Misinformation and Vaccine attitudes

Deliberation is essential for the development of new knowledge. The process of unpacking the causes and consequences of an issue lead to active learning and well-thought-out decision making. NISTH seeks to provide a platform for active discussion on dual perspectives, by leading researchers from across disciplines, to explore global challenges outside the box! Join our expert speakers as they discuss and deliberate on the subject contention.

Misinformation and Vaccine Attitudes

No vaccine is a 100% effective against a said infectious disease. High vaccine uptake helps to achieve community-level immunity and significantly lowers the risk of disease.  However, there is always a small percentage of the population who are vaccine hesitant and become a potential impediment to widespread community uptake.

Attitudes towards vaccinations are a function of the information available with on the vaccine’s attributes: efficacy, the incidence of side effects, manufacturers’ reputation, and government approval, policy interventions and finally, the sheer willingness to be vaccinated. With information playing a vital role in this decision process, it is imperative to keep it accurate and factual.

The inherent desire of humankind to learn, share and accumulate knowledge drives innovation in science and technologies. However, research methodology and interpretation of scientific findings might be challenging for a layman with non-scientific background to understand, especially when delivered through the prism of emotions. When we speak about misinformation, we immediately relate it to the effect of popular and social media and most often overlook scientific enterprise that faces the equivalent issue –hype and hyperbole, that became evident during COVID-19. Publication bias and cherry-picking of results, citation misdirection, predatory publishing, filter bubbles and echo chambers imposed by social media have led to many a misinformed person.  This misinformation changes people’s perception towards vaccines and disease control.

This panel will discuss how peoples attitudes toward vaccines are affected by misinformation.  Dr David Lye will give us the medical perspective to the issue while Dr Edson Tandoc will bring forth the social impact this has on the attitudes toward vaccines.

Speaker Biography

Associate Professor David LYE Chien Boon (MBBS, FRACP, FAMS, FRCP) graduated in medicine on the Dean’s List from the University of Melbourne in 1996 and completed specialty training in infectious diseases in Australia in 2004. He returned to Singapore to work at the Department of Infectious Diseases, Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH) in 2005.

He is currently senior consultant, Department of Infectious Diseases, TTSH and Associate Professor at Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore as well as Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, Nanyang Technological University. At the National Centre for Infectious Diseases, Professor Lye is Director of the Infectious Disease Research and Training Office. At TTSH, he founded and led the Antimicrobial Stewardship Programme from 2009 to 2018. He is the current chair of the National Antimicrobial Stewardship Expert Panel.  He is a member of National Antimicrobial Resistance Control Committee and One Health Antimicrobial Resistance Project Team, Ministry of Health, Singapore.

Professor Lye has held more than SGD$10million in research grant as principal investigator to date. He has published more than 260 peer-reviewed manuscripts in journals such as NEJM, Lancet, JAMA, Lancet Infectious Diseases, Lancet Global Health as well as Science, Science Translational Medicine, Nature Biotechnology and Nature Communications.

Professor Lye is President of the College of Physicians, Singapore and Society of Infectious Disease (Singapore). He is an advocate for HIV prevention as Vice President of Action for AIDS. Internationally, he is on the executive committee of Asia Pacific Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infection, and International Society of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy, and council of International Society of Infectious Diseases.

Professor Lye’s awards include: Dean’s Award for Teaching Excellence, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, 2016; National Healthcare Group Team Recognition Award 2017, Silver, Hospital Acquired Infection Elimination Collaborative; and Tan Tock Seng Hospital Milestone Award 2017, Antimicrobial Stewardship Programme.

Edson C. Tandoc Jr. (Ph.D., University of Missouri) is an Associate Professor and Director of the PhD and Masters by Research Programmes at the Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. His research focuses on the sociology of message construction in the context of digital journalism. He has conducted studies on the construction of news and social media messages. His studies about influences on journalists have focused on the impact of journalistic roles, new technologies, and audience feedback on the various stages of the news gatekeeping process. This stream of research has led him to study journalism from the perspective of news consumers as well, investigating how readers make sense of critical incidents in journalism and take part in reconsidering journalistic norms; and how changing news consumption patterns facilitate the spread of fake news.

Photo Gallery

Video Recording

Event Details
Date and Time
11 Aug 2021 (Wed)
11:00 AM – 12:00 PM
Venue
Online)
Event Format
Debate & Dialogue
Series
NISTH Think Out Debate Series
Keywords
None