenbosch University, research projects attempt to decipher these phenomena through concrete cases. Two Facebook pages have been created, one with pro-vaccine messages, the other with anti-vaccine theories: the researchers thus wish to better understand the origin of anti-vaccine discourse and how it spreads.
In the UK, a health protection body wants to go further. Royal Society for Public Health director Shirley Cramer is calling on internet giants to take responsibility and act against the spread of misleading vaccination information, as reported International mail.
Perhaps to stop the phenomenon of anti-vaccines, it is the main concerned who will be able to act: in the United States, young people find themselves on online forums to find out how to be vaccinated without the authorization of their parents.
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