The dramatic increase in anti-vaccine discourses during the COVID-19 pandemic: a social network analysis of Twitter

Background/Aim The first case of COVID-19 in Turkey was officially recorded on March 11, 2020. Social media use increased worldwide, as well as in Turkey, during the pandemic, and conspiracy theories/fake news about medical complications of vaccines spread throughout the world. The aim of this study was to identify community interactions related to vaccines and to identify key influences/influencers before and after the pandemic using social network data from Twitter. Materials and methods Two datasets, including tweets about vaccinations before and after COVID-19 in Turkey, were collected. Social networks were created based on interactions (mentions) between Twitter users. Users and their influence were scored based on social network analysis and parameters that included in-degree and betweenness centrality. Results In the pre-COVID-19 network, media figures and authors who had anti-vaccine views were the most influential users. In the post-COVID-19 network, the Turkish minister of health, the was the most influential figure. The vaccine network was observed to be growing rapidly after COVID-19, and the physicians and authors who had opinions about mandatory vaccinations received a great deal of reaction. One-way communication between influencers and other users in the network was determined. Conclusions This study shows the effectiveness and usefulness of large social media data for understanding public opinion on public health and vaccination in Turkey. The current study was completed before the implementation of the COVID-19 vaccine in Turkey. We anticipated that social network analysis would help reduce the "infodemic" before administering the vaccine and would also help public health workers act more proactively in this regard.