One Year of COVID-19 Vaccine Misinformation on Twitter: Longitudinal Study.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Vaccinations play a critical role in mitigating the impact of COVID-19 and other diseases. Past research has linked misinformation to increased hesitancy and lower vaccination rates. Gaps remain in our knowledge about the main drivers of vaccine misinformation on social media and effective ways to intervene.

Objective

Our longitudinal study had two primary objectives: (1) to investigate the patterns of prevalence and contagion of COVID-19 vaccine misinformation on Twitter in 2021, and (2) to identify the main spreaders of vaccine misinformation. Given our initial results, we further considered the likely drivers of misinformation and its spread, providing insights for potential interventions.

Methods

We collected almost 300 million English-language tweets r

SUBMITTER: Pierri F 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9970010 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature