Mandatory Vaccination Against COVID-19: Twitter Poll Analysis on Public Health Opinion

Valentin Ritschl; Fabian Eibensteiner; Erika Mosor; Maisa Omara; Lisa Sperl; Faisal A Nawaz; Chandragiri Siva Sai; Merisa Cenanovic; Hari Prasad Devkota; Mojca Hribersek; Ronita De; Elisabeth Klager; Eva Schaden; Maria Kletecka-Pulker; Sabine Völkl-Kernstock; Harald Willschke; Christoph Aufricht; Atanas G Atanasov; Tanja Stamm

doi:10.2196/35754

Mandatory Vaccination Against COVID-19: Twitter Poll Analysis on Public Health Opinion

JMIR Form Res. 2022 Jun 21;6(6):e35754. doi: 10.2196/35754.

Authors

Valentin Ritschl^#^{1

2}, Fabian Eibensteiner^#^{3

4}, Erika Mosor^{1

2}, Maisa Omara^{1

2}, Lisa Sperl^{1

2}, Faisal A Nawaz⁵, Chandragiri Siva Sai⁶, Merisa Cenanovic⁷, Hari Prasad Devkota^{8

9}, Mojca Hribersek⁴, Ronita De¹⁰, Elisabeth Klager⁴, Eva Schaden^{4

11}, Maria Kletecka-Pulker^{4

12}, Sabine Völkl-Kernstock^{4

13}, Harald Willschke^{4

12}, Christoph Aufricht³, Atanas G Atanasov^{4

14}, Tanja Stamm^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Section for Outcomes Research, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
² Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Arthritis and Rehabilitation, Vienna, Austria.
³ Division of Pediatric Nephrology and Gastroenterology, Department of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, Comprehensive Center for Pediatrics, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
⁴ Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Digital Health and Patient Safety, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
⁵ College of Medicine, Mohammed Bin Rashid University of Medicine and Health Sciences, Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
⁶ Amity Institute of Pharmacy, Amity University, Uttar Pradesh, India.
⁷ Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
⁸ Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Kumamoto University, Kumamoto, Japan.
⁹ Program for Leading Graduate Schools, Kumamoto University, Kumamoto, Japan.
¹⁰ Indian Council of Medical Research-National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases, West Bengal, India.
¹¹ Department of Anaesthesia, Intensive Care Medicine and Pain Medicine, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
¹² Institute for Ethics and Law in Medicine, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
¹³ Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
¹⁴ Institute of Genetics and Animal Biotechnology of the Polish Academy of Sciences, Jastrzebiec, Poland.

^# Contributed equally.

PMID: 35617671
PMCID: PMC9217155
DOI: 10.2196/35754

Abstract

Background: On January 30, 2020, the World Health Organization Emergency Committee declared the rapid worldwide spread of COVID-19 a global health emergency. By December 2020, the safety and efficacy of the first COVID-19 vaccines had been demonstrated. However, international vaccination coverage rates have remained below expectations (in Europe at the time of manuscript submission). Controversial mandatory vaccination is currently being discussed and has already been introduced in some countries (Austria, Greece, and Italy). We used the Twitter survey system as a viable method to quickly and comprehensively gather international public health insights on mandatory vaccination against COVID-19.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to better understand the public's perception of mandatory COVID-19 vaccination in real time using Twitter polls.

Methods: Two Twitter polls were developed (in the English language) to seek the public's opinion on the possibility of mandatory vaccination. The polls were pinned to the Digital Health and Patient Safety Platform's (based in Vienna, Austria) Twitter timeline for 1 week in mid-November 2021, 3 days after the official public announcement of mandatory COVID-19 vaccination in Austria. Twitter users were asked to participate and retweet the polls to reach the largest possible audience.

Results: Our Twitter polls revealed two extremes on the topic of mandatory vaccination against COVID-19. Almost half of the 2545 respondents (n=1246, 49%) favor mandatory vaccination, at least in certain areas. This attitude contrasts with the 45.7% (n=1162) who categorically reject mandatory vaccination. Over one-quarter (n=621, 26.3%) of participating Twitter users said they would never get vaccinated, as reflected by the current Western European and North American vaccination coverage rate. Concatenating interpretation of these two polls should be done cautiously as participating populations might substantially differ.

Conclusions: Mandatory vaccination against COVID-19 (in at least certain areas) is favored by less than 50%, whereas it is opposed by almost half of the surveyed Twitter users. Since (social) media strongly influences public perceptions and views, and social media discussions and surveys are specifically susceptible to the "echo chamber effect," the results should be interpreted as a momentary snapshot. Therefore, the results of this study need to be complemented by long-term surveys to maintain their validity.

Keywords: COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2; Twitter; coronavirus; hesitancy; mandatory; mandatory vaccination; opinion; perception; poll; public health; questionnaire; social media; support; survey; vaccination; vaccination hesitancy; vaccine.

©Valentin Ritschl, Fabian Eibensteiner, Erika Mosor, Maisa Omara, Lisa Sperl, Faisal A Nawaz, Chandragiri Siva Sai, Merisa Cenanovic, Hari Prasad Devkota, Mojca Hribersek, Ronita De, Elisabeth Klager, Eva Schaden, Maria Kletecka-Pulker, Sabine Völkl-Kernstock, Harald Willschke, Christoph Aufricht, Atanas G Atanasov, Tanja Stamm. Originally published in JMIR Formative Research (https://formative.jmir.org), 21.06.2022.