Generating Insights Into (Mis)information About Measles Vaccination in Amsterdam, August-September 2024

BackgroundSuboptimal vaccination coverage for Measles, Mumps, and Rubella (MMR) and recent increases in measles cases in the Netherlands, prompted innovation to support informed vaccine decision-making. This project at the Public Health Service Amsterdam (PHSA), responsible for local outbreak response and vaccination programs, aims to: (1) establish social listening for infodemic management; (2) generate insights into measles-related narratives and (mis)information influencing confidence in MMR-vaccination. MethodsFirst, we identified potential social listening data sources and tools within the PHSA. Second, in August-September 2024, we gathered data from sources that provide contextual and substantive information, covering perspectives of citizens, medical and communication professionals and media for measles vaccination specifically. Third, we generated insights through quantitative and qualitative (thematic) analysis for insights reporting. ResultsWe identified 20 sources for social listening. From these, 7 were selected for active listening based on cost, availability and relevance. Sources that were monitored included PHSA internal sources, e.g. youth nurses observations, website statistics, source and contact tracers’ inbound phonelines and press requests, and media sources, e.g. social media (via Coosto), news media (LexisNexis), and Google Trends. Through inductive thematic analyses, we observed a variety of online and offline questions, concerns, narratives, mis- and disinformation regarding measles (vaccination). Prevalent identified themes concern: 1) false claims (misinformation) alleging COVID-19 vaccines caused immunodeficiency, leading to measles and Mpox, 2) narratives suggesting that vaccination against measles is unnecessary or ineffective (misinformation), and 3) concerns about combining vaccines. Moreover, low search activity and contextual (e.g. articles on reported cases, interventions and policy changes) themes were detected. ConclusionWe established real-time insight generation during an anticipated measles outbreak, capturing relevant narratives that can guide an interdisciplinary response. The established structured social listening framework is essential for understanding public needs, addressing misinformation, and is currently re-activated to inform effective communication during a cluster of measles cases in Amsterdam.