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Does the COVID-19 Vaccine Still Work That “Most of the Confirmed Cases Had Been Vaccinated”? A Content Analysis of Vaccine Effectiveness Discussion on Sina Weibo during the Outbreak of COVID-19 in Nanjing

Author

Listed:
  • Hao Gao

    (School of Journalism and Communication, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing 210097, China)

  • Qingting Zhao

    (School of Journalism and Communication, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing 210097, China)

  • Chuanlin Ning

    (School of Media and Communication, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China)

  • Difan Guo

    (School of Journalism and Communication, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing 210097, China)

  • Jing Wu

    (Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Ljubljana, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia)

  • Lina Li

    (Film-Television and Communication College, Shanghai Normal University, Shanghai 200234, China)

Abstract

In July 2021, breakthrough cases were reported in the outbreak of COVID-19 in Nanjing, sparking concern and discussion about the vaccine’s effectiveness and becoming a trending topic on Sina Weibo. In order to explore public attitudes towards the COVID-19 vaccine and their emotional orientations, we collected 1542 posts under the trending topic through data mining. We set up four categories of attitudes towards COVID-19 vaccines, and used a big data analysis tool to code and manually checked the coding results to complete the content analysis. The results showed that 45.14% of the Weibo posts ( n = 1542) supported the COVID-19 vaccine, 12.97% were neutral, and 7.26% were doubtful, which indicated that the public did not question the vaccine’s effectiveness due to the breakthrough cases in Nanjing. There were 66.47% posts that reflected significant negative emotions. Among these, 50.44% of posts with negative emotions were directed towards the media, 25.07% towards the posting users, and 11.51% towards the public, which indicated that the negative emotions were not directed towards the COVID-19 vaccine. External sources outside the vaccine might cause vaccine hesitancy. Public opinions expressed in online media reflect the public’s cognition and attitude towards vaccines and their core needs in terms of information. Therefore, online public opinion monitoring could be an essential way to understand the opinions and attitudes towards public health issues.

Suggested Citation

  • Hao Gao & Qingting Zhao & Chuanlin Ning & Difan Guo & Jing Wu & Lina Li, 2021. "Does the COVID-19 Vaccine Still Work That “Most of the Confirmed Cases Had Been Vaccinated”? A Content Analysis of Vaccine Effectiveness Discussion on Sina Weibo during the Outbreak of COVID-19 in Nan," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(1), pages 1-14, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2021:i:1:p:241-:d:711470
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    4. Wen Deng & Yi Yang, 2021. "Cross-Platform Comparative Study of Public Concern on Social Media during the COVID-19 Pandemic: An Empirical Study Based on Twitter and Weibo," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(12), pages 1-20, June.
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