The Nikki Minaj Effect: The impact of social media disinformation on vaccine hesitancy in the Caribbean

COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy in a developing country: prevalence, explanatory factors and implications for the future

OBJECTIVES

Vaccine hesitancy is a public health challenge highlighted during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study sought to determine the prevalence and explanatory factors leading to COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy in the Jamaican population to inform vaccination strategies.

STUDY DESIGN

This was an exploratory cross-sectional study.

METHODS

An exploratory survey was distributed electronically between September and October 2021 to gather information on COVID-19 vaccination behaviour and beliefs among the Jamaican population. Data were expressed as frequencies and analysed using Chi-squared followed by multivariate logistic regressions. Significant analyses were determined at P < 0.05.

RESULTS

Of the 678 eligible responses, most were females (71.5%, n = 485), between ages 18-45 years (68.2%, n = 462), had tertiary education (83.4%, n = 564) and were employed (73.4%, n = 498), with 10.6% (n = 44) being healthcare workers. COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy was present in 29.8% (n = 202) of the survey population, mainly because of safety and efficacy concerns and a general lack of reliable information about the vaccines. The likelihood of hesitancy increased amongst respondents under 36 years (odds ratio [OR] 6.8, 95% confidence interval [CI] 3.6, 12.9), those who delayed initial acceptance of vaccines (OR 2.7, 95% CI 2.3, 3.1); parents for their children and with long waits at vaccination centres. Likelihood of hesitancy decreased for respondents over 36 years (OR 3.7, 95% CI 1.8, 7.8) and with vaccine support from pastors/religious leaders (OR 1.6, 95% CI 1.1, 2.4).

CONCLUSIONS

Vaccine hesitancy was more prevalent in younger respondents who were never exposed to the effects of vaccine-preventable diseases. Religious leaders had more influence than healthcare workers to increase vaccine uptake.

A Bibliometric Analysis of COVID-19 Scientific Literature From the English-Speaking Caribbean

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a global crisis and has affected the Caribbean islands, leading to significant health and socioeconomic consequences in this region. Efforts to mitigate the burden of this disease have led to an accelerated amount of research in the English-speaking Caribbean (ESC). This bibliometric analysis aimed to evaluate the COVID-19-related scientific literature from the ESC nations. A total of 175 articles were included and analyzed from an initial PubMed search (n = 638) for COVID-19-related scientific literature from the ESC nations published between January 1, 2020, and June 30, 2022. Microsoft Excel 2016 (Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, Washington) and the VOSviewer (version 1.6.18) were used to characterize countries, authorship, journals, affiliations, and keywords of the COVID-19-related articles. Trinidad and Tobago (38%), Jamaica (22%), Barbados (20%), and Grenada (15%) contributed to the greatest number of publications. The University of the West Indies (UWI) campuses in Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica and Barbados, and St. George's University in Grenada were the most prolific institutions. Srikanth Umakanthan from the UWI was the most prolific author. Cureus, SN Comprehensive Clinical Medicine, and Frontiers in Public Health were the first three most productive journals; 59% of the 175 articles had either the first or last author affiliated with an institution in the ESC, and 19% of the articles were country-focused: Trinidad and Tobago (16/175), Jamaica (9/175), Barbados (5/175), and Antigua and Barbuda (2/175). Among the top themes of research, 27% were outbreak response and rearrangements, epidemiological studies (23%), clinical management (23%), and medical education (13%). Over the last two years, an interest stimulated by the pandemic has expanded the research in ESC countries. However, gaps in the knowledge exist, especially in the epidemiology of COVID-19 complications in the sub-populations of chronic non-communicable diseases, post-COVID syndrome, and the long-COVID syndrome in the region. Hence, there is enormous scope for more research across the region.

Celebrities and Breast Cancer: A Multidimensional Quali-Quantitative Analysis of News Stories Shared on Social Media

In 2020, breast cancer was the most frequent type of cancer in 158 countries. To advise the population about risk factors and the importance of preventive measures, celebrities can be of great help, acting as spokespersons for reliable scientific information. The goal of this study is to analyse the content of news stories about breast cancer shared on different social media, examining how stories with celebrity presence are constructed. We performed a quali-quantitative multidimensional analysis of news stories in English that addressed breast cancer on the following social media platforms: Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter and Reddit. We compared news stories with and without the presence of celebrities. Our sample consists of 1594 news stories that had at least 1000 total shares across all analysed social media; 262 news stories mention a celebrity (16.44%), while 1332 stories do not (83.56%). Nevertheless, the ones that feature celebrities are, as a rule, more shared. The percentage of stories with celebrities addressing breast cancer prevention is quite low (1.9%). The same can be said for mentions of scientific papers/specialist quotes (3.4%). This research may help outline some possible paths that healthcare organizations and communication professionals can take to improve breast cancer content available online.