Negative sentiment towards COVID-19 vaccines: A comparative study of USA and UK social media posts before vaccination rollout

Abstract

Introduction: The global spread of the COVID-19 pandemic was rapid and devastating to humanity. The public health response to the pandemic was rapid too. Completion of COVID-19 vaccine development was achieved in under a year. The USA and the UK were the first countries to rollout COVID-19 vaccines to contain the pandemic. Successful rollout of the vaccines hinges on many factors, among which is public trust. Aim: To investigate the sentiments towards COVID-19 vaccines in the USA and UK prior to vaccination rollout. Methods: Neuro-linguistic programming with human validation was used to analyse a sample of 243,883 COVID-19 vaccine related social media posts from the USA and the UK in the period 28 July to 28 August 2020. The sentiment analysis measured polarity (positive, neutral, negative), and the themes present in negative comments. Results: In the sample of 243,883 social media posts, both the USA and the UK had a net sentiment profile of approximately 28% positive, 8% negative and 63% neutral sentiment. On further analysis, there were distinct differences between the two country’s social media sentiment towards COVID-19 vaccines. The differences were seen in the themes behind the negative sentiment. In the USA, the negative sentiments were mainly due to health and safety concerns, the fear of making a vaccine mandatory, and the role that pharmaceutical companies would play with the release of vaccines. In the UK the main driver of negative sentiment was the fear of making the vaccine mandatory (almost double the size of the sentiment in the USA). Conclusions: Negative sentiments towards COVID-19 vaccines were prevalent in the third quarter of 2020 in the USA and the UK. Reasons behind the negative sentiments can be used by authorities in the two countries to design evidence-based interventions to address the refusal of vaccination against COVID-19.

An insight overview on COVID-19 mRNA vaccines: Advantageous, pharmacology, mechanism of action, and prospective considerations

“…Public confidence is one of the most critical factors in the successful and influential development and application of vaccines [1] . With the worldwide emergence of viral epidemics, conspiracy theories about COVID-19 and vaccination have been formed.…”

“…Since end of 2019, there has been a global discussion on the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and its consequences [1] , [2] . After two historical pandemics with the coronavirus family, including the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) in 2002 and the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) in 2012, the world was poisoned with another dangerous type of coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2 [3] , [4] .…”

Evaluating the Brexit and COVID-19’s influence on the UK economy: A data analysis

“…According to another study by Leppeman et al [ 10 ], between July 28 and August 28, 2020, COVID-19 vaccine-related social media posts from the US and the UK were analysed using neural linguistic programming with human validation. The sentiment analysis investigated the polarity of the comments (positive, neutral, and negative) as well as the themes that appeared in the negative ones.…”

“…The most vulnerable places are London, the Northeast, Wales, the Southeast, and the West Midlands, as these coastal communities depend on tourism and cities are reliant on hospitality for income [9]. In addition, researchers have used sentiment and trend analysis to examine public reaction in the UK and other impacted nations [10]. The results suggest that the majority of the public is concerned about the economic consequences of both Brexit and COVID-19 in the UK.…”