'Foreign disinformation' social media campaigns linked to falling vaccination rates

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-10/b-ds102120.php

News Release 22-Oct-2020
BMJ

'Foreign disinformation' social media campaigns are linked to falling vaccination rates, reveals an international time trends analysis, published in the online journal BMJ Global Health.

Every 1 point increase in effort is tied to an average 2% drop in annual coverage around the globe, and a 15% increase in the number of negative tweets about vaccination, shows the study, which forms part of a BMJ Collection on Democracy and Health published for the World Health Summit this weekend.

Last year, the World Health Organization (WHO) listed vaccine hesitancy--reluctance or refusal to be vaccinated because of safety concerns---as one of the top 10 threats to world health.


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