Role and Usage of Social Media in COVID-19: An Analysis of Vaccination-Related Conspiracy Theories

Abstract

There are various misconceptions related to the COVID-19 and the vaccine. This study attempts to identify the role of social media in spreading the misinformation related to COVID-19 and Vaccination. This study will help the agencies to identify the categories of misconceptions and the vaccination-related conspiracy theories dispersed in the social media. In the analysis, seven clusters were found, and the concept map presents seven general misconceptions categories, similarly six subcategories under vaccination related conspiracy theories were found. This study concludes that vaccination related misconception circulated in social media is a serious issue which could affect the vaccination rate severely. Hence a multipronged tactic should be adopted having the components of counter-information strategy, sharing information from authentic sources, educating the general population to go for rigorous review of the information, and improving the health literacy level.