Marketing expert Dr Mike Lee has kept a ten-year watch on the anti-vaccination movement. In this illuminating talk, he explores how we could develop herd immunity against harmful misinformation.

Marketing expert Dr Mike Lee has kept a ten-year watch on the anti-vaccination movement. In this illuminating talk, he explores the key reasons people reject vaccinations and how we could develop herd immunity against harmful misinformation.

Listen to Dr Mike Lee

(From Raising the Bar - Home edition 2021)

In 2011, Dr Mike Lee began his research into the anti-vaccination movement that opposed mandatory vaccination for childhood communicable diseases such as measles, mumps and rubella. At that time, so-called "anti-vaxxers" were on the fringes of society.

Fast-forward to 2021, and those hostile to vaccines have a brand new target as governments and pharmaceutical companies roll out Covid-19 vaccines.

Dr Michael Lee has kept a ten-year watch on the movement, monitoring blogs and news articles, as well as medical and social science journals.

He draws a connection between the current anti-vaxx campaign and anti-consumption battles against globalisation.

In this talk, Dr Lee applies his knowledge of marketing to this major social issue.

He explores the four main reasons for not getting a vaccination:

ideological beliefs

belief in freedom of choice

risk-to-benefit ratio perceived as poor

uncertainty about safety and efficacy

Dr Lee suggests that an awareness of our cognitive biases - apophenia, the availability heuristic and confirmation bias - could be crucial for our ability to develop herd immunity against misinformation.

https://youtu.be/I_D6ayQhn0A

Edited highlights from the discussion:

Mike Lee:

What is a marketer doing talking about anti-vaxxers?

I'm not an immunologist, a virologist, nor an epidemiologist. All I am is a humble marketer. My research area is about this concept called anti-consumption, usually to do with people boycotting or resisting brands, products or services. The classic example in the old days was Nike and sweatshop labour. Or people that are anti-globalisation may protest outside Starbucks or McDonalds.

The way I see it as a marketer is that a vaccine is essentially a product. It's something that you use to obtain certain benefits. The main difference between a vaccine and a pair of sneakers, for example, is that unlike the sneakers, the vaccines usually have a ton of evidence behind them, proving their safety and that they work…

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details