COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy : a Facebook ethnography

Abstract

Vaccine hesitancy is a complex, multifactorial issue which has been posing a threat to global health since before the current COVID-19 pandemic (Peretti-Watel et al., 2015). The literature on social media use and vaccine hesitancy frames social media as a source of medical information and misinformation which can influence vaccination attitudes (Baccarella et al., 2018). However, social media can be thought of simultaneously as a part of the lived experience, as well as an online extension of it, where various vaccination attitudes and socio-political events can be encountered and debated. In this study, a qualitative online digital ethnography was carried out on Facebook to generate data on COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy in Malta. The results of this study give insights on COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy in Malta and its relationship with people’s perceptions of scientific authority figures, their personal experiences with COVID-19 vaccines, local socio-politics, and social prestige associated with vaccination choices.