Spread of vaccine hesitancy in France: What about YouTube™?

Objectives: This work characterises the information about vaccination available on YouTube (TM) in France. Methods: YouTube (TM) (www.YouTube.com) was searched using "vaccines" as a keyword. Videos in French with at least 10,000 views were identified. For each video, specific descriptive information including the opinion on vaccination was identified. To study the anti-vaccine reaction linked to a change in French policy on vaccination, the main arguments used in videos with negative opinions on vaccination uploaded in 2017 and 2018 were also collected. Results: We identified 166 videos: 120 (72.2%) were considered anti-vaccine videos and 46 (27.8%) were pro-vaccine; 92 (55%) were uploaded between 2017 and 2018. The anti-vaccine videos had been viewed 5,129,215 times and the pro-vaccine videos 2,371,048 times. The three most widely used anti-vaccination arguments were in regard to side effects (75.8%), pharmaceutical lobbying (61.3%), and the presence of adjuvants (51.6%). Conclusion: Health professionals should be aware of the widely disseminated vaccination misinformation available on the Internet. Health professionals and health authorities must invest in these platforms, perhaps in collaboration with popular channels, to inform users accurately and to refute arguments put forward by anti-vaccine videos. Increasing and maintaining vaccination use is vital for vaccines to achieve success, particularly in France where vaccine hesitancy is strong. (C) 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.