Impact of COVID-19 infodemic on psychological wellbeing and vaccine hesitancy

Abstract

With COVID-19 pandemic, the world has witnessed a scenario that is unique compared to any other such pandemic that the world has grappled with. This is primarily owing to the parallel infodemic that the population faced with disinformation and misinformation explosion in several platforms that an individual can access. The myriad of information that everyone in the world received acted as double-edged sword as some information helped individuals in allying the anxiety and stigma and motivated them for appropriate COVID-19 behavior; however, on the other hand, the same acted opposite and created a whole lot of negative problems in the community. The misinformation regarding the disease is not only limited to what has happened so far in the realm of prevention and control rather the same is also plaguing the efforts towards effective vaccine uptake. With the technological and media advancement, it is getting difficult to ward off every misinformation that is getting received at individual end which is obviously detrimental in the efforts toward effective vaccine acceptance; however, measures need to be taken at appropriate level to curb this menace of infodemic to relax the world from the clutch of this pandemic. This article looks at the impact of the misinformation and disinformation on psychological wellbeing and vaccine acceptance and suggests remedial measures.