Nearly a third of UK residents are ambivalent to a COVID-19 vaccine

The "irresponsible decision" of social media platforms “to continue to publish anti-vaccine propaganda means a vaccine may not be effective in containing the virus.”

By ZACHARY KEYSER
Pre-filled M-001 universal flu vaccine syringes (photo credit: BIONDVAX)
Pre-filled M-001 universal flu vaccine syringes
(photo credit: BIONDVAX)
According to a recent survey published by the Center for Countering Digital Hate, nearly one in six UK residents will choose not to get a COVID-19 vaccine whenever it becomes available in the coming months.
The survey, conducted by YouGov and commissioned by the CCDH, sampled 1,663 British adults and rated their responses to a number of questions on their beliefs surrounding a COVID-19 vaccine, as well as questions focusing on their social media use, including important factors such as which groups the respondents follow and how this affects their outlook on a vaccine release.
Six percent of the British survey respondents claimed that they would "definitely not" get vaccinated for COVID-19. Another 10% stated that they would "probably not," while 15% said that they were uncertain about the prospect of being vaccinated - bringing the total of refusal and uncertainty to nearly a third of the population.
In contrast, more than two-thirds of the respondents said that they would get vaccinated - just under 40% said that it's a definite, while another 31% percent said that they probably would.
The study was conducted in order to delve into as well as quell the rise of anti-vaccination rhetoric and misinformation present on social media today – which has been ever more common since the onset of the coronavirus outbreak.
“Our hope for a return to normal life rests with scientists developing a successful vaccine for coronavirus,” said CCDH chief executive Imran Ahmed, according to the Independent.
The non-profit claims that in line with the survey results, the use of social media is linked to vaccine refusal – adding further to the notion that misinformation found on social media can lead to opinion-forming behaviors, and dictate how many will hesitantly approach COVID-19 vaccinations when they finally becomes available to the public later this year or in early 2021.
"Among those who use social media more than traditional media to access news and updates about COVID-19, 63% in the UK and 56% in the US say they will definitely or probably get a vaccine. This compares to 72% in the UK and 66% in the US among those who get more information from traditional rather than social media," the study authors wrote. "It is also clear that the anti-vaxx movement is most popular on Facebook, but has a significant following on every mainstream social media platform."
ACCORDING TO the report, anti-vaccination Facebook groups and pages command an audience of over 31 million followers; the authors added that the majority are based in the US. The same category of accounts garners an audience of 17 million subscribers on YouTube and about 7 million on Instagram. On Twitter, pages in line with the anti-vaccination movement only hold an audience of two million - presumably do to the open nature of the platform and the community.
All the accounts together have gained "at least 7.8 million" followers since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, when the first cases were identified in China in December 2019.
The study also noted that the 58 million followers linked to anti-vaccination groups across all the different platforms are presumably worth $1 billion dollars annually, an industry in which the social media giants benefit from directly.
The report claims that many of these lucrative groups are sharing misinformation as well as conspiracy theories surrounding the spread of the virus to further an anti-vaccination agenda, such as the notion that Bill Gates was behind and/or has something to gain from the coronavirus pandemic; or that vaccines themselves caused the coronavirus.
Eerily coincidental, some social media platforms, such as Facebook, had previously pledged prior to the coronavirus outbreak to tackle misinformation surrounding vaccinations from making it onto their website. However, instead of banning or removing said anti-vaxx groups, they reduced the rankings of these pages - rendering them virtually invisible.
FACEBOOK – which began tackling anti-vaccination rhetoric in September 2019 – confirmed at the time that it began "to roll out more ways to connect people with authoritative information about vaccines on Facebook and Instagram.”
In light of the move, the World Health Organization noted last year, when the measures were decided, that "major digital organizations have a responsibility to their users to ensure that they can access facts about vaccines and health."
“Vaccine misinformation is a major threat to global health that could reverse decades of progress made in tackling preventable diseases,” it said.
Immunization means millions more children avoid becoming infected with debilitating diseases that would result in long hospital stays and time out of school, the WHO reiterated.
However, Ahmed does not believe that is enough. He stated that the "irresponsible decision" of social media platforms “to continue to publish anti-vaccine propaganda means a vaccine may not be effective in containing the virus.”
“The price for their greed is a cost paid in lives,” Ahmed added, according to the Independent. “There is simply no responsible justification for publishing lies and conspiracy theories about vaccines.”
Facebook released a comment stating that they "are working to stop harmful misinformation from spreading on our platforms and have removed hundreds of thousands of pieces of COVID-19-related misinformation.
“We reduce vaccine misinformation in News Feed, we don’t show it in search results or recommend it to you on Facebook or Instagram; we don’t allow it in ads, and we connect people with authoritative information from recognized health experts," the social media giant concluded.