Rumors and Misinformation
This is a curated collection of tools and materials that can guide and provide examples on how to understand, track, address rumors and misinformation around COVID-19.
January 18, 2022
Mali COVID-19 Vaccine Frequently Asked Questions series
This FAQ series, available in French, was developed by Breakthrough ACTION Mali in collaboration with the National Communication Sub-Commission of the COVID-19 Crisis Committee. The series was distributed across a range of partners as part of the COVID-19 vaccination campaign in 2021. Content was developed in collaboration with all partners and adapts key information and messages of the World Health Organization’s COVID Vaccine FAQs and detailed SAGE recommendations to the context of Mali’s vaccine campaign, its vaccine eligible populations and available vaccine types.
January 13, 2022
Next door Neighbor video
This video is of a phone call between two neighbors in quarantine. It covers several rumors and misinformation about COVID-19 and where to find reliable information in order to adopt preventative behaviors (in this case, Bangladesh’s Ministry of Health website).
January 6, 2022
Anti-stigma posters and leaflets for COVID-19 (Cote d’Ivoire)
This series of printed materials (posters and leaflets) was developed by Breakthrough ACTION Cote d’Ivoire in collaboration with its government partners. It focuses on the non-stigmatization of people living with or recovered from COVID-19, in the community and in the workplace.
COVID-19 Vaccine Posters in Malawi
Two posters in Chichewa encourage the uptake of the COVID-19 vaccine in order to reduce the risk of serious illness or death. One poster is targeted towards a general audience. The second poster is targeted towards youth.
December 28, 2021
Journalistic routines as factors promoting COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy in Pakistan
This viewpoint article argues that three commonly practised journalistic routines – as explicated by Tandoc and Duffy – are promoting COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy among Urdu-language newspaper readers in Pakistan.
Misinformation Alerts
These insights are based on a combination of automated media monitoring and manual review by public health data analysts. Media data are publicly available data from many sources, such as social media, broadcast television, newspapers and magazines, news websites, online video, blogs, and more. Analysts from the Public Good Projects triangulate this data along with other data from fact checking organizations and investigative sources to provide an accurate, but not exhaustive, list of currently circulating misinformation.
Perceptions of COVID-19 vaccines in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire: Synthesis of a qualitative study
This document summarizes the results of a qualitative research done on perceptions related to COVID-19 vaccines in 2020, before the introduction of vaccines in Cote d’Ivoire in 2021. A “3C” model (Confidence, convenience, and complacency) was used to classify the major determinants of intention to be vaccinated in a population of adult residents of Abidjan.
December 21, 2021
Establishing and Managing a Hotline: A Technical Brief
Hotlines are particularly valuable during emergencies, so design teams must consider a variety of issues to establish them successfully. This technical brief addresses key questions and challenges to consider when setting up a hotline, especially within the context of COVID-19 or other pandemics.
December 16, 2021
The Role of Attitudes, Norms, and Efficacy on Shifting COVID-19 Vaccine Intentions: A Longitudinal Study of COVID-19 Vaccination Intentions in New Zealand
This study focuses on identifying changing public intentions to get a COVID-19 vaccine in New Zealand, a country that has been largely successful in containing the pandemic but risks new outbreaks as less than 20% of the population is fully vaccinated by August 2021.
Persuasion and Public Health: Evidence from an Experiment with Religious Leaders during COVID-19 in Pakistan
We use a Randomized Controlled Trial in Pakistan to test whether one-on-one engagement with community religious leaders can encourage them to instruct congregants to comply with COVID-19 public health guidelines when attending religious gatherings.
December 14, 2021
Synthesized Guidance for COVID-19 Messaging Tool / Guía para la Prevención y Control del COVID-19 en Servicios de Salud del Ministerio de Salud Pública y Asistencia Social de Guatemala
This is a guide for creating COVID-19 prevention messaging in health services in Guatemala. It covers many topics, including: general info about COVID-19, infection control and prevention via social distancing/mask wearing/hand washing, Personal Protective Equipment, etc.
December 8, 2021
COVID-19 Vaccine for Children 5-11: Q&A with Healthcare Experts
We asked scientists and medical experts some of the most common questions parents/guardians have when deciding to vaccinate children 5-11 years old.
November 29, 2021
The Truck: A COVID-19 prevention campaign on wheels
The Truck is a multi-media messenger on wheels traveling South Africa and broadcasting local stories about how COVID-19 has affected people’s lives. Accompanied by trained community engagement teams, the joint effort is a vital communication intervention creating awareness about COVID-19 prevention methods while combatting misinformation and myths about the virus.
November 23, 2021
COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy on Social Media: Building a Public Twitter Data Set of Antivaccine Content, Vaccine Misinformation, and Conspiracies
False claims about COVID-19 vaccines can undermine public trust in ongoing vaccination campaigns, posing a threat to global public health. Misinformation originating from various sources has been spreading on the web since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Antivaccine activists have also begun to use platforms such as Twitter to promote their views. To properly understand the phenomenon of vaccine hesitancy through the lens of social media, it is of great importance to gather the relevant data.
November 12, 2021
Answers to Tough Questions about Public Health
This section is an ongoing compilation of tough questions related to COVID-19, with suggested answers. Many of these topics are sensitive and often politicized. The document is designed to provide message guidance and framing for public health officials and others, and it is regularly updated to reflect new developments and emerging issues.
This website is made possible by the generous support of the American people through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) under the Breakthrough ACTION Cooperative Agreement #AID-OAA-A-17-00017. Breakthrough ACTION is based at Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs (CCP).The contents of this website are the sole responsibility of Breakthrough ACTION and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID, the United States Government, or Johns Hopkins University.
