International migrants and coronavirus disease 2019 vaccinations: Social Media, motivated information management, and vaccination willingness.

Objective: This study examines how those who were born outside the United States and migrated to the country in the past decade used social media and other online sites to deal with uncertainties around the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic. In particular, we examine how they used digital communication technologies to tap into online resources and social connections both in the United States and their origin country and how various aspects of online information management were associated with their willingness to get vaccinated against the virus. Method: We conducted an online survey and in-depth interviews with international migrants aged 18-64 years who moved to the United States in 2011 or later and were living in two neighboring states in the US Midwest as of spring 2021. Since this research involves understanding how these international migrants dealt with uncertainties related to coronavirus disease 2019 vaccinations, we collected the survey and interview data when each state had a vaccination rate of less than 10% and very limited vaccination eligibility for those aged 64 years and below. Results: Our results show that international migrants" perceived uncertainty, positive and negative emotions, efficacy, and outcome expectancy affect their information seeking related to the coronavirus disease 2019 vaccination. In addition, issue salience moderates the effect between information seeking and vaccine willingness. Conclusion: This research provides relevant and timely scholarly and policy implications that help advance research in this area and better support international migrant communities during public health crises such as the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic.

Social media use for health, cultural characteristics, and demographics: A survey of Pakistani millennials.

Objective: Over the last 10 years, an extensive body of literature has been produced to investigate the role of social media in health. However, little is known about the impact of cultural characteristics (e.g. masculinity, collectivism, and uncertainty avoidance) on social media use regarding health-related information, especially in developing countries like Pakistan. The present study employed Hofstede's cultural characteristics framework and uses and gratification theory to examine how Pakistani millennials' demographic attributes and cultural characteristics are associated with their social media use for health-related information. Method: An online survey of 722 people aged 18-35 living in Pakistan was conducted in spring 2020 to examine the intensity and frequency of social media use, health-related use of social media, cultural characteristics, and demographic attributes. Results: Results showed that cultural characteristics-masculinity, collectivism, and uncertainty avoidance-are strongly related with their perceptions of social media importance, usefulness, and perceived ease of access for health-related information even when controlling for demographic characteristics. Age and gender are also significantly associated with their perspectives on social media for health. Conclusions: We found that communicating and sharing information is the most important motivation for Pakistani millennials to use social media in the area of health with WhatsApp and YouTube being most preferred social media sites for health-related issues.

#Scamdemic, #Plandemic, or #Scaredemic: What Parler Social Media Platform Tells Us about COVID-19 Vaccine.

This study aims to understand public discussions regarding COVID-19 vaccine on Parler, a newer social media platform that recently gained in popularity. Through analyzing a random sample (n = 400) of Parler posts using the hashtags #COVID19Vaccine and #NoCovidVaccine, we use the concept of echo chambers to understand users' discussions through a text analytics approach. Thematic analysis reveals five key themes: reasons to refuse the COVID-19 vaccine (40%), side effects of the COVID-19 vaccine (28%), population control through the COVID-19 vaccine (23%), children getting vaccinated without parental consent (5%), and comparison of other health issues with COVID-19 (2%). Textual analysis shows that the most frequently used words in the corpus were: nocovidvaccine (348); vaccine (264); covid (184); covid19 (157); and vaccines (128). These findings suggest that users adopted different terms and hashtags to express their beliefs regarding the COVID-19 vaccine. Further, findings revealed that users used certain hashtags such as "echo" to encourage like-minded people to reinforce their existing beliefs on COVID-19 vaccine efficacy and vaccine acceptance. These findings have implications for public health communication in attempts to correct false narratives on social media platforms. Through widely sharing the scientific findings of COVID-19 vaccine-related studies can help individuals understand the COVID-19 vaccines efficacy accurately.

"Does Pakistan still have polio cases?": Exploring discussions on polio and polio vaccine in online news comments in Pakistan.

INTRODUCTION: Polio, which is caused by poliovirus, is a contagious, potentially crippling, and deadly disease. Pakistan is one of the countries in which polio is still endemic in the 21st century. In 2019, 146 polio cases were reported across the country with some resulting in deaths. Following the spread of rumors insinuating that children were falling sick after receiving an anti-polio vaccine, a mob attacked and set fire to a small hospital in the Peshawar district in April 2019. The present study investigates readers' discussions that emerged from Dawn's online readers' comments on polio-related news stories in Pakistan. METHODS: Using thematic analysis, we analyzed (N = 2216) comments made by readers in the polio-related news stories published on Dawn.com from January 1, 2012, to March 1, 2020. RESULTS: Seven major themes emerged from the analysis of the comments: 1) reasons for and challenges resulting in the failure to eradicate polio; 2) proposed solutions and policy changes to eradicate polio; 3) misinformation; 4) criticism, frustration, and shame; 5) comparison of Pakistan to other countries; 6) the internet as a public sphere; 7) suffering, empathy, and appreciation. Overall, our findings suggested that commenters are knowledgeable about polio vaccines and consider polio a serious threat to public health in Pakistan. CONCLUSION: Our study not only validated previous study findings such as reasons, challenges, and issues related to polio vaccination, but also found new challenges in online news sites concerning misinformation on polio and polio vaccination in Pakistan.