School of Nursing, Thompson Rivers University, Kamloops, British Columbia, Canada.
Division of Geriatric Medicine, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.
Gerontologist. 2024 Feb 1;64(2). doi: 10.1093/geront/gnad061.
During the rollout of coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) vaccines, older adults in high-income countries were often prioritized for inoculation in efforts to reduce COVID-19-related mortality. However, this prioritization may have contributed to intergenerational tensions and ageism, particularly with the limited supply of COVID-19 vaccines. This study examines Twitter discourse to understand vaccine-related ageism during the COVID-19 pandemic to inform future vaccination policies and practices to reduce ageism.
We collected 1,369 relevant tweets on Twitter using the Twint application in Python from December 8, 2020, to December 31, 2021. Tweets were analyzed using thematic analysis, and steps were taken to ensure rigor.
Our research identified four main themes including (a) blame and hostility: "It's all their fault"; (b) incompetence and misinformation: "clueless boomer"; (c) ageist political slander; and (d) combatting ageism: advocacy and accessibility.
Our findings exposed issues of victim-blaming, hate speech, pejorative content, and ageist political slander that is deepening the divide of intergenerational conflict. Although a subset of tweets countered negative outcomes and demonstrated intergenerational solidarity, our findings suggest that ageism may have contributed to COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy among older adults. Consequently, urgent action is needed to counter vaccine misinformation, prohibit aggressive messaging, and promote intergenerational unity during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond.
在 2019 年冠状病毒（COVID-19）疫苗推广期间，高收入国家的老年人通常被优先接种疫苗，以降低 COVID-19 相关死亡率。然而，这种优先接种可能导致了代际紧张和年龄歧视，尤其是 COVID-19 疫苗供应有限的情况下。本研究通过考察 Twitter 上的话语，了解 COVID-19 大流行期间与疫苗相关的年龄歧视，为今后减少年龄歧视的疫苗接种政策和实践提供信息。
我们使用 Python 中的 Twint 应用程序，于 2020 年 12 月 8 日至 2021 年 12 月 31 日期间，在 Twitter 上收集了 1369 条相关推文。使用主题分析法对推文进行分析，并采取了措施确保严谨性。
我们的研究确定了四个主要主题，包括：（a）指责和敌意：“这都是他们的错”；（b）无能和错误信息：“愚蠢的老一代”；（c）年龄歧视的政治诽谤；以及（d）对抗年龄歧视：倡导和可及性。
我们的发现揭示了一些问题，如指责受害者、仇恨言论、贬损性内容和加深代际冲突的年龄歧视政治诽谤。尽管部分推文反驳了负面结果，并展示了代际团结，但我们的研究结果表明，年龄歧视可能导致了老年人对 COVID-19 疫苗的犹豫。因此，需要采取紧急行动来对抗疫苗错误信息，禁止攻击性信息，并在 COVID-19 大流行期间及以后促进代际团结。
