ONE third of people have seen anti-Covid vaccine messages and social media platforms are the main source of jag scare stories, it has emerged.

The first doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine were given out during the week. Research released today shows the rate of exposure to coronavirus anti-vax messaging rises to almost 50% for those aged 16-34.

One quarter of this age group believes the jag programme is a conspiracy aimed at tracking and controlling the population, according to UK-wide research by King’s College London and pollsters Ipsos Mori.

Overall, “relatively few” people actively believe conspiracy theories about the programme, but there are “worryingly high” levels of people unsure what to believe.

Four in 10 people are unconvinced that the jag won’t cause autism, almost half are unsure about whether or not it will lead to infertility and three in 10 question whether it will alter DNA. One in eight do not trust the UK Government to ensure it is safe.

Facebook was found to be the top source of “discouraging” messaging about the medical breakthrough, with one in five people seeing it there. Another one in 20 have seen it on Twitter, Instagram or YouTube.

Behavioural scientist professor Linda Bauld, of Edinburgh University, told the Sunday National that authorities in Scotland must challenge each conspiracy theory to halt the spread of misinformation. She said: “It’s a big task but they’re just going to have to do this at scale.

“There’s a lot of misinformation. It’s concerning and we need to push back on it. It’s happening in Scotland, it’s happening everywhere.

“I have zero confidence in social media platforms to do anything about it.

“Government needs to be transparent and provide good communication and directly address people’s concerns.”

The findings are based on more than 2200 interviews with UK residents aged 16 to 75, carried out late last month. Two thirds said they were in favour of measures to make it easier to find and read scientific evidence on vaccines through social media platforms.

Professor Bobby Duffy of King’s College London said: “It’s clear that some harmful views have taken hold among a minority of the public. They range from concerns about whether the UK Government will ensure the safety of the coronavirus vaccine, to particularly extreme conspiracy theories, such as that the real purpose of the vaccination effort is to track and control the population.

“As we start on the very long process of vaccinating as much of the population as possible, addressing this uncertainty through transparent, consistent and inventive public health communication will be essential.”