Abstract
"Vaccine hesitancy is a threat to global health and misinformation is exacerbating it. Vaccine hesitancy is the reluctance or refusal to take vaccines despite the availability of vaccines. The history of vaccine hesitancy is long and complex. Concerns for safety, complacency, indecisiveness, and religious beliefs are only some of the reasons underlying vaccine hesitancy. Misinformation is misleading or false information that spreads through whatever is the latest information and communication technology. Misinformation is nothing new but digital technology escalated the spread thereof to an extraordinary scale. Vaccine hesitancy fueled by misinformation has led to a global health crisis that saw the resurgence of life threatening but vaccine preventable diseases such as measles. To be sure, this problem requires scholarly attention in international legal literature. International law particularly international health law plays an important role in promoting and coordinating international cooperation to protect and promote global health. Health misinformation, which exacerbates a global health threat that is vaccine hesitancy, undermines the objectives and international health lawmaking capacities of the World Health Organization. It also weakens the capacity of the World Health Organization to fulfill its functions of providing information, counsel and assistance in the field of health; and assisting in developing an informed public opinion among all peoples on matters of health.Inasmuch as the World Health Organization has a role in addressing health misinformation, it also plays an important part in health science communication. Certainly, a better understanding of the role that the World Health Organization plays in health science communication can provide guidance in addressing health misinformation. This research acknowledges that the findings from this study may not provide a legal solution to the problem of health misinformation but it may provide insight as to what international health law contributes to the problem and what it can do to address the same. The main thesis of this research is that international health law contributes to the problem of health misinformation and plays a role in addressing the same. This research seeks to examine this thesis through the following main questions: How does international health law communicate health science, and how does that contribute to the problem of misinformation that exacerbated a global health threat that is vaccine hesitancy? How does the World Health Organization, through its international health law and norm making powers, communicate the problems and shape the solutions of vaccine hesitancy and misinformation?"