Anti-vaccination campaign had little reach among candidates in the 2020 elections

Messages from President Jair Bolsonaro and his followers who sought to discredit Covid-19 vaccines on social media had little repercussion in last year’s municipal elections, according to a study that examined hundreds of publications made during the campaign.

Produced by a group linked to the Solidarity Research Network, which articulates public and private academic institutions, the survey indicates that the majority of candidates who entered the dispute for city halls preferred to support vaccination, including a good part of those who aligned themselves with Bolsonaro.

The researchers analyzed messages on the subject posted on Twitter by 181 candidates for mayor who ran in 17 major cities, including 10 capitals. Of the 628 posts, 67% were classified as favorable to the vaccines, 17% as unfavorable and 16% as neutral.

Candidates who either had Bolsonaro’s support or aligned with his views accounted for 74% of anti-immunizing publications. Of the total number of posts on the topic, 30% were classified as unfavorable, 57% as favorable and 13% as neutral.

Messages that questioned test results about the effectiveness of immunizers, made comparisons to disqualify vaccines, highlighted adverse side effects, or spoke out against the idea of ​​making vaccination mandatory in the country were considered unfavorable.

Publications that commemorated advances in clinical trials, defended the wide offer of immunizing agents or explained their importance in protecting the population were considered favorable. Information about the vaccination schedule and technical content were treated as neutral.

“Many messages were based on the strategic manipulation of information that, even if true, were amplified or distorted to fuel distrust in vaccines”, says political scientist Lorena Barberia, from the University of São Paulo, coordinator of the network of researchers.

For Pedro Bruzzi, a partner at the social media analysis consultancy Arquimedes and a researcher at Fundação Getulio Vargas in São Paulo, who participated in the study, the data point to the fragility of the mechanisms adopted by internet platforms to contain misinformation on the networks.

“Political actors cannot act irresponsibly and this goes unnoticed”, says the researcher. “Given the nature of the positions they occupy and their institutional weight, these people need to be held accountable when they invest against an indisputable public policy, such as vaccines.”

Os pesquisadores encontraram poucas mensagens de Bolsonaro sobre a vacinação entre suas publicações no Twitter, mas analisaram também os discursos do presidente e verificaram que suas críticas aos imunizantes se tornaram mais frequentes no segundo semestre do ano passado.

A study published by the Solidarity Research Network in May showed that messages from Bolsonaro and his followers on social networks during this period stimulated a wave of attacks on Coronavac, a vaccine developed by China and brought to Brazil by the Butantan Institute, in São Paulo.

The survey now carried out on the manifestations of the candidates for mayor shows that messages in favor of vaccination reached higher levels of engagement on Twitter than anti-vaccination posts, with a greater number of likes and reposts by users of the social network.

For the researchers, this result reflects the significant support that immunizers received from the Brazilian population in recent months. According to Datafolha, 91% of adult Brazilians had already been vaccinated or intended to be vaccinated in May, and only 8% did not want to have the injection.

According to the most recent data from the consortium of press vehicles, 77% of Brazilians have already received at least one dose and 64.1% completed the first immunization cycle. So far, 8% of Brazilians have also taken the first booster dose against the coronavirus.