Analysis of the Engagement with COVID-19 Vaccination-Related Posts in Sri Lankan Health-Oriented Social Media: A Social Listening Approach

Abstract

With the introduction of the COVID-19 vaccination, there was a rise in anti-vaccine narratives leading to vaccine hesitancy. Social media platforms like Facebook have introduced policies to control the spread of these narratives. However, the comments section is frequently ignored. A preliminary anti-vaccination codebook was created using criteria identified in international literature and completed using the comments on the Health Promotion Bureau (HPB)’s Facebook page, which is the centre for health education and publicity of health information in Sri Lanka. Next, the most commented vaccine-related posts for each quarter were extracted from the HPB Facebook page and the comments were coded according to the finalised codebook and were analysed. The finalised codebook contained a total of 24 codes that were organised into six primary categories. A total of 7,316 comments were extracted. The comments that were against vaccination constituted 47.3% of all vaccine-related comments. The most commonly occurring code was ‘health hazards’. It was evident that the number of comments against vaccination has increased with time. This may indicate that anti-vaccination movements are becoming more prevalent in. It is essential to engage in extensive social listening in order to forestall the propagation of anti-vaccine sentiments and conspiracy theories.