COVID-19 vaccine misinformation is rife, including among highly educated: Harvard study – OregonLive

Misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines is so pervasive that one in five respondents to a large, newly published academic survey believes a false claim about them.

Researchers from Harvard Medical School and three other universities asked 20,669 Americans about four false COVID-19 assertions that have spread across the country in the past year. The claims are:

Twenty percent of the survey respondents believe at least one of these four debunked assertions. Forty percent correctly noted that all of them are false. (Those taking the survey had the option of saying they were not sure.)

The researchers found that those most likely to believe false vaccine claims were Republican voters, young adults and, perhaps a surprise to some, those with high socioeconomic status.

The study concluded that belief in any of these false claims, as well as uncertainty about them, fuels vaccine avoidance more than a year into the deadly coronavirus pandemic. Eighty-five percent of the people who took the survey were vaccinated.

Misperceptions and uncertainty emerge as important predictors of vaccine attitudes, the paper states, even when we account for other factors, including geography, demographic characteristics, political affiliation, trust in institutions, news consumption and personal experience with COVID-19.

Five percent of the respondents said they wouldnt get the vaccine under any circumstance.

Of the 20% who believed at least one false claim, nearly half of them were vaccinated. And men are more likely than women to believe these claims.

As for why those with high socioeconomic status are among the most likely to believe inaccurate information about the vaccines, the researchers write: In the case of highly educated respondents, this pattern is at least partly due to the fact that graduate degree holders are especially likely to select a definitive answer and avoid admitting that they did not know the correct response.

Eight percent of respondents overall said vaccines contained microchips, 9% that vaccines used tissue from abortions, 10% that vaccines altered DNA, and 11% that they might cause infertility issues.

Forty-eight percent of Democrats noted that all four of the claims were false. A third of Republicans said the same.

The infertility myth caused the most concern, with more than a third of respondents saying they didnt know if it was true -- meaning nearly half said it might be true or they didnt know if it was true.

The microchip claim was rejected by more respondents than the others -- 70% said it was inaccurate. (Interestingly, the study also found that, over the past nine months, the microchip myth was mentioned on Twitter more than the other three claims.)

The studys researchers noted that President Joe Biden, a Democrat, recently said that bad actors on social media were killing people with COVID-19 vaccine misinformation, and that Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has stated that misinformation was to be blamed for the low vaccination rates of Americans.

Just over 50% of the U.S. population is fully vaccinated. More than 600,000 Americans have died from COVID-19.

-- Douglas Perry

dperry@oregonian.com

@douglasmperry

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COVID-19 vaccine misinformation is rife, including among highly educated: Harvard study - OregonLive