A short summary of the project’s aims:

This project investigates how Facebook posts about COVID-19 vaccines influenced public engagement during the pandemic, focusing on three key aspects: content, moral framing, and user engagement. By analyzing millions of posts in different languages and from diverse sources, the project explores the interplay between topics, emotions, and moral values in vaccine-related messaging.

The first aspect of the project analyzed over 200,000 Facebook posts during the rollout of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. Using topic modeling and sentiment analysis, this study found that posts covered topics such as vaccine effectiveness, approval, and distribution. While anticipation was the most common sentiment, fear and sadness also surfaced, particularly regarding emergency approval and trial results. Posts about vaccine distribution, care for vulnerable groups, and positive action received more likes, while negative news attracted fewer.