The Message Is Unclear: Evaluating Disinformation in Anti-Vaccine Communities

Vaccine hesitancy and speculation are persistent throughout the history of health care. This study employs situated awareness to evaluated the impact information has on decision-making. A set of frequently circulated documents called Vaccine Guide presents information from vaccine inserts, court cases, and other documents. This Guide is widely circulated in anti-vaccine communities on Facebook. A survey was conducted among university college students in order to evaluate claims about vaccine schedules and examine highlighted passages in this collection of documents and to determine how these passages impact information interpretation and personal health literacy from a situated awareness theory perspective.