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I've been tweeting about vaccines for a while now. Next 6 months are crucial in misinformation war so here are a few things I have learned 1/n
1) Vaccine hesitancy is widespread, and a lot of it is soft. Many folk just need simple concerns addressed 2/n
2) People have a complex set of concerns. You need to understand them. Some can be addressed, some not. Keep an eye on what they are as they change 3/n
3) The "anti-vaxx" voices are changing and though they are numerically small they have a big audience. Beautifully proven in this study. By comparison those of us trying to counter misinformation are less widely shared. Some thoughts on why 4/n https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2281-1
First- when you are not constrained by facts/truths, you can change your message to fit audience. You can also use more emotive and explosive language. Doing this from a position of promoting the science and being rationale is tough to pull off 5/n
.... basically "we" ie pro-science are more boring! May as well admit it and embrace it. In the end my guess is it is less important but I might be wrong... 6/n
Secondly- many people are mistrustful of authority esp Govt. You need a mix of diverse independent people involved. You also probably need to be honest about who you are and your biases 7/n
4) Direct confrontation is almost pointless. When you are not constrained by any rules on truth it is pretty easy to constantly pivot away from whatever is in front of you. 8/n
5) People put to much weight on personal experience. A good example is- how many people do you know who have died of COVID-19? I bet there ends up being a pretty solid relationship to vaccine uptake. Accept this and lean into it. 9/n
6) Get outside your bubble. Harder to do than say. We gravitate to people we like/people like us. I now need an expert to tell us how we do this! Anybody out there in my bubble can help please pitch in!
