JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

COVID-19 vaccination is crucial for controlling the COVID-19 global pandemic by reducing hospitalization and disease severity. However, the proliferating transmission of COVID-19 vaccine-related misinformation on social media, called infodemics, has been escalating the vaccine hesitancy, decreasing the rates of vaccination, and posing a great danger on the public's health during the COVID-19 pandemic. Fact-checking messages from credible organizations have been found to be effective, although the actual role of COVID-19 vaccine fact-checking messages on social media remains unclear.

Objective:

This study aims to understand (a) the prevalence of COVID-19 vaccine fact-checking posts on Facebook during the pandemic and (b) the effects of four distinctive information sources of COVID-19 vaccine fact-checking posts on the public's attitude toward COVID-19 vaccines.

Methods:

We collected 12,553 COVID-19 vaccine fact-checking posts and 122,362 comments from 1,226 distinctive Facebook pages for analysis. We used Google Cloud Natural Language AI and IBM Watson Tone Analyzer to extract overall emotion and language tone as well as COVID-19 vaccine-specific sentiments from these posts and comments.

Results:

COVID-19 vaccine fact-checking posts from hospitals significantly improved the public's attitudes toward the COVID-19 vaccine. We also observed a mixed and increasingly polarized COVID-19 vaccine attitude in the comments. Fact-checking posts adopted a more confident and analytical tone over time, and less fear and tentativeness were expressed in the comments.

Conclusions:

Fact-checking posts on Facebook played a significant role during the pandemic, which contributed to the improved vaccine attitude and public health. Facing the polarization of the public’s opinions on the COVID-19 vaccine, news and health organizations should engage in empathetic communication and counterbalance the negative emotions and hesitancy evoked by misinformation.