COVID-19 vaccine perceptions: An observational study on Reddit

Kumar, N.; Corpus, I.; Hans, M.; Harle, N.; Yang, N.; McDonald, C.; Sakai, S. N.; Janmohamed, K. A.; Tang, W.; Schwartz, J. L.; Jones-Jang, S. M.; Saha, K.; Memon, S. A.; Bauch, C.; Chaudhury, M. D.; Papakyriakopoulos, O.; Tucker, J. D.; Goyal, A.; Tyagi, A.; Khoshnood, K.; Omer, S.

Objectives: As COVID-19 vaccinations accelerate in many countries, narratives skeptical of vaccination have also spread through social media. Open online forums like Reddit provide an opportunity to quantitatively examine COVID-19 vaccine perceptions over time. We examine COVID-19 misinformation on Reddit following vaccine scientific announcements. Methods: We collected all posts on Reddit from January 1 2020 - December 14 2020 (n=266,840) that contained both COVID-19 and vaccine-related keywords. We used topic modeling to understand changes in word prevalence within topics after the release of vaccine trial data. Social network analysis was also conducted to determine the relationship between Reddit communities (subreddits) that shared COVID-19 vaccine posts, and the movement of posts between subreddits. Results: There was an association between a Pfizer press release reporting 90% efficacy and increased discussion on vaccine misinformation. We observed an association between Johnson and Johnson temporarily halting its vaccine trials and reduced misinformation. We found that information skeptical of vaccination was first posted in a subreddit (r/Coronavirus) which favored accurate information and then reposted in subreddits associated with antivaccine beliefs and conspiracy theories (e.g. conspiracy, LockdownSkepticism). Conclusions: Our findings can inform the development of interventions where individuals determine the accuracy of vaccine information, and communications campaigns to improve COVID-19 vaccine perceptions. Such efforts can increase individual- and population-level awareness of accurate and scientifically sound information regarding vaccines and thereby improve attitudes about vaccines. Further research is needed to understand how social media can contribute to COVID-19 vaccination services.