Understanding the messages and motivation of vaccine hesitant or refusing social media influencers

BackgroundWhile anti-vaccine messages on social media have been studied for content, reach, and effectiveness, less is known about those who create and promote the messages. Online influencers, or ‘everyday people who are influential within their online social networks’, are viewed as trusted voices who are often making similar life decisions as their followers. Therefore, their experiences with and perspectives on health issues can be persuasive.MethodsWe collaborated with a formal network of online influencers to interview, using a semi-structured interview guide, vaccine hesitant influencer mothers about their views on vaccination; their process for developing health-related social media content; their motivation to promote anti-vaccine messages; and their opinions on current vaccination messaging. Prescreening ensured a diverse sample by race/ethnicity, age, education, number of children, and geographic residence. Interviews occurred by telephone, were audio recorded, and transcribed. Themes were generated independently by two coders using a deductive coding approach.ResultsWe interviewed 15 online influencer mothers from across the U.S. (average age 39 years old; all married; 13 Caucasian, 1 African American, 1 Hispanic). In some capacity, 5 of the 15 wrote about vaccination on their blog. Those who chose not to post anti-vaccine content did so for fear of alienating followers or having their platform be the site of combative discourse among readers. When researching their social media posts, the influencers did not trust mainstream sources of health information and relied on alternative sources and search engines.Implications: This exploratory study interviewed influential mothers who have the ability to spread anti-vaccine messages on social media. While most do not contribute to the anti-vaccine sentiment, understanding the motivation and practices of those that do assists the public health community in better understanding the online vaccination communication environment, leading to more effective messages to counterbalance anti-vaccine content on social media.     

#DoctorsSpeakUp: Lessons learned from a pro-vaccine Twitter event

BackgroundIn response to growing anti-vaccine activism on social media, the #DoctorsSpeakUp event was designed to promote pro-vaccine advocacy. This study aimed to analyze Twitter content related to the event to determine (1) characteristics of the Twitter users who authored these tweets, (2) the proportion of tweets expressing pro-vaccine compared to anti-vaccine sentiment, and (3) the content of these tweets.MethodsData were collected using Twitter’s Filtered Streams Interface, and included all publicly available tweets with the “#DoctorsSpeakUp“ hashtag on March 5, 2020, the day of the event. Two independent coders assessed a 5% subsample of original tweets (n = 966) using a thematic content analysis approach. Cohen’s κ ranged 0.71–1.00 for all categories. Chi-square and Fisher’s exact tests were used to examine associations between tweet sentiment, type of account, and tweet content (personal narrative and/or statement about research or science). Accounts were analyzed for likelihood of being a bot (i.e. automated account) using Botometer.ResultsOf 847 (87.7%) relevant tweets, 244 (28.8%) were authored by a Twitter user that identified as a parent and 68 (8.0%) by a user that identified as a health professional. With regard to sentiment, 167 (19.7%) were coded as pro-vaccine and 668 (78.9%) were coded as anti-vaccine. Tweet sentiment was significantly associated with type of account (p < 0.001) and tweet content (p = 0.001). Of the 575 unique users in our dataset, 31 (5.4%) were classified as bots using Botometer.ConclusionsOur results suggest a highly coordinated response of devoted anti-vaccine antagonists in response to the #DoctorsSpeakUp event. These findings can be used to help vaccine advocates leverage social media more effectively to promote vaccines. Specifically, it would be valuable to ensure that pro-vaccine messages consider hashtag use and pre-develop messages that can be launched and promoted by pro-vaccine advocates.     

A retrospective analysis of social media posts pertaining to COVID-19 vaccination side effects

ObjectivesWith an uprising influence of social media platforms like Twitter and Instagram a multitude of worldwide accessible information is available. Since the beginning of COVID-19 pandemic the exchange of medical information about several topics related to this infectious disease and its vaccination has increased rapidly. The purpose of this investigation was to assess the content associated with COVID-19 vaccination and its side effects and evaluate its educational quality.MethodsWe conducted this retrospective study to investigate 600 Twitter and Instagram posts by #covidvaccinesideeffects due to number of ‘likes’, comments, type of post, language, its purpose and source. In addition, posts were evaluated due to educational quality by three examiners of different educational levels.ResultsThe majority of posts showed 0 to 50 “likes” and 0 to 5 comments in English language. A comparison between Twitter and Instagram by the influence of application showed significant differences in number of posts and “likes” or comments (p < 0.05). The major post type were texts for Twitter (251; 83.7%) and videos for Instagram (104; 34.7%). While a majority of posts by #covidvaccinesideeffects report about the occurrence of side effects, the majority of them were mild and general COVID-19 vaccination feedback during the first 4 months was positive. But, only 3 to 7% were rated by “excellent” educational and validatable content. Interrater reliability between all three examiners presented a high concordance with 89% (p = 0.001).ConclusionsThis study presents an analysis of quantity and quality of social media content according to COVID-19 vaccinations and its side effects. It supports the deduction that most of the content on Twitter and Instagram is shared by patients and unclear sources and thus is limited informative. Nevertheless, influence of social media on medical information especially during COVID-19 pandemic is increasing and practitioners have to face its effect on their patients.     

爬山虎扦插繁殖的研究

本文通过爬山虎扦插繁殖研究,以不同浓度NAA处理爬山虎嫩枝,在不同基质上进行培养,对爬山虎扦插繁殖的条件进行了初探,以供同类研究参考。     

大鼠颈总动脉与脑膜中动脉粘弹性测试

以生物力学的观点研究大鼠颈总动脉与脑膜中动脉应力松弛和蠕变粘弹性行为,为临床提供生物力学参数。对大鼠颈总动脉与脑膜中动脉进行拉伸应力松弛、蠕变实验。得出了颈总动脉与脑膜中动脉拉伸应力松弛、蠕变实验数据和曲线,以一元线性回归分析的方法处理实验数据,得出了大鼠颈总动脉与脑膜中动脉归一化应力松弛函数、蠕变函数数据和曲线及两组试样实验数据的回归系数c、d和ab、值。结果表明:脑膜中动脉应力松弛、蠕变7200s应力松弛量、蠕变量显著大于颈总动脉(P<0.05)。     

A critical assessment of published guidelines and other decision-support systems for the antibiotic treatment of community-acquired respiratory tract infections

Guidelines are an important means by which professional associations and governments have sought to improve the quality and cost-effectiveness of disease management for infectious diseases. Prescribing of initial antibiotic therapy for community-acquired respiratory tract infections (RTIs) is primarily empiric and physicians may often have a limited appreciation of bacterial resistance. Recent guidelines for managing RTIs have adopted a more evidence-based approach. This process has highlighted important gaps in the existing knowledge base, e.g. concerning the impact of resistance on the effectiveness of oral antibiotics for outpatient community-acquired pneumonia and the level of resistance that should prompt a change in empiric prescribing. In upper RTIs, the challenge is to identify patients in whom antibiotic therapy is warranted. Concentrated, sustained efforts are needed to secure physicians' use of guidelines. The information should be distilled into a simple format available at the point of prescribing and supported by other behavioral change techniques (e.g. educational outreach visits). Advances in information technology offer the promise of more dynamic, computer-assisted forms of guidance. Thus, RTI prescribing guidelines and other prescribing support systems should help control bacterial resistance in the community. However, their effect on resistance patterns is largely unknown and there is an urgent need for collaborative research in this area. Rapid, cost-effective diagnostic techniques are also required and new antibiotics will continue to have a role in disease management.     

Effects of tri-iodothyronine (T3), insulin, insulin-like growth factor I (IGF-I) and transforming growth factor beta1 (TGFβ1) on the proportion of insulin cells in cultured embryonic chick pancreas

 With a view to ultimately identifying factors involved in the development of pancreatic insulin cells, we have cultured dorsal pancreatic buds from 5-day chick embryos on a basement membrane matrix (Matrigel) in a serum-free medium supplemented with selected factors. The endodermal components of the buds were freed of almost all the mesenchyme so as to eradicate as much as possible of this source of some such factors. In 7-day cultures, insulin and glucagon cells were demonstrated immunocytochemically; numbers of insulin cells were expressed as a percentage of insulin plus glucagon cell counts. Our standard medium contained insulin. Addition of tri-iodothyronine to this medium did not increase the proportion of insulin cells, but in combination with raised concentrations of glucose and essential amino acids it improved somewhat the marked increase previously recorded for these nutrient conditions. Omission of insulin from the standard medium greatly reduced the proportion of these cells; substitution of insulin by insulin-like growth factor I increased the proportion considerably more than did insulin. To test for an overall effect of growth factors, explants were cultured in standard medium on Matrigel containing reduced amounts of growth factors: the proportion of insulin cells proved to be increased over that reached on normal Matrigel. The suspicion that transforming growth factor β1, a component of Matrigel, might act to reduce the proportion of insulin cells was tested and found to be correct. It is suggested that the different factors studied here may affect either or both of proliferation and determination in the differentiation pathway of insulin vis-à-vis glucagon cells. Accepted: 13 March 1998