An analysis of vaccine-related disinformation in Washington State

The World Health Organisation has identified the anti-vaccination movement as one of the biggest global health threats of 2019. In January, a state of emergency was declared in Washington State following an outbreak of measles.

We tracked searches related to vaccine disinformation and the key figures involved in the anti-vaccination movement in Washington State for three weeks from February 15th, 2019.

We also investigated anti-vax content on YouTube to see if we could better understand their audience – for example, by identifying their average age and gender, and finding out which other videos they engage with. For example, are people who watch anti-vax videos also interested in other conspiracy theories?

The full report contains all our findings and contains recommendations for future programming.