Development of resources, tools and training materials to address online vaccine misinformation

Based on the Council Recommendation of 7 December 2018 on strengthened cooperation against vaccine-preventable diseases, ECDC has been directed to “counter online vaccine misinformation and develop evidence-based information tools and guidance to support Member States in responding to vaccine hesitancy.“ This is the background for the proposed, 8-month contract, which will build on ongoing formative work and which will aim to develop the curriculum and detailed content for a free and accessible online training course aimed at countering vaccine misinformation, for use by risk communication and public health experts in the EU/EEA. A subsequent contract will put the curriculum and content produced here onto an online format for use in ECDC’s virtual academy.

The course will focus on a range of vaccine preventable diseases, including (but not exclusively) measles, human papilloma virus (HPV), influenza and COVID-19. Preliminary findings from the ongoing formative work point to the importance of (i) Social media monitoring of vaccine misinformation; (ii) myth busting and debunking specific pieces of misinformation; (iii) prebunking, or social innoculation; (iv) promoting science and digital literacy; and (v) evaluation of interventions that aim to address online vaccine misinformation. All these elements will be covered in the online course. By strengthening the capacities in these areas of the experts in the Member States, the online course aims to contribute to the enhanced uptake of vaccination throughout the EU/EEA, and thereby to the prevention of a range of infectious diseases.