
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(1), 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
CITATION (Harvard)
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
APA
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
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
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
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
MLA
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
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.