Social Media, Fake News and Covid-19 Vaccine Hesitancy in Zimbabwe

This exploratory paper uses online ethnography to analyse how fake news on social media shaped perceptions and cognitions about Covid-19 vaccines in Zimbabwe. It explores the emergence of social media as an important space for instilling vaccine hesitancy in the context of Covid-19. The paper focuses on how memes, jokes, fake news stories and reports that were shared and consumed on platforms such as WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube shaped the health-seeking behaviour of people in the context of Covid vaccines in Zimbabwe. The findings show that most people do not trust the government or health institutions. This distrust means they turn to unofficial online sources of information that fuel myths, conspiracies, rumours and gossip and cause fear, panic and vaccine hesitancy. Most citizens resorted to social media to update each other on the efficacy of vaccines and the pros and cons of getting inoculated, highlighting the scepticism surrounding Covid-19 vaccines in Zimbabwe.