Nearly 89 percent of the surveyed population in the rural areas of Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, and Bihar have been vaccinated against COVID-19.
Of this, 82 percent say that verified and fact-checked information from The Quint and Video Volunteers about the efficacy of the vaccine helped them make the decision to get vaccinated.
This is as per a survey conducted by the two organisations to measure the impact of its year-long project, which was aimed at fighting mis/disinformation related to COVID-19.
The survey was conducted between 23 February and 21 March 2022 and it covered 47 districts of the three states.
A total of 2,088 people were surveyed, of which the response of 1,491 (683 of which were a part of the first survey) participants – with annual income less than Rs 1 lakh – is being presented to show the exposure to misinformation of the underserved population.
The results of our survey have shown a positive change in the perception towards the vaccines and an increase in the trust level when compared to the first survey, which was conducted in April-May 2021.
While nearly 42 percent of the people said they wouldn’t take the COVID-19 vaccine in April 2021, this survey has showed that only three percent of the surveyed population was completely unvaccinated.
96% Believe Vaccination Will Provide Protection From COVID-19
The trust in the COVID-19 vaccine has significantly risen since the first survey. Nearly 96 percent of the people said that they believed the vaccine would provide protection.
The increase in trust is directly proportional to quelling of rumours and conspiracy theories.
The first survey found low trust in the government, with 26 percent of people believing COVID-19 to be a government conspiracy. The number went down to 7 percent in the second survey, and only 9 percent of people now believe vaccination and masking protocols are government propaganda.
We also noticed a change in people’s primary source of information, which could have also impacted their decision-making process.
There was a low-level dependency on the information received on Facebook and WhatsApp and a sharp increase in the information shared by The Quint through Video Volunteers.
In fact, the two organisations became the primary source of information for around 55 percent of the respondents.
Earlier, 56 percent of the respondents said they trusted COVID-related WhatsApp forwards, and 55 percent believed in the content they saw on Facebook.
This exposed people to misinformation, and disinformation spread on these platforms to create fear and panic.
Gender, Religion and Class Divide Reduces
We had found that vaccine hesitancy was more prevalent among women during the first survey, with 61 percent of women expressing fear of the vaccine compared to 49 percent of the men.
Our end-line survey found that vaccine acceptance has increased across genders, with around 98 percent of men and women taking at least one jab.
The baseline survey saw a difference in vaccine acceptance in different communities. 50 percent of Muslims had said that they will not get vaccinated, as opposed to 42 percent of Hindus.
In the second survey, we found over 98.5 percent Muslims and over 97 percent Hindus were vaccinated with at least one dose of the jab.
The disparity in vaccine hesitancy among those belonging to the traditionally marginalised classes such as scheduled castes and scheduled tribes has also reduced significantly, with nearly 95 percent of respondents from those classes being fully or partially vaccinated.
A year ago, we found a significant divide between the rural and urban poor in terms of access to verified and fact-checked information.
Vaccine acceptance and access to verified information was also low in the urban poor.
The second survey found that the rural-urban divide in ‘access to verified information’ seems to have reduced, and close to 98 percent respondents in both the places believe COVID-19 vaccine would protect against the novel coronavirus.
Impact of The Quint-Video Volunteers Project
As a part of the project funded by Google News Initiative, The Quint, with the help of Video Volunteers, created and distributed fact-checks, explainers and other content in text, video and audio form to inform and educate people in rural parts of UP, MP, and Bihar.
The project started amid the raging second wave of the pandemic in April, which meant content distribution was only possible through online means.
With the end of the second wave, we started offline campaigns that included narrowcasting, distributing pamphlets, and addressing people in schools and hospitals.
Through our survey, we found that people considered content shared by The Quint and Video Volunteers considered it their primary source for COVID-related information.
About 94 percent of those who had seen our content accepted that it had helped increase their awareness about COVID-19.
Our fact-checks and explainers also helped reduce vaccine hesitancy among women. For example, apprehensions among pregnant women were high regarding getting vaccinated last year, and 18 percent of people believed those who are pregnant should not take the vaccine.
In contrast, 94 percent of those pregnant women who took the vaccine said that the content sent by us helped them decide to get vaccinated.
Our survey shows quelling of misinformation and rumours and providing people with credible information and explainers reduced the trust deficit in government health networks and helped increase vaccine acceptance.
(Not convinced of a post or information you came across online and want it verified? Send us the details on WhatsApp at 9643651818, or e-mail it to us at webqoof@thequint.com and we'll fact-check it for you. You can also read all our fact-checked stories here.)
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