Fake News and vaccine hesitancy in the COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil

Abstract

This paper presents the evolution of fake news disseminated about vaccines and the SARS-CoV-2 virus and its adverse impacts on the current Brazilian health crisis. This quantitative, empirical study is based on the notifications re-ceived by the Eu Fiscalizo app, through which the Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and WhatsApp pla-tforms were identified as the principal means for disseminating and sharing rumors and misinfor-mation about COVID-19. We observed large-sca-le circulation of fake news about vaccines directly related to the Brazilian political polarization, which became prevalent four months after the first COVID-19 case was recorded in the country. We can conclude that this phenomenon was crucial in discouraging the adherence of segments of the Brazilian population to social distancing and vac-cination campaigns.