Table 1.
Hesitancy data by topic.
| ID | Topic description | Topic | Number of mentions | Exemplary message |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Declining acceptance | +country, acceptance, +study, vaccine acceptance, +decline | 146 | Johns Hopkins study finds declining acceptance rate, describing a pandemic of distrust |
| 2 | Parallel pandemic of distrust | pandemic, defeat, parallel pandemic, parallel, societies | 125 | The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said that to beat the pandemic, we also must defeat the parallel pandemic of distrust, a growing hesitancy about vaccines in general and about a COVID vaccine |
| 3 | Let science work | +politician, +doctor, back, primary care, primary | 86 | Dr William Schaffner, vaccine specialist at Vanderbilt University says even primary care physicians have questions, politicians should let the scientific process work |
| 4 | Racial disparities | +american, white, +compare, ap-norc poll, ap-norc | 74 | AP-NORC poll finds that while Black Americans have been especially hard-hit by COVID-19, just 22% say they plan to get vaccinated compared with 48% of white Americans |
| 5 | Need for global communities of trust | rocca, vaccinating people, importance, francesco, critical importance | 68 | Mr Rocca, the International Federation of Red Cross president, says leaders need to start building trust in communities globally about the importance of vaccinating people |
| 6 | Myth busting | +read, b.c., +reason, health, +break | 67 | BC expert breaks down COVID-19 vaccine myths, approved by Health Canada, and Northern Health said the vaccines are safe |
| 7 | Russian interference | jha, russian vaccine, russian,+end,working | 27 | Concern about mixed signals if the Russian vaccine ends up not working |
| 8 | Hesitancy is normal | omenka, ogbonnaya, +accompany, infectious, infectious disease | 23 | Ogbonnaya Omenka, an associate professor and public health specialist at Butler University says vaccine hesitancy is normal when a country tries to contain an infectious disease |
Note. The ‘+’ symbol represents the inclusion of alternative forms of the word similar to the wildcard character in Boolean language such as plurals or active or past tense, etc.