The Politicization of Ivermectin Tweets During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Marlon I Diaz; John J Hanna; Amy E Hughes; Christoph U Lehmann; Richard J Medford

doi:10.1093/ofid/ofac263

The Politicization of Ivermectin Tweets During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Open Forum Infect Dis. 2022 Jun 6;9(7):ofac263. doi: 10.1093/ofid/ofac263. eCollection 2022 Jul.

Authors

Marlon I Diaz¹, John J Hanna¹, Amy E Hughes², Christoph U Lehmann¹, Richard J Medford¹

Affiliations

¹ Clinical Informatics Center, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, Texas.
² Department of Population and Data Sciences, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, Texas.

Abstract

Background: We explore the ivermectin discourse and sentiment in the United States with a special focus on political leaning through the social media blogging site Twitter.

Methods: We used sentiment analysis and topic modeling to geospatially explore ivermectin Twitter discourse in the United States and compared it to the political leaning of a state based on the 2020 presidential election.

Results: All modeled topics were associated with a negative sentiment. Tweets originating from democratic leaning states were more likely to be negative.

Conclusions: Real-time analysis of social media content can identify public health concerns and guide timely public health interventions tackling disinformation.

Keywords: Twitter; disinformation; ivermectin; public opinion; social media.