Assessing the influence of French vaccine critics during the two first years of the COVID-19 pandemic.

ABSTRACT: When the threat of COVID-19 became widely acknowledged, many hoped that this pandemic would squash "the anti-vaccine movement". However, when vaccines started arriving in rich countries at the end of 2020, it appeared that vaccine hesitancy might be an issue even in the context of this major pandemic. Does it mean that the mobilization of vaccine-critical activists on social media is one of the main causes of this reticence to vaccinate against COVID-19? In this paper, we wish to contribute to current work on vaccine hesitancy during the COVID-19 pandemic by looking at one of the many mechanisms which can cause reticence towards vaccines: the capacity of vaccine-critical activists to influence a wider public on social media. We analyze the evolution of debates over the COVID-19 vaccine on

SUBMITTER: Faccin M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9352068 | biostudies-literature | 2022

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature