Information Overload and the COVID-19 Vaccine

Health uncertainty, layered with social and financial uncertainty, drove information-seeking behaviors during the first few months of the COVID-19 pandemic. While people had no difficulty finding and sharing information, often such information lacked quality. As a result, the COVID-19 pandemic quickly became an infodemic as well. Three characteristics define an infodemic: volume, velocity, and bad information. Increased information-seeking behaviors during the early pandemic, combined with the characteristics of an infodemic, made uncertainty management challenging for individuals. Initially, the uncertainty associated with COVID-19 involved questions related to transmission and treatment. However, President Donald Trump’s Operation Warp Speed, which fast-tracked the development of a COVID-19 vaccine, meant the decision to get vaccinated must now be considered. This section analyzes how information-seeking and uncertainty influenced outcomes related to vaccine hesitation and overall vaccine outcomes. Ultimately, this section argues that the infodemic environment and differences in news consumption by political parties impacted vaccine-related decisions as individuals managed uncertainty over time. Facing competing narratives surrounding the risk of getting COVID-19 versus taking a newly developed vaccine, Democrats and Republicans made different choices. For Democrats, a continuing belief that COVID-19 posed a serious health threat meant reducing transmission and avoiding serious illness or death remained important goals—promoting vaccine acceptance. Alternatively, Republicans shifted sentiment to accept the uncertainty posed by getting the virus while expressing concern over the speed and methodology of the new vaccine’s development during a relatively short timeframe. As a result, 90% of Democrats chose to get vaccinated compared to 58% of Republicans, making political affliliation the most significant indicator for COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy.