British Medical Journal article proposes behavioural interventions to reduce vaccine hesitancy

A report in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) says campaigns to counter vaccine hesitancy need to get more savvy. Nine authors penned Behavioural interventions to reduce vaccine hesitancy driven by misinformation on social media, a peer-reviewed article published in The BMJ earlier this month. “Effective population level vaccination campaigns are fundamental to public health. Counter campaigns, which are as old as the first vaccines, disrupt uptake and can threaten public health globally,” the report warns, before admitting, “crises and genuine safety concerns can also lower vaccine uptake.” The paper uses the World Health Organization’s definition of vaccine hesitancy: a “delay in acceptance or refusal of vaccination despite availability of vaccination services.” The authors acknowledge they blur disinformation and misinformation together as that which “deliberately seeks to mislead or otherwise disrupt understanding.” The authors said that “anti-vaccine campaigns” during the pandemic had “undeniable effects” including “illness and death,” despite “standard approaches” such as “mandatory vaccination...