Journal article
Changes in legislator vaccine-engagement on Twitter before and after the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic
Human vaccines & immunotherapeutics, v 17(9), pp 2868-2872
02 Sep 2021
PMID: 33970786
Abstract
Widespread SARS-CoV-2 vaccine uptake will be critical to resolution of the COVID-19 pandemic. Politicians have the potential to impact vaccine sentiment and uptake through vaccine-related communication with the public. We used tweets (n = 6,201), abstracted from Quorum, a public affairs software platform, to examine changes in the frequency of vaccine-related communication by legislators on the social media platform, Twitter. We found an increase in vaccine-related tweets by legislators following the arrival of SARS-CoV-2 in the United States. In the pre-COVID-19 era the majority of vaccine-related tweets were generated by Democrat and state senators. The increase in tweets following the arrival of COVID-19, however, was greater among Republican and federal legislators than Democrat or state legislators. This suggests that legislators who were previously less engaged in public discussion of vaccination, became engaged following the arrival of SARS-CoV-2, which may have implications for COVID-19 vaccine uptake among their followers.
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Details
- Title
- Changes in legislator vaccine-engagement on Twitter before and after the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic
- Creators
- Eden Engel-Rebitzer - University of PennsylvaniaDaniel Camargo Stokes - University of PennsylvaniaAlison Buttenheim - University of PennsylvaniaJonathan Purtle - Drexel UniversityZachary F. Meisel - University of Pennsylvania
- Publication Details
- Human vaccines & immunotherapeutics, v 17(9), pp 2868-2872
- Publisher
- Taylor & Francis
- Number of pages
- 5
- Grant note
- P30DA040500 / National Institute on Drug Abuse; United States Department of Health & Human Services; National Institutes of Health (NIH) - USA; NIH National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA); European Commission 7R01AI125405-04; R49CE003083 / National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases; United States Department of Health & Human Services; National Institutes of Health (NIH) - USA; NIH National Institute of Allergy & Infectious Diseases (NIAID)
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Health Management and Policy
- Web of Science ID
- WOS:000648938800001
- Scopus ID
- 2-s2.0-85106274763
- Other Identifier
- 991019169544704721
InCites Highlights
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- Collaboration types
- Domestic collaboration
- Web of Science research areas
- Biotechnology & Applied Microbiology
- Immunology