Leveraging Innovative Approaches to Track and Prevent Misinformation and Support Routine Immunization [Presentation from the Sharing Learning from Polio SBC Side Event at the 2022 SBCC Summit]

"What if we provided more broad protection against multiple types of misinformation instead of chasing individual pieces of misinformation?"

For UNICEF, social listening to detect vaccine hesitancy goes beyond digital communication or tracking rumours or misinformation that spread on social media. During the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a lot of offline conversation, whether through the media or WhatsApp groups among religious leaders, friends, and communities. This presentation from the Sharing Learning from Polio SBC: Misinformation, Social Data and Conflict side event at the 2022 International SBCC Summit examines UNICEF's infodemic management strategies, which are designed to support demand for all vaccines.

The presentation reviews five characteristics of science denial: F (fake experts); L (logical fallacies); I (impossible expectations); C (cherry picking); and C (conspiracy theories). It also discusses common fallacies in vaccine misinformation.

As outlined here, some of the strategies for addressing vaccine misinformation that stems from such denials and fallacies include: helping people become more resistant to misinformation; co-designing strategies around communities that rebut their most common vaccine misinformation narratives; and monitoring the infodemic by tracking narratives and misinformation. In pursuing this work, UNICEF has set up different partnerships, such as with the Yale Institute of Public Health and the Public Goods Project (PGP), and Meta.

For example, through a collaboration with Sabin Vaccine Institute and Monash University, UNICEF held co-design workshops in Uganda, Rwanda, and Kenya to create Cranky Uncle, a smartphone game teaching players how to spot misleading techniques in vaccine misinformation. Version (v) 1.0, "Cranky Classic" (originally focused on climate change denial), was released in December 2020, followed by v2.0, a multi-lingual edition, in January 2022, and v3.0, the vaccine edition (mid-2022). The game features explanations of misinformation techniques and quiz questions that enable the player to practise critical thinking.

The presentation shares key resources - see Related Summaries below. For example, together with UNICEF, the Vaccination Demand Observatory (VDO) unites experts from multiple sectors to support global communities with increased vaccine demand and reduce the impact of misinformation, as can be seen at the VDO dashboard for Middle East & North Africa.

Key takeaways from UNICEF's work in this area include:

• Every country can build capacity for social listening and infodemic management - UNICEF has resources to support this.
• Consider building digital literacy at individual level by inoculating people against misinformation - Leverage participatory approaches to designing promising interventions, such as games.
• We know what works to build effective vaccine messages - You can leverage what was learned during COVID-19 to support routine immunisation (RI) and polio vaccine communication efforts.

One audience question led the presenters to discuss work that's being done to create an Internet of Good Things (IoGT) version of Cranky Uncle; right now, it's played online and with the education sector (e.g., in Rwanda, where a teacher's guide accompanies the game itself). Someone commented that IoGT holds promise, yet there are a lot of challenges due to the assumption that the audience is literate and the possible need to translate content into various dialects. UNICEF is trying to address such issues, as well as critical questions of gender equity, in all its digital work. Again, though, the organisation focuses not only on online engagement but on offline listening (e.g, via telephone), for example.

Click here, and then click on the Part 1 video recording, to locate and watch the Pokharel/Abeyesekera presentation (beginning at approx. 3 hours and 1 minute into that recording). Continue watching their presentation by viewing Part 2 of the recording.