Santi Indra Astuti and colleagues argue that whole-of-society efforts are needed to build an internet ecosystem that helps communities be resilient to future health misinformation challenges
A local saying in Indonesia is that it is the most hoax filled country on Earth. As one of the world’s most diverse countries, with over 700 languages and people spread across 16 000 islands, it is challenging to reach its population with information that is credible and accurate. Misinformation has circulated in the country’s national media and affected discourse on everything from politics to natural disasters to immunisation for over a decade.12 Drawing from our experience with MAFINDO, a local civil society organisation dedicated to tackling misinformation and building health literacy within the community, we have learnt that promoting credible and compelling sources of health information benefits from taking a whole-of-society approach that helps to translate science for a general audie
### Key messages
Vaccine misinformation on social media has strong effects on behaviour, and the evidence base for interventions to reduce these effects is limited, but better approaches to evidence generation are possible, say Kai Ruggeri and colleagues
Effective population level vaccination campaigns are fundamental to public health.123 Counter campaigns, which are as old as the first vaccines,4 disrupt uptake and can threaten public health globally.4 In 2019, public health researchers linked increases in measles cases with the proliferation of global anti-vaccine campaigns.5 Some of these campaigns originated offline but were later amplified and expedited through social media, resulting in real world harms.6 Though crises and genuine safety concerns can also lower vaccine uptake,78 the return of measles after aggressive anti-vaccine campaigns prompted the World Health Organisation to list vaccine hesitancy among the greatest threats to global health (box 1).14
Box 1
### Vaccine
Sara Cooper and colleagues argue that a better understanding of the complex sociopolitical drivers of distrust in vaccination will increase the potential of social media to rebuild vaccine confidence
Vaccination experts have become increasingly alarmed about the continued waning of public confidence in vaccines.1 Social media are considered to be major contributors to this decline, facilitating the rapid and widespread sharing of misinformation, enabling vaccine anxieties and rumours to travel rapidly around the world.23 Social media are also seen to have enabled vocal anti-vaccination groups to self-organise and communicate well beyond their local areas.45 The covid-19 pandemic has only magnified these concerns,6 as Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of the World Health Organization put it, “We’re not just fighting a pandemic; we’re fighting an infodemic.”7
This dominant narrative on mistrust in vaccines assumes that it is primarily the result of a lack of informa
Artificial intelligence has potential to counter vaccine hesitancy while building trust in vaccines, but it must be deployed ethically and responsibly, argue Heidi Larson and Leesa Lin
Given the sluggish pace of traditional scientific approaches, artificial intelligence (AI), particularly generative AI, has emerged as a significant opportunity to tackle complex health challenges, including those in public health.1 Against this backdrop, interest has focused on whether AI has a role in bolstering public trust in vaccines and helping to minimise vaccine hesitancy, which the World Health Organization named as one of the top 10 global health threats.2
Vaccine hesitancy is a state of indecision before accepting or refusing a vaccination.3 It is a dynamic and context specific challenge that varies across time, place, and vaccine type. It is influenced by a range of factors, including sociocultural and political dynamics, as well as individual and group psychology. Its multifaceted and tem
Doctors can intervene effectively and safely to combat misinformation on social media, argue Leonard Hofstra and Diederik Gommers
Researchers have estimated that vaccine hesitancy may have resulted in more than 300 000 unnecessary covid-19 deaths in the United States alone,1 and that misinformation on social media could be a substantial contributor to reluctance to take up vaccination.2 People aged under 50 rely on social media for most of their news.3 Reaching people through these channels with accurate vaccine information could be crucial to saving lives. Evidence already suggests that doctors can intervene effectively to influence individual and population health without risking harm to others or themselves.
The experience of Anthony Fauci is a prominent example of the potential risks that doctors can face. While head of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and adviser to the president, he adopted an outspoken approach to challenging misperceptions aroun