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Anti-vaccine movement could undermine efforts to end coronavirus pandemic, researchers warn

Studies of social networks show that opposition to vaccines is small but far-reaching — and growing.
  1. Philip Ball
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As scientists work to create a vaccine against COVID-19, a small but fervent anti-vaccination movement is marshalling against it. Campaigners are seeding outlandish narratives: they falsely say that coronavirus vaccines will be used to implant microchips into people, for instance, and falsely claim that a woman who took part in a UK vaccine trial died. In April, some carried placards with anti-vaccine slogans at rallies in California to protest against the lockdown. Last week, a now-deleted YouTube video promoting wild conspiracy theories about the pandemic and asserting (without evidence) that vaccines would “kill millions” received more than 8 million views.

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Nature 581, 251 (2020)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-020-01423-4

References

  1. Johnson, N. F. et al. Nature https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-2281-1 (2020).

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  2. Velásquez, N. et al. Preprint at https://arxiv.org/abs/2004.00673 (2020).

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