Evidence map›Paper›PMID 33764283›Full record

ArticleHuman vaccines & immunotherapeutics2021

A global pandemic in the time of viral memes: COVID-19 vaccine misinformation and disinformation on TikTok.

Corey H Basch, Zoe Meleo-Erwin, Joseph Fera, Christie Jaime, Charles E Basch

Open access · bronzeAbstract read
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Article in Human vaccines & immunotherapeutics, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 85 papers, 8 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
85citing papers in PubMed, 8 pooled it
77.2field-weighted citation impact, top 1% of its field
1 · What the graph read from 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.

2 · The registry

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.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

85 citing papers in PubMed, 8 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 255 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. When Infodemic Meets Epidemic: Systematic Literature Review.JMIR public health and surveillance · 2025
    Pooled it
  2. Pooled it
  3. Pooled it
  4. Pooled it
  5. Pooled it
  6. Pooled it
  7. Pooled it
  8. Pooled it
  9. Article
  10. Article
  11. Article
  12. Article
  13. Article
  14. Article
  15. Article
  16. Article
  17. Review
  18. Article
  19. Article
  20. Article

25 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

5 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.

Corey H BaschDepartment of Public Health, William Paterson University, Wayne, New Jersey, USA.ORCID 0000-0003-4862-4229
Zoe Meleo-ErwinDepartment of Public Health, William Paterson University, Wayne, New Jersey, USA.
Joseph FeraDepartment of Mathematics, Lehman College, The City University of New York, New York, New York, USA.
Christie JaimeDepartment of Public Health, William Paterson University, Wayne, New Jersey, USA.
Charles E BaschDepartment of Health and Behavior Studies, Teachers College, Columbia University, New York, New York, USA.
William Paterson University · US

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Misinformation and disinformation regarding COVID-19 and vaccination against it may be contributing to vaccine hesitancy. Social media outlets have reportedly made efforts to limit false information yet untruths related to COVID-19 persist online. The purpose of this study was to describe the content on COVID-19 vaccination on TikTok, an emerging social media platform. One-hundred trending videos were identified from the hashtag #covidvaccine and were coded for content. Collectively, these videos garnered over 35 million views. The coding category with the highest number of videos was "Discouraged a Vaccine" (n = 38), followed by "Encouraged a Vaccine" (n = 36). While only 36 videos encouraged a vaccine, these videos garnered over 50% of the total cumulative views and just under 50% of the total likes; the 38 videos that discouraged a vaccine garnered 39.6% of the total cumulative views, 44.3% of likes, and 47.4% of comments. Of the 38 videos discouraging the vaccine, 25 (65.79%) showed a parody of an adverse reaction and, collectively, received 71.07% of the total views among videos in this category. Twenty-two of these 38 videos (57.89%) falsely conveyed that a vaccine was available, as they were not at the time of the study. Anti-vaccination messaging may undermine efforts to ensure widespread uptake of the various COVID-19 vaccines, particularly for young people who are more likely than other age cohorts to use TikTok.

Indexed as

COVID-19Social MediaVaccinesAdolescentCommunicationCOVID-19 VaccinesHumansPandemicsSARS-CoV-2COVID-19 VaccinesVaccinesanti-vaccinationCOVID-19preventionsocial mediaTikTokvaccine

Identifiers

PMID33764283
PMCPMC8475621
OpenAlexW3138656580

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

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.