Communicating Covid-19 vaccine information through Youtube: the results of an Italian infodemiology study

ABSTRACT

Youtube and other social media platforms are increasingly used in health communication. Information concerning the anti-Covid-19 vaccine also passes through this platform. We conducted a cross-sectional infodemiology study by analysing the 104 most popular Italian videos seen on Youtube providing information on the anti-Covid-19 vaccine. Sixty-seven percent of the videos are published by news/media agencies, 7% by institutional organizations, 3% by healthcare professionals, and 23% by private users. Fifty-seven percent of the videos promote the use of Covid-19 vaccines and vaccinations, 17% are against it, and 26% are neutral. The videos created by private users were viewed more often and had higher levels of engagement than the videos created by health institutions and organizations. The same can be said of the videos against vaccines and vaccinations, which gained greater visibility and bigger reactions than the videos promoting them. Our study seems to confirm what has been observed in other studies conducted on the communication efforts for other types of vaccinations communication activated on social media platforms by traditional health institutions and news/media agencies seems to be less attractive and pervasive than that operated by other categories of users, which often lacks a solid scientific basis, thus favoring the spread of fake news.