An Example of an Infodemic and a Science Disinformation: Vaccine Denialism

Abstract

Even though “anti-vaccination” views are not new, the abundance of misinformation regarding the vaccines in the digital environment erodes the trust to vaccines even further. Vaccines have been one of the most effective measures against infections diseases, they prevented many deaths and eradicated deadly diseases in some areas. Most of the hesitancy against vaccines have no scientific background whatsoever, and these unfounded misinformative claims contribute to vaccine hesitancy further for individual and societies. Some of the main factors that leads to anti-vaccination stance or vaccine hesitancy are loss of collective memory regarding the dangers of infectious diseases, concerns around safety and efficiency of vaccines, naturalistic fallacy, mistrust in science and scientific process and conspiracy theories. Prompting questioning the logic behind the conspiracy theories might be effective against vaccine disinformation.