JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

The lack of trust in vaccines is a major contributor to vaccine hesitancy. To help overcome vaccine hesitancy, the Australian government launched multiple public health campaigns aiming to encourage COVID-19 vaccine uptake. This sentiment analysis examines the effect of public health campaigns along with other COVID-19 related events on sentiment and vaccine uptake.

Objective:

The aims of this study were twofold. First, this study examined the relationship between sentiment and COVID-19 vaccine uptake. Second, this paper studied the range of government actions to consider which events positively impacted public sentiment.

Methods:

Using machine learning methods, 137,523 publicly available English tweets containing COVID-19 vaccine related keywords between February and October 2021 were collected in Australia. The study employs machine learning methods to extract topics and sentiments relating to COVID-19 vaccination on Twitter. The relationship between public vaccination sentiment on Twitter and vaccine uptake were examined.

Results:

Most tweets expressed negative sentiment (score=91052, 66%) over positive (score=21686, 16%) and neutral (score=24785, 18%) sentiments in the collected tweets. Topics discussed within the study timeframe include the availability of the COVID-19 vaccines, safety of taking the vaccine and the role of the government in the vaccine rollout. A significant positive correlation between negative sentiment and daily doses administered were evident r(267) = .15, p<.05, with positive sentiment showing opposite direction of effect. Public health campaigns, lockdowns and anti-vaccine protests increased negative sentiment significantly (p<.05) while vaccine mandates had no significant effect on sentiment.

Conclusions:

Findings show negative sentiment was more prevalent on Twitter during the Australian vaccine rollout, but vaccine uptake remained high. Australians expressed anger at the slow rollout and the limited availability of the vaccine during the study period. Public health campaigns along with lockdowns and anti-vaccine rallies increased negative sentiment, while news of vaccine availability for the public and government acquisition of more doses were key government actions capable of reducing negative sentiment. The findings can be used to inform government communication planning.