Scientists in React study warn virus is spreading from schoolchildren into more vulnerable age groups

England Covid infection rates doubled in over-65s between September and October

Celebrities encourage turnout as response surpasses Jacinda Ardern’s call to administer 100,000 shots

Covid ‘vaxathon’: over 2.5% of New Zealanders get jabbed in one day

10.31234/osf.io/qajkb

People believe repeated statements more than new ones; a phenomenon called the repetition-induced truth effect. It is prominently explained with processing fluency: The subjective ease when processing repeated as compared to new information, which is used to infer truth. To date, the role of affective processes for the truth effect is rather unclear. From a theoretical perspective, people should rely more on fluency under positive than under negative affect, which is supported by experimental evidence. In the present study, we tested whether an affective picture presented before a statement influences the repetition-induced truth effect. Thirty-five participants took part in two sessions that were a week apart. In session 1, they rated the truth status of 102 statements. These were repeated in session 2 and intermixed with 102 new statements, and again we collected participants’ truth ratings. Furthermore, each statement was preceded by a positive, negative, or neutral affective picture. We expected participants to rely more on fluency as a cue to truth in the positive than in the negative affective condition. However, while we replicated the repetition-induced truth effect, the interaction between affect and repetition was insignificant, but we observed a significant main effect of affect—statements were rated as truer after a positive rather than a negative or neutral picture, which may be due to different processing modes induced by the affective stimuli. In sum, our results suggest two independent mechanisms that enhance the subjective truth of statements: repetition and positive affect.

Judgments of truth are independently modulated by affect and repetition

As immunisation programmes expand globally, more estimates of a third measure of vaccine performance—vaccine impact—are needed.

10.1016/S0140-6736(21)02322-9

The value of vaccine programme impact monitoring during the COVID-19 pandemic

10.31234/osf.io/g2b6k

The alarming spread of fake news and the breakdown of collective trust in sources of information is a major ongoing concern. Public mistrust and conspiracy beliefs can change behaviour in a way that profoundly alters society’s reaction to new information. However, we still lack a broad psychological and socio-evolutionary understanding of the transmission of knowledge: the concept of epistemic trust (defined as trust in communicated knowledge) could provide the basis for such an integrated understanding. This study examined the role of epistemic trust in determining individual capacity to recognise fake and real news, and susceptibility to conspiracy thinking – both in general and in relation to COVID-19. Measuring three different epistemic dispositions – trusting, mistrusting and credulous – in two different studies (study 1 = 705; study 2 = 502), we found that Credulity is associated with inability to discriminate between fake and real news. To explore the developmental factors at work in creating vulnerability to fake news, we investigated the mediating role of Mistrust and Credulity, and found that these factors mediated the relationship between exposure to childhood adversity and the failure to distinguish between fake and real news. Both Mistrust and Credulity were also associated with general and COVID-19 related conspiracy beliefs; similarly, Mistrust and Credulity were associated with vaccine hesitancy, both in general and in relation to COVID-19. Findings illuminate the potential psychological processes at work in generating broad social-political phenomena such as fake news and conspiracy thinking.

Acquiring knowledge: Epistemic trust in the age of fake news

We continue to hear excuses about why low-income countries have only received 0.4% of #COVID19 vaccines: 1. They can’t absorb vaccines. That’s not true. With the exception of a few fragile, conflict-affected and vulnerable countries, most low-income countries are ready to go.

This study aimed to investigate age differences in risk-taking concerning the coronavirus pandemic, while disentangling the contribution of risk attitude, objective risk and numeracy. We tested (i) whether older and younger adults differed in taking coronavirus-related health risks, (ii) whether there are age differences in coronavirus risk, risk attitude and numerical ability and (iii) whether these age differences in coronavirus risk, attitude and numerical ability are related to coronavirus risk-taking. The study was observational, with measures presented to all participants in random order. A sample of 469 participants reported their coronavirus-related risk-taking behaviour, objective risk, risk attitude towards health and safety risks, numerical ability and risk perception. Our findings show that age was significantly related to coronavirus risk-taking, with younger adults taking more risk, and that this was partially mediated by higher numeracy, but not objective risk or risk attitude. Exploratory analyses suggest that risk perception for self and others partially mediated age differences in coronavirus risk-taking. The findings of this study may better our understanding of why age groups differ in their adoption of protective behaviours during a pandemic and contribute to the debate whether age differences in risk-taking occur due to decline in abilities or changes in risk attitude.

10.1098/rsos.201445

Age differences in COVID-19 risk-taking, and the relationship with risk attitude and numerical ability

Saskatchewan faces similar surge in hospitals, while Manitoba is at risk from low vaccination rates

Alberta acted like the pandemic was over. Now it's a cautionary tale for Canada

10.15585/mmwr.mm7040e1external icon.

What is already known about this topic? Previous studies have demonstrated the importance of prevention strategies to reduce SARS-CoV-2 transmission in overnight camps. What is added by this report? During June–August 2021, a total of 7,173 campers and staff members attended nine U.S. overnight camps that implemented multiple prevention strategies including high vaccination coverage (>93% among eligible persons aged ≥12 years); prearrival and frequent screening testing (38,059 tests); and additional concomitant prevention measures. Nine laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 cases and no secondary infections were detected. What are the implications for public health practice? Implementation of high vaccination coverage coupled with multiple prevention strategies is critical to averting COVID-19 outbreaks in congregate settings, including overnight camps. These findings highlight important guiding principles for school and youth-based COVID-19 prevention protocols.

Multicomponent Strategies to Prevent SARS-CoV-2 Transmission — Nine Overnight Youth Summer Camps, United States, June–August 2021

Key points There is no FDA or USDA legally-binding definition of the word natural. Labeling a product as natural does not necessarily convey any health or safety benefits. The distinction between natural and artificial is somewhat arbitrary.

Our Unnatural Fascination With All Things Natural

10.31219/osf.io/65tdh

Children are not small adults. This is a critical point that many pediatricians and other child health professionals get bored of saying, yet it does seem to need repeating. While children have the lowest risk from COVID-19 directly, they risk suffering the indirect impacts of policy decisions, many of which appear to have been made with next to no explicit consideration of their interests. Public health interventions should not only be about infectious disease control, they should consider a broad set of outcomes. In addition, they ought to consider vulnerability, including that in early childhood - a time when young children’s brains are developing rapidly and are most susceptible to adversity. We believe that mandating masking of pre-school children is not in line with public health principles, and needs to be urgently re-considered.

Commentary: Making pre-school children wear masks is bad public health

Recently, we reported oligoadenylate synthetase 1 (OAS1) contributed to the risk of Alzheimer’s disease, by its enrichment in transcriptional networks expressed by microglia. However, the function of OAS1 within microglia was not known.Using genotyping from 1313 individuals with sporadic Alzheimer’s disease and 1234 control individuals, we confirm the OAS1 variant, rs1131454, is associated with increased risk for Alzheimer’s disease. The same OAS1 locus has been recently associated with severe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outcomes, linking risk for both diseases. The single nucleotide polymorphisms rs1131454(A) and rs4766676(T) are associated with Alzheimer’s disease, and rs10735079(A) and rs6489867(T) are associated with severe COVID-19, where the risk alleles are linked with decreased OAS1 expression. Analysing single-cell RNA-sequencing data of myeloid cells from Alzheimer’s disease and COVID-19 patients, we identify co-expression networks containing interferon (IFN)-responsive genes, including OAS1, which are significantly upregulated with age and both diseases. In human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived microglia with lowered OAS1 expression, we show exaggerated production of TNF-α with IFN-γ stimulation, indicating OAS1 is required to limit the pro-inflammatory response of myeloid cells.Collectively, our data support a link between genetic risk for Alzheimer’s disease and susceptibility to critical illness with COVID-19 centred on OAS1, a finding with potential implications for future treatments of Alzheimer’s disease and COVID-19, and development of biomarkers to track disease progression.

10.1093/brain/awab337

A genetic link between risk for Alzheimer's disease and severe COVID-19 outcomes via the OAS1 gene

10.1126/science.abj3624 PREVIOUS ARTICLESingle-cell nuclear architecture across cell types in the mouse brainPreviousNEXT ARTICLEDefining variant-resistant epitopes targeted by SARS-CoV-2 antibodies: A global consortium studyNext

Inherited genetic factors can influence the severity of COVID-19, but the molecular explanation underpinning a genetic association is often unclear. Intracellular antiviral defenses can inhibit the replication of viruses and reduce disease severity. To better understand the antiviral defenses relevant to COVID-19, we used interferon-stimulated gene (ISG) expression screening to reveal that OAS1, through RNase L, potently inhibits SARS-CoV-2. We show that a common splice-acceptor SNP (Rs10774671) governs whether people express prenylated OAS1 isoforms that are membrane-associated and sense specific regions of SARS-CoV-2 RNAs, or only express cytosolic, nonprenylated OAS1 that does not efficiently detect SARS-CoV-2. Importantly, in hospitalized patients, expression of prenylated OAS1 was associated with protection from severe COVID-19, suggesting this antiviral defense is a major component of a protective antiviral response.

A prenylated dsRNA sensor protects against severe COVID-19

When there are supply constraints, unvaccinated patients with COVID-19 are among the populations who should be prioritized to receive monoclonal antibodies, according to an updated statement on NIH COVID-19 treatment guidelines released on Thursday.

Should the Unvaccinated Get Priority for Monoclonal Antibodies? — NIH guideline panel co-chair says recommendations are based on "guiding ethical principles"

The latest coronavirus news updated every day including coronavirus cases, the latest news, features and interviews from New Scientist and essential information about the covid-19 pandemic

Covid-19 news: Study finds vaccines prevent over 84% of severe cases

Sydney is celebrating its own version of “freedom day”. After living under lockdown for 107 days to curb an outbreak of the delta coronavirus variant, residents can socialise, dine out and go shopping again, now that more than 70 per cent of people aged 16 and over have been vaccinated.

Sydney comes out of 4-month lockdown after reaching vaccination target

10.1101/2020.11.01.20222315

Background Close contact with children may provide cross-reactive immunity to SARs-CoV-2 due to more frequent prior coryzal infections from seasonal coronaviruses. Alternatively, close contact with children may increase risk of SARs-CoV-2 infection. We investigated whether risk of infection with SARs-CoV-2 and severe outcomes differed between adults living with and without children.Methods Working on behalf of NHS England, we conducted a population-based cohort study using primary care data and pseudonymously-linked hospital and intensive care admissions, and death records, from patients registered in general practices representing 40% of England. Using multivariable Cox regression, we calculated fully-adjusted hazard ratios (HR) of outcomes from 1st February-3rd August 2020 comparing adults living with and without children in the household.Findings Among 9,157,814 adults ≤65 years, living with children 0-11 years was not associated with increased risks of recorded SARS-CoV-2 infection, COVID-19 related hospital or ICU admission but was associated with reduced risk of COVID-19 death (HR 0.75, 95%CI 0.62-0.92). Living with children aged 12-18 years was associated with a small increased risk of recorded SARS-CoV-2 infection (HR 1.08, 95%CI 1.03-1.13), but not associated with other COVID-19 outcomes. Living with children of any age was also associated with lower risk of dying from non-COVID-19 causes. Among 2,567,671 adults >65 years there was no association between living with children and outcomes related to SARS-CoV-2. We observed no consistent changes in risk following school closure.Interpretation For adults living with children there is no evidence of an increased risk of severe COVID-19 outcomes. These findings have implications for determining the benefit-harm balance of children attending school in the COVID-19 pandemic.Funding This work was supported by the Medical Research Council MR/V015737/1.Evidence before this study We searched MEDLINE on 19th October 2020 for population-based epidemiological studies comparing the risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection and COVID-19 disease in people living with and without children. We searched for articles published in 2020, with abstracts available, and terms “(children or parents or dependants) AND (COVID or SARS-CoV-2 or coronavirus) AND (rate or hazard or odds or risk), in the title, abstract or keywords. 244 papers were identified for screening but none were relevant. One additional study in preprint was identified on medRxiv and found a reduced risk of hospitalisation for COVID-19 and a positive SARS-CoV-2 infection among adult healthcare workers living with children.Added value of this study This is the first population-based study to investigate whether the risk of recorded SARS-CoV-2 infection and severe outcomes from COVID-19 differ between adults living in households with and without school-aged children during the UK pandemic. Our findings show that for adults living with children there is no evidence of an increased risk of severe COVID-19 outcomes although there may be a slightly increased risk of recorded SARS-CoV-2 infection for working-age adults living with children aged 12 to 18 years. Working-age adults living with children 0 to 11 years have a lower risk of death from COVID-19 compared to adults living without children, with the effect size being comparable to their lower risk of death from any cause. We observed no consistent changes in risk of recorded SARS-CoV-2 infection and severe outcomes from COVID-19 comparing periods before and after school closure.Implications of all the available evidence Our results demonstrate no evidence of serious harms from COVID-19 to adults in close contact with children, compared to those living in households without children. This has implications for determining the benefit-harm balance of children attending school in the COVID-19 pandemic.

Association between living with children and outcomes from COVID-19: an OpenSAFELY cohort study of 12 million adults in England

10.1056/NEJMoa2114583

BackgroundDespite high vaccine coverage and effectiveness, the incidence of symptomatic infection with severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has been increasing in Israel. Whether the increasing incidence of infection is due to waning immunity after the receipt of two doses of the BNT162b2 vaccine is unclear. MethodsWe conducted a 6-month longitudinal prospective study involving vaccinated health care workers who were tested monthly for the presence of anti-spike IgG and neutralizing antibodies. Linear mixed models were used to assess the dynamics of antibody levels and to determine predictors of antibody levels at 6 months. ResultsThe study included 4868 participants, with 3808 being included in the linear mixed-model analyses. The level of IgG antibodies decreased at a consistent rate, whereas the neutralizing antibody level decreased rapidly for the first 3 months with a relatively slow decrease thereafter. Although IgG antibody levels were highly correlated with neutralizing antibody titers (Spearman’s rank correlation between 0.68 and 0.75), the regression relationship between the IgG and neutralizing antibody levels depended on the time since receipt of the second vaccine dose. Six months after receipt of the second dose, neutralizing antibody titers were substantially lower among men than among women (ratio of means, 0.64; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.55 to 0.75), lower among persons 65 years of age or older than among those 18 to less than 45 years of age (ratio of means, 0.58; 95% CI, 0.48 to 0.70), and lower among participants with immunosuppression than among those without immunosuppression (ratio of means, 0.30; 95% CI, 0.20 to 0.46). ConclusionsSix months after receipt of the second dose of the BNT162b2 vaccine, humoral response was substantially decreased, especially among men, among persons 65 years of age or older, and among persons with immunosuppression.

Waning Immune Humoral Response to BNT162b2 Covid-19 Vaccine over 6 Months

Dr. Hotez urged parents to avoid misinformation and to get their younger children vaccinated after Pfizer officially asked the Food and Drug Administration to authorize its Covid-19 vaccine with BioNTech for kids ages 5 to 11.  

Covid-19: Kids ages 5 to 11 ‘need to get that vaccination,’ says Dr. Peter Hotez

Covid cases in schools fuel two-tier pandemic with children and their parents more exposed

Covid-19 cases are falling among almost every age group in England, apart from school children and their parents’ generation.

OTTAWA, Oct 6 (Reuters) - Canada will place unvaccinated federal employees on unpaid leave and require COVID-19 shots for air, train and ship passengers, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Wednesday, as he unveiled one of the world's strictest vaccine mandate policies.

Canada imposes COVID-19 vaccine mandate on federal workers, transportation

10.1057/s41599-019-0279-9

The spread of online misinformation poses serious challenges to societies worldwide. In a novel attempt to address this issue, we designed a psychological intervention in the form of an online browser game. In the game, players take on the role of a fake news producer and learn to master six documented techniques commonly used in the production of misinformation: polarisation, invoking emotions, spreading conspiracy theories, trolling people online, deflecting blame, and impersonating fake accounts. The game draws on an inoculation metaphor, where preemptively exposing, warning, and familiarising people with the strategies used in the production of fake news helps confer cognitive immunity when exposed to real misinformation. We conducted a large-scale evaluation of the game with N = 15,000 participants in a pre-post gameplay design. We provide initial evidence that people’s ability to spot and resist misinformation improves after gameplay, irrespective of education, age, political ideology, and cognitive style.

Fake news game confers psychological resistance against online misinformation

Background Claims about what improves or harms our health are ubiquitous. People need to be able to assess the reliability of these claims. We aimed to evaluate an intervention designed to teach primary school children to assess claims about the effects of treatments (ie, any action intended to maintain or improve health). Methods In this cluster-randomised controlled trial, we included primary schools in the central region of Uganda that taught year-5 children (aged 10–12 years). We excluded international schools, special needs schools for children with auditory and visual impairments, schools that had participated in user-testing and piloting of the resources, infant and nursery schools, adult education schools, and schools that were difficult for us to access in terms of travel time. We randomly allocated a representative sample of eligible schools to either an intervention or control group. Intervention schools received the Informed Health Choices primary school resources (textbooks, exercise books, and a teachers' guide). Teachers attended a 2 day introductory workshop and gave nine 80 min lessons during one school term. The lessons addressed 12 concepts essential to assessing claims about treatment effects and making informed health choices. We did not intervene in the control schools. The primary outcome, measured at the end of the school term, was the mean score on a test with two multiple-choice questions for each of the 12 concepts and the proportion of children with passing scores on the same test. This trial is registered with the Pan African Clinical Trial Registry, number PACTR201606001679337. Findings Between April 11, 2016, and June 8, 2016, 2960 schools were assessed for eligibility; 2029 were eligible, and a random sample of 170 were invited to recruitment meetings. After recruitment meetings, 120 eligible schools consented and were randomly assigned to either the intervention group (n=60, 76 teachers and 6383 children) or control group (n=60, 67 teachers and 4430 children). The mean score in the multiple-choice test for the intervention schools was 62·4% (SD 18·8) compared with 43·1% (15·2) for the control schools (adjusted mean difference 20·0%, 95% CI 17·3–22·7; p<0·00001). In the intervention schools, 3967 (69%) of 5753 children achieved a predetermined passing score (≥13 of 24 correct answers) compared with 1186 (27%) of 4430 children in the control schools (adjusted difference 50%, 95% CI 44–55). The intervention was effective for children with different levels of reading skills, but was more effective for children with better reading skills. Interpretation The use of the Informed Health Choices primary school learning resources, after an introductory workshop for the teachers, led to a large improvement in the ability of children to assess claims about the effects of treatments. The results show that it is possible to teach primary school children to think critically in schools with large student to teacher ratios and few resources. Future studies should address how to scale up use of the resources, long-term effects, including effects on actual health choices, transferability to other countries, and how to build on this programme with additional primary and secondary school learning resources. Funding Research Council of Norway.

10.1016/S0140-6736(17)31226-6

Effects of the Informed Health Choices primary school intervention on the ability of children in Uganda to assess the reliability of claims about treatment effects: a cluster-randomised controlled trial

10.1016/j.socscimed.2019.06.002

RationaleSeasonal influenza vaccination rates are below the recommended targets, contributing to significant preventable harms. Protection Motivation Theory (PMT), a widely applied model of motivation to respond to threats, may provide some insights into strategies to increase the rate of vaccine uptake. Yet, previous research has omitted some of the proposed predictors of intention when applying this model to vaccination.ObjectiveThe aim of the study is to assess the utility of the PMT in predicting intention to obtain the seasonal influenza vaccine. This study will be the first to examine the role of all six PMT constructs in predicting intention to receive the seasonal influenza vaccine.MethodA cross-sectional study of 547 US residents was conducted using Amazon MTurk.ResultsAll constructs show significant bivariate correlations in the direction expected from the prior literature. Further examination of the theory within a linear regression model, however, found that perceived costs of vaccinating (i.e., response costs) did not uniquely account for variance in intention. All other components, perceived severity of and susceptibility to influenza, the perceived benefits of not vaccinating (i.e., maladaptive response rewards), the self-efficacy to vaccinate, and the perceived efficacy of vaccinating in preventing influenza (i.e., response efficacy) were unique predictors of intention. Overall, the PMT accounted for 62% of the variance in intention to vaccinate.ConclusionsThe study is the first to investigate influenza vaccination using all six theorised predictors of intention from the PMT. The findings highlight the importance of the simultaneous inclusion of all components of the model in assessing their potential utility as targets for intervention. Importantly, the results identify under-utilised constructs in the promotion of vaccine uptake, such as maladaptive response rewards, which should be considered targets for future intervention.

Predicting intention to receive a seasonal influenza vaccination using Protection Motivation Theory

How Ireland reversed a HPV vaccination crisis

When Eigil Rosegar Poulsen first heard about the controversy over the human papilloma virus (HPV) vaccination in Denmark, he became quite upset. Still, the debate sparked a desire to share his story.

Denmark campaign rebuilds confidence in HPV vaccination

BackgroundFunding for human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination in Japan began in 2010 for girls aged 12–16 years, with three-dose coverage initially reaching more than 70%. On June 14, 2013, 2 months after formal inclusion in Japan's national immunisation programme, proactive recommendations for the HPV vaccine were suspended following reports of adverse events since found to be unrelated to vaccination, but which were extensively covered in the media. Vaccine coverage subsequently dropped to less than 1% and has remained this low to date. We aimed to quantify the impact of this vaccine hesitancy crisis, and the potential health gains if coverage can be restored.MethodsIn this modelling study, we used the Policy1-Cervix modelling platform. We adapted the model for Japan with use of data on HPV prevalence, screening practices and coverage, and cervical cancer incidence and mortality. We evaluated the expected number of cervical cancer cases and deaths over the lifetime of cohorts born from 1994 to 2007 in the context of the vaccine hesitancy crisis. We assessed a range of recovery scenarios from 2020 onwards, including a scenario in which routine coverage is restored to 70%, with 50% catch-up coverage for the missed cohorts (aged 13–20 years in 2020). To estimate the impact of the vaccine crisis to date, we also modelled a counterfactual scenario in which 70% coverage had been maintained in 12-year-olds from 2013 onwards.FindingsThe vaccine crisis from 2013 to 2019 is predicted to result in an additional 24 600–27 300 cases and 5000–5700 deaths over the lifetime of cohorts born between 1994 and 2007, compared with if coverage had remained at around 70% since 2013. However, restoration of coverage in 2020, including catch-up vaccination for missed cohorts, could prevent 14 800–16 200 of these cases and 3000–3400 of these deaths. If coverage is not restored in 2020, an additional 3400–3800 cases and 700–800 deaths will occur over the lifetime of individuals who are 12 years old in 2020 alone. If the crisis continues, 9300–10 800 preventable deaths due to cervical cancer will occur in the next 50 years (2020–69).InterpretationThe HPV vaccine crisis to date is estimated to result in around 5000 deaths from cervical cancer in Japan. Many of these deaths could still be prevented if vaccination coverage with extended catch-up can be rapidly restored.FundingNational Health and Medical Research Council Australia Centre of Research Excellence in Cervical Cancer Control, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science.

10.1016/S2468-2667(20)30010-4

Impact of HPV vaccine hesitancy on cervical cancer in Japan: a modelling study

The World Health Assembly has adopted the global strategy to accelerate the elimination of cervical cancer as a public health problem.

World Health Assembly adopts global strategy to accelerate cervical cancer elimination

Objective To quantify the effect on cervical disease at age 20 years of immunisation with bivalent human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine at age 12-13 years.Design Retrospective population study, 1988-96.Setting National vaccination and cervical screening programmes in Scotland.Participants 138 692 women born between 1 January 1988 and 5 June 1996 and who had a smear test result recorded at age 20.Main outcome measures Effect of vaccination on cytology results and associated histological diagnoses from first year of screening (while aged 20), calculated using logistic regression.Results 138 692 records were retrieved. Compared with unvaccinated women born in 1988, vaccinated women born in 1995 and 1996 showed an 89% reduction (95% confidence interval 81% to 94%) in prevalent cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN) grade 3 or worse (from 0.59% (0.48% to 0.71%) to 0.06% (0.04% to 0.11%)), an 88% reduction (83% to 92%) in CIN grade 2 or worse (from 1.44% (1.28% to 1.63%) to 0.17% (0.12% to 0.24%)), and a 79% reduction (69% to 86%) in CIN grade 1 (from 0.69% (0.58% to 0.63%) to 0.15% (0.10% to 0.21%)). Younger age at immunisation was associated with increasing vaccine effectiveness: 86% (75% to 92%) for CIN grade 3 or worse for women vaccinated at age 12-13 compared with 51% (28% to 66%) for women vaccinated at age 17. Evidence of herd protection against high grade cervical disease was found in unvaccinated girls in the 1995 and 1996 cohorts.Conclusions Routine vaccination of girls aged 12-13 years with the bivalent HPV vaccine in Scotland has led to a dramatic reduction in preinvasive cervical disease. Evidence of clinically relevant herd protection is apparent in unvaccinated women. These data are consistent with the reduced prevalence of high risk HPV in Scotland. The bivalent vaccine is confirmed as being highly effective vaccine and should greatly reduce the incidence of cervical cancer. The findings will need to be considered by cervical cancer prevention programmes worldwide.

10.1136/bmj.l1161

Prevalence of cervical disease at age 20 after immunisation with bivalent HPV vaccine at age 12-13 in Scotland: retrospective population study

10.1080/21645515.2018.1522468

In November 2017, it was announced that the new dengue vaccine (“Dengvaxia”) had risks for those not previously exposed to dengue. While some countries proceeded with adjusting guidance accordingly, the Philippines reacted with outrage and political turmoil with naming and shaming of government officials involved in purchasing the vaccine, as well as scientists involved in the vaccine trials and assessment. The result was broken public trust around the dengue vaccine as well heightened anxiety around vaccines in general. The Vaccine Confidence ProjectTM measured the impact of this crisis, comparing confidence levels in 2015, before the incident, with levels in 2018. The findings reflect a dramatic drop in vaccine confidence from 93% “strongly agreeing” that vaccines are important in 2015 to 32% in 2018. There was a drop in confidence in those strongly agreeing that vaccines are safe from 82% in 2015 to only 21% in 2018; similarly confidence in the effectiveness of vaccines dropped from 82% in 2015 to only 22%. This article highlights the importance of routinely identifying gaps or breakdowns in public confidence in order to rebuild trust, before a pandemic threat, when societal and political cooperation with be key to an effective response.

Vaccine confidence plummets in the Philippines following dengue vaccine scare: why it matters to pandemic preparedness

Vaccine case study: Exploring the controversy around Dengvaxia and vaccine misinformation in the Philippines

New research from First Draft goes into detail on how staged footage became an engine for vaccine misinformation and mistrust in Pakistan, derailing efforts to immunise millions of children.

How fake videos unravelled Pakistan’s war on polio

10.5964/jspp.v8i2.1362

Although conspiracy theories are endorsed by about half the population and occasionally turn out to be true, they are more typically false beliefs that, by definition, have a paranoid theme. Consequently, psychological research to date has focused on determining whether there are traits that account for belief in conspiracy theories (BCT) within a deficit model. Alternatively, a two-component, socio-epistemic model of BCT is proposed that seeks to account for the ubiquity of conspiracy theories, their variance along a continuum, and the inconsistency of research findings likening them to psychopathology. Within this model, epistemic mistrust is the core component underlying conspiracist ideation that manifests as the rejection of authoritative information, focuses the specificity of conspiracy theory beliefs, and can sometimes be understood as a sociocultural response to breaches of trust, inequities of power, and existing racial prejudices. Once voices of authority are negated due to mistrust, the resulting epistemic vacuum can send individuals “down the rabbit hole” looking for answers where they are vulnerable to the biased processing of information and misinformation within an increasingly “post-truth” world. The two-component, socio-epistemic model of BCT argues for mitigation strategies that address both mistrust and misinformation processing, with interventions for individuals, institutions of authority, and society as a whole.

Mistrust and Misinformation: A Two-Component, Socio-Epistemic Model of Belief in Conspiracy Theories

On social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook, we are increasingly witnessing the division of people into filter bubbles.1 These bubbles are driven by personal biases, because we selectively orient ourselves toward people, groups, organizations, and institutions who share our attitudes and beliefs. Although the idea of connecting to like-minded others is not new, social media amplify this process. In the past five years, increasingly polarizing topics have come to the forefront of society facilitated by these networked, online platforms. Even though these platforms have the potential to facilitate open dialogue and inclusion, they also allow anonymous participants to inject commentary and vitriol in what some have described as a Wild West–like atmosphere.In this issue of AJPH, in their article on Twitter bots, Russian trolls, and the public health vaccine debate, Broniatowski et al. (p. 1378) describe just how sophisticated the exploitation of the social media environment can be. Their study serves as a warning for all who study public health communication on social media and those who seek to use these platforms to either inform communication strategies or communicate with the public.

10.2105/AJPH.2018.304661

Health Communication Trolls and Bots Versus Public Health Agencies’ Trusted Voices

Recent research has explored the possibility of building attitudinal resistance against online misinformation through psychological inoculation. The inoculation metaphor relies on a medical analogy: by pre-emptively exposing people to weakened doses of misinformation cognitive immunity can be conferred. A recent example is the Bad News game, an online fake news game in which players learn about six common misinformation techniques. We present a replication and extension into the effectiveness of Bad News as an anti-misinformation intervention. We address three shortcomings identified in the original study: the lack of a control group, the relatively low number of test items, and the absence of attitudinal certainty measurements. Using a 2 (treatment vs. control) × 2 (pre vs. post) mixed design (N = 196) we measure participants’ ability to spot misinformation techniques in 18 fake headlines before and after playing Bad News. We find that playing Bad News significantly improves people’s ability to spot misinformation techniques compared to a gamified control group, and crucially, also increases people’s level of confidence in their own judgments. Importantly, this confidence boost only occurred for those who updated their reliability assessments in the correct direction. This study offers further evidence for the effectiveness of psychological inoculation against not only specific instances of fake news, but the very strategies used in its production. Implications are discussed for inoculation theory and cognitive science research on fake news.

10.5334/joc.91

Good News about Bad News: Gamified Inoculation Boosts Confidence and Cognitive Immunity Against Fake News

10.1371/journal.pone.0175799

Misinformation can undermine a well-functioning democracy. For example, public misconceptions about climate change can lead to lowered acceptance of the reality of climate change and lowered support for mitigation policies. This study experimentally explored the impact of misinformation about climate change and tested several pre-emptive interventions designed to reduce the influence of misinformation. We found that false-balance media coverage (giving contrarian views equal voice with climate scientists) lowered perceived consensus overall, although the effect was greater among free-market supporters. Likewise, misinformation that confuses people about the level of scientific agreement regarding anthropogenic global warming (AGW) had a polarizing effect, with free-market supporters reducing their acceptance of AGW and those with low free-market support increasing their acceptance of AGW. However, we found that inoculating messages that (1) explain the flawed argumentation technique used in the misinformation or that (2) highlight the scientific consensus on climate change were effective in neutralizing those adverse effects of misinformation. We recommend that climate communication messages should take into account ways in which scientific content can be distorted, and include pre-emptive inoculation messages.

Neutralizing misinformation through inoculation: Exposing misleading argumentation techniques reduces their influence

Country on frontline of information war teaches everyone from school pupils to politicians how to spot slippery information

How Finland starts its fight against fake news in primary schools

Social media are often criticized for being a conduit for misinformation on global health issues, but may also serve as a corrective to false information. To investigate this possibility, an experiment was conducted exposing users to a simulated Facebook News Feed featuring misinformation and different correction mechanisms (one in which news stories featuring correct information were produced by an algorithm and another where the corrective news stories were posted by other Facebook users) about the Zika virus, a current global health threat. Results show that algorithmic and social corrections are equally effective in limiting misperceptions, and correction occurs for both high and low conspiracy belief individuals. Recommendations for social media campaigns to correct global health misinformation, including encouraging users to refute false or misleading health information, and providing them appropriate sources to accompany their refutation, are discussed.

10.1080/10410236.2017.1331312

See Something, Say Something: Correction of Global Health Misinformation on Social Media

Current understanding of how these platforms can be harnessed to optimally support emergency response, resilience, and preparedness is not well understood. In this Viewpoint, we outline a framework for integrating social media as a critical tool in managing the current evolving pandemic as well as transforming aspects of preparedness and response for the future.

10.1001/jama.2020.4469

Social Media and Emergency Preparedness in Response to Novel Coronavirus

The flagging of false news has been one of the ways suggested to discourage people from sharing deceiving news stories on social media, and recent years have seen a growing number of initiatives focused on providing credibility labels for news online. Using an experimental design, this study assesses the effectiveness of such labels designed to reduce the sharing of false news. Specifically, it examines the impact of warning labels on Facebook users’ intentions to share false news stories, drawing on a sample of 501 participants from across the political spectrum. The study also explores users’ perceptions of the likelihood that other people would share false news even after seeing a warning label. We find that the flagging of false news may indeed have an effect on reducing false news sharing intentions by diminishing the credibility of misleading information. Furthermore, we find that users may be prone to believing that others are more likely to share false news than themselves, confirming the third-person effect. This study shows that flagging of false news on social media platforms like Facebook may indeed help the current efforts to combat sharing of deceiving information on social media.

10.1002/poi3.214

Cleaning Up Social Media: The Effect of Warning Labels on Likelihood of Sharing False News on Facebook Paul Mena, orcid.org/0000-0002-7531-558X Search for more papers by this author