Nigeria, 16 others to benefit from $7m grant to combat online misinformation, boost COVID-19 vaccination rates

Nigeria and 16 other countries are to benefit from a $7 million grant to combat global online misinformation in public health and boost COVID-19 vaccination rates.

The Social Science Research Council is providing the money to 12 teams in 17 countries to apply social and behavioural science to combat the growing global threat posed by low Covid-19 vaccination rates and public health mis- and disinformation.

Through the Mercury Project, the SSRC is supporting the first cohort of social and behavioural scientists from around the world to generate much-needed new research on locally tailored solutions in these countries.

The countries are Bolivia, Brazil, Côte D’Ivoire, Ghana, Haiti, India, Kenya, Malawi, Mexico, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Tanzania, the United States, and Zimbabwe.

The three-year Mercury Project, which launched in November 2021, was enabled by The Rockefeller Foundation, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Craig Newmark Philanthropies, and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation with a total of USD 10.25 million so far.

President of SSRC, Anna Harvey, in a press release, said “With Covid-19 prevalent and rapidly evolving everywhere, there is a pressing need to identify interventions with the potential to increase vaccination take-up. Vaccines are only effective if they become vaccinations; vaccines are a scientific marvel but their potential is unfulfilled if they are left on the shelf.

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“The large volume of high-quality proposals submitted to the Mercury Project underscores just how eager the social and behavioural science community is to evaluate interventions to increase vaccination demand and build healthier information environments.”

Noting that public health misinformation goes far beyond quick fixes, Dr Bruce Gellin, Chief of Global Public Health Strategy at The Rockefeller Foundation declared that having science-based knowledge about what needs to be done will lead to increased uptake of reliable information and counter the effects of misinformation and disinformation on vaccine demand.

Heather Lanthorn, Programme Director at the Mercury Project stated that by funding projects on the ground around the world, the study will help to understand what works where, and why, and identify new ways to harness the power of connection and communication to advance public health goals.
Following the characterization of inaccurate health information by the U.S. Surgeon General as an “urgent threat,” and by the World Health Organization as an “infodemic,” the SSRC issued a call for proposals to counter the growing global threats posed by public health mis- and disinformation and low Covid-19 vaccination rates, and received nearly 200 submissions from around the world.

Funded projects will provide evidence about what works–and doesn’t–in specific places and for specific groups to increase Covid-19 vaccination take-up, including what is feasible on the ground and has the potential to be cost-effective at scale.

The team among other things will be conducting literacy training for secondary school students in partnership with local authorities to help students identify Covid-19 vaccine misinformation; equipping trusted messengers with communication strategies to increase Covid-19 vaccination demand; and using social networks to share tailored, community-developed messaging to increase Covid-19 vaccination demand.