Reinforcement of vaccine mandates and public attitudes towards vaccines: What can we learn from google search activity ?

TL;DR

This study analyzes how vaccine mandates influence public attitudes by examining Google search trends across different countries and states, revealing that mandates' effects vary by context and do not significantly reduce vaccine skepticism.

Contribution

It provides a comparative analysis of vaccine mandate impacts on public attitudes using Google search data across multiple countries and states.

Findings

Mandate effects vary significantly by country and state.

Vaccine mandates do not substantially decrease public doubt.

Public attitudes are influenced by local context and policy implementation.

Abstract

International public health policies increasingly favor mandatory immunization. If its short-term effects on vaccine coverage are well documented, there has been little consideration to its effects on public attitudes towards vaccines. In this paper, we examine Google searches related to vaccines in five countries (Australia, France, Germany, Italy, Serbia) and two American states (California) which experienced at least one vaccine mandate extension in the past decade. We found that the effects of a new mandate implementation heavily depends on the context in each specific country or state. We also observed that there is little indication that the passing of new or extended mandates attenuated public doubt towards vaccines.