ACADEMIA Letters COVID-19 vaccine misinformation and its effect on human psychology Goodness Chinazor Joshua Chukwuere The outbreak of a pandemic and the psychological reactions from the public have a great effect in determining the spread of the diseases, coupled with the emotional distress, social stress, and disorder that occurs during and after the effect of the pandemic. According to Fraser, Brierley, Dey, Polka, Pálfy, Nanni and Coates (2021), the COVID-19 underlying virus SARSCoV-2, since January 2020, has caused over 2.2 million deaths and confirmed COVID-19 pandemic cases of over 98 million, and the widespread nature of this pandemic is a contributing factor to its effect on human psychology. Despite these facts, there are insufficient resources in managing the impact of these pandemics on human psychology and well-being (Beale & Walker, n.d.). During any phase of pandemic mitigation and management, the psychological factors cannot be overlooked. The latter plays a vital role in allegiance to public healthcare measures in the case of vaccination and how people react and cope with losing their loved ones and the threat of being infected (Pfefferbaum & North, 2020). Some people are prone to some psychological problems and are safe to be considered vulnerable. Several psychological reactions to pandemics are critical issues to be considered when managing infectious diseases like the COVID-19 pandemic and in the case of its vaccination (Pfefferbaum & North, 2020). They include emotional distress, defensive responses, and maladaptive behaviors. The primary goal of the SARS-CoV-2 vaccine is to help with building the immunity of the people to the highest percentage and help in curbing the spread of the virus, as well as to reduce the number of fatalities from the spread of the virus (Lazarus, Ratzan, Palayew, Gostin, Larson, Rabin & El-Mohandes, 2021). A vaccine as a word originated from the Latin word “Variolae Vaccinae”. Vaccines involve medical antibodies prepared to improve human immunity to fight diseases or viruses, as in the COVID-19 pandemic. A vaccine can be used for prevention or treatment which is administered through injection, intranasal routes, or oral. This short paAcademia Letters, September 2021 ©2021 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0 Corresponding Author: Goodness Chinazor Joshua Chukwuere, Gudnexsteve24@gmail.com Citation: Chukwuere, G.C.J. (2021). COVID-19 vaccine misinformation and its effect on human psychology. Academia Letters, Article 3469. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL3469. 1 per will look at the resistance, hesitance, and psychological effect of the COVID-19 vaccine on human psychology and interventions in developing countries. A perspective from Nigeria society. Keywords: COVID-19, Hesitance, Nigeria, Psychology, Resistance, SARS-CoV-2, Vaccine The virus causing COVID-19 is referred to as “severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)”, has infected more than 98 million people and resulted in over 92.2 million fatalities worldwide, spreading to over 213 countries (Murphy, Vallières, Bentall, Shevlin, McBride, Hartman & Hyland, 2021). The widespread nature of this virus brought about many abnormalities to the lives of people and created doubts and mistrust regarding its effective management. The Coronavirus brought about social or physical distancing, isolation from loved ones to help slow down the spread of the virus, putting the most vulnerable ones on the to-do list in society, pressure on healthcare management, service provision, and delivery. These led to the invention of approved vaccines to help safeguard the economy of the affected countries from continuous damage and safeguarding the lives of the people (Murphy et al., 2021). Since the beginning of this pandemic, medical scientists worldwide have been making efforts to provide vaccines to prevent the further spread of this disease. In 2020, three companies (Modena, Johnson & Johnson, and Pfizer) were approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to roll out these vaccines in the United States and gradually to other countries (Bohl, n.d.). The COVID-19 vaccine is built to help fight the SARS-CoV-2 virus by building antibodies that can resist the virus when one is exposed thereto (Beale & Walker, n.d.). The COVID-19 vaccine has some common and minor side effects, which several medical therapies have. These side effects are normal with medical therapies no matter how safe they are, and precautions are safely rolled out to help address these side effects, which help them to improve within a few days (Bohl, n.d.). These side effects include chills, fever, swelling at the place of injection, headaches, muscle aches, joint pain, fatigue, and pain at the place of injection (Saleem, 2021). These side effects are evidence to prove that one’s immune system is responding to the vaccine and building up antibodies against the virus. However, medical staff always advise the public to talk to their healthcare officer when these effects continue for proper attention. The introduction of the COVID-19 vaccine in curbing the spread of the virus has been a challenge; getting people to give a positive response and accepting the vaccine have been problematic. Before now, the public already built many misconceptions on the vaccines with the help of social media sites, which has greatly affected the psychological response of the public to accepting these vaccines. The COVID-19 vaccine’s first human clinical trial started Academia Letters, September 2021 ©2021 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0 Corresponding Author: Goodness Chinazor Joshua Chukwuere, Gudnexsteve24@gmail.com Citation: Chukwuere, G.C.J. (2021). COVID-19 vaccine misinformation and its effect on human psychology. Academia Letters, Article 3469. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL3469. 2 on 3 March 2020 in the United States, and soon after, other human trials started, and by 11 September 2020, vaccines were rolled out. The trials brought about approved vaccines, which have been rolled out across different countries in the world. However, a great deal of misinformation about vaccines is hindering its acceptance in society. Misinformation about COVID-19 vaccine Challenges were encountered, such as acceptance, resistance, and hesitance of the COVID-19 vaccine from the public, and these were narrowed down to several psychological constructs (Murphy et al., 2021). For example, we have the personality traits neuroticism, conscientiousness, conspiratorial, religion, mistrust of authoritative members of society, public officials, medical scientists, and healthcare professionals, and paranoid beliefs that greatly affect the psychology of the people (Murphy et al., 2021). Lazarus et al. (2021) defined vaccine hesitancy as delaying to accept vaccination or refusal to accept vaccination irrespective of the availability of vaccination services. Resistance and hesitance of the COVID-19 vaccine have become a global concern (Lazarus et al., 2021). A great deal of misinformation spreading on social media platforms with the help of anti-vaccination activists has contributed to the lack of acceptance and hesitance of the COVID-19 vaccines. There are two different types of misinformation, which are: • Misinformation: means is coming to a conclusion about a particular thing based on wrong facts obtained. • Disinformation: Spreading false news and information on purpose in order to promote an agenda or achieve a particular purpose. This misinformation can be spread through various sources, such as non-scientific mediums, misinterpretation of data and confusing correlation with causation, social media platforms, and people’s personal opinion. Some misinformation includes: – Vaccines leading to infertility: There has not been any evidence so far that the COVID-19 vaccine has an aftereffect of delaying conception or affecting the male and female fertility state. This misinformation creates doubts and fears in people’s minds, causing resistance and hesitance to the vaccines. – Vaccines contain microchips: COVID-19 vaccines are built to help boost immunity and fight against the disease. Still, the anti-vaccination activists have filled the minds of people with false information, claiming the COVID-19 vaccine contains microchips that can be used to track people’s movement, and this misinformation Academia Letters, September 2021 ©2021 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0 Corresponding Author: Goodness Chinazor Joshua Chukwuere, Gudnexsteve24@gmail.com Citation: Chukwuere, G.C.J. (2021). COVID-19 vaccine misinformation and its effect on human psychology. Academia Letters, Article 3469. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL3469. 3 has altered the psychological mindset of the vulnerable, making them build their belief around the misinformation, which has led to the resistance and hesitance of accepting the COVID-19 vaccine (Saleem, 2021). – Vaccines cause one to be magnetic (capable of magnetizing any metals): Antivaccination activists portrayed the COVID-19 vaccine as having an electromagnetic field at the place of injection, which is capable of magnetizing any metal, including a spoon, and this has created fear in people towards accepting the COVID19 vaccine. The people built a wall around their minds with this false information, and with that, fear spreads the misinformation further and discourages others from accepting the vaccines. – Vaccines altering one’s DNA: COVID-19 vaccines were built to assist our cells in building immunity against the virus that causes the COVID-19 and not to alter one’s DNA. However, this has been the misinformation circulating among the people affecting their psychological state in accepting these vaccines. – Vaccines shed components: Shedding of components is used to describe the discharge of components from the body or outside the body. Vaccines shedding components are misinformation that has creeped into people’s minds with the help of false publicities and making them resistant and hesitant to the COVID-19 vaccine. – Vaccines are causing one to obtain a positive result when tested: The COVID19 vaccine does not cause one to test positive for the COVID-19 virus, as it is built to boost immunity against the disease and not introduce the disease to the body. People believe that getting vaccinated can cause one to obtain a COVID-19 positive result. Due to this misinformation, people’s minds towards the vaccines have been compromised, creating resistance and hesitance in accepting the vaccine. – Miss menstrual cycle: The closeness to a vaccinated individual affects the next person’s menstrual cycle, and other misinformation, is vastly spreading and creating doubts, worries, and fears in people’s minds (Beale & Walker, n.d.) Eliminating COVID-19 vaccine misinformation Government, public health officials, and other health advocacy groups have a great role in addressing the resistance and hesitance of the COVID-19 vaccines, setting people’s minds at ease by building vaccine literacy and health adverts to eliminate the misinformation and prepare them to accept the vaccine immunization when appropriate. There should be more Academia Letters, September 2021 ©2021 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0 Corresponding Author: Goodness Chinazor Joshua Chukwuere, Gudnexsteve24@gmail.com Citation: Chukwuere, G.C.J. (2021). COVID-19 vaccine misinformation and its effect on human psychology. Academia Letters, Article 3469. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL3469. 4 vaccine communication strategies for people, considering the scientific, empirical, and general literacy in the subpopulations, identifying with locally trusted information sources, considering the level of health, and going the extra mile into clearing the misinformation and building trust and acceptance of the COVID-19 vaccine. These strategies should focus on addressing: the religious and philosophical beliefs (sensitively) that have been held for ages and blindly followed. The ancient trust issues that have been built over time by our forefathers, which is a barrier to some traditionalists accepting the COVID-19 vaccines, worries or misunderstandings built by hearsay (gossip), the breeding seed of distrust planted by anti-vaccination activists. Government and health officials must build the confidence and trust of the public with consistent and clear communication about the vaccine programmes. Officials must explain to the people about the vaccine, it’s level of effectiveness, doses required, duration of the vaccine’s effectiveness, and its importance and safety. References 1. Beale, A., & Walker, R. Vaccine Myths & Misinformation. 2. Bohl, M. (n.d.). What are the side effects of the COVID-19 vaccine? 3. Fraser, N., Brierley, L., Dey, G., Polka, J. K., Pálfy, M., Nanni, F., & Coates, J. A. (2021). Preprinting the COVID-19 panvaccination service20-05. 4. Lazarus, J. V., Ratzan, S. C., Palayew, A., Gostin, L. O., Larson, H. J., Rabin, K.,…& ElMohandes, A. (2021). A global survey of potential acceptance of a COVID-19 vaccine. Nature medicine, 27(2), 225-228. 5. Murphy, J., Vallières, F., Bentall, R. P., Shevlin, M., McBride, O., Hartman, T. K.,…& Hyland, P. (2021). Psychological characteristics associated with COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and resistance in Ireland and the United Kingdom. Nature communications, 12(1), 1-15. 6. Pfefferbaum, B., & North, C. S. (2020). Mental health and the Covid-19 pandemic. New England Journal of Medicine, 383(6), 510-512. 7. Sahoo, S., Padhy, S. K., Ipsita, J., Mehra, A., & Grover, S. (2020). Demystifying the myths about COVID-19 infection and its societal importance. Asian journal of psychiatry, 54, 102244. Academia Letters, September 2021 ©2021 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0 Corresponding Author: Goodness Chinazor Joshua Chukwuere, Gudnexsteve24@gmail.com Citation: Chukwuere, G.C.J. (2021). COVID-19 vaccine misinformation and its effect on human psychology. Academia Letters, Article 3469. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL3469. 5 8. Saleem, S. (2021). COVID-19 Vaccine, Myths, and Facts. Journal of Rawalpindi Medical College, 25(1), 1-2. Academia Letters, September 2021 ©2021 by the author — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0 Corresponding Author: Goodness Chinazor Joshua Chukwuere, Gudnexsteve24@gmail.com Citation: Chukwuere, G.C.J. (2021). COVID-19 vaccine misinformation and its effect on human psychology. Academia Letters, Article 3469. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL3469. 6