NDLI: A thematic analysis of UK COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy discussions on Twitter

Content Provider	Springer Nature : BioMed Central
Author	Jameel, Reeshma Greenfield, Sheila Lavis, Anna
Abstract	Background Following UK approval of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines on 2/12/20 and 30/12/20 respectively, discussions about them emerged on the social media platform Twitter, (now ‘X’). Previous research has shown that Twitter/ X is used by the UK public to engage with public health announcements and that social media influences public opinions of vaccines, including COVID-19 vaccines, globally. This study explored discussions on Twitter posted in response to the UK government’s posts introducing the Pfizer-BioNTech and Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines. The aim was to investigate vaccine hesitant views, and thereby identify barriers and facilitators to COVID-19 vaccine uptake in the UK. Methods Online ethnography was used to collect responses (‘tweet replies’) to 14 Twitter posts published by officials or departments of the UK government on the dates the Pfizer-BioNTech and Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines received approval from the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (2/12/20 and 30/12/20, respectively). 16,508 responses were collected and those expressing vaccine hesitancy were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis. Results Three themes that underpinned Twitter posters’ vaccine hesitancy were identified: (1) Concerns about vaccine development and safety, (2) Information, misinformation and disinformation, (3) Distrust: Politics and ‘Big Pharma’. From these themes, eight barriers and eight facilitators to UK COVID-19 vaccine uptake were identified. Conclusion This paper highlights key obstacles to COVID-19 vaccine acceptance in the UK based on views from Twitter and contributes to the emerging literature on the relationship between social media and the public response to COVID-19 vaccines. In so doing, this analysis offers insights that are useful for the development of vaccine communication strategies more broadly, both in and beyond future pandemics, to ensure that public concerns are addressed, and misinformation and disinformation are appropriately countered.
Related Links	https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/counter/pdf/10.1186/s12889-024-21125-0.pdf
Ending Page	17
Page Count	17
Starting Page	1
File Format	HTM / HTML
ISSN	14712458
DOI	10.1186/s12889-024-21125-0
Journal	BMC Public Health
Issue Number	1
Volume Number	25
Language	English
Publisher	BioMed Central
Publisher Date	2025-01-07
Access Restriction	Open
Subject Keyword	Public Health Medicine Epidemiology Biostatistics Vaccine Environmental Health COVID-19 vaccines Vaccine hesitancy Qualitative research Twitter Online ethnography Thematic analysis Social media Medicine/Public Health
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article
Subject	Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health
Journal Impact Factor	3.5/2023
5-Year Journal Impact Factor	3.9/2023

Sl.	Authority	Responsibilities	Communication Details
1	Ministry of Education (GoI), Department of Higher Education	Sanctioning Authority	https://www.education.gov.in/ict-initiatives
2	Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur	Host Institute of the Project: The host institute of the project is responsible for providing infrastructure support and hosting the project	https://www.iitkgp.ac.in
3	National Digital Library of India Office, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur	The administrative and infrastructural headquarters of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in
4	Project PI / Joint PI	Principal Investigator and Joint Principal Investigators of the project	Dr. B. Sutradhar bsutra@ndl.gov.in Prof. Saswat Chakrabarti will be added soon
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6	Contents and Copyright Issues	Queries related to content curation and copyright issues	content@ndl.gov.in
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8	Digital Preservation Centre (DPC)	Assistance with digitizing and archiving copyright-free printed books	dpc@ndl.gov.in
9	IDR Setup or Support	Queries related to establishment and support of Institutional Digital Repository (IDR) and IDR workshops	idr@ndl.gov.in

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