ArticlePloS one2021
The anti-vaccination infodemic on social media: A behavioral analysis.
Article in PloS one, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It has been retracted, and should not be counted. Cited by 105 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
105 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Psychological factors contributing to the creation and dissemination of fake news among social media users: a systematic review.BMC psychology · 2024Pooled it
- Bibliometric Insights Into the Infodemic: Global Research Trends and Policy Responses: Quantitative Research.JMIR medical informatics · 2025Article
- Relative engagement with sources of climate misinformation is growing across social media platforms.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Article
- Dynamics and triggers of misinformation on vaccines.PloS one · 2025Article
- Article
- An 'arsenal for the supply of ammunition for the defence of vaccination': the Jenner Society and anti-anti-vaccinationism in England, 1896-1906.Medical history · 2025Article
- Computing advertising intelligent computing and push based on artificial intelligence in the big data era.Heliyon · 2024Article
- Modelling and predicting online vaccination views using bow-tie decomposition.Royal Society open science · 2024Article
- Political orientation of online media sources and reporting of Covid-19 vaccine myocarditis.PloS one · 2024Article
- Dynamics of communication on measles vaccination on digital platforms in the Brazilian context: challenges and perspectives.Revista do Instituto de Medicina Tropical de Sao Paulo · 2024Article
- Determining factors for COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy among Brazilians: a study using structural equation modeling.Revista brasileira de enfermagem · 2024Observational
- Comparing vaccination coverage before and during COVID-19 pandemic in children under one year in the health district of commune V in Bamako, Mali.BMC pediatrics · 2023Article
- An Important Strategy to Improve Adolescent Health Literacy: COVID-19 Modules in High School in Indonesia.Journal of preventive medicine and public health = Yebang Uihakhoe chi · 2023Article
- Caregiver's perceptions of COVID-19 vaccination, and intention to vaccinate their children against the disease: a questionnaire based qualitative study.Annals of medicine and surgery (2012) · 2023Article
- Effectiveness of a vaccine recovery plan after the COVID-19 pandemic in the Siracusa Local Health Authority, Italy. Results of one year follow-up.Journal of preventive medicine and hygiene · 2023Article
- Using COVID-19 Vaccine Attitudes on Twitter to Improve Vaccine Uptake Forecast Models in the United States: Infodemiology Study of Tweets.JMIR infodemiology · 2023Article
- Spreading of misinformation on mass media and digital platforms regarding vaccines. A systematic scoping review on stakeholders, policymakers, and sentiments/behavior of Italian consumers.Human vaccines & immunotherapeutics · 2023Article
- Misinformation and Public Health Messaging in the Early Stages of the Mpox Outbreak: Mapping the Twitter Narrative With Deep Learning.Journal of medical Internet research · 2023Article
- Global Misinformation Spillovers in the Vaccination Debate Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Multilingual Twitter Study.JMIR infodemiology · 2023Article
45 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
- Retraction · 2022-12-22Concerns/Issues about Data · Concerns/Issues about Results and/or Conclusions · Error in Data · Error in Methods · Error in Results and/or Conclusions ·
- Retracted
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Vaccinations are without doubt one of the greatest achievements of modern medicine, and there is hope that they can constitute a solution to halt the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. However, the anti-vaccination movement is currently on the rise, spreading online misinformation about vaccine safety and causing a worrying reduction in vaccination rates worldwide. In this historical time, it is imperative to understand the reasons of vaccine hesitancy, and to find effective strategies to dismantle the rhetoric of anti-vaccination supporters. For this reason, we analyzed the behavior of anti-vaccination supporters on the platform Twitter. Here we identify that anti-vaccination supporters, in comparison with pro-vaccination supporters, share conspiracy theories and make use of emotional language. We demonstrate that anti-vaccination supporters are more engaged in discussions on Twitter and share their contents from a pull of strong influencers. We show that the movement's success relies on a strong sense of community, based on the contents produced by a small fraction of profiles, with the community at large serving as a sounding board for anti-vaccination discourse to circulate online. Our data demonstrate that Donald Trump, before his profile was suspended, was the main driver of vaccine misinformation on Twitter. Based on these results, we welcome policies that aim at halting the circulation of false information about vaccines by targeting the anti-vaccination community on Twitter. Based on our data, we also propose solutions to improve the communication strategy of health organizations and build a community of engaged influencers that support the dissemination of scientific insights, including issues related to vaccines and their safety.
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.