Vaccination hesitancy: analysis of distrust on Twitter during the COVID 19 vaccination campaign in Ecuador

Authors

  • Cristian Lozano Recalde Universitat Pompeu Fabra

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.29019/tsafiqui.v13i21.1161

Keywords:

vaccines, government communication, public health, COVID-19, Twitter, vaccination campaigns

Abstract

The approval of COVID 19 vaccines caused a public debate among certain parts of the population worldwide during the pandemic. In this context, this study analyzed citizen mistrust in the vaccination campaign in Ecuador. To do so, we used Twitter as a tool for the analysis and held a review of all the tweets considered relevant to the Plan 9/100 of vaccination and that were posted during the duration of this campaign. After classifying the comments into positive or negative, content analysis was applied to identify the main arguments used to reject or hesitate about the vaccines or the vaccination campaign. Then, we employed discourse analysis for a deeper study of the negative comments and to find possible underlying ideologies. Results revealed that comments of rejection or those skeptical about the Plan 9/100 represented the 15 per cent of the total of tweets and that most of them were used to criticize the vaccination campaign management. Although there were found certain common beliefs and attitudes among the users that posted negative tweets, there was no evidence of a structured ideology beneath this tendency. The findings of this study reinforce the idea of the importance of monitoring citizen conversations on social media in the context of public health issues, to help identify the main argument sources of disinformation and hesitancy and to prepare respond strategies that are clear and appropriate.

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Published

2023-07-05

How to Cite

Lozano Recalde, C. (2023). Vaccination hesitancy: analysis of distrust on Twitter during the COVID 19 vaccination campaign in Ecuador. Tsafiqui, 13(2). https://doi.org/10.29019/tsafiqui.v13i21.1161