Vaccine misinformation: A lasting side effect from Covid

A fringe anti-vaccine movement took advantage of the Covid-19 pandemic to bring conspiracy theories to a much wider audience, propelling dangerous misinformation about life-saving jabs that still endures five years later, experts warn.

Vaccine scepticism was around long before Covid but the pandemic "served as an accelerant, helping to turn a niche movement into a more powerful force' The pandemic also marked a change in strategy by anti-vaxxers, who previously targeted parents because children routinely received the most jabs.

But when next-generation vaccines were developed in record time to help bring Covid under control, mandatory vaccination was introduced for adults in many countries.