College of Science and Engineering, Hamad Bin Khalifa University, Doha 34110, Qatar.
Stud Health Technol Inform. 2022 Jun 6;290:704-708. doi: 10.3233/SHTI220169.
This study aims to find out the variation of Twitter users' sentiment before and after the COVID-19 vaccine rollout. We analyzed all COVID-19 related tweets posted on Twitter within two timeframes: September 2020 (T1) and March 2021 (T2). A total of 3 million tweets from over 132 thousand users were analyzed. We then categorized the users into two groups whose overall sentiment shifted positively or negatively from T1 to T2. Our analysis showed that 27% of users' sentiment shifted from T1 to T2 positively and the users were more confident about vaccine safety and efficacy. Users reported positive sentiments about travelling and the easing of lockdown measures. Also, 20.4% of the users' sentiment shifted negatively from T1 to T2. This group of Twitter users were more concerned about the adverse side effects of the vaccine, the pace of vaccine development as well as the emerging novel coronavirus variants. Interestingly, over half of the users' overall sentiment remained the same in both periods of T1 and T2, indicating indifference about vaccine rollout. We believe that our analysis will support the exploration of public reaction to COVID-19 vaccine rollout and assess policy makers' decision to combat the pandemic.
本研究旨在探究 COVID-19 疫苗接种前后，推特用户情绪的变化。我们分析了推特上两个时间区间（2020 年 9 月（T1）和 2021 年 3 月（T2））内所有与 COVID-19 相关的推文。共分析了来自超过 132000 名用户的 300 万条推文。然后，我们将用户分为两类，其整体情绪从 T1 到 T2 发生积极或消极变化。我们的分析表明，27%的用户情绪从 T1 到 T2 积极转变，对疫苗安全性和有效性更有信心。用户对旅行和放宽封锁措施表达了积极的情绪。此外，20.4%的用户情绪从 T1 到 T2 消极转变。这组推特用户更担心疫苗的不良反应、疫苗开发速度以及新型冠状病毒变异。有趣的是，超过一半的用户在 T1 和 T2 两个时期的整体情绪保持不变，表明对疫苗接种漠不关心。我们相信，我们的分析将支持对公众对 COVID-19 疫苗接种的反应进行探索，并评估决策者对抗大流行的决策。
