Mothers use Twitter to promote vaccines. An Italian case

Milan, 6th November 2015

PRESS RELEASE

Mothers use Twitter to promote vaccines. An Italian case

The alarming drop in vaccine coverage in Italy has revived the lively debate between opponents and supporters of vaccinations. A growing concern for the issue pushed an Italian mother, Miriam Maurantonio, to start a pro-vaccination campaign online with the hashtag #iovaccino (“I vaccinate” in Italian), which soon became viral on social media.

Such a bottom-up initiative deserves attention, according to ASSET project, an EU-funded project aimed to develop a comprehensive strategy for a better response to epidemics and pandemics through improved forms of dialogue and better cooperation between science and society.

Experts from ASSET ran a data analysis of the campaign on Twitter, in order to quantify its impact and the reactions it triggered. The #iovaccino initiative started to become visible on October 13th, with a daily average of 194 tweets out of 2,400 that concerned vaccines. More than 8,500 people participated to the online discussion on vaccines, almost 1,300 of whom cited #iovaccino. Such an involvement was favoured by the participation of some highly followed accounts, including UNICEF Italia (230,035 followers) and CICAP (an Italian organization aimed to counter misinformation and pseudoscience, with 70,543 followers), both in favour of vaccines.

The campaign generated a predominantly positive reaction: many experts took a chance to recommend trusted source of information and many common people posted photos bearing a sign with the hashtag #iovaccino on it.

Several participants also highlighted and criticized opposing claims – with a particular negative emphasis on the position expressed by Codacons, a big consumers’ association that claimed to be ready to a flurry of denunciations against mandatory vaccinations. The most cited link by campaign’s supporters was that of a petition promoted by another mother, Alice Pignatti, who asked the Italian minister of health, Beatrice Lorenzin, to pass a law that would make vaccines compulsory to access public school. As of today, the petition has collected 29,544 backers.

Visit our website
http://www.asset-scienceinsociety.eu/

ASSET PRESS OFFICE
Roberta Villa
39 3398182219
villa@zadig.it

MMLAP and other EU Projects

AsiaFluCap
Health system analysis to support capacity development in response to the threat of pandemic influenza in Asia
BEWATER
Making society an active participant in water adaptation to global change
CASI
Public Participation in Developing a Common Framework for Assessment and Management of Sustainable Innovation
CIMULACT
Engaging all of Europe in shaping a desirable and sustainable future
DARWIN
Expect the unexpected and know how to respond
DRIVER
Driving innovation in crisis management for European resilience
ECOM
Effective communication in outbreak management: development of an evidence-based tool for Europe
EDEN
Solutions to improve CBRNe resilience
EPISOUTH
Network for Communicable Disease Control in Southern Europe and Mediterranean Countries
EPIWORK
Developing the framework for an epidemic forecast infrastructure
EUPHARE
Strengthening of the national surveillance system for communicable diseases
EUROHEP
Surveillance of vaccine preventable hepatitis
EuroMOMO
European monitoring of excess mortality for public health action
EURONHID
European network for highly infectious disease
EUVAC.NET
Dedicated surveillance network for surveillance and control of vaccine preventable diseases in the EU
FLUMODCONT
Modelling the spread of pandemic influenza and strategies for its containment and mitigation
FLURESP
Cost-effectiveness assessment of european influenza human pandemic alert and response strategies
GAP2
Bridging the gap between science, stakeholders and policy makers
HProImmune
Promotion of immunization for health professionals in Europe
INPROFOOD
Towards inclusive research programming for sustainable food innovations
JA-CHRODIS
Addressing chronic diseases and healthy ageing across the life cycle
M-Eco
Medical ecosystem – personalized event-based surveillance
MAPPING
Studying the many and varied economic, social, legal and ethical aspects of the recent developments on the Internet, and their consequences for the individual and society at large
MARINA
Get involved in the responsible marine research and innovation
PACITA
Knowledge-based policy-making on issues involving science, technology and innovation, mainly based upon the practices in Parliamentary Technology Assessment
PANDEM
Assessment of the current pandemic preparedness and response tools, systems and practice at national, EU and global level in priority areas
PE2020
Analysis of innovative public engagement tools and instruments for dynamic governance in the field of Science in Society
PERARES
Public Engagement with Research And Research Engagement with Society
PHEME
Computing Veracity – the Fourth Challenge of Big Data
PREPARE
Providing infrastructure, co-ordination and integration of existing clinical research networks on epidemics and pandemics
PROMOVAX
Promote vaccinations among migrant population in Europe
R&DIALOGUE
Creating mechanisms for effectively tackling the scientific and technology related challenges faced by society
RESPIRE
Improve the quality of indoor air, keeping it free from radon
SATORI
Improving respect of ethics principles and laws in research and innovation, in line with the evolution of technologies and societal concerns
SECURING CITIES AGAINST GLOBAL PANDEMICS
Investigating how cities in the West securitise against global pandemics
SEiSMiC
Creating a structured dialogue and mutual learning with citizens and urban actors by setting up National Networks in 10 countries across Europe
SIS CATALYST
Identifying how children can be change agents in the Science and Society relationship
SYN-ENERGENE
Establishing an open dialogue between stakeholders concerning synthetic biology’s potential benefits and risks
TELLME
Transparent communication in Epidemics: Learning Lessons from experience, delivering effective Messages, providing Evidence