ArticlePloS one2022
Misinformation, believability, and vaccine acceptance over 40 countries: Takeaways from the initial phase of the COVID-19 infodemic.
Article in PloS one, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 50 papers.
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Who cites it
50 citing papers in PubMed.
- Debunking COVID-19 vaccine misinformation with an audio drama in Ghana, a randomized control trial.Scientific reports · 2025Trial
- Development and Preliminary Evaluation of the OCODES Digital Strategy in Response to Health Misinformation: Nominal Group Technique and Retrospective Usability Evaluation Study.JMIR formative research · 2026Article
- Determinants of COVID-19 and Influenza Vaccination Among People with Diabetes Mellitus in Primary Health Care.Vaccines · 2026Article
- Generative AI for patient education in cancer care: A scoping review of evaluation practices and emerging trends.Technical innovations & patient support in radiation oncology · 2026Review
- From campaign to continuity: stakeholders' recommendations for integrating HPV vaccination into Nigeria's healthcare system.BMC health services research · 2026Article
- The role of the media in the coverage of childhood vaccination in children under two years of age in Peru, ENDES 2021-2024.PLOS global public health · 2026Article
- The perils of politeness: how large language models may amplify medical misinformation.NPJ digital medicine · 2025Article
- Viewpoint on the Intersection Among Health Information, Misinformation, and Generative AI Technologies.JMIR infodemiology · 2025Article
- A warm introduction.Nature biomedical engineering · 2025Article
- Navigating the next surge: a perspective on Egypt's preparedness and prospects for another COVID-19 outbreak.Population health metrics · 2025Review
- Mapping Infodemic Responses: A Geospatial Analysis of COVID-19 Discourse on Twitter in Italy.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2025Article
- Perceptions, attitudes, practices, and factors associated with COVID-19 vaccination among travelers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.Tropical diseases, travel medicine and vaccines · 2025Article
- Knowledge, attitudes and barriers to uptake of COVID-19 vaccine in Uganda, February 2021.BMJ global health · 2025Article
- Investigating practices and difficulties in communicating with patients about COVID-19 vaccination among healthcare workers in Italy.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Dynamic patterns of healthy lifestyle awareness after COVID-19: a study using Google Trends and joinpoint regression.Frontiers in big data · 2025Article
- Knowledge gaps about the diagnosis and treatment of hypothyroidism: an international patient survey.Frontiers in endocrinology · 2025Article
- Article
- COVID-19 vaccine information disorder in Chile: a quantitative analysis of fact-checked articles.Frontiers in public health · 2025Article
- Analysis of public opinion polls about COVID-19 vaccines: Theoretical and policy implications for vaccine communication and campaigns to address vaccine hesitancy.Human vaccines & immunotherapeutics · 2024Article
- COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy in Ethiopia: a latent class analysis.BMC public health · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic has been damaging to the lives of people all around the world. Accompanied by the pandemic is an infodemic, an abundant and uncontrolled spread of potentially harmful misinformation. The infodemic may severely change the pandemic's course by interfering with public health interventions such as wearing masks, social distancing, and vaccination. In particular, the impact of the infodemic on vaccination is critical because it holds the key to reverting to pre-pandemic normalcy. This paper presents findings from a global survey on the extent of worldwide exposure to the COVID-19 infodemic, assesses different populations' susceptibility to false claims, and analyzes its association with vaccine acceptance. Based on responses gathered from over 18,400 individuals from 40 countries, we find a strong association between perceived believability of COVID-19 misinformation and vaccination hesitancy. Our study shows that only half of the online users exposed to rumors might have seen corresponding fact-checked information. Moreover, depending on the country, between 6% and 37% of individuals considered these rumors believable. A key finding of this research is that poorer regions were more susceptible to encountering and believing COVID-19 misinformation; countries with lower gross domestic product (GDP) per capita showed a substantially higher prevalence of misinformation. We discuss implications of our findings to public campaigns that proactively spread accurate information to countries that are more susceptible to the infodemic. We also defend that fact-checking platforms should prioritize claims that not only have wide exposure but are also perceived to be believable. Our findings give insights into how to successfully handle risk communication during the initial phase of a future pandemic.
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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.