Hésitations Vaccinales: Observatoire HESIVAXs

Un article paru dans le magazine The Conversation et immédiatement repris par Scientific American le 22 janvier 2020 rapportait : « Les serpents – le krait chinois et le cobra chinois – pourraient être la source d'origine du coronavirus récemment découvert qui a déclenché une épidémie d'une...

A systematic review of the spread of information during pandemics: A case of the 2020 COVID-19 virus Buy Article: $14.00 + tax (Refund Policy) Pressing the buy now button more than once may result in multiple purchases Author: Shobowale, Oluwakemi Source: Journal of African Media Studies, Volume 13, Number 2, 1 June 2021, pp. 221-234(14) Publisher: Intellect DOI: https://doi.org/10.1386/jams_00045_1 < previous article| view table of contents|next article > The 2020 COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic represents a severe threat to the continent of Africa ‐ to its people, its fauna (as COVID-19 can spread to non-human creatures and human respiratory diseases are often deadly to other primates) and its economy. The context of Africa is unique in its relation to COVID-19 in that Africa has recently suffered from ‐ and still suffers from ‐ severe viral epidemics of HIV and Ebola virus, which creates both more significant vulnerabilities and relevant experience combatting viruses. Within the pandemic, there is a secondary ‘infodemic’ of misinformation which has served to complicate and worsen the effects of COVID-19 itself by undermining the public health measures necessary to prevent the spread of the virus. The purpose of this strategic review of recently published and relevant literature was to assess initial response to pandemics on the continent of Africa, in order to identify how the conspiracy theories, misinformation and disinformation related to COVID-19 may be identified and mitigated throughout the coming months and years and suggest a research agenda for better informing these issues. The study took the form of a systematic review of the literature relating to COVID-19 misinformation in Africa, especially as it relates to prior viral epidemics of HIV/AIDS and Ebola virus. This research is significant as it sheds light on potential means of mitigating the spread of disinformation, and therefore saving lives as we move through this ongoing pandemic. Keywords: Africa; COVID-19; coronavirus; fake news; infodemic; information; misinformation Document Type: Research Article Affiliations: 0000000404092862Swinburne University of Technology Publication date: June 1, 2021

One cannot spend >5 min on social media at the moment without finding a link to some conspiracy theory or other regarding the origin of SARS-CoV2, the coronavirus responsible for the COVID-19 pande...

Vaccination programs against COVID-19 are being scaled up. We aimed to assess the effects of vaccine characteristics on vaccine hesitancy among healthcare workers in a multi-center survey conducted within French healthcare facilities from 1 December 2020 to 26 March 2021. We invited any healthcare workers naïve of COVID-19 vaccination to complete an online self-questionnaire. They reported on their socio-demographic characteristics, as well as their perception and beliefs towards vaccination. We measured their willingness to get vaccinated in eight scenarios for candidates’ vaccines presented sequentially (1 to 4-point scale). Candidates’ vaccines varied for efficacy (25%, 50%, 100%), length of immunization (1 year or lifetime), frequency (<1/100, <1/10,000), and severity (none, moderate, severe) of adverse events. We analyzed 4349 healthcare workers’ responses with interpretable questionnaires. The crude willingness to get vaccinated was 53.2% and increased over time. We clustered the trajectories of responses using an unsupervised classification algorithm (k-means) and identified four groups of healthcare workers: those willing to get vaccinated in any scenario (18%), those not willing to get vaccinated at all (22%), and those hesitating but more likely to accept (32%) or reject (28%) the vaccination depending on the scenario. In these last two subgroups, vaccine acceptance was growing with age, educational background and was higher among men with condition. Compared to an ideal vaccine candidate, a 50% reduced efficacy resulted in an average drop in acceptance by 0.8 (SD ± 0.8, −23.5%), while it was ranging from 1.4 (SD ± 1.0, −38.4%) to 2.1 (SD ± 1.0, −58.4%) in case of severe but rare adverse event. The acceptance of a mandatory immunization program was 29.6% overall and was positively correlated to the willingness to get vaccinated, ranging from 2.4% to 60.0%. Even if healthcare workers represent a heterogeneous population, most (80%) could accept the vaccination against COVID-19. Their willingness to get the vaccine increased over time and as immunization programs became available. Among hesitant professionals, the fear of adverse events was the main concern. Targeted information campaigns reassuring about adverse events may increase vaccine coverage, in a population with a strong opinion about mandatory immunization programs.

Being a grand challenge of global scale, the COVID‐19 pandemic requires collective and collaborative efforts from a variety of actors to enable the expected scientific advancement and technological...

In recent years, mass media and social networks have played an important role in disseminating information regarding public health. During the COVID-19 epidemic, misinformation and fake news have represented an important issue generating confusion and ...