No abstract

We analyzed 50,080 tweets about #AstraZeneca in English from 2021. We found that the news most common in the frequently retweeted tweets abound in negative information, and in many cases come from media sources well-known for disinformation. Also, we found that RT, a Russian state-sponsored news website, as well as Al Arabiya, a Saudi-owned news website, are frequently retweeted with information about the vaccine. Our analysis identified large coordination networks involved in political astroturfing and vaccine diplomacy in South Asia but also vaccine advocacy networks associated with European Commission employees. Our results show that Twitter discourse about #AstraZeneca is filled with disinformation and bad press, and may be distributed not only organically by anti-vaxxer activists, but also systematically by professional sources.