scholarly journals Examining the Utility of Social Media in COVID-19 Vaccination: Unsupervised Learning of 672,133 Twitter Posts (Preprint)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tau Ming Liew ◽  
Cia Sin Lee
Keyword(s):  
Machine Learning ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Temporal Variations ◽  
Emotional Reactions ◽  
Barriers And Facilitators ◽  
Vaccine Uptake ◽  
Vaccine Hesitancy ◽  
Effective Vaccine ◽  
Public Attention ◽  
Public Concerns

BACKGROUND Although COVID-19 vaccines have recently become available, efforts in global mass vaccination can be hampered by the widespread issue of vaccine hesitancy. OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to use social media data to capture close-to-real-time public perspectives and sentiments regarding COVID-19 vaccines, with the intention to understand the key issues that have captured public attention, as well as the barriers and facilitators to successful COVID-19 vaccination. METHODS Twitter was searched for tweets related to “COVID-19” and “vaccine” over an 11-week period after November 18, 2020, following a press release regarding the first effective vaccine. An unsupervised machine learning approach (ie, structural topic modeling) was used to identify topics from tweets, with each topic further grouped into themes using manually conducted thematic analysis as well as guided by the theoretical framework of the COM-B (capability, opportunity, and motivation components of behavior) model. Sentiment analysis of the tweets was also performed using the rule-based machine learning model VADER (Valence Aware Dictionary and Sentiment Reasoner). RESULTS Tweets related to COVID-19 vaccines were posted by individuals around the world (N=672,133). Six overarching themes were identified: (1) emotional reactions related to COVID-19 vaccines (19.3%), (2) public concerns related to COVID-19 vaccines (19.6%), (3) discussions about news items related to COVID-19 vaccines (13.3%), (4) public health communications about COVID-19 vaccines (10.3%), (5) discussions about approaches to COVID-19 vaccination drives (17.1%), and (6) discussions about the distribution of COVID-19 vaccines (20.3%). Tweets with negative sentiments largely fell within the themes of emotional reactions and public concerns related to COVID-19 vaccines. Tweets related to facilitators of vaccination showed temporal variations over time, while tweets related to barriers remained largely constant throughout the study period. CONCLUSIONS The findings from this study may facilitate the formulation of comprehensive strategies to improve COVID-19 vaccine uptake; they highlight the key processes that require attention in the planning of COVID-19 vaccination and provide feedback on evolving barriers and facilitators in ongoing vaccination drives to allow for further policy tweaks. The findings also illustrate three key roles of social media in COVID-19 vaccination, as follows: surveillance and monitoring, a communication platform, and evaluation of government responses.

scholarly journals Social Media Sharing of Articles About Measles in a European Context: Text Analysis Study (Preprint)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dominik Wawrzuta ◽  
Mariusz Jaworski ◽  
Joanna Gotlib ◽  
Mariusz Panczyk
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Latent Dirichlet Allocation ◽  
Scientific Information ◽  
Vaccine Uptake ◽  
Vaccine Hesitancy ◽  
Effective Vaccine ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Vaccination Rates ◽  
Nature Of Information ◽  
Social Media Platforms

BACKGROUND Despite the existence of an effective vaccine, measles still threatens the health and lives of many Europeans. Notably, during the COVID-19 pandemic, measles vaccine uptake declined; as a result, after the pandemic, European countries will have to increase vaccination rates to restore the extent of vaccination coverage among the population. Because information obtained from social media are one of the main causes of vaccine hesitancy, knowledge of the nature of information pertaining to measles that is shared on social media may help create educational campaigns. OBJECTIVE In this study, we aim to define the characteristics of European news about measles shared on social media platforms (ie, Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest) from 2017 to 2019. METHODS We downloaded and translated (into English) 10,305 articles on measles published in European Union countries. Using latent Dirichlet allocation, we identified main topics and estimated the sentiments expressed in these articles. Furthermore, we used linear regression to determine factors related to the number of times a given article was shared on social media. RESULTS We found that, in most European social media posts, measles is only discussed in the context of local European events. Articles containing educational information and describing world outbreaks appeared less frequently. The most common emotions identified from the study’s news data set were fear and trust. Yet, it was found that readers were more likely to share information on educational topics and the situation in Germany, Ukraine, Italy, and Samoa. A high amount of anger, joy, and sadness expressed within the text was also associated with a higher number of shares. CONCLUSIONS We identified which features of news articles were related to increased social media shares. We found that social media users prefer sharing educational news to sharing informational news. Appropriate emotional content can also increase the willingness of social media users to share an article. Effective media content that promotes measles vaccinations should contain educational or scientific information, as well as specific emotions (such as anger, joy, or sadness). Articles with this type of content may offer the best chance of disseminating vital messages to a broad social media audience.

scholarly journals Harnessing Twitter data to survey public attention and attitudes towards COVID-19 vaccines in the UK

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Seena Fazel ◽  
Le Zhang ◽  
Babak Javid ◽  
Isabell Brikell ◽  
Zheng Chang
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Vaccine Development ◽  
Vaccine Hesitancy ◽  
Potential Contribution ◽  
Public Attention ◽  
Media Campaigns ◽  
News Announcements ◽  
News Announcement ◽  
Socio Demographic Factors ◽  
The Uk

AbstractAttitudes to COVID-19 vaccination vary considerably within and between countries. Although the contribution of socio-demographic factors to these attitudes has been studied, the role of social media and how it interacts with news about vaccine development and efficacy is uncertain. We examined around 2 million tweets from 522,893 persons in the UK from November 2020 to January 2021 to evaluate links between Twitter content about vaccines and major scientific news announcements about vaccines. The proportion of tweets with negative vaccine content varied, with reductions of 20–24% on the same day as major news announcement. However, the proportion of negative tweets reverted back to an average of around 40% within a few days. Engagement rates were higher for negative tweets. Public health messaging could consider the dynamics of Twitter-related traffic and the potential contribution of more targeted social media campaigns to address vaccine hesitancy.

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 A machine learning approach to identify psychological factors driving vaccine hesitancy in high income countries

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tania Lincoln ◽  
Björn Schlier ◽  
Felix Strakeljahn ◽  
Brandon Gaudiano ◽  
Suzanne So ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Machine Learning ◽  
Perceived Risk ◽  
Social Rank ◽  
Female Gender ◽  
Machine Learning Algorithms ◽  
Vaccine Uptake ◽  
Vaccine Hesitancy ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Conspiracy Beliefs ◽  
Cross Sectional Design

Abstract Understanding factors driving vaccine hesitancy is crucial to vaccination success. We surveyed adults (N=2510) from February to March 2021 across five sites (Australia=502, Germany=516, Hong Kong=445, UK=512, USA=535) using a cross-sectional design and stratified quota sampling for age, sex, and education. We assessed willingness to take a vaccine and a comprehensive set of putative predictors. Predictive power was analysed with regression analyses and machine learning algorithms. Only 57.4% of the participants indicated that they would definitely or probably get vaccinated. A parsimonious machine-learning model could identify vaccine hesitancy with high accuracy (i.e. 83% sensitivity and 82% specificity) using 10 variables only. The most relevant predictors were vaccination conspiracy beliefs, paranoid concerns related to the pandemic, COVID anxiety, high perceived risk of infection, low perceived social rank, lower age, and female gender. Campaigns seeking to increase vaccine uptake need to take mistrust as the main driver of vaccine hesitancy into account.

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

10.2196/28800 ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. e28800
Author(s):  
Jean-Christophe Boucher ◽  
Kirsten Cornelson ◽  
Jamie L Benham ◽  
Madison M Fullerton ◽  
Theresa Tang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Machine Learning ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Content Analysis ◽  
Social Network ◽  
Multinational Corporations ◽  
Vaccine Hesitancy ◽  
Media Content ◽  
Media Content Analysis ◽  
Vaccine Trials ◽  
The Government

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.

Vaccine Hesitancy in Parents: Role of Social Networks, Social Media, and Parental Autonomy

2021 ◽  
Vol 36 (2) ◽  
pp. 94-102
Author(s):  
Yuliya Shneyderman ◽  
Jody Vogelzang ◽  
Amar Kanekar
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Scientific Evidence ◽  
Poor Quality ◽  
Vaccine Uptake ◽  
Vaccine Hesitancy ◽  
Factual Knowledge ◽  
Public Network ◽  
Private And Public ◽  
Parental Autonomy

Introduction. Vaccine hesitancy in parents is a composite of multiple dimensions such as confidence, complacency, and convenience. A large proportion of parents can be deemed vaccine hesitant, meaning that their vaccine behaviors can range from delaying vaccines, skipping select vaccines, to refusal of all vaccinations. Furthermore, parental vaccine uptake rates and patterns can reflect their decisions based on the balance of parental autonomy versus protecting population health. The current manuscript uses Social Network Theory to explain some of the external influences on parental autonomy. Social networks, both private and public, play a role in vaccine decision making through providing information and support for parents in their choices. This influence, in turn, is mediated by parents’ health literacy and local vaccination policy. Discussion. Social media is an important type of public network that has an outsized influence on vaccine hesitancy. The rhetoric used on anti-vaccine websites often denigrates scientific evidence while at the same time endorsing poor-quality evidence that supports the anti-vaccine point of view. The websites continually propose new hypotheses of how vaccines can cause harm when studies refute their previous assertions, censor critics, and attack people with opposing viewpoints. The contentious nature of vaccine hesitancy based on beliefs, opinions, and attitudes needs a solution much deeper than simply providing factual knowledge or pointing people to reliable websites. Recommendations. Public health practitioners and researchers should try segmenting audiences, targeting private and public social networks, and then testing which persuasive strategies towards vaccinations appeal to different community groups.

scholarly journals Assessment of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy among Zimbabweans: A rapid national survey

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paddington T Mundagowa ◽  
Samantha N Tozivepi ◽  
Edward T Chiyaka ◽  
Fadzai Mukora-Mutseyekwa ◽  
Richard Makurumidze
Keyword(s):  
Chronic Disease ◽  
Healthcare Worker ◽  
Vaccine Uptake ◽  
Vaccine Hesitancy ◽  
Effective Vaccine ◽  
Multivariable Logistic Regression Analysis ◽  
Cross Sectional Survey ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
The Government ◽  
Vaccine Information

Background: To minimize the devastating effects of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID 19) pandemic, scientists hastily developed a vaccine. However, the scaling up of the vaccination is likely to be hindered by the widespread social media misinformation. We, therefore, conducted a study to assess the COVID 19 vaccine hesitancy among Zimbabweans. Methods: We conducted a descriptive online cross-sectional survey using a self administered questionnaire among adults. The questionnaire assessed willingness to be vaccinated; sociodemographic characteristics, individual attitudes and perceptions, effectiveness, and safety of the vaccine. Multivariable logistic regression analysis was utilized to examine the independent factors associated with vaccine uptake. Results: We analyzed data for 1168 participants, the age range of 19 to 89 years with the majority being females (57.5%). Half (49.9%) of the participants reported that they would accept the COVID 19 vaccine. The majority were uncertain about the effectiveness of the vaccine (76.0%) and its safety (55.0%). About half lacked trust in the government s ability to ensure the availability of an effective vaccine and 61.0% mentioned that they would seek advice from a healthcare worker to vaccinate. Age 55 years and above [vs 18 to 25 years Adjusted Odds Ratio (AOR): 2.04, 95% Confidence Interval (CI): 1.07 to 3.87], chronic disease [vs no chronic disease AOR: 1.72, 95%CI: 1.32 to 2.25], males [vs females AOR: 1.84, 95%CI: 1.44 to 2.36] and being a healthcare worker [vs not being a health worker AOR: 1.73, 95%CI: 1.34 to 2.24] were associated with increased likelihood to vaccinate. History of COVID 19 infection [vs no history - AOR: 0.45, 95%CI: 0.25 to 0.81) and rural residence [vs urban - AOR: 0.64, 95%CI: 0.40 to 1.01] were associated with reduced likelihood to vaccinate. Conclusion: We found half of the participants willing to vaccinate against COVID-19. The majority lacked trust in the government and were uncertain about vaccine effectiveness and safety. The policymakers should consider targeting geographical and demographic groups which were unlikely to vaccinate with vaccine information, education, and communication to improve uptake.

scholarly journals Online misinformation and vaccine hesitancy

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Renee Garett ◽  
Sean D Young
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Vaccine Hesitancy ◽  
Effective Vaccine ◽  
Vaccine Preventable Disease ◽  
Misleading Information ◽  
Preventable Disease ◽  
Media Companies ◽  
Online Social Media ◽  
Childhood Vaccine ◽  
Health Experts

Lay Summary Vaccine hesitancy, the rejection or delay to get vaccinated even if there is an effective vaccine available, may be instrumental in the resurgence of vaccine-preventable disease. Studies have shown that the rise in nonmedical exemptions for vaccination increases rates of childhood vaccine-preventable disease. One factor that influences vaccine hesitancy is online misinformation. False or misleading information online regarding vaccines can be found in independent news outlets, websites, and social media. The spread of vaccine misinformation is especially important during the COVID-19 pandemic as false information can decrease pro-vaccine opinions. The recent announcement of an effective COVID-19 vaccine became a hot topic online, with many adults hesitant to take the vaccine. Public health experts, medical professionals, and pro-vaccine individuals can help curb the spread of misinformation by correcting false statements online. Social media companies can also aid in stopping misinformation by implementing and enforcing policy that limits misinformation on their platforms.

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

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jean-Christophe Boucher ◽  
Kirsten Cornelson ◽  
Jamie L Benham ◽  
Madison M Fullerton ◽  
Theresa Tang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Machine Learning ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Content Analysis ◽  
Social Network ◽  
Multinational Corporations ◽  
Vaccine Hesitancy ◽  
Media Content ◽  
Media Content Analysis ◽  
Vaccine Trials ◽  
The Government

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.

scholarly journals Information about herd immunity and empathy promote COVID-19 vaccination intentions

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefan Pfattheicher ◽  
Michael Bang Petersen ◽  
Robert Böhm
Keyword(s):  
Herd Immunity ◽  
Vaccine Uptake ◽  
Vaccine Hesitancy ◽  
Effective Vaccine ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
High Uptake ◽  
Present Contribution ◽  
Uptake Rates ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Affective Information

Objective: An effective vaccine against COVID-19 is a desired solution to curb the spread of the disease. However, vaccine hesitancy might hinder high uptake rates and thus undermine efforts to eliminate COVID-19 once an effective vaccine is available. The present contribution addresses this issue by examining two promising ways of increasing the intention to get vaccinated against COVID-19.Methods: We conducted two pre-registered online studies (N = 2,315 participants from the UK) in which we either measured (Study 1) or manipulated (Study 2) knowledge about and beliefs in herd immunity, as well as empathy for those most vulnerable to the virus. As a dependent variable, we assessed individuals’ self-reported vaccination intention if a vaccine against COVID-19 became available.Results: We show that the motivation to get vaccinated against COVID-19 is related to and causally promoted by both mere information about herd immunity and by empathy. Thus, interventions that combine cognitive and affective information related to others’ potential suffering appear most effective in increasing the intention to get vaccinated against COVID-19.Conclusions: The present research provides a better understanding of the intention to get vaccinated against COVID-19 and highlights two evidence-based possibilities for policymakers in promoting vaccine uptake.

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