Demonstrators, including anti-vaccine protestors, stand outside of the US Grant Hotel following US President Donald Trump’s arrival in San Diego, California, US, September 18, 2019. Photo: Reuters/Tom Brenner
With the ongoing optimistic discussions around potential COVID-19 immunisation, it is important not to overlook the rather successful anti-vaccination, or ‘anti-vaxx’, campaign that’s been underway as well.
Anti-vaccine activists have managed to use uncertainties surrounding the pandemic to fit their agenda. Anti-lockdown protests, allegations of state interference in individual freedoms and conspiracy theories propagating anti-mask sentiments have also become platforms for their screed. Perhaps more worryingly, the anti-vaccination movement has aligned itself with far-right ideologies as well. And unfortunately, their strategies seem to be working.
Social media has been anti-vaxxers’ most productive tool to engage others. According to a new report from the Centre for Countering Digital Hate, the anti-vaxx industry has an online following of 58 million users who in turn generate billions of dollars in advertising and sales revenue – as well as are unusually successful at radicalising sceptics.
How is all of this possible? We need to reflect on this question honestly, and fashion strategies that efficaciously combat the anti-vaccination sentiment without presuming that the mere force of factuality will change minds.
For example, a meme recently caught my attention – depicting two images side by side. The one on the left shows a researcher working diligently in a laboratory, and is labelled ‘vaccine research’. The image on the right shows a person sitting on a toilet and reading something on their phone, and is labelled ‘anti-vaxx research’. Reality, as it happens, is not so simple.
Earlier, human behaviour and decision-making processes were thought to be rooted in a cognitive-rational paradigm in which change was a linear, deterministic process – such that individuals made informed choices after weighing the pros and cons. However, we know today that human behaviour can actually be more complex, chaotic even, and that changes can happen in smaller leaps.
Also read: A Global Survey Shows Vaccine Hesitancy Is Real
This is why simply repeating the evidence and rationalising the benefits of vaccination are inadequate. Instead, pro-vaccination campaigns must embrace the chaos that humans are capable of.
Anti-vaxxers’ social media strategies can be adapted to devise pro-vaccination campaigns. Their social media accounts can provide a glimpse into what their echo chambers look like and into the sentiments that surround vaccine hesitancy.
Researchers and officials can also use online surveys and other (non-invasive) monitoring methods to complement their understanding of why people might refuse vaccines. Twitter, Facebook and WhatsApp have habituated people to more casual interactions, so it’s important that health professionals engage with their target audience on similar terms, via these platforms.
It’s always possible that some individuals are delaying being vaccinated because they need more information, and they shouldn’t be discouraged by high-handed tactics.
The pro-vaccination fraternity is currently in desperate need of passionate advocates willing to speak up for vaccines. This is because even though anti-vaxxers may be in the minority in the general population, they are noisy – and this noise drowns out anything less loud.
Social media platforms offer many opportunities to beat back this tide and promote vaccination in the community.
Lekshmi Rita Venugopal is an epidemiologist and public health professional from the University of California, Berkeley.