DISRUPTIVE TECHNOLOGY AND THE INDIRECT IMPACT ON THE UPTAKE OF COVID-19 VACCINATION THROUGH SELF-EXEMPTING DISCRIMINANT ATTITUDES AND MISINTERPRETATIONS IN KENYA AND THE USA
Authors: Robert Allen & Odero Collince
ABSTRACT
The study examines the indirect impact of disruptive technology on the uptake of COVID-19 vaccination through self-exempting discriminant attitudes and misinterpretations in Kenya and the USA. COVID-19 vaccine refusal is identified as a major obstacle to achieving health for all, with hesitant individuals spreading misinformation through social media platforms (disruptive technology) thus contributing to low vaccination uptake. The history of disruptive technology, vaccination, and the global COVID-19 pandemic are discussed as context for understanding the current challenges faced in promoting vaccination uptake using disruptive technology. Findings indicated no significant direct effects of disruptive technology on vaccination uptake, with key influencers being attitudes and misinterpretations. Recommendations include focusing on demystifying vaccine effectiveness and tailoring interventions to improve public knowledge and attitudes towards vaccination.
REFERENCES
- Allen, R. (2018). Strategies for Integrating and Sustaining Disruptive Innovations in Small Businesses. Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies. 5674. https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/dissertations/5674
- Al-Regaiey, K., Alshamry, W.S., Alqarni, R.A., Albarrak, M.K., Alghoraiby, R.M., Alkadi, D.Y., Alhakeem, L.R., Bashir, S. & Iqbal, M. (2021). Influence of social media on parents’ attitudes towards vaccine administration. Human Vaccines & Immunotherapeutics, DOI: 10.1080/21645515.2021.1872340
- Christensen, C. M. (1997). The Innovator’s Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail. Harvard Business Review Press.
- Christensen, C. M., Raynor, M. E., & McDonald, R. (2015). What is disruptive innovation? Harvard Business Review, 93(12), 44-53.
- Cinelli, M., Quattrociocchi, W., Galeazzi, A., Valensise, C. M., Brugnoli, E., Schmidt, A. L., … & Scala, A. (2020). The COVID-19 social media infodemic. Scientific Reports, 10(1), 1- 10. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-73510-5
- Depoux, A., Martin, S., Karafillakis, E., Preet, R., Wilder-Smith, A., & Larson, H. (2020). The pandemic of social media panic travels faster than the COVID-19 outbreak. Journal of travel medicine, 27(3).
- Dodd, R. H., Pickles, K., Nickel, B., Cvejic, E., Ayre, J., Batcup, C., & McCaffery, K. J. (2020). Concerns and motivations about COVID-19 vaccination. The Lancet Infectious Diseases, 21(2), 161-163.
- Dryhurst, S., Schneider, C.R., Kerr, J., Freeman, A.L.J, Recchia, G., van der Bles, A.M. (2020). Risk perceptions of COVID-19 around the world. Journal of Risk Research, 1–13.
- Gans, J. (2016). The Disruption Dilemma. MIT Press.
- Guan, W.J., Ni, Z.Y., Hu, Y., Liang, W.H., Ou, C.Q., He, J.X. (2020). Clinical Characteristics of Coronavirus Disease 2019 in China. New England Journal of Medicine, 382(18), 1708– 20.
- How misinformation, medical mistrust fuel vaccine hesitancy. (2021, September 2). News Center. https://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2021/09/infodemic-covid-19.html.
- Hudson, A. & Montelpare, W. (2021). Predictors of Vaccine Hesitancy: Implications for COVID-19 Public Health Messaging. International Journal of environmental research and public health, 18, 8054.
- Imhoff, R., & Lamberty, P. (2020). A bioweapon or a hoax? The link between distinct conspiracy beliefs about the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak and pandemic behavior. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 11(8), 1110–8.
- Jamison, A. M., Broniatowski, D. A., & Quinn, S. C. (2020). Malicious actors on Twitter: A guide for public health researchers. American Journal of Public Health, 109(S2), S178- S181. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2019.305445
- Lazarus, J. V., Ratzan, S., Palayew, A., Gostin, L. O., Larson, H. J., Rabin, K., & El-Mohandes, A. (2021). Hesitant or not? A global survey of potential acceptance of a COVID-19 vaccine. Nature Medicine, 27, 225-228.
- Loomba, S., de Figueiredo, A., Piatek, S. J., de Graaf, K., & Larson, H. J. (2021). Measuring the impact of COVID-19 vaccine misinformation on vaccination intent in the UK and USA. Nature Human Behaviour, 5(3), 337-348. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-021-01056-1
- Moran, M.B., Lucas, M., Everhart, K., Morgan, A., & Prickett, E. (2016). What makes anti- vaccine websites persuasive? A content analysis of techniques used by anti-vaccine websites to engender anti-vaccine sentiment. Journal of Communication in Healthcare, 9(3), 151–63.
- Palamenghi, L., Barello, S., Boccia, S., Gragna, G. (2020). Mistrust in biomedical research and vaccine hesitancy: The forefront challenge in the battle against COVID-19 in Italy. European Journal of Epidemiology, 35, 785-788.
- Pennycook, G., McPhetres, J., Zhang, Y., Lu, J. G., & Rand, D. G. (2020). Fighting COVID-19 misinformation on social media: Experimental evidence for a scalable accuracy-nudge intervention. Psychological Science, 31(7), 770-780. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797620939054
- Pogue K. (2020). Influences on attitudes regarding potential COVID-19 vaccination in the United States. Vaccines, 8(4), 582.
- Puri, N., Coomes, E.A., Haghbayan, H., & Gunaratne, K. (2020). Social media and vaccine hesitancy: new updates for the era of COVID-19 and globalized infectious diseases. Human Vaccines & Immunotherapeutic, 1–8.
- Reiter, P. L., Pennell, M. L., & Katz, M. L. (2020). Acceptability of a COVID-19 vaccine among adults in the United States: How many people would get vaccinated? Vaccine, 38(42), 6500-6507.
- Tomasis, R. (2023, July 20). Social media platforms. wix-encyclopedia. https://www.wix.com/encyclopedia/definition/social-media-platforms Worldometer (2021). Covid-19 coronavirous pandemic. Retrieved September 1, 2021 from <https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/#countries>