The impact of online misinformation on U.S. COVID-19 vaccinations
The impact of online misinformation on U.S. COVID-19 vaccinations
复制标题
在线错误信息对美国 COVID-19 疫苗接种的影响
DOI：
--
复制
发表时间：
2021
期刊：
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
J. Bryden
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Francesco Pierri;B. Perry;Matthew R. Deverna;Kai;A. Flammini;F. Menczer;J. Bryden
广泛接种COVID-19疫苗是实现群体免疫的必要条件。然而，调查发现，美国成年人犹豫或不愿意接种疫苗的人数。网上的错误信息可能在疫苗犹豫中发挥重要作用，但我们缺乏对它将在多大程度上影响疫苗接种的清晰认识。在这里，我们研究了疫苗接种率和疫苗犹豫如何与美国州和县一级的160万Twitter用户分享的关于疫苗的在线错误信息水平相关。我们发现错误信息和疫苗接种率之间存在负相关关系。网上的错误信息也与调查数据中的疫苗犹豫率有关。考虑到政治、人口和社会经济因素，疫苗结果和错误信息之间的关联仍然很大。虽然疫苗犹豫与共和党的投票份额密切相关，但我们观察到，在线错误信息对犹豫的影响在民主党县而不是共和党县最强。这些结果表明，解决在线错误信息必须是旨在最大限度地提高疫苗接种活动有效性的干预措施的关键组成部分。
Widespread uptake of COVID-19 vaccines is necessary to achieve herd immunity. However, surveys have found concerning numbers of U.S. adults hesitant or unwilling to be vaccinated. Online misinformation may play an important role in vaccine hesitancy, but we lack a clear picture of the extent to which it will impact vaccination uptake. Here, we study how vaccination rates and vaccine hesitancy are associated with levels of online misinformation about vaccines shared by 1.6 million Twitter users geolocated at the U.S. state and county levels. We find a negative relationship between misinformation and vaccination uptake rates. Online misinformation is also correlated with vaccine hesitancy rates taken from survey data. Associations between vaccine outcomes and misinformation remain significant when accounting for political as well as demographic and socioeconomic factors. While vaccine hesitancy is strongly associated with Republican vote share, we observe that the effect of online misinformation on hesitancy is strongest across Democratic rather than Republican counties. These results suggest that addressing online misinformation must be a key component of interventions aimed to maximize the effectiveness of vaccination campaigns.