Vaccine discourse during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic: Topical structure and source patterns informing efforts to combat vaccine hesitancy.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Understanding public discourse about a COVID-19 vaccine in the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic may provide key insights concerning vaccine hesitancy. However, few studies have investigated the communicative patterns in which Twitter users participate discursively in vaccine discussions.

Objectives

This study aims to investigate 1) the major topics that emerged from public conversation on Twitter concerning vaccines for COVID-19, 2) the topics that were emphasized in tweets with either positive or negative sentiment toward a COVID-19 vaccine, and 3) the type of online accounts in which tweets with either positive or negative sentiment were more likely to circulate.

Methods

We randomly extracted a total of 349,979 COVID-19 vaccine-related tweets from the

SUBMITTER: Hwang J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9328525 | biostudies-literature | 2022

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature