The role of social media in attitudes towards vaccinations:Social media as a tool in vaccination movements

Abstract

The progress made in battling vaccine-preventable diseases is in jeopardy due to increasing vaccine hesitancy. Global coverage has started to decrease and some of the vaccine-preventable diseases are resurging to our communities. There are many reasons for vaccine hesitancy, concerns about the safety of vaccines, lack of knowledge, religious or cultural reasons, perceived importance of vaccinations and inclination to freedom of choice. While concerns about vaccine safety seem reasonable, as a result, anti-vaccination movements have taken a strong foothold especially in social media, where providing information and experiences is fast and effective. The balance between misinformation provided and information is slanted, and while misinformation is readily available, information is hard to find and difficult to understand, which makes informed decisions impossible to make.

This study was done as a systematic literature review with a scoping review method. The aim was to produce information about the social media as a tool for pro-vaccination information by recognising how is social media used for providing anti-vaccine information. Aim was also to understand characteristics of anti-vaccine groups and of the groups vulnerable to misinformation.

Vaccine hesitancy is a grey area when it comes to human rights. Who has a right to decide on childhood vaccinations and protection of children? Is it every parents job to consider the safety of communities through herd immunity? What are the rights and duties of health care professionals? Can we silence the misinformation of anti-vaccination groups or are we violating freedom of speech? This study was done as a systematic literature review and it aimed to find scientific studies that could answer these questions and provide information on the possible ways to solve the vaccinating conflicts.

Conflict resolution methods in vaccine hesitancy have been studied and found effective. More activity from health care professionals is needed in order to increase vaccine knowledge and decrease the hesitancy and concerns. Social media can be one of the efficient ways to reach the audience. This thesis provides information necessary to increase pro-vaccination initiatives.