Assessing Various Methods of Social Media Use to Combat Vaccine Hesitancy

Science is no stranger to skeptics, and vaccine technology has proven no exception to being immune from detractors since the inception of inoculation (Lanzarotta, 2024). At first, people questioned vaccine safety and efficacy, fearing contraction of disease. Public trust in vaccination gained traction with such successes as the polio vaccine, but the Wakefield article published in 1998 falsely linked the MMR vaccine to autism, arguably launching modern vaccine skepticism (Motta & Stecula, 2021). It was retracted twelve years after publication following refutation by evidence-based research, but not before increasing internet speeds allowed for the dissemination and proliferation of vaccine misinformation. The World Health Organization now considers vaccine skepticism a top ten threat to public health (LaCour & Davis, 2020). As such, combatting misinformation should be considered a public health priority. This study aims to compare different approaches to combatting vaccine hesitancy and identify the most effective methods to reduce vaccine skepticism and increase herd immunity.