The heated battle between Australia’s anti-vaccine lobby, the Australian Vaccination Network (AVN), and those fighting against its misinformation took a positive turn late last week, with the New South…
Conspiracy theories can make parents hesitant to vaccinate their children.
The history of anti-vaccination theories can help us understand how such claims capture a popular following. The same misinformation used against 19th century smallpox vaccine is still in use today.
Memes have featured in anti-vaccine messaging for centuries and their power to spread harmful health disinformation is growing.
To adequately prepare for the next pandemic, we need to understand where people’s spirituality and science scepticism overlap – and why.
Research on conspiracy theories can help people become receptive to health advice.
Memes that promote harmful conspiracies and memes that mock them are sometimes hard to distinguish.
Anti-vaccinators today echo 200-year-old debates.
Because of the potential drawbacks of forcing people to vaccinate their children, we should take other measures to increase vaccination rates.
Effective communication strategies will be crucial if scientists want to counter the worrying anti-vaccination trend.
