ABOUT JITSUVAX

Overview

Vaccine hesitancy – the delay in acceptance or refusal of vaccines despite availability of vaccine services – has been cited as a serious threat to global health by the World Health Organization (WHO), attributing it to misinformation on the internet. The WHO has also identified Health Care Professionals (HCPs) as the most trusted influencers of vaccination decisions. JITSUVAX leverages those insights to turn toxic misinformation into a potential asset based on two premises:

  1. The best way to acquire knowledge and to combat misperceptions is by employing misinformation itself, either in weakened doses as a cognitive “vaccine”, or through thorough analysis of misinformation during “refutational learning”.
  2. HCPs form the critical link between vaccination policies and vaccine uptake. The principal objective of JITSUVAX is to leverage misinformation about vaccinations into an opportunity by training HCPs through inoculation and refutational learning, thereby neutralizing misinformation among HCPs and enabling them to communicate more effectively with patients.

The JITSUVAX team can be contacted via [email protected] 

JITSUVAX consists of four scientific work packages:

Work Package 1: Assessing vaccine hesitancy among health care professionals (HCPs) across Europe.

The first work package consists of systematically measuring health care professionals’ (HCPs) attitudes towards vaccinations using a combination of interviews and questionnaires. This will be carried out in all of the participating countries. An assessment of HCPs attitudes is important because HCPs form the critical link.

Work Package 2: Developing Jiu Jitsu interventions for HCPs and the general public

In the second work package, arguments and misinformation used by anti-vaccination activists will be analysed. This analysis will be used to provide material for cognitive ‘vaccination’ and refutational learning, two ways of addressing misperceptions that have been shown to be useful in other contexts. Novel tools that improve public resilience to misinformation will be developed along with tools to help HCPs develop their knowledge and communicate more effectively with patients.

Work Package 3: Converting Jiu Jitsu interventions into learning and communication tools for HCPs

In the third work package, the findings from the first two will be brought into practice. Several new tools will be explored, including interventions to be trialled in the training of HCPs.

Work Package 4: Converting Jiu Jitsu interventions into communication tools for HCPs

In the fourth work package, the findings will be shared by developing a guidance document for HCPs and public health bodies, which will be disseminated across the globe via WHO, UNICEF and other organisations.