In a paper we published in BMJ Global Health earlier this year, we mapped the landscape of emerging concerns and false claims beginning to circulate about a future HIV vaccine.
We found recurring claims, including that HIV prevention tools are designed to harm specific populations; that they cause the conditions they’re meant to prevent; that their side effects are catastrophic and concealed.
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[F]ears about catastrophic, terminal physical harm were what topped the list: that it “will kill you” and claims about liver, kidney and heart failure, bone marrow damage and cancer.
Our team tested an approach called psychological inoculation or pre-bunking, in order to make people less vulnerable to misinformation.
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We created 2.5-minute TikTok-style videos that featured the false claims along with an explanation of why the claims were false. …
In a trial with more than 2 000 young South African women (18-29 years old), which is under review for publication, participants who watched the pre-bunking videos increased their intentions to accept a future HIV vaccine after seeing misinformation — while intentions among those who didn’t see the pre-bunking videos and saw only the misinformation were 13% lower ….
