Depression Might Influence Belief in COVID Vaccine Lies

By Robert Preidt

HealthDay Reporter

MONDAY, Jan. 24, 2022 (HealthDay News) — Misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines abounds, and folks with despair are extra probably than others to fall for it, a brand new research finds.

“One of the notable issues about despair is that it will possibly trigger individuals to see the world in a different way — kind of the other of rose-colored glasses. That is, for some depressed individuals, the world seems as a very darkish and harmful place,” mentioned lead creator Dr. Roy Perlis. He’s affiliate chief of analysis within the psychiatry division at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.

“We questioned whether or not individuals seeing the world this manner may also be extra vulnerable to believing misinformation about vaccines. If you already assume the world is a harmful place, you is perhaps extra inclined to imagine that vaccines are harmful — despite the fact that they don’t seem to be,” Perlis mentioned in a hospital information launch.

Falsehoods run the gamut from stating the vaccines are harmful to suggesting they comprise microchips.

For the research, Perlis and colleagues analyzed the responses from greater than 15,400 U.S. adults who accomplished a web based survey between May and July 2021. Participants first accomplished a questionnaire about signs of despair, after which responded to statements about COVID-19 vaccines.

Levels of despair among the many contributors had been no less than thrice increased than earlier than the pandemic, the research discovered. Those with despair had been 2.2 instances extra more likely to assist no less than one in every of 4 false statements about COVID-19 vaccines. And those that supported no less than one false assertion had been half as more likely to be vaccinated and a pair of.7 instances extra more likely to report vaccine resistance.

It is thought that unvaccinated individuals are extra more likely to develop extreme COVID-19 and die from it in comparison with people who’re vaccinated.

The researchers additionally had greater than 2,800 of the contributors full one other survey two months later. The outcomes confirmed that those that had despair within the first survey had been two instances extra probably than these with out despair to endorse extra vaccine misinformation within the second survey than within the first.

Continued

The research was printed on-line Jan. 21 in JAMA Network Open.

“While we won’t conclude that despair induced this susceptibility, taking a look at a second wave of information no less than advised us that the despair got here earlier than the misinformation. That is, it wasn’t that misinformation was making individuals extra depressed,” Perlis mentioned.

The investigators additionally discovered that the hyperlink between despair and perception in vaccine misinformation wasn’t as a result of getting information from totally different sources and wasn’t restricted to individuals with explicit political opinions or in sure demographic teams.

The findings have significance provided that psychological well being within the United States has reportedly worsened throughout the pandemic.

“Our outcome means that, by addressing the extraordinarily excessive ranges of despair on this nation throughout COVID, we’d lower individuals’s susceptibility to misinformation,” Perlis mentioned. “Of course, we will solely present an affiliation — we won’t present that the despair causes the susceptibility, however it’s definitely suggestive that it’d.”

More info

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention outlines myths and details about COVID-19 vaccines.

SOURCE: Massachusetts General Hospital, information launch, Jan. 21, 2022

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