Suchergebnisse

This article examines the role of Facebook and YouTube in potentially exposing people to COVID-19 vaccine–related misinformation. Specifically, to study the potential level of exposure, the article models a uni-directional information-sharing pathway beginning when a Facebook user encounters a vaccine-related post with a YouTube video, follows this video to YouTube, and then sees a list of related videos automatically recommended by YouTube. The results demonstrate that despite the efforts by Facebook and YouTube, COVID-19 vaccine–related misinformation in the form of anti-vaccine videos propagates on both platforms. Because of these apparent gaps in platform-led initiatives to combat misinformation, public health agencies must be proactive in creating vaccine promotion campaigns that are highly visible on social media to overtake anti-vaccine videos' prominence in the network. By examining related videos that a user potentially encounters, the article also contributes practical insights to identify influential YouTube channels for public health agencies to collaborate with on their public service announcements about the importance of vaccination programs and vaccine safety.

ObjectivesThe objective of this study was to explore how Ontario Public Health Units (PHUs) partnered with faith-based organizations (FBOs) and other community-based organizations (CBOs) to promote COVID-19 vaccination among ethnoracial groups made structurally vulnerable during the pandemic, and to understand how PHUs perceive the effectiveness of these partnerships with these organizations.MethodsBetween June to December 2022, we distributed a cross-sectional survey to 34 PHUs in Ontario to explore how PHUs were engaging and partnering with FBOs and CBOs.ResultsResponses were received from 28 of 34 (82.5%) public health units. Across Ontario, 23 (82.1%) respondent PHUs worked with FBOs during the COVID-19 vaccine rollout with activities ranging from informing FBOs of vaccine availability, to using places of worship as sites for vaccine administration and co-creating educational materials on immunization that were faith- and culturally sensitive.ConclusionFBOs can be a valuable community partner as PHUs work to increase the reach and uptake of public health interventions. Ongoing monitoring and evaluation of the impact of FBO engagement on vaccine confidence and uptake among ethnoracial communities is needed to inform future community engaged vaccine programming in Ontario.