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Impact of conspiracy theories on the public perception of COVID-19 pandemic and the vaccination program in the Republic of Croatia

With the first information about vaccines against the COVID-19 virus in November last year, the world was given hope that the end of the pandemic that caused the most prominent global health crisis in a hundred years is looming. Additionally, the global economy has fallen into a deep economic crisis due to lockdown policies and social distancing measures. Vaccination has proven to be one of the most successful public health measures, and the vaccine is the most effective global strategy to end the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite significant advances in vaccination over the past century, the World Health Organization recognised hesitation and mistrust in vaccination as a substantial threat to global health. The decline in confidence in vaccination, and the strong growth of the anti-vaccine movement, contributed to the worldwide decrease in vaccination acceptance and removed barriers to infectious diseases and epidemics. Information is one of the main factors in forming opinions, including vaccines and vaccination against the COVID-19 virus. Today, the Internet is the largest and fastest source of information. Exposure to misinformation, untruths and conspiracy theories on Internet are some of the critical factors of distrust in vaccines. The effect of disinformation is growing by the rapid spread of unfounded and inaccurate information through the mass media. In Croatia, internet portals that promote conspiracy theories and social networks play a crucial role in strengthening the anti-vaccination movement and directly influencing individuals in making their vaccination decisions. This paper will analyse the leading theories about the harmfulness of vaccination, the political and social reasons for the increase in vaccination rejection and hesitation, and, consequently, the failure of the vaccination campaign in Croatia.

COVID-19 pandemic ; Croatia ; conspiracy theories ; vaccination ; social networks

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