title: Publicly Available Online Tool Facilitates Real-Time Monitoring Of Vaccine Conversations And Sentiments.
abstract: Real-time monitoring of mainstream and social media can inform public health practitioners and policy makers about vaccine sentiment and hesitancy. We describe a publicly available platform for monitoring vaccination-related content, called the Vaccine Sentimeter. With automated data collection from 100,000 mainstream media sources and Twitter, natural-language processing for automated filtering, and manual curation to ensure accuracy, the Vaccine Sentimeter offers a global real-time view of vaccination conversations online. To assess the system's utility, we followed two events: polio vaccination in Pakistan after a news story about a Central Intelligence Agency vaccination ruse and subsequent attacks on health care workers, and a controversial episode in a television program about adverse events following human papillomavirus vaccination. For both events, increased online activity was detected and characterized. For the first event, Twitter response to the attacks on health care workers decreased drastically after the first attack, in contrast to mainstream media coverage. For the second event, the mainstream and social media response was largely positive about the HPV vaccine, but antivaccine conversations persisted longer than the provaccine reaction. Using the Vaccine Sentimeter could enable public health professionals to detect increased online activity or sudden shifts in sentiment that could affect vaccination uptake.
authors: Chi Y. Bahk (chi@epidemico.com) is director of Epidemico, in Boston, Massachusetts.
authors: Chi Y
authors: CY
authors: Bahk
authors: Melissa Cumming is an analyst at the International Society for Infectious Diseases, in Brookline, Massachusetts.
authors: Melissa
authors: M
authors: Cumming
authors: Louisa Paushter is an analyst at the International Society for Infectious Diseases.
authors: Louisa
authors: L
authors: Paushter
authors: Lawrence C. Madoff is an editor at the International Society for Infectious Diseases and a professor of medicine at the University of Massachusetts, in Worcester.
authors: Lawrence C
authors: LC
authors: Madoff
authors: Angus Thomson is senior director of vaccination policy and advocacy at Sanofi Pasteur, in Lyon, France.
authors: Angus
authors: A
authors: Thomson
authors: John S. Brownstein is cofounder of and a senior executive adviser at Epidemico and chief innovation officer at Boston Children's Hospital, in Massachusetts.
authors: John S
authors: JS
authors: Brownstein
mesh_terms: D003142:Communication; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D007114:Immunization / Q000379:methods; D020407:Internet; D008402:Mass Media; D010154:Pakistan; D053918:Papillomavirus Vaccines; D023321:Poliovirus Vaccines; D011634:Public Health; D011639:Public Opinion; D061108:Social Media / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D014481:United States; D014611:Vaccination / Q000523:psychology*
chemical_list: D053918:Papillomavirus Vaccines; D023321:Poliovirus Vaccines
keywords: Health Promotion/Disease Prevention; Information Technology; Media; Public Health; Research And Technology