Public Opinion and Sentiment Before and at the Beginning of COVID-19 Vaccinations in Japan: Twitter Analysis (Preprint)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qian Niu ◽  
Junyu Liu ◽  
Masaya Kato ◽  
Yuki Shinohara ◽  
Natsuki Matsumura ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Latent Dirichlet Allocation ◽  
Vaccine Development ◽  
Herd Immunity ◽  
Global Public Health ◽  
Prevention Measures ◽  
Public Attention ◽  
Temporal Shift ◽  
Positive Sentiment ◽  
Twitter Users

BACKGROUND The global public health and socioeconomic impacts of COVID-19 have been substantial. To achieve herd immunity, widespread use of the vaccine is required, and it is therefore critical for government and public health agencies to understand public perceptions of the vaccine to help sustain subsequent vaccinations. OBJECTIVE This study aims to explore the opinions and sentiments of tweets about COVID-19 vaccination among Twitter users in Japan, both before and at the beginning of the COVID-19 vaccination program. METHODS We collected 144,101 Japanese tweets containing COVID-19 vaccine-related keywords from Japanese Twitter users between August 1, 2020, and June 30, 2021. Specifically, we identified temporal changes in the number of tweets and key events that triggered a surge in the number of tweets. In addition, we performed sentiment analysis, and calculated the correlation between different sentiments and the number of deaths, infections, and vaccinations. We also built latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) topic models to identify commonly discussed topics in a large sample of tweets. We also provided a word cloud of high-frequency unigram and bigram tokens as additional evidence, and conducted further analysis on three different vaccine brands. RESULTS The overall number of tweets has continued to increase since the start of mass vaccination in Japan. Sentiments were generally neutral, but negative sentiment was more significant than positive sentiment. Before and after the first vaccination in Japan, the correlations of negative/positive sentiment with death, infection, and vaccination cases changed significantly. Public concerns revolved around three themes: information on vaccine reservations and vaccinations in Japan; infection and mutation of COVID-19 in Japan; and prevention measures, vaccine development and supply, and vaccination status in other countries. Furthermore, public attention to the three brands of vaccines has a temporal shift as clinical trials move forward. CONCLUSIONS The number of tweets and changes in sentiment might be driven by major news events in relation to the COVID-19 vaccine, with negative sentiments dominating positive sentiments overall. Death and infection cases correlated significantly with negative sentiments, but the correlation fell after vaccinations began as morbidity and mortality decreased. The public’s attention to different vaccine brands had a temporal change during their clinical trial process, and although the discussion points are slightly different, the core remains effective and secure.

scholarly journals Public Opinion and Sentiment Before and at the Beginning of COVID-19 Vaccinations in Japan: Twitter Analysis

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qian Niu ◽  
Junyu Liu ◽  
Momoko Nagai-Tanima ◽  
Tomoki Aoyama ◽  
Kato Masaya ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Latent Dirichlet Allocation ◽  
Vaccine Development ◽  
Herd Immunity ◽  
Global Public Health ◽  
Prevention Measures ◽  
Public Attention ◽  
Temporal Shift ◽  
Positive Sentiment ◽  
Twitter Users

Background: The global public health and socioeconomic impacts of COVID-19 have been substantial. To achieve herd immunity, widespread use of the vaccine is required, and it is therefore critical for government and public health agencies to understand public perceptions of the vaccine to help sustain subsequent vaccinations. Objective: This study aims to explore the opinions and sentiments of tweets about COVID-19 vaccination among Twitter users in Japan, both before and at the beginning of the COVID-19 vaccination program. Methods: We collected 144,101 Japanese tweets containing COVID-19 vaccine-related keywords from Japanese Twitter users between August 1, 2020, and June 30, 2021. Specifically, we identified temporal changes in the number of tweets and key events that triggered a surge in the number of tweets. In addition, we performed sentiment analysis, and calculated the correlation between different sentiments and the number of deaths, infections, and vaccinations. We also built latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA) topic models to identify commonly discussed topics in a large sample of tweets. We also provided a word cloud of high-frequency unigram and bigram tokens as additional evidence, and conducted further analysis on three different vaccine brands. Results: The overall number of tweets has continued to increase since the start of mass vaccination in Japan. Sentiments were generally neutral, but negative sentiment was more significant than positive sentiment. Before and after the first vaccination in Japan, the correlations of negative/positive sentiment with death, infection, and vaccination cases changed significantly. Public concerns revolved around three themes: information on vaccine reservations and vaccinations in Japan; infection and mutation of COVID-19 in Japan; and prevention measures, vaccine development and supply, and vaccination status in other countries. Furthermore, public attention to the three brands of vaccines has a temporal shift as clinical trials move forward. Conclusions: The number of tweets and changes in sentiment are primarily driven by major news events in relation to the COVID-19 vaccine, with negative sentiments dominating positive sentiments overall. Death and infection cases correlated significantly with negative sentiments, but the correlation fell after vaccinations began as morbidity and mortality decreased. The attention of the public to different vaccine brands had a temporal change during their clinical trial process, and although the discussion points are slightly different, the core remains effective and secure.

ADDRESSING THE ISSUE OF СOVID-19, SARS-COV-2 VIRUS AND THE DISEASE

2020 ◽  
Vol 99 (6) ◽  
pp. 15-31
Author(s):  
A.A. Korenkova ◽  
◽  
E.M. Mayorova ◽  
V.V. Bahmetjev ◽  
M.V. Tretyak ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Immune Responses ◽  
Molecular Mechanisms ◽  
Herd Immunity ◽  
Significant Problem ◽  
Prevention Measures ◽  
Optimal Therapy ◽  
The World ◽  
Public Health Challenge ◽  
Coronavirus Infection

The new coronavirus infection has posed a major public health challenge around the world, but new data on the disease raises more questions than answers. The lack of optimal therapy is a significant problem. The article examines the molecular mechanisms of SARS-CoV-2 infection and the pathogenesis of COVID-19, special attention is paid to features of pathological processes and immune responses in children. COVID-19 leads to a wide diversity of negative outcomes, many of which can persist for at least months. Many of the consequences have yet to be identified. SARS-CoV-2 may provoke autoimmune reactions. Reinfection, herd immunity, vaccines and other prevention measures are also discussed in this review.

scholarly journals Vaccine trials during a pandemic: potential approaches to ethical dilemmas

Trials ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Manaf Alqahtani ◽  
Saad I. Mallah ◽  
Nigel Stevenson ◽  
Sally Doherty
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Clinical Medicine ◽  
Vaccine Development ◽  
Ethical Dilemmas ◽  
Clinical Success ◽  
Global Public Health ◽  
Stepped Wedge ◽  
Open Label ◽  
Vaccine Trials ◽  
Trial Testing

AbstractEver since the emergence of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), global public health infrastructures and systems, along with community-wide collaboration and service, have risen to an unprecedented challenge. Vaccine development was immediately propelled to the centre of all our scientific, public health and community efforts. Despite the development of SARS-CoV-2 vaccines arguably being the greatest and most palpable achievements of the past 12 months, they have also been one of the most contentious and debated issues during the pandemic. However, what uniquely differentiates vaccine development is its intimate relationship with the community it seeks to serve; both in its clinical trial testing as an efficacious and safe prophylactic, and its post-developmental ‘roll-out’ success, as an effective public health tool. These relationships have birthed a myriad of complexities, from community-based mistrust, to academically contended ethical dilemmas. Indeed, the accelerated advances in the COVID-19 vaccine race have further exacerbated this phenomenon, bringing with it new ethical dilemmas that need to be examined to ensure the continued clinical success of these therapeutics and a renewed societal trust in clinical medicine.In this paper, we discuss two major ethical dilemmas: (1) the equipoise of continuing new vaccine trials in the advent of successful candidates and (2) the maleficence of blinded placebo arms. Accordingly, we discuss six different potential approaches to these ethical dilemmas: (1) continuing with placebo-controlled trials, (2) transitioning from placebo-controlled to open-label, (3) unblinding at-risk priority groups only, (4) transitioning to a blinded stepped-wedge cross-over design, (5) progressing to a blinded active-controlled stepped-wedge cross-over trial, and (6) conducting randomised stepped-wedge community trials. We also propose a decision-making algorithm for relevant stakeholders in advanced stages of vaccine trials.It is important to remember that the emergent nature of the COVID-19 situation does not justify a compromise on core ethical values. In fact, the discourse surrounding this topic and the decisions made will remain a potent case study and a continuously referenced example for all such future scenarios.

scholarly journals The curious case of apparent resistance of Shaheen Bagh protesters to COVID-19 pandemic

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hari Mohan Saxena
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Innate Immunity ◽  
Indigenous Population ◽  
Local Population ◽  
Herd Immunity ◽  
New Delhi ◽  
Global Public Health ◽  
Single Person ◽  
Public Health Strategies ◽  
Apparent Resistance

The Shaheen Bagh protest, an ongoing continuous sit-in protest by several hundred people in Shaheen Bagh area of New Delhi since 15 December 2019, is a curious case where not a single person with COVID-19 infection has been found yet since the beginning of the pandemic engulfing the entire globe. Possible explanations for this resistance to the virus could be the innate immunity in the local population and Herd immunity generated by the resistant individuals could also protect the small numbers of other protesters who are not immune. This needs further investigation. The innate immunity and herd immunity in the indigenous population should be taken into consideration while devising global public health strategies for control of pandemics and epidemics.

scholarly journals Insight into vaccine development for Alpha-coronaviruses based on structural and immunological analyses of spike proteins

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuejun Shi ◽  
Jiale Shi ◽  
Limeng Sun ◽  
Yubei Tan ◽  
Gang Wang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Viral Entry ◽  
Neutralizing Antibodies ◽  
Vaccine Development ◽  
Neutralizing Antibody ◽  
Immune Recognition ◽  
Global Public Health ◽  
S Protein ◽  
Specific Antibodies ◽  
Major Target

AbstractCoronaviruses that infect humans belong to the Alpha-coronavirus (including HCoV-229E) and Beta-coronavirus (including SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2) genera. In particular, SARS-CoV-2 is currently a major threat to public health worldwide. However, no commercial vaccines against the coronaviruses that can infect humans are available. The spike (S) homotrimers bind to their receptors through the receptor-binding domain (RBD), which is believed to be a major target to block viral entry. In this study, we selected Alpha-coronavirus (HCoV-229E) and Beta-coronavirus (SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2) as models. Their RBDs were observed to adopt two different conformational states (lying or standing). Then, structural and immunological analyses were used to explore differences in the immune response with RBDs among these coronaviruses. Our results showed that more RBD-specific antibodies were induced by the S trimer with the RBD in the “standing” state (SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2) than the S trimer with the RBD in the “lying” state (HCoV-229E), and the affinity between the RBD-specific antibodies and S trimer was also higher in the SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2. In addition, we found that the ability of the HCoV-229E RBD to induce neutralizing antibodies was much lower and the intact and stable S1 subunit was essential for producing efficient neutralizing antibodies against HCoV-229E. Importantly, our results reveal different vaccine strategies for coronaviruses, and S-trimer is better than RBD as a target for vaccine development in Alpha-coronavirus. Our findings will provide important implications for future development of coronavirus vaccines.ImportanceOutbreak of coronaviruses, especially SARS-CoV-2, poses a serious threat to global public health. Development of vaccines to prevent the coronaviruses that can infect humans has always been a top priority. Coronavirus spike (S) protein is considered as a major target for vaccine development. Currently, structural studies have shown that Alpha-coronavirus (HCoV-229E) and Beta-coronavirus (SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2) RBDs are in lying and standing state, respectively. Here, we tested the ability of S-trimer and RBD to induce neutralizing antibodies among these coronaviruses. Our results showed that Beta-CoVs RBDs are in a standing state, and their S proteins can induce more neutralizing antibodies targeting RBD. However, HCoV-229E RBD is in a lying state, and its S protein induces a low level of neutralizing antibody targeting RBD. Our results indicate that Alpha-coronavirus is more conducive to escape host immune recognition, and also provide novel ideas for the development of vaccines targeting S protein.

scholarly journals Vaccine-enhanced disease: case studies and ethical implications for research and public health

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 154
Author(s):  
Euzebiusz Jamrozik ◽  
George Heriot ◽  
Susan Bull ◽  
Michael Parker ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Measles Virus ◽  
Animal Studies ◽  
Vaccine Development ◽  
Global Public Health ◽  
Serious Adverse Events ◽  
Ethical Implications ◽  
Immunological Mechanisms ◽  
Disease Case ◽  
Syncytial Virus

Vaccination is a cornerstone of global public health. Although licensed vaccines are generally extremely safe, both experimental and licensed vaccines are sometimes associated with rare serious adverse events. Vaccine-enhanced disease (VED) is a type of adverse event in which disease severity is increased when a person who has received the vaccine is later infected with the relevant pathogen. VED can occur during research with experimental vaccines and/or after vaccine licensure, sometimes months or years after a person receives a vaccine. Both research ethics and public health policy should therefore address the potential for disease enhancement. Significant VED has occurred in humans with vaccines for four pathogens: measles virus, respiratory syncytial virus, Staphylococcus aureus, and dengue virus; it has also occurred in veterinary research and in animal studies of human coronavirus vaccines. Some of the immunological mechanisms involved are now well-described, but VED overall remains difficult to predict with certainty, including during public health implementation of novel vaccines. This paper summarises the four known cases in humans and explores key ethical implications. Although rare, VED has important ethical implications because it can cause serious harm, including death, and such harms can undermine vaccine confidence more generally – leading to larger public health problems. The possibility of VED remains an important challenge for current and future vaccine development and deployment. We conclude this paper by summarising approaches to the reduction of risks and uncertainties related to VED, and the promotion of public trust in vaccines.

scholarly journals Epidemiological and ecological determinants of Zika virus transmission in an urban setting

eLife ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
Author(s):  
José Lourenço ◽  
Maricelia Maia de Lima ◽  
Nuno Rodrigues Faria ◽  
Andrew Walker ◽  
Moritz UG Kraemer ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Zika Virus ◽  
Herd Immunity ◽  
Virus Transmission ◽  
Health Impact ◽  
Urban Setting ◽  
Health Concern ◽  
Transmission Model ◽  
Global Public Health ◽  
Transmission Potential

The Zika virus has emerged as a global public health concern. Its rapid geographic expansion is attributed to the success of Aedes mosquito vectors, but local epidemiological drivers are still poorly understood. Feira de Santana played a pivotal role in the Chikungunya epidemic in Brazil and was one of the first urban centres to report Zika infections. Using a climate-driven transmission model and notified Zika case data, we show that a low observation rate and high vectorial capacity translated into a significant attack rate during the 2015 outbreak, with a subsequent decline in 2016 and fade-out in 2017 due to herd-immunity. We find a potential Zika-related, low risk for microcephaly per pregnancy, but with significant public health impact given high attack rates. The balance between the loss of herd-immunity and viral re-importation will dictate future transmission potential of Zika in this urban setting.

Tracking Public Attitudes toward COVID-19 Vaccination on Tweets in Canada: Using Aspect-based Sentiment Analysis (Preprint)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hyeju Jang ◽  
Emily Rempel ◽  
Ian Roe ◽  
Giuseppe Carenini ◽  
Naveed Zafar Janjua
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Sentiment Analysis ◽  
Vaccine Hesitancy ◽  
Public Health Response ◽  
Major Barrier ◽  
Positive Sentiment ◽  
Twitter Users ◽  
Key Aspects ◽  
Negative Sentiment ◽  
Health Experts

BACKGROUND The development and approval of COVID-19 vaccines have generated optimism for the end of the COVID-19 pandemic and a return to normalcy. However, vaccine hesitancy, often fueled by misinformation poses a major barrier to achieving herd immunity. OBJECTIVE We aim to investigate Twitter users’ attitudes toward COVID-19 vaccination in Canada after vaccine rollout. METHODS We applied a weakly-supervised aspect-based sentiment analysis (ABSA) technique on COVID-19 vaccination-related tweets in Canada. Automatically-generated aspect and opinion terms were manually corrected by public health experts to ensure the accuracy of the terms and make them more domain-specific. Then, based on these manually corrected terms, the system inferred sentiments toward the aspects. We observed sentiments toward key aspects related to COVID-19 vaccination, and investigated how sentiment toward “vaccination” changed over time. In addition, we analyzed the most retweeted/liked tweets by observing most frequent nouns and sentiments toward key aspects. RESULTS After training tweets using an ABSA system, we obtained 108 aspect terms (e.g., “immunity” and “pfizer”) and 6,793 opinion terms (e.g., “trustworthy” for the positive sentiment and “jeopardize” for the negative sentiment). While manually verifying/editing these terms, our public health experts selected 20 key aspects related to COVID-19 vaccination for more analysis. The results showed that the top-ranked automatically-extracted aspects include “risk”, “delay”, and “hope”. The sentiment analysis results for the 20 key aspects revealed negative sentiments related to “vaccine distribution”, “side effects”, “allergy”, “reactions” and “anti-vaxxer”, and positive sentiments related to “vaccine campaign”, “vaccine candidates”, and “immune response”. All these results indicate that the Twitter users express concerns about the safety of vaccines, but still consider vaccines as the option to end the pandemic. In addition, compared to the sentiment of all the tweets, the most retweeted/liked tweets showed more positive sentiment overall, especially about vaccination itself. When looking more closely, the most retweeted/liked tweets showed an interesting dichotomy in Twitter users, i.e., the “anti-vaxxer” population who used a negative sentiment as a means to discourage vaccination and the “Covid Zero” population who used negative sentiments to encourage vaccinations while critiquing the public health response. CONCLUSIONS This study is the first to examine public sentiments toward COVID-19 vaccination on tweets over an extended period of time in Canada. Our findings could inform public health agencies to design and implement interventions to promote vaccination, and get closer to the goal of ending the pandemic.

Mass Vaccination Programme: Public Health Success and Ethical Issues – Bangladesh Perspective

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 11-15
Author(s):  
Abu Sadat Mohammad Nurunnabi ◽  
Miliva Mozaffor ◽  
Mohammad Akram Hossain ◽  
Sadia Akther Sony
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Vaccination Programme ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Ethical Issues ◽  
Herd Immunity ◽  
Mass Vaccination ◽  
Global Public Health ◽  
National Programme ◽  
Serious Infections ◽  
Individual Protection

Vaccines are responsible for many global public health successes, such as the eradication of smallpox and significant reductions in other serious infections like diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, polio and measles. However, mass vaccination has also been the subject of various ethical controversies for decades. Several factors need to be considered before any vaccine is deployed at national programme like the potential burden of disease in the country or region, the duration of the protection conferred, herd immunity in addition to individual protection, vaccine-related risks, financing and the logistical feasibility of the large-scale vaccination. Moreover, several ethical dilemmas revolve around authority and mandates for vaccination, informed consent, benefits vs. risks, and disparities in access to vaccination. This review paper aims to elaborate the ethical issues involved in mass vaccination programme and present some additional challenges in the context of a resource-poor settings of public health in Bangladesh.

scholarly journals Profiling COVID-19 Genetic Research: A Data-Driven Study Utilizing Intelligent Bibliometrics

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mengjia Wu ◽  
Yi Zhang ◽  
Mark Grosser ◽  
Steven Tipper ◽  
Deon Venter ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Gene Expression ◽  
Vaccine Development ◽  
Genetic Research ◽  
The United States ◽  
Human Society ◽  
Global Public Health ◽  
Health Administration ◽  
Disease Spectrum ◽  
Human Coronaviruses

The COVID-19 pandemic constitutes an ongoing worldwide threat to human society and has caused massive impacts on global public health, the economy and the political landscape. The key to gaining control of the disease lies in understanding the genetics of SARS-CoV-2 and the disease spectrum that follows infection. This study leverages traditional and intelligent bibliometric methods to conduct a multi-dimensional analysis on 5,632 COVID-19 genetic research papers, revealing that 1) the key players include research institutions from the United States, China, Britain and Canada; 2) research topics predominantly focus on virus infection mechanisms, virus testing, gene expression related to the immune reactions and patient clinical manifestation; 3) studies originated from the comparison of SARS-CoV-2 to previous human coronaviruses, following which research directions diverge into the analysis of virus molecular structure and genetics, the human immune response, vaccine development and gene expression related to immune responses; and 4) genes that are frequently highlighted include ACE2, IL6, TMPRSS2, and TNF. Emerging genes to the COVID-19 consist of FURIN, CXCL10, OAS1, OAS2, OAS3, and ISG15. This study demonstrates that our suite of novel bibliometric tools could help biomedical researchers follow this rapidly growing field and provide substantial evidence for policymakers’ decision-making on science policy and public health administration.

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