COVID-19 Vaccine and Vaccination Misinformation and Disinformation: Repositioning Our Role as Educators in Pandemic Times

Michael B. Cahapay

doi:10.21601/ejeph/11498

Letter to Editor

European Journal of Environment and Public Health, 2022 - Volume 6 Issue 1, Article No: em0095
https://doi.org/10.21601/ejeph/11498

Published Online: 03 Jan 2022

Views: 138 | Downloads: 77

Open Access

How to cite this article

APA 6th edition

In-text citation: (Cahapay, 2022)
Reference: Cahapay, M. B. (2022). COVID-19 Vaccine and Vaccination Misinformation and Disinformation: Repositioning Our Role as Educators in Pandemic Times. European Journal of Environment and Public Health, 6(1), em0095. https://doi.org/10.21601/ejeph/11498

Vancouver

In-text citation: (1), (2), (3), etc.
Reference: Cahapay MB. COVID-19 Vaccine and Vaccination Misinformation and Disinformation: Repositioning Our Role as Educators in Pandemic Times. EUROPEAN J ENV PUBLI. 2022;6(1):em0095. https://doi.org/10.21601/ejeph/11498

AMA 10th edition

In-text citation: (1), (2), (3), etc.
Reference: Cahapay MB. COVID-19 Vaccine and Vaccination Misinformation and Disinformation: Repositioning Our Role as Educators in Pandemic Times. EUROPEAN J ENV PUBLI. 2022;6(1), em0095. https://doi.org/10.21601/ejeph/11498

Chicago

In-text citation: (Cahapay, 2022)
Reference: Cahapay, Michael B.. "COVID-19 Vaccine and Vaccination Misinformation and Disinformation: Repositioning Our Role as Educators in Pandemic Times". European Journal of Environment and Public Health 2022 6 no. 1 (2022): em0095. https://doi.org/10.21601/ejeph/11498

Harvard

In-text citation: (Cahapay, 2022)
Reference: Cahapay, M. B. (2022). COVID-19 Vaccine and Vaccination Misinformation and Disinformation: Repositioning Our Role as Educators in Pandemic Times. European Journal of Environment and Public Health, 6(1), em0095. https://doi.org/10.21601/ejeph/11498

MLA

In-text citation: (Cahapay, 2022)
Reference: Cahapay, Michael B. "COVID-19 Vaccine and Vaccination Misinformation and Disinformation: Repositioning Our Role as Educators in Pandemic Times". European Journal of Environment and Public Health, vol. 6, no. 1, 2022, em0095. https://doi.org/10.21601/ejeph/11498

ABSTRACT

We often encounter misleading claims, some of which have potential to influence decisions we make in our daily lives. Many people from all walks of life, even the most schooled, fall prey to the traps of misinformation and disinformation. How do such delusions enter our knowledge base and inform our public opinions and actions? I discuss in this editorial article the bases that underlie the issues of misinformation and disinformation that plague current COVID-19 vaccine and vaccination efforts. Such issues have a philosophical base anchored on the information processing theories and psychological base linked to our cognitive tendencies. I reflect in the end on our primary responsibility as teachers in these issues. I conclude that metacognition or a knowledge of our thinking, if we mindfully dare to pursue it, can help stimulate an enlightened perspective to ourselves that, with our vast influence as educators, may illuminate the perspectives of others.

KEYWORDS

misinformation disinformation COVID-19 vaccine COVID-19 vaccination philosophy psychology education

REFERENCES

Cahapay, M. B. (2021). To get or not to get: Examining the intentions of Philippine teachers to vaccinate against COVID-19. Journal of Human Behavior in the Social Environment. https://doi.org/10.1080/10911359.2021.1896409
Forrest, A. (2020). Coronavirus: 700 dead in Iran after drinking toxic methanol alcohol to ‘cure COVID-19’. Independent. Available at https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/coronavirus-iran-deaths-toxic-methanol-alcohol-fake-news-rumours-a9487801.html
Gilbert, D. T., Krull, D. S. and Malone, P. S. (1990). Unbelieving the unbelievable: Some problems in the rejection of false information. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 59(4), 601-613. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.59.4.601
Lazer, D. M. J., Baum, M. A., Benkler, Y., Berinsky, A. J., et al. (2018). The science of fake news. Science, 359(6380), 1094-1096. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aao2998
Lee, R. and Ward, A. (1995). Naive realism: Implications for social conflict and misunderstanding. In T. Brown, E. S. Reed and E. Turiel (Eds.), Values and knowledge. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Ningtyas, I. (2021). Indonesia battles spread of vaccine misinformation. Available at: https://www.aa.com.tr/en/asia-pacific/indonesia-battles-spread-of-vaccine-misinformation/2124319
O’Leary, A. (2001). Teaching tip sheet: Motivated reasoning. Available at: https://www.apa.org/pi/aids/resources/education/reasoning
Owen, J. (2020). Fake news jeopardising chances of COVID-19 vaccine success, study warns. Available at: https://www.prweek.com/article/1697855/fake-news-jeopardising-chances-covid-19-vaccine-success-study-warns
Reuters. (2020). Fact check: A vaccine did not turn characters in the movie ‘I Am Legend’ into zombies. Available at: https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-factcheck-vaccine-i-am-legend-zombies-idUSKBN28S23W
Roozenbeek, J., Schneider, C. R., Dryhurst, S., Kerr, J., et al. (2020). Susceptibility to misinformation about COVID-19 around the world. Royal Society Open Science, 7(10), 201199. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.201199
Skurnik, I., Yoon, C., Park, D. and Schwarz, N. (2005). How warnings about false claims become recommendations. Journal of Consumer Research, 31(4), 713-724. https://doi.org/10.1086/426605
Woolley, S. C. and Howard, P. N. (2016). Political communication, computational propaganda, and autonomous agents. International Journal of Communication, 10(2016), 4882-4890.

LICENSE

This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.