Building trust in preventive vaccination with the use of the latest communication and social impact tools

The main goal of the project is to increase the level of confidence in immunization in Poland by developing tools to encourage patients / adolescents to reject false medical claims regarding vaccination (medical fake news). Withdrawal from vaccination results in the spread of infectious diseases, with medical (medical costs), social and economic effects (sick leave costs, costs of absenteeism). Decisions about vaccination are made not only through contact with a doctor, but also on the basis of information obtained on the Internet. The project will examine the decision-making mechanisms and adjust the final shape of tools to target groups in order to respond to their needs and achieve the expected result, which will be a decrease in the number of refusals to vaccinate. The solution adopted in the project consists in developing coherent strategies for medical staff, teachers, parents and adolescents based on psychosocial mechanisms based on the techniques of persuasion and social influence. The project takes into account systemic solutions, including the model of primary healthcare organization in the implementation of the compulsory immunization program and ready-made models of cooperation with the local government, NGOs, public institutions as well as proposals for legislative changes and legal acts. The spreading of fake news on vaccines can lead to inappropriate health attitudes and behaviors by rejecting medical science. The result of the project will be an innovative IT tool enabling the identification and inhibition of the spread of medical fake news at an early stage of their formation and the way out of the post factum response trap. The communication strategy includes live chats, Q&A webinars, podcasts and the TEDex formula. The use of the developed tools will make it possible to maintain a long-term and coordinated health policy, allowing for the reduction of the percentage of refusals to preventive vaccinations.

Under the project, a webpage was created available under this link: www.medfake.pl