Where Is the Accountability for Producers of Health Misinformation?

UNICEF Official Calls for Accountability in Health Misinformation as Global Vaccine Skepticism Grows

Health misinformation has become a critical public health concern, prompting a senior UNICEF adviser to question where accountability lies for those spreading false information that harms children’s health.

“We are now living in a situation where the information environment in which we live has become a determinant of health,” said Benjamin Schreiber during the World Health Summit in Berlin on Tuesday. He identified misinformation as a “key risk to achieving global vaccination goals.”

The United States has emerged as a global epicenter of vaccine skepticism following Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s appointment as Health Secretary. Under his leadership, the U.S. has defunded mRNA vaccine research, dismissed members of the national vaccine advisory body, appointed several vaccine skeptics in their place, and revived discredited theories linking vaccines to autism. Florida has taken additional steps by moving to remove vaccine mandates for children.

Through AI-enabled social listening across 40 countries, UNICEF has identified 229 high-risk messages that reached 111 million people this year alone. These messages typically resonate with underserved communities that have low trust in government—precisely where unvaccinated or “zero-dose” children are concentrated.

Professor Heidi Larsen, founder of the Vaccine Confidence Project, noted that vaccine hesitancy often stems from broader issues. “Sixty to seventy percent of the time, the issue was not about the vaccine. It was about distrust of the government, distrust of the producers of vaccines, a bad experience in the clinic… It was a whole mix of things that we needed to understand,” she explained.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Larsen’s project conducted a survey across 70 countries, finding that while people generally trust science, they often trust other sources more. In African countries, family doctors, family members, and religious and community leaders frequently carried more influence than scientists.

“Religious leaders, aside from in one country, far outweighed the influence of scientists. In other places, it was family members. We need to look at the ecosystem of influences,” Larsen said.

The global landscape of vaccine confidence has shifted dramatically in recent years. Larsen’s Global Vaccine Confidence Index, launched in 2015, initially identified Europe as the most skeptical region, with France ranking as the most skeptical country globally—42% of its population questioned vaccine safety.

At that time, most African countries demonstrated strong belief in vaccine safety. However, by 2018, vaccine skepticism had spread to Francophone Africa, influenced by “the skeptical French media.” The COVID-19 pandemic further accelerated this trend, with viral social media posts—many originating from the U.S.—promoting conspiracy theories that eroded trust in both COVID-19 and childhood vaccines.

Dr. Mohamed Janabi, WHO Africa regional director, warned that “falsehoods travel very, very fast through social media, radio shows, talks, community gossip and even pulpits,” adding that “spiritual cures have led families to hesitate or refuse completely vaccines that protect children from polio, measles and other preventable diseases.”

The impact of mistrust on vaccination rates is substantial. “A recent survey found fewer than four in every 10 Africans trust governments. Where mistrust is high, children are 10% more likely to miss vaccines,” Janabi noted, citing a 2021 study.

Karla Soares-Weiser, newly appointed CEO of Cochrane, emphasized the need for evidence-based healthcare decisions. “For more than 30 years, Cochrane has been dedicated to a single purpose: producing and sharing trusted evidence to inform health decisions,” she explained, adding that the organization was founded on the principle that “health decisions should be guided by the best available evidence, not by opinion, ideology or commercial interests.”

Soares-Weiser outlined three essential steps to rebuild trust in science: investing in trusted evidence as a global public good, strengthening intermediaries and local voices, and embedding equity, transparency, and inclusion in scientific communication.

UNICEF is working to combat misinformation by building capacity among health workers from Ministries of Health. Schreiber emphasized the importance of rapid response: “Of the lessons learned, number one is that speed matters. It’s really important, once you see these high-risk messages coming out, that you react quickly.”

Additionally, UNICEF is implementing “pre-bunking” strategies to counter predictable myths before they gain traction. “When we introduce a new vaccine, we can already spread messages that are pre-bunking these myths upfront, like vaccination causes sterilisation,” Schreiber explained.

The Vaccine Confidence Project has also founded Iris, a consortium of universities developing strategies to guide people toward credible information, further strengthening global efforts to combat vaccine misinformation and rebuild public trust in life-saving immunizations.