scholarly journals Impact of Public Health Event on COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy on Social Media: National Infoveillance Study (Preprint)

10.2196/32936 ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zizheng Zhang ◽  
Guanrui Feng ◽  
Jiahong Xu ◽  
Yimin Zhang ◽  
Jinhui Li ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Vaccine Hesitancy ◽  
Health Event

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 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 Development of a Codebook of Online Anti-Vaccination Rhetoric to Manage COVID-19 Vaccine Misinformation

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. Hughes ◽  
C. Miller-Idriss ◽  
R. Piltch-Loeb ◽  
K. White ◽  
M. Creizis ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Health Communication ◽  
User Generated Content ◽  
Vaccine Hesitancy ◽  
Public Health Communication ◽  
Effective Public Health ◽  
Pandemic Vaccine ◽  
Qualitative Coding ◽  
Health Messaging

AbstractVaccine hesitancy (delay in obtaining a vaccine, despite availability) represents a significant hurdle to managing the COVID-19 pandemic. Vaccine hesitancy is in part related to the prevalence of anti-vaccine misinformation and disinformation, which are spread through social media and user-generated content platforms. This study uses qualitative coding methodology to identify salient narratives and rhetorical styles common to anti-vaccine and COVID-denialist media. It organizes these narratives and rhetorics according to theme, imagined antagonist, and frequency. Most frequent were narratives centered on “corrupt elites” and rhetorics appealing to the vulnerability of children. The identification of these narratives and rhetorics may assist in developing effective public health messaging campaigns, since narrative and emotion have demonstrated persuasive effectiveness in other public health communication settings.

scholarly journals Mode and Frequency of Covid-19 Information Updates, Political Values, and Future Covid-19 Vaccine Attitudes

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Siobhan McAndrew ◽  
Daniel Allington
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Evidence Base ◽  
Vaccine Hesitancy ◽  
Media Consumption ◽  
Political Values ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Information Updates ◽  
The Uk ◽  
British Sample

The effect of social media consumption on perceptions of the seriousness of the Covid-19 pandemic, attitudes to public health requirements, and intentions towards a future Covid-19 vaccine are of live public health interest. There are also public health and security concerns that the pandemic has been accompanied and arguably further amplified by an ‘infodemic’ spreading misinformation. Tests of the effect of social media consumption on future Covid-19 vaccine intentions using population samples have been relatively few to date. This study contributes to the evidence base by examining social media consumption and vaccine intentions using British and US population samples.Methods: Data were gathered on 1,663 GB adults and 1,198 US adults from an online panel on attitudes towards a future vaccine alongside self-reported social and legacy broadcast and print media consumption. Ordered and binomial logit models were used to assess reported intentions regarding a future Covid-19 vaccine, testing the effects of media consumption type. Respondents were categorised in terms of their media consumption using a fourfold typology, as less frequent social, less frequent legacy media consumers (low-low); high social, low legacy media consumers (high-low); low social, high legacy (low-high); and high social, high legacy (high-high).Results: In the British sample, regression results indicate that those who receive Covid-19 updates more frequently via legacy media (low-high), and those being updated more than daily via both online and legacy media consumers, tend to provide significantly less Covid-19 vaccine-hesitant responses than low-low consumers. There is no significant difference between high social, low legacy media consumers and low-low consumers. In the US sample, membership of the low-high group is associated with lower Covid-19 vaccine hesitancy compared with low-low consumers. However, respondents consuming both social and legacy media several times daily exhibit similar vaccine intentions on average to those consuming social media daily and legacy media less often, providing a contrast with the UK sample. We also identify differences in Covid-19 vaccine intentions relating to demographics and political values.Conclusions: Differences in vaccine attentions are associated with the extent and balance of consumption of news relating to Covid-19 and its source. Political values and ethnic identity also appear to structure attitudes to a future Covid-19 vaccine.

scholarly journals Fake news and fallacies: Exploring vaccine hesitancy in South Africa

2021 ◽  
Vol 63 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Avania Bangalee ◽  
Varsha Bangalee
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
South Africa ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Infectious Diseases ◽  
Herd Immunity ◽  
Vaccine Hesitancy ◽  
Fake News ◽  
Key Factors ◽  
Shed Light

Historically, vaccine hesitancy (VH) has been a thorn in the side of public health efforts to contain and eradicate infectious diseases. This phenomenon is magnified in light of the current coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Surveys conducted across South Africa since the outbreak of COVID-19 demonstrate the complexity of factors that contribute towards VH in this population. Amidst the negative press that the COVID-19 vaccine has received, especially across social media, understanding and combatting VH remains important to achieve herd immunity. This article aims to shed light on key factors fuelling COVID-19 VH in South Africa and provides a framework from which to address this problem.

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 Online Social Endorsement and Covid-19 Vaccine Hesitancy in the United Kingdom

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 205630512110088
Author(s):  
Andrew Chadwick ◽  
Johannes Kaiser ◽  
Cristian Vaccari ◽  
Daniel Freeman ◽  
Sinéad Lambe ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Social Media ◽  
United Kingdom ◽  
Online Social Networks ◽  
Vaccine Hesitancy ◽  
Local Health ◽  
Active Monitoring ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Endorsement

We explore the implications of online social endorsement for the Covid-19 vaccination program in the United Kingdom. Vaccine hesitancy is a long-standing problem, but it has assumed great urgency due to the pandemic. By early 2021, the United Kingdom had the world’s highest Covid-19 mortality per million of population. Our survey of a nationally representative sample of UK adults ( N = 5,114) measured socio-demographics, social and political attitudes, media diet for getting news about Covid-19, and intention to use social media and personal messaging apps to encourage or discourage vaccination against Covid-19. Cluster analysis identified six distinct media diet groups: news avoiders, mainstream/official news samplers, super seekers, omnivores, the social media dependent, and the TV dependent. We assessed whether these media diets, together with key attitudes, including Covid-19 vaccine hesitancy, conspiracy mentality, and the news-finds-me attitude (meaning giving less priority to active monitoring of news and relying more on one’s online networks of friends for information), predict the intention to encourage or discourage vaccination. Overall, super-seeker and omnivorous media diets are more likely than other media diets to be associated with the online encouragement of vaccination. Combinations of (a) news avoidance and high levels of the news-finds-me attitude and (b) social media dependence and high levels of conspiracy mentality are most likely to be associated with online discouragement of vaccination. In the direct statistical model, a TV-dependent media diet is more likely to be associated with online discouragement of vaccination, but the moderation model shows that a TV-dependent diet most strongly attenuates the relationship between vaccine hesitancy and discouraging vaccination. Our findings support public health communication based on four main methods. First, direct contact, through the post, workplace, or community structures, and through phone counseling via local health services, could reach the news avoiders. Second, TV public information advertisements should point to authoritative information sources, such as National Health Service (NHS) and other public health websites, which should then feature clear and simple ways for people to share material among their online social networks. Third, informative social media campaigns will provide super seekers with good resources to share, while also encouraging the social media dependent to browse away from social media platforms and visit reliable and authoritative online sources. Fourth, social media companies should expand and intensify their removal of vaccine disinformation and anti-vax accounts, and such efforts should be monitored by well-resourced, independent organizations.

scholarly journals People’s Willingness to Vaccinate Against COVID-19 Despite Their Safety Concerns: Twitter Poll Analysis (Preprint)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fabian Eibensteiner ◽  
Valentin Ritschl ◽  
Faisal A Nawaz ◽  
Sajjad S Fazel ◽  
Christos Tsagkaris ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Digital Health ◽  
Antibiotic Use ◽  
World Health ◽  
Vaccine Hesitancy ◽  
Polling System ◽  
Human Papillomavirus Vaccination ◽  
Twitter Users

BACKGROUND On January 30, 2020, the World Health Organization’s Emergency Committee declared the rapid, worldwide spread of COVID-19 a global health emergency. Since then, tireless efforts have been made to mitigate the spread of the disease and its impact, and these efforts have mostly relied on nonpharmaceutical interventions. By December 2020, the safety and efficacy of the first COVID-19 vaccines were demonstrated. The large social media platform Twitter has been used by medical researchers for the analysis of important public health topics, such as the public’s perception on antibiotic use and misuse and human papillomavirus vaccination. The analysis of Twitter-generated data can be further facilitated by using Twitter’s built-in, anonymous polling tool to gain insight into public health issues and obtain rapid feedback on an international scale. During the fast-paced course of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Twitter polling system has provided a viable method for gaining rapid, large-scale, international public health insights on highly relevant and timely SARS-CoV-2–related topics. OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to understand the public’s perception on the safety and acceptance of COVID-19 vaccines in real time by using Twitter polls. METHODS We developed 2 Twitter polls to explore the public’s views on available COVID-19 vaccines. The surveys were pinned to the Digital Health and Patient Safety Platform Twitter timeline for 1 week in mid-February 2021, and Twitter users and influencers were asked to participate in and retweet the polls to reach the largest possible audience. RESULTS The adequacy of COVID-19 vaccine safety (ie, the safety of currently available vaccines; poll 1) was agreed upon by 1579 out of 3439 (45.9%) Twitter users. In contrast, almost as many Twitter users (1434/3439, 41.7%) were unsure about the safety of COVID-19 vaccines. Only 5.2% (179/3439) of Twitter users rated the available COVID-19 vaccines as generally unsafe. Poll 2, which addressed the question of whether users would undergo vaccination, was answered affirmatively by 82.8% (2862/3457) of Twitter users, and only 8% (277/3457) categorically rejected vaccination at the time of polling. CONCLUSIONS In contrast to the perceived high level of uncertainty about the safety of the available COVID-19 vaccines, we observed an elevated willingness to undergo vaccination among our study sample. Since people's perceptions and views are strongly influenced by social media, the snapshots provided by these media platforms represent a static image of a moving target. Thus, the results of this study need to be followed up by long-term surveys to maintain their validity. This is especially relevant due to the circumstances of the fast-paced pandemic and the need to not miss sudden rises in the incidence of vaccine hesitancy, which may have detrimental effects on the pandemic’s course.

scholarly journals The Impact of Public Health Events on COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy on Chinese Social Media: National Infoveillance Study (Preprint)

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zizheng Zhang ◽  
Guanrui Feng ◽  
Jiahong Xu ◽  
Yimin Zhang ◽  
Jinhui Li ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Public Attitudes ◽  
Health Concern ◽  
Vaccine Hesitancy ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Health Events ◽  
Model Training ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Over Time

BACKGROUND The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has brought unprecedented challenges to every country worldwide. A call for global vaccination for COVID-19 plays a pivotal role in the fight against this virus. With the development of COVID-19 vaccines, public willingness to get vaccinated has become an important public health concern, considering the vaccine hesitancy observed worldwide. Social media is powerful in monitoring public attitudes and assess the dissemination, which would provide valuable information for policy makers. OBJECTIVE This study aimed to investigate the responses of vaccine positivity on social media when major public events (major outbreaks) or major adverse events related to vaccination (COVID-19 or other similar vaccines) were reported. METHODS A total of 340,783 vaccine-related posts were captured with the poster’s information on Weibo, the largest social platform in China. After data cleaning, 156,223 posts were included in the subsequent analysis. Using pandas and SnowNLP Python libraries, posts were classified into 2 categories, positive and negative. After model training and sentiment analysis, the proportion of positive posts was computed to measure the public positivity toward the COVID-19 vaccine. RESULTS The positivity toward COVID-19 vaccines in China tends to fluctuate over time in the range of 45.7% to 77.0% and is intuitively correlated with public health events. In terms of gender, males were more positive (70.0% of the time) than females. In terms of region, when regional epidemics arose, not only the region with the epidemic and surrounding regions but also the whole country showed more positive attitudes to varying degrees. When the epidemic subsided temporarily, positivity decreased with varying degrees in each region. CONCLUSIONS In China, public positivity toward COVID-19 vaccines fluctuates over time and a regional epidemic or news on social media may cause significant variations in willingness to accept a vaccine. Furthermore, public attitudes toward COVID-19 vaccination vary from gender and region. It is crucial for policy makers to adjust their policies through the use of positive incentives with prompt responses to pandemic-related news to promote vaccination acceptance.

scholarly journals Understanding and Quantifying Anti-Vaccine Misinformation Online: A Critical Report and Social Media Analysis About Emeritus Professor Timothy Noakes

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brett Chrest
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
South Africa ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Scientific Information ◽  
Disease Outbreaks ◽  
Media Analysis ◽  
Vaccine Hesitancy ◽  
Regulatory Body ◽  
Social Media Analysis ◽  
African Scientist

Almost a fifth of South Africans fear that vaccines are unsafe. South Africa has indeed been a target of many anti-vaccination lobbying websites with claims and concerns regarding safety, the risk of adverse events, thimerosal, idiopathic illnesses including autism, and ‘vaccine-injured’ children. This seems to have contributed to the anti-immunization rumors and resistance within South Africa. Unfortunately, South African scientist, Timothy Noakes, has disseminated several expressions, claims, retweets, and re-publications about vaccines that are not based on truthful, accurate or up to date scientific information. This misinformation about vaccines that have been expressed, shared, and or spread can be deemed as irresponsible, unscientific, and a potential public health threat. Such information spread online can have and has had a major impact on critical thinking, vaccine acceptance, parental decisions, and even disease outbreaks. Upon analysis of Tim Noakes’ social media, there is a substantial amount of evidence for concern. From June to December 2019 there was a statistically significant increase in the number of followers Noakes gained that also aligned with anti-vaccine views. As for the content that Noakes himself has shared and expressed, 90% were Anti-Vaccine in nature, while only 10% were Pro-Vaccine. The potential maximum number of exposures to this anti-vaccine misinformation and rhetoric are in the millions, with approximately 3 million exposures in 2019 alone and 4 million in total from 2014 to 2019. The claim that Noakes has not shared anti-vaccine misinformation is terribly weak and not based on the evidence. Continuing to spread this misinformation is a complete contradiction to what Noakes stands for, what others in his profession stand for, and what his own country’s regulatory body, as well as international organizations, stand for.This paper investigates common anti-vaccine misinformation shared by Tim Noakes and is also a social media analysis that covers anti-vaccine tropes and content. This paper also doubles as a literature review on the spread of misinformation in general, and more specifically, anti-vaccine misinformation. A separate section is dedicated to the topic of cancer misinformation which demonstrates the convergence between misleading cancer and vaccine ideologies.The conclusions made in this paper are not all conclusive and there is room for flexibility — what is written is also meant to stimulate further input and discussion. Given the personal and emotive nature of the topic, it should be emphasized that what is written is with a non-malicious intent and should be perceived as in the interest of public health and online safety.This case with Tim Noakes acts as a vehicle to highlight and learn more about several aspects of vaccine hesitancy, the anti-vaccine movement, social media, and misinformation in general.

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