Vaccine hesitancy and misinformation consumption and distribution among frontline healthcare workers

The consumption and distribution of misinformation is often associated with vaccine hesitancy. However, little is known about how frontline healthcare workers, such as nurses and doctors, may be contributing to the sharing of and support for misinformation in relation to COVID-19 vaccines. Given the public’s trust of healthcare workers, it is crucial to understand the potential influence and impact that their perspectives might have on public health interventions. The COVID-19 pandemic is an important example with wide relevance to other current and future infectious disease outbreaks.

This project brings together an international team of researchers from diverse subject backgrounds to strengthen our understanding of this phenomenon from the particular perspective of frontline healthcare workers in four countries –Brazil, Kenya, South Africa and the United Kingdom. Working with the University of Oxford’s new Pandemic Sciences Institute, the overarching aim is to provide timely and relevant empirical data that will strengthen both medical research and public health policy.

Research objectives

• To understand what are considered trusted sources of information on vaccination among frontline healthcare workers
• To understand the types of misinformation that are received, trusted and distributed by healthcare workers
• To explore the social and ethical tensions created by discerning different sources of information about vaccines
• To understand the historical contexts of vaccine hesitancy and the consumption and distribution of online misinformation

RESEARCH TEAM

Amina Abubakar, Professor and Director, Institute for Human Development, Aga Khan University

Noémie Déom, Research Assistant, Rapid Research Evaluation and Appraisal Lab (RREAL), University College London

Siphephelo Dlamini, Clinical Research Nursing Manager, Africa Health Research Institute (AHRI)

Michelle Fernandez, Health Policy Researcher, University of Brasília

Sally Frampton, Humanities and Healthcare Fellow, Faculty of History, University of Oxford

Ethan Friedrich, DPhil Student, Faculty of History, University of Oxford

Fiona Groenhout, Research Projects Coordinator, Ethox Centre, University of Oxford

Patricia Kingori, Professor of Global Health Ethics, Ethox Centre, and Investigator, Pandemic Sciences Institute, University of Oxford.

Sam Martin, Senior Research Fellow, RREAL (Rapid Research Evaluation and Appraisal Lab), University College London

Paula Larsson, DPhil Student, Faculty of History, University of Oxford

Gustavo Matta, Full Researcher in Public Health and Coordinator of Zika Social Sciences Network at Fiocruz

Neetha Morar, Senior Research Manager, HIV and other Infectious Diseases Research Unit (HIDRU), South African Medical Research Council

Nothando Ngwenya, Social Science Faculty member, AHRI

Busi Nkosi, Social Science Research Associate, AHRI

Sabina Odero, Researcher, Aga Khan University

Ester Paiva, Public Health Researcher, Oswaldo Cruz Foundation

Samantha Vanderslott, University Research Lecturer, Oxford Vaccine Group, University of Oxford

This research is funded by a grant from the John Fell Fund (ref 0010504).

Image by Wokandapix from Pixabay