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

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.