Objective: To assess spatiotemporal trends in, and determinants of, the acceptance of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccination globally, as expressed on the social media platform X (formerly Twitter).
Methods: We collected over 13 million posts on the platform regarding COVID-19 vaccination made between November 2020 and March 2022 in 90 languages. Multilingual deep learning XLM-RoBERTa models annotated all posts using an annotation framework after being fine-tuned on 8125 manually annotated, English-language posts.
Hum Vaccin Immunother
August 2023
Declining trends in vaccine confidence come at a time when routine immunization coverage for children has slumped to a decades-long low. With some of the largest losses in confidence experienced among young adults, this is a concerning trend with the potential for long-term implications. This article reflects on recent research examining the levels and trends of vaccine confidence over time and across the globe, the drivers influencing confidence, and the role of the COVID-19 pandemic in shaping confidence today.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCommun Med (Lond)
September 2021
Background: As the world begins the rollout of multiple COVID-19 vaccines, pandemic exit strategies hinge on widespread acceptance of these vaccines. In this study, we perform a large-scale global exploratory study to examine the levels of COVID-19 vaccine acceptance and explore sociodemographic determinants of acceptance.
Methods: Between October 31, 2020 and December 15, 2020, 26,759 individuals were surveyed across 32 countries via nationally representative survey designs.
J Nucl Cardiol
December 2022
Background: Regional myocardial sympathetic denervation is a conspicuous and early disorder in patients with chronic Chagas' cardiomyopathy (CCC), potentially associated to the progression of myocardial dysfunction OBJECTIVE: To evaluate in a longitudinal study the association between the presence and the progression of regional myocardial sympathetic denervation with the deterioration of global and segmental left ventricular dysfunction in CCC.
Methods: 18 patients with CCC were submitted at initial evaluation and after 5.5 years to rest myocardial scintigraphy with Iodo-metaiodobenzylguanidine and Tc-sestamibi and to two-dimensional echocardiography to assess myocardial sympathetic denervation, extent of fibrosis, and the left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) and wall motion abnormalities.
Background: The UK Government is considering the introduction of vaccine passports for domestic use and to facilitate international travel for UK residents. Although vaccine incentivisation has been cited as a motivating factor for vaccine passports, it is unclear whether vaccine passports are likely to increase inclination to accept a COVID-19 vaccine.
Methods: We conducted a large-scale national survey in the UK of 17,611 adults between 9 and 27 April 2021.
Widespread acceptance of a vaccine for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) will be the next major step in fighting the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, but achieving high uptake will be a challenge and may be impeded by online misinformation. To inform successful vaccination campaigns, we conducted a randomized controlled trial in the UK and the USA to quantify how exposure to online misinformation around COVID-19 vaccines affects intent to vaccinate to protect oneself or others. Here we show that in both countries-as of September 2020-fewer people would 'definitely' take a vaccine than is likely required for herd immunity, and that, relative to factual information, recent misinformation induced a decline in intent of 6.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: There is growing evidence of vaccine delays or refusals due to a lack of trust in the importance, safety, or effectiveness of vaccines, alongside persisting access issues. Although immunisation coverage is reported administratively across the world, no similarly robust monitoring system exists for vaccine confidence. In this study, vaccine confidence was mapped across 149 countries between 2015 and 2019.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn November 2017, it was announced that the new dengue vaccine ("Dengvaxia") had risks for those not previously exposed to dengue. While some countries proceeded with adjusting guidance accordingly, the Philippines reacted with outrage and political turmoil with naming and shaming of government officials involved in purchasing the vaccine, as well as scientists involved in the vaccine trials and assessment. The result was broken public trust around the dengue vaccine as well heightened anxiety around vaccines in general.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Public trust in immunization is an increasingly important global health issue. Losses in confidence in vaccines and immunization programmes can lead to vaccine reluctance and refusal, risking disease outbreaks and challenging immunization goals in high- and low-income settings. National and international immunization stakeholders have called for better monitoring of vaccine confidence to identify emerging concerns before they evolve into vaccine confidence crises.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Incomplete immunisation coverage causes preventable illness and death in both developing and developed countries. Identification of factors that might modulate coverage could inform effective immunisation programmes and policies. We constructed a performance indicator that could quantitatively approximate measures of the susceptibility of immunisation programmes to coverage losses, with an aim to identify correlations between trends in vaccine coverage and socioeconomic factors.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Nucl Cardiol
February 2018
Background: To investigate the correlation between the extent of myocardial sympathetic denervation and fibrosis and the presence of degrees of severity of ventricular arrhythmias in chronic Chagas cardiomyopathy (CCC).
Methods: Forty-three CCC patients with left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) ≥ 35% were divided into three groups: SVT group-presenting Sustained Ventricular Tachycardia (SVT) (n = 15), NSVT group-exhibiting episodes of non-SVT (NSVT) on 24-h Holter monitoring (n = 11), and Control group-exhibiting neither SVT nor episodes of NSVT (n = 17). The patients underwent SPECT imaging for myocardial sympathetic innervation with Iodine-MIBG (MIBG) and myocardial perfusion with Tc-Sestamibi (MIBI) for the evaluation of regional myocardial fibrosis.
Prediction for social systems is a major challenge. Universality at the social level has inspired a unified theory for urban living but individual variation makes predicting relationships within societies difficult. Here, we show that in ant societies individual average speed is higher when event duration is longer.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInt J Cardiol
April 2014
J Nucl Cardiol
August 2002
Background: This investigation tested the application of low-dose dobutamine (LDD) gated single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) with thallium 201 for myocardial viability detection early after acute myocardial infarction (AMI).
Methods And Results: Thirty-two hemodynamically stable post-AMI patients (aged 55 +/- 5 years [mean +/- SEM]; 20 men) who were exhibiting regional left ventricular dysfunction underwent stress-redistribution Tl-201 scanning within 4 to 8 days, followed by 2 additional gated SPECT acquisitions after Tl-201 reinjection, at rest and during LDD. A visual 5-point score was computed for segmental radiotracer uptake (0, normal; 4, absent) and a 4-point score for left ventricular wall motion (1, normal; 4, dyskinesis).