Episode 4 ¦ COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy, Disinformation and Misinformation

15:26, Wed 1 Feb 2023

In the fourth podcast of the series, Professor Tom Sorell from the University of Warwick speaks to Henry Tuck and Aoife Gallagher from the Institute for Strategic Dialogue. They discuss online disinformation about vaccines and the different relations between disinformation and outright vaccine opposition, as opposed to vaccine scepticism and vaccine hesitancy. Among the questions addressed: what is the difference between being exposed to misinformation and being influenced by it? In what sense are the vaccine sceptical and vaccine opposed led to their views by online “research”? What are the different effects of private and public online discussion groups on the formation of vaccine- hesitant, vaccine-sceptical and vaccine-opposed views. Is it better or worse for public health and the accuracy of public discussion if the vaccine-sceptical and vaccine-opposed are driven from mainstream online platforms to fringe platforms?

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(MP4 format, 667 MB)

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