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. 2022 Jan 26;198:682–687. doi: 10.1016/j.procs.2021.12.306

Multifaceted Nature of Social Media Content Propagating COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy: Ukrainian Case

Olena Zakharchenko a, Roksolana Avramenko a, Artem Zakharchenko a,b, Anastasiya Korobchuk a, Solomiia Fedushko c, Yuriy Syerov c, Olha Trach c
PMCID: PMC8790959  PMID: 35103089

Abstract

COVID-19 became an issue affecting different parts of our life. Different communication campaigns use vaccination as an information peg, argument in discussions, and so on. As a result, they have an impact on people’s attitudes to immunization. We applied the message analysis to the dataset of social media posts from Ukraine to detect the messages used in the communication regarding the vaccine and reveal communication campaigns propagating these messages. We found five campaigns launched by different actors and shaping the attitude to COVID-19 immunization expressed in the people’s posts. The incoherence of the information about immunization and authorities’ inconsistency in the communications about vaccines may lead to vaccine hesitancy and undermine confidence in the sources of the official information about COVID-19. Vaccine hesitancy has multifaceted nature and cannot be reduced just to politicians’ conspiracy theories or far-right propaganda.

Keywords: COVID-19 Immunization, Information Campaigns, Message Analysis, Social Media, Propaganda

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