The COVID States Project #57: Social media news consumption and COVID-19 vaccination rates

Abstract

Earlier this month, we witnessed a vigorous back and forth between the White House and Facebook regarding the role of the company in circulating health misinformation. On the White House side, the Surgeon General released an Advisory declaring misinformation a public health threat to the nation, highlighting, in part, the role of social media. This was followed the next day by a pointed statement by President Biden-- “They’re killing us!” Facebook responded with a blog entry, Moving Past the Finger Pointing, asserting that it was not responsible for the plateauing vaccination rates in the US. The company pointed to the fact that 85% of Facebook users in a large survey by Carnegie Mellon (supported by Facebook) reported being vaccinated or wanting to be vaccinated. This exchange begs an obvious question: who has it right? Answering this question is tricky; but at minimum, rebutting the President’s accusation would require more information than is provided in Facebook’s blog post. For one thing, it fails to compare Facebook users to non-users. It also does not provide information on vaccination rates among those Facebook users who actually get information regarding COVID-19 from Facebook. As most Americans use Facebook, the vaccination rates among users will inevitably be similar to those of the general population. But only a subset of those users go to Facebook specifically to get news and information about COVID-19. These are the people who the Biden administration worries are at risk of exposure to vaccine misinformation.