COVID-19 vaccine perceptions in the initial phases of US vaccine roll-out: an observational study on reddit

BMC Public Health

Orestis Papakyriakopoulos¹  Chris T. Bauch²  Nan Yang³  S. Mo Jones-Jang⁴  Abhay Goyal⁵  Kaveh Khoshnood⁶  Jason L. Schwartz⁷  Shinpei Nakamura Sakai⁸  Curtis McDonald⁸  Aman Tyagi⁹  Koustuv Saha^1,10  Shahan Ali Memon^1,11  Munmun De Choudhury^1,12  Frederick L. Altice^1,13  Keyu Chen^1,13  Navin Kumar^1,13  Weiming Tang^1,14  Joseph D. Tucker^1,14  Nikhil Harle^1,15  Isabel Corpus^1,15  Kamila Janmohamed^1,15  Meher Hans^1,15  Saad Omer^1,16 

[1] Center for Information Technology Policy, Princeton University;Department of Applied Mathematics, University of Waterloo;Department of Biostatistics, Yale School of Public Health;Department of Communications, Boston College;Department of Computer Science, Stony Brook University;Department of Epidemiology of Microbial Diseases, Yale School of Public Health;Department of Health Policy and Management, Yale School of Public Health;Department of Statistics, Yale University;Engineering and Public Policy, Carnegie Mellon University;Microsoft Research Lab;New York University;School of Interactive Computing, Georgia Tech;Section of Infectious Diseases, Yale School of Medicine;University of North Carolina Project-China;Yale College;Yale Institute for Global Health;

关键词: COVID-19;    Vaccine;    Reddit;    Computational;    Misinformation;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s12889-022-12824-7

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Abstract Background Open online forums like Reddit provide an opportunity to quantitatively examine COVID-19 vaccine perceptions early in the vaccine timeline. We examine COVID-19 misinformation on Reddit following vaccine scientific announcements, in the initial phases of the vaccine timeline. Methods We collected all posts on Reddit (reddit.com) from January 1 2020 - December 14 2020 (n=266,840) that contained both COVID-19 and vaccine-related keywords. We used topic modeling to understand changes in word prevalence within topics after the release of vaccine trial data. Social network analysis was also conducted to determine the relationship between Reddit communities (subreddits) that shared COVID-19 vaccine posts, and the movement of posts between subreddits. Results There was an association between a Pfizer press release reporting 90% efficacy and increased discussion on vaccine misinformation. We observed an association between Johnson and Johnson temporarily halting its vaccine trials and reduced misinformation. We found that information skeptical of vaccination was first posted in a subreddit (r/Coronavirus) which favored accurate information and then reposted in subreddits associated with antivaccine beliefs and conspiracy theories (e.g. conspiracy, NoNewNormal). Conclusions Our findings can inform the development of interventions where individuals determine the accuracy of vaccine information, and communications campaigns to improve COVID-19 vaccine perceptions, early in the vaccine timeline. Such efforts can increase individual- and population-level awareness of accurate and scientifically sound information regarding vaccines and thereby improve attitudes about vaccines, especially in the early phases of vaccine roll-out. Further research is needed to understand how social media can contribute to COVID-19 vaccination services.

【 授权许可】

Unknown