References

Ahmed A, Lee KS, Bukhsh A Outbreak of vaccine-preventable diseases in Muslim majority countries. J Infect Public Health. 2018; 11:(2)153-155 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jiph.2017.09.007

Boyd S Pushing back – tackling the anti-vax movement (News). BMA. 2021; https://tinyurl.com/yfmcwhyh

Boseley S How disgraced anti-vaxxer Andrew Wakefield was embraced by Trump's America. The Guardian. 2018; https://tinyurl.com/y9jbaqw8

Boseley S Calls for mandatory Covid jabs conflict with Britons’ right to say no. The Guardian. 2021; https://tinyurl.com/yc4mnrj9

Buncombe A Trump claims vaccines and autism are linked but his own experts vehemently disagree. Independent. 2018; https://tinyurl.com/yay33w73

Burke M Instagram bans Robert F. Kennedy Jr. over false vaccine, Covid claims. NBC News. 2021; https://tinyurl.com/yyezslqo

Canon G Donald and Melania Trump quietly got Covid vaccines last month, reports say. The Guardian. 2021; https://tinyurl.com/ybpbemxy

Cohen N Anti-vaxxers posing as victims has a history. Look at Andrew Wakefield. The Guardian. 2021; https://tinyurl.com/yyeux36e

History of anti-vaccinator movements. 2018; https://tinyurl.com/msm428p

Davies C Queen urges Britons to ‘think about others' and get vaccinated. The Guardian. 2021; https://tinyurl.com/ycsl6ttn

Deer B How the case against the MMR vaccine was fixed. BMJ. 2011; 342 https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.c5347

Farmer B Long-standing distrust of polio drops threatens Covid vaccine campaign in Pakistan. The Telegraph. 2021; https://tinyurl.com/yzrq4krq

Fruen L Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan calls the vaccine ‘toxic waste’ that will cause harm - as mistrust grows among black Americans with fewer than 25% saying they will get the shot. Mail Online. 2020; https://tinyurl.com/yjn57c6c

Glasper EA Enhancing the uptake of vaccines in childhood. Compr Child Adolesc Nurs. 2019; 42:(3)161-166 https://doi.org/10.1080/24694193.2019.1636607

Glenza J, Pengelly M Catholics in New Orleans and St Louis told to avoid Johnson & Johnson vaccine. The Guardian. 2021; https://tinyurl.com/y8fly63u

Hornsey M, Finlayson M, Chatwood G Donald Trump and vaccination: the effect of political identity, conspiracist ideation and presidential tweets on vaccine hesitancy. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. 2020; 88 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2019.103947

Hussain A, Ali S, Ahmed M, Hussain S The anti-vaccination movement: a regression in modern medicine. Cureus. 2018; 10:(7) https://doi.org/10.7759/cureus.2919

Martin CA, Marshall C, Patel T Association of demographic and occupational factors with SARS-CoV-2 vaccine uptake in a multi-ethnic UK healthcare workforce: a rapid real-world analysis (preprint). medRxiv. 2021; 02:(11) https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.02.11.21251548

Mills MC, Sivela J Should spreading anti-vaccine misinformation be criminalised?. BMJ. 2021; 372 https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.n272

Milward G Vaccinating Britain: Mass vaccination and the public since the Second World War [Internet].: Manchester University Press; 2019 https://tinyurl.com/yk3h3q4b

The Code. Professional standards of practice and behaviour for nurses, midwives and nursing associates. 2018; https://tinyurl.com/gozgmtm

Pager T Driving the measles outbreak among Ultra-Orthodox Jews. New York Times. 2019; https://tinyurl.com/y2shvzmr

RCN position on whether staff must have the COVID-19 vaccine. 2021; https://tinyurl.com/yfoowcw9

Shah S, McKay B The World Is Still Battling Polio. What That Warning Means for Covid-19. Wall Street Journal. 2021; https://preview.tinyurl.com/yhqbz5ng

Sharfstein JM Vaccines and the Trump Administration. JAMA. 2017; 317:(13)1305-1306 https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2017.2311

Watson G The anti-vaccination movement that gripped Victorian England. BBC News: Leicester. 2019; https://tinyurl.com/tlwwaga

Wilson SL, Wiysonge C Social media and vaccine hesitancy. BMJ Glob Health. 2020; 5:(10) https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2020-004206

Policy

COVID-19

Public Health

Patient Safety

Infection Prevention

Dispelling anti-vaxxer misinformation about COVID-19 vaccination

25 March 2021

Healthcare Policy

02 March 2021

Volume 30 · Issue 6

ISSN (print): 0966-0461

ISSN (online): 2052-2819

Abstract

University of Southampton, discusses strategies to enhance vaccination uptake among certain groups in society who are influenced by anti-vaxxers

On the 15 February 2021 a BBC TV Panorama documentary, Vaccines: The Disinformation War, investigated the rise of anti-vaccine content on social media platforms (https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000scy8). Ask the Experts is but one of many anti-vaccine videos that are currently being circulated on social media and messaging sites amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

People in many countries have sought to discredit the COVID-19 vaccines as being unsafe by fuelling myths that they can, for example, alter DNA and cause infertility. What was most concerning about the Panorama documentary is that among the so-called experts adding fuel to the fire of the anti-vaccine movement is a nurse who has been suspended from the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) register and at least one doctor under suspension from the General Medical Council (GMC).

Anti-vaccination books are also being sold on well-known book websites, leading politicians to urge these companies to put warning tags on these books to combat the spread of misinformation.

Register now to continue reading

Thank you for visiting British Journal of Nursing and reading some of our peer-reviewed resources for nurses. To read more, please register today. You’ll enjoy the following great benefits:

What's included

Limited access to clinical or professional articles
Unlimited access to the latest news, blogs and video content

Or continue by

Signing in with your registered email address