scholarly journals Among sheeples and antivaxxers: Social media responses to COVID-19 vaccine news posted by Canadian news organizations, and recommendations to counter vaccine hesitancy

2021 ◽  
Vol 47 (12) ◽  
pp. 524-533
Author(s):  
Lisa Tang ◽  
Sabrina Douglas ◽  
Amar Laila
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Risk Perceptions ◽  
Vaccine Safety ◽  
Vaccine Hesitancy ◽  
Vaccine Acceptance ◽  
Conspiracy Theories ◽  
Public Health Initiative ◽  
News Organizations ◽  
Subjective Risk

Background: To create a successful public health initiative that counters vaccine hesitancy and promotes vaccine acceptance, it is essential to gain a strong understanding of the beliefs, attitudes and subjective risk perceptions of the population. Methods: A qualitative analysis of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccine discourse from 3,731 social media posts on the Twitter and Facebook accounts of six Canadian news organizations was used to identify the perceptions, attitudes, beliefs and intentions of Canadian news organizations’ social media commenters toward taking a COVID-19 vaccine. Results: Four main themes were identified: 1) COVID-19 vaccine safety and efficacy concerns; 2) conspiracy theories stemming from mistrust in government and other organizations; 3) a COVID-19 vaccine is unnecessary because the virus is not dangerous; and 4) trust in COVID-19 vaccines as a safe solution. Based on themes and subthemes, several key communication recommendations were developed for promotion of COVID-19 vaccine acceptance, including infographics championed by Public Health that highlight the benefits of the vaccine for those who have received it, public education about the contents and safety of the vaccine and eliciting an emotional connection through personal stories of those impacted by COVID-19. Conclusion: Specific considerations, such as leveraging the public’s trust in healthcare professionals to act as a liaison between Public Health and the Canadian public to communicate the benefits of the vaccine against COVID-19 and its variants, may help reduce COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy.

scholarly journals Faster than warp speed: early attention to COVD-19 by anti-vaccine groups on Facebook

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Seth C Kalichman ◽  
Lisa A Eaton ◽  
Valerie A Earnshaw ◽  
Natalie Brousseau
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Vaccine Development ◽  
Rapid Development ◽  
Development Program ◽  
Vaccine Safety ◽  
Vaccine Hesitancy ◽  
Conspiracy Theories ◽  
The Us ◽  
Us Government ◽  
Vaccine Information

Abstract Background The unprecedented rapid development of COVID-19 vaccines has faced SARS-CoV- (COVID-19) vaccine hesitancy, which is partially fueled by the misinformation and conspiracy theories propagated by anti-vaccine groups on social media. Research is needed to better understand the early COVID-19 anti-vaccine activities on social media. Methods This study chronicles the social media posts concerning COVID-19 and COVID-19 vaccines by leading anti-vaccine groups (Dr Tenpenny on Vaccines, the National Vaccine Information Center [NVIC] the Vaccination Information Network [VINE]) and Vaccine Machine in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic (February–May 2020). Results Analysis of 2060 Facebook posts showed that anti-vaccine groups were discussing COVID-19 in the first week of February 2020 and were specifically discussing COVID-19 vaccines by mid-February 2020. COVID-19 posts by NVIC were more widely disseminated and showed greater influence than non-COVID-19 posts. Early COVID-19 posts concerned mistrust of vaccine safety and conspiracy theories. Conclusion Major anti-vaccine groups were sowing seeds of doubt on Facebook weeks before the US government launched its vaccine development program ‘Operation Warp Speed’. Early anti-vaccine misinformation campaigns outpaced public health messaging and hampered the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines.

Online Public Opinion about COVID-19 Vaccines: A Content Analysis of Vaccine Discussions on Twitter (Preprint)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Huang Huang ◽  
Yuanbo Qiu
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Public Opinion ◽  
English Language ◽  
Early Period ◽  
Negative Attitude ◽  
Vaccine Safety ◽  
Vaccine Hesitancy ◽  
Analysis Tool ◽  
Health Providers ◽  
Vaccine Acceptance

BACKGROUND To combat the COVID-19 pandemic, various vaccines have been developed and their rollout is under way. However, the uptake rate is hindered by vaccine hesitancy influenced by the conversations on social media. It is necessary to trace public opinion toward COVID-vaccines on social media. OBJECTIVE The objective of this study is to examine the sentiments and topics of English-language twitter discussion regarding COVID-19 vaccination. Further this study also aims to explore the temporal trend of sentiments and topics over one month in the early period of vaccine roll-out. METHODS Following existing studies of vaccine acceptance and social media, we collected Tweet posts from Twitter data base using Twitter API from December 2020 to January 2021, which reflected actual public discussions toward COVID vaccination after the beginning of the rollout. After data cleansing and selection, 656,102 vaccine-related tweets were identified from 329,441 unique users. We leveraged VADER (Valence Aware Dictionary and sEntiment Reasoner) sentiment analysis tool to explore sentiment scores and Natural Language Toolkit (NLTK) to confirm relevant topics. We also depicted daily changes of sentiments and topics in COVID-vaccine-related tweets across one month period. RESULTS Forty-two percentage of tweets expressed pro-vaccine sentiments while 21% held negative attitudes. The trend of sentiment kept positive and consistent overtime, but a sudden surge of negative tweets occurred around the New Year, which was caused by some unexpected adverse incidents. The Six main topics associated with vaccines were identified: Advocation of vaccination (42,459, 6.47%), Official information releases (29,847, 4.55%), Vaccine distribution (12,946, 1.97%), Vaccine safety concerns (11,236, 1.71%), Personal vaccination experience (5,594, 0.85%) and Conspiracy theory (2,962, 0.45%). Among popular tweets that have been reposted frequently, adverse incidents reported by reliable source have triggered intense discussions about vaccine safety issues, usually in a negative attitude. CONCLUSIONS : Most tweets expressed non-negative sentiments toward vaccination. However, vaccination-related adverse incidents have triggered intense discussions in a negative attitude. Our findings can help policymakers and health providers view the whole picture of the influence of social media and develop better communicative strategies for improving vaccine acceptance.

scholarly journals Real-World Acceptance of COVID-19 Vaccines among Healthcare Workers in Perinatal Medicine in China

Vaccines ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (7) ◽  
pp. 704
Author(s):  
Biyun Xu ◽  
Xuelian Gao ◽  
Xinyue Zhang ◽  
Yali Hu ◽  
Huixia Yang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
General Population ◽  
Real World ◽  
Healthcare Workers ◽  
Vaccine Safety ◽  
Vaccine Hesitancy ◽  
Present Survey ◽  
Perinatal Medicine ◽  
Vaccine Acceptance ◽  
Questionnaire Online ◽  
Convincing Data

Surveys showed that vaccine hesitancy may influence the acceptance of COVID-19 vaccines in healthcare workers (HCWs) and the general population. Currently, the actual acceptance of COVID-19 vaccination in HCWs has rarely been reported. In the present survey, we investigated the real-world acceptance of COVID-19 vaccination in HCWs in perinatal medicine during the first three-month period of vaccination in China and to identify the main reason for the decline of vaccination. HCWs (1087) who participated in a Chinese national symposium on perinatal medicine during 16–18 April 2021 were invited to answer a 27-question questionnaire online. A total of 1051 HCWs completed the questionnaire. Of them, 86.2% (906/1051) accepted the COVID-19 vaccination and 13.8% (145/1051) declined the vaccination. Because of the vaccine hesitancy, one-fourth of the vaccinated participants did not accept the vaccination until consulted with others or requested by employers. The main reason for the decline of vaccination in 145 unvaccinated HCWs was the concern about vaccine safety. The results indicate that vaccination request by employers may promote vaccine acceptance. More convincing data on the safety of COVID-19 vaccines appears to be important to increase the acceptance of vaccination.

scholarly journals Antecedents of Vaccine Hesitancy in WEIRD and East Asian Contexts

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel S. Courtney ◽  
Ana-Maria Bliuc
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Science Communication ◽  
East Asian ◽  
Vaccine Hesitancy ◽  
Mmr Vaccine ◽  
Specific Context ◽  
Vaccination Rates ◽  
Key Factor ◽  
Effective Science

Following decreasing vaccination rates over the last two decades, understanding the roots of vaccine hesitancy has become a public health priority. Vaccine hesitancy is linked to scientifically unfounded fears around the MMR vaccine and autism which are often fuelled by misinformation spread on social media. To counteract the effects of misinformation about vaccines and in particular the falling vaccination rates, much research has focused on identifying the antecedents of vaccine hesitancy. As antecedents of vaccine hesitancy are contextually dependent, a one-size-fits-all approach is unlikely to be successful in non-WEIRD (Western, Educated, Industrialised, Rich, and Democratic) populations, and even in certain (non-typical) WEIRD sub-populations. Successful interventions to reduce vaccine hesitancy must be based on understanding of the specific context. To identify potential contextual differences in the antecedents of vaccine hesitancy, we review research from three non-WEIRD populations in East Asia, and three WEIRD sub-populations. We find that regardless of the context, mistrust seems to be the key factor leading to vaccine hesitancy. However, the object of mistrust varies across WEIRD and non-WEIRD populations, and across WEIRD subgroups suggesting that effective science communication must be mindful of these differences.

scholarly journals Vaccine hesitancy: evidence from an adverse events following immunization database, and the role of cognitive biases

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Hossein Azarpanah ◽  
Mohsen Farhadloo ◽  
Rustam Vahidov ◽  
Louise Pilote
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Adverse Events ◽  
Cognitive Biases ◽  
Vaccine Safety ◽  
Vaccine Hesitancy ◽  
Decision Making Process ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
Vaccine Acceptance ◽  
Vaccination Decision ◽  
Vaccine Information

Abstract Background Vaccine hesitancy has been a growing challenge for public health in recent decades. Among factors contributing to vaccine hesitancy, concerns regarding vaccine safety and Adverse Events (AEs) play the leading role. Moreover, cognitive biases are critical in connecting such concerns to vaccine hesitancy behaviors, but their role has not been comprehensively studied. In this study, our first objective is to address concerns regarding vaccine AEs to increase vaccine acceptance. Our second objective is to identify the potential cognitive biases connecting vaccine hesitancy concerns to vaccine-hesitant behaviors and identify the mechanism they get triggered in the vaccine decision-making process. Methods First, to mitigate concerns regarding AEs, we quantitatively analyzed the U.S. Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) from 2011 to 2018 and provided evidence regarding the non-severity of the AEs that can be used as a communicable summary to increase vaccine acceptance. Second, we focused on the vaccination decision-making process. We reviewed cognitive biases and vaccine hesitancy literature to identify the most potential cognitive biases that affect vaccine hesitancy and categorized them adopting the Precaution Adoption Process Model (PAPM). Results Our results show that the top frequent AEs are expected mild reactions like injection site erythema (4.29%), pyrexia (3.66%), and injection site swelling (3.21%). 94.5% of the reports are not serious and the average population-based serious reporting rate over the 8 years was 25.3 reports per 1 million population. We also identified 15 potential cognitive biases that might affect people’s vaccination decision-making and nudge them toward vaccine hesitancy. We categorized these biases based on the factors that trigger them and discussed how they contribute to vaccine hesitancy. Conclusions This paper provided an evidence-based communicable summary of VAERS. As the most trusted sources of vaccine information, health practitioners can use this summary to provide evidence-based vaccine information to vaccine decision-makers (patients/parents) and mitigate concerns over vaccine safety and AEs. In addition, we identified 15 potential cognitive biases that might affect the vaccination decision-making process and nudge people toward vaccine hesitancy. Any plan, intervention, and message to increase vaccination uptake should be modified to decrease the effect of these potential cognitive biases.

scholarly journals Network Analysis of COVID-19 Vaccine Misinformation on Social Media

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chad Melton ◽  
Olufunto A. Olusanya ◽  
Arash Shaban-Nejad
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Network Analysis ◽  
Semantic Network ◽  
Vaccine Safety ◽  
Vaccine Hesitancy ◽  
World Population ◽  
Semantic Network Analysis ◽  
Online Social Media ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Media Platform

Almost half of the world population has received at least one dose of vaccine against the COVID-19 virus. However, vaccine hesitancy amongst certain populations is driving new waves of infections at alarming rates. The popularity of online social media platforms attracts supporters of the anti-vaccination movement who spread misinformation about vaccine safety and effectiveness. We conducted a semantic network analysis to explore and analyze COVID-19 vaccine misinformation on the Reddit social media platform.

scholarly journals Beneficial or an unknown risk: Immunization hesitancy in Indian population

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 70-71
Author(s):  
Digjeet Kaur ◽  
Mahak Gera
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Virus Infection ◽  
Indian Population ◽  
Vaccine Hesitancy ◽  
Effective Vaccine ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Unknown Risk ◽  
Rapid Spread ◽  
People’S Perception

The most victorious intervention in field of Public Health is immunization. It prevents 2-3 million deaths every year from diseases like diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, influenza, measles and currently to overcome the novel corona virus infection an effective vaccine is the most anticipated resolution. Despite the advancements and innovations in clinical research and healthcare, vaccine hesitancy is a threat globally. Social media has provided unmatched capacity for people to communicate but has also been a major tool for rapid spread of misconceptions and disingenuous information damaging to public health. This article aims to give an overview of vaccine hesitancy of various infectious diseases, people’s perception towards it, how social media has facilitated this movement and how to eliminate the misconception.

scholarly journals Public Willingness and Determinants of COVID-19 Vaccination at the Initial Stage of Mass Vaccination in China

Vaccines ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (10) ◽  
pp. 1172
Author(s):  
Yi-Miao Zhao ◽  
Lin Liu ◽  
Jie Sun ◽  
Wei Yan ◽  
Kai Yuan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Multinomial Logistic Regression ◽  
Vaccine Safety ◽  
High Income ◽  
Vaccine Hesitancy ◽  
Depression Symptoms ◽  
Middle Aged ◽  
The Government ◽  
Vaccine Information

The present study assessed the willingness of the general population to receive COVID-19 vaccines and identified factors that influence vaccine hesitancy and resistance. A national online survey was conducted from 29 January 2021 to 26 April 2021 in China. Multinomial logistic regression analyses were conducted to identify factors that influence vaccine hesitancy and resistance. Of the 34,041 participants surveyed, 18,810 (55.3%) were willing to get vaccinated, 13,736 (40.3%) were hesitant, and 1495 (4.4%) were resistant. Rates of vaccine acceptance increased over time, with geographical discrepancies in vaccine hesitancy and resistance between provinces in China. Vaccine safety was the greatest concern expressed by most participants (24,461 [71.9%]), and the major reason for participants’ refusing vaccination (974 [65.2%]). Government agencies (23,131 [68.0%]) and social media (20,967 [61.6%]) were the main sources of COVID-19 vaccine information. Compared with vaccination acceptance, female, young and middle-aged, high income, and perceived low-risk of infection were associated with vaccine hesitancy. Histories of allergic reactions to other vaccines and depression symptoms were related to vaccine resistance. Common factors that influenced vaccine hesitancy and resistance were residing in cities and perceiving less protection with vaccines than with other protective measures. The results indicate that the rate of vaccine resistance is relatively low, but vaccine hesitancy is common. Individuals who are female, young and middle-aged, with a high income, and residing in cities are more likely to be hesitant for vaccination and should be the target populations for vaccination campaigns. Specific vaccine messaging from the government and social media could alleviate public concerns about vaccine safety and efficacy.

scholarly journals Myths Surrounding Covid-19 Vaccine Candidates: A Guide to Fight Back

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Zizzo
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Herd Immunity ◽  
Vaccine Uptake ◽  
Protective Measure ◽  
Vaccine Hesitancy ◽  
Health Providers ◽  
Vaccine Candidates ◽  
The Public ◽  
News Organizations ◽  
Public Health Officials

The Covid-19 pandemic has propelled public health officials into the socio-political sphere due to the need for constantly updated information on behalf of the public. However, many individuals choose to acquire health information/guidance from indirect sources, including social media, news organizations, and general word of mouth. As a result, myths and false narratives about various essential health topics, including vaccine characteristics and protective measures, can circulate un-verified between millions of individuals with little recourse. These can further widen the “gap” between public knowledge and current research, resulting in lower vaccine uptake (vaccine hesitancy) and protective measure adherence. Such actions have profound implications as nations attempt to achieve herd immunity and end the pandemic once and for all. Thus, it is vital that public health officials, health providers, researchers, and the general public be able to differentiate common Covid-19 myths from facts and be prepared to approach such interactions via sound reasoning and research-based evidence. This chapter will serve as a guide to accomplish just that.

scholarly journals “Thought I’d Share First” and Other Conspiracy Theory Tweets from the COVID-19 Infodemic: Exploratory Study

10.2196/26527 ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (4) ◽  
pp. e26527
Author(s):  
Dax Gerts ◽  
Courtney D Shelley ◽  
Nidhi Parikh ◽  
Travis Pitts ◽  
Chrysm Watson Ross ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Random Forest ◽  
Conspiracy Theory ◽  
Conspiracy Theories ◽  
Random Forest Classification ◽  
Data Matching ◽  
Health Related ◽  
Evolution Of Ideas ◽  
Over Time

Background The COVID-19 outbreak has left many people isolated within their homes; these people are turning to social media for news and social connection, which leaves them vulnerable to believing and sharing misinformation. Health-related misinformation threatens adherence to public health messaging, and monitoring its spread on social media is critical to understanding the evolution of ideas that have potentially negative public health impacts. Objective The aim of this study is to use Twitter data to explore methods to characterize and classify four COVID-19 conspiracy theories and to provide context for each of these conspiracy theories through the first 5 months of the pandemic. Methods We began with a corpus of COVID-19 tweets (approximately 120 million) spanning late January to early May 2020. We first filtered tweets using regular expressions (n=1.8 million) and used random forest classification models to identify tweets related to four conspiracy theories. Our classified data sets were then used in downstream sentiment analysis and dynamic topic modeling to characterize the linguistic features of COVID-19 conspiracy theories as they evolve over time. Results Analysis using model-labeled data was beneficial for increasing the proportion of data matching misinformation indicators. Random forest classifier metrics varied across the four conspiracy theories considered (F1 scores between 0.347 and 0.857); this performance increased as the given conspiracy theory was more narrowly defined. We showed that misinformation tweets demonstrate more negative sentiment when compared to nonmisinformation tweets and that theories evolve over time, incorporating details from unrelated conspiracy theories as well as real-world events. Conclusions Although we focus here on health-related misinformation, this combination of approaches is not specific to public health and is valuable for characterizing misinformation in general, which is an important first step in creating targeted messaging to counteract its spread. Initial messaging should aim to preempt generalized misinformation before it becomes widespread, while later messaging will need to target evolving conspiracy theories and the new facets of each as they become incorporated.

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