Analyzing Social Media to Explore the Attitudes and Behaviors Following the Announcement of Successful COVID-19 Vaccine Trials: Infodemiology Study

Abstract

Background The rollout of COVID-19 vaccines has brought vaccine hesitancy to the forefront in managing this pandemic. COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy is fundamentally different from that of other vaccines due to the new technologies being used, rapid development, and widespread global distribution. Attitudes on vaccines are largely driven by online information, particularly information on social media. The first step toward influencing attitudes about immunization is understanding the current patterns of communication that characterize the immunization debate on social media platforms. Objective We aimed to evaluate societal attitudes, communication trends, and barriers to COVID-19 vaccine uptake through social media content analysis to inform communication strategies promoting vaccine acceptance. Methods Social network analysis (SNA) and unsupervised machine learning were used to characterize COVID-19 vaccine content on Twitter globally. Tweets published in English and French were collected through the Twitter application programming interface between November 19 and 26, 2020, just following the announcement of initial COVID-19 vaccine trials. SNA was used to identify social media clusters expressing mistrustful opinions on COVID-19 vaccination. Based on the SNA results, an unsupervised machine learning approach to natural language processing using a sentence-level algorithm transfer function to detect semantic textual similarity was performed in order to identify the main themes of vaccine hesitancy. Results The tweets (n=636,516) identified that the main themes driving the vaccine hesitancy conversation were concerns of safety, efficacy, and freedom, and mistrust in institutions (either the government or multinational corporations). A main theme was the safety and efficacy of mRNA technology and side effects. The conversation around efficacy was that vaccines were unlikely to completely rid the population of COVID-19, polymerase chain reaction testing is flawed, and there is no indication of long-term T-cell immunity for COVID-19. Nearly one-third (45,628/146,191, 31.2%) of the conversations on COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy clusters expressed concerns for freedom or mistrust of institutions (either the government or multinational corporations) and nearly a quarter (34,756/146,191, 23.8%) expressed criticism toward the government’s handling of the pandemic. Conclusions Social media content analysis combined with social network analysis provides insights into the themes of the vaccination conversation on Twitter. The themes of safety, efficacy, and trust in institutions will need to be considered, as targeted outreach programs and intervention strategies are deployed on Twitter to improve the uptake of COVID-19 vaccination.

COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy and Acceptance Among Individuals With Cancer, Autoimmune Diseases, or Other Serious Comorbid Conditions: Cross-sectional, Internet-Based Survey

“…The rapid enrollment of nearly 22,000 respondents with serious diseases over a 5-week period, with thousands more viewing the online results, attests to the potential influence of the worldwide web on health issues. An infodemiology study of over 650,000 "tweets" from November 2020, prior to the release of vaccines, identified that the main themes driving vaccine hesitancy were concerns of safety, efficacy, freedom, and mistrust in institutions (either the government or multinational corporations) [35]. A qualitative coding methodologic review of antivaccine social media noted that the most frequent narratives centered on "corrupt elites" and rhetoric appealing to the vulnerability of children [36].…”

Does the COVID-19 Vaccine Still Work That “Most of the Confirmed Cases Had Been Vaccinated”? A Content Analysis of Vaccine Effectiveness Discussion on Sina Weibo during the Outbreak of COVID-19 in Nanjing

“…In contrast to the dominance of positive and neutral attitudes towards COVID-19 vaccines, sentiment analysis found significant negative emotions and sentiments in Weibo posts. This is intriguing as previous studies proved that sentiment analysis provides insight into public attitudes towards vaccines [ 22 ]. However, this study indicated no correlation between public attitudes towards vaccines and emotional orientations.…”

“…Furthermore, individuals’ attitudes towards vaccines are largely driven by online information and opinions posted on social media, especially by negative information [ 20 , 21 , 22 ]. Studies have shown that exposure to negative emotions regarding vaccination on social media exacerbated vaccine hesitancy and refusal [ 13 ].…”

“…As mentioned above, social media analysis provides insights into public attitudes and hesitancy towards vaccination [ 22 ]. In terms of the research methods, social media analysis often extracts data via big data, further analyzing the data through sentiment analysis and thematic analysis tools.…”

Irish Media Coverage of COVID-19 Evidence-Based Research Reports From One National Agency

“…88 Recent research in the US and Canada has also shown that mainstream media (e.g., television, radio, podcasts, or newspapers) represents the largest source of information about COVID-19. 21,70 While it is inarguable that social media plays an important role in the dissemination of information related to COVID-19 8,11,89,90 , we believe that realm deserves a separate methodology and investigation and is outside the scope of this analysis.…”