Midmorning With Aundrea - December 11, 2020 (Part 1)

(Part 1 of 4) The coronavirus vaccine is on the verge of being released nationwide, but there are many people who believe conspiracy theories about it.

Some are using social media to try to dispel some of the disinformation.

Is not tru the vaccine should arrive in mississipi within days.

And, the state health department is working with acute care hospitals on who in the medical field will receive the first doses - and how that will work.

But research shows conspiracy theories and misinformation about the corona- virus vaccine are convincing some people not to get it but in order for everyone to be protected, at least 60 percent of people must be vaccinated.

Elizabeth palmer shows us how one bio-engineer is using tiktok to fight false information with facts.

It's week one of the vaccination rollout in britain&& soon this will be an option for everyone & so we headed out to ask london commuters if they're on board& 10:58:48 man: oh yeah absolutely 11:04:04:17: lady in stripey mask - yes i will yes woman beige coat: absolutely, why wouldn't i?

10:58:15 young man: yeah i'll have the vaccine.

Palmer: you will have it?

Young man: yeah there's nothing really wrong with it.

By far most said they would have the shot - &but research shows that too many - around half the population - remain sceptical - or would downright refuse.

Enter social media&.& health agencies say a crucial part of getting people onside is making accurate information easy to find&.like here on tiktok.

How does a vaccine induce an immune response?

Meet anna blakney &.

&an american bio- engineer working in london& who's taken to tiktok to prove that hard facts about the covid vaccine don't have to be boring& vaccines 9 to 5 what a way to make a living we caught up with her on zoom.

Liz: so i've been looking at some of your tik-tok posts.

They're hilarious.

You're a great dancer.

Ab: thank you.

Liz: how often do you do a new one?

Ab: i try and do four to five per week& anna is a tiktok sensation&one of her videos got 15 million hits.

Th then there's vaccine misinformation which ranges from plain inaccurate&.

To wild conspiracy& social media companies have started removing it&.

But it continues to do the rounds&..

- shared widely and carelessly&and scaring people off.

Heidi larson runs the vaccine confidence project: liz: what are the main factors that lead people to not want to take this vaccine?

&one of the dominant ones is this anxiety about how quickly these vaccines were made and approved with the knowledge that previous ones have taken so long.

Anna blakney's got some reassurance on that point& 'no matter what vaccine it has to pass the same regulatory check points' but anti-vax activists also maintain - without a shred of evidence - that vaccines are the gateway to mass surveillance& and that neither the government nor big pharma can be trusted.

To complicate the picture, confusing trial results - like the recent ones from astra-zeneca - undermine the confidence of people who otherwise want the shot.

&.

Trust is so fundamental.

I often say that we don't have a misinformation problem as much as we have a trust problem.

So an army of young scientists have taken to the internet - anna blakney is one of the most influential&.deter mined to fix that trust problem&one tiktok at a time.

I think by having a connection with a single person who is there and personal and you can show them exactly what you do in the lab, it helps to just alleviate people's fears.

One of the uplifting things that emerged from the research is that people were more likely to take the vaccine if they were told it would protect family and friends - rather than just themselves& a little later, a less than traditional celebratio holds all the same meaning.

We'll be right back.