Communications of the ACM
Social Media Trends Can Predict Tipping Points in Vaccine Scares
Trends on Twitter and Google can help predict vaccine scares, according to University of Waterloo researchers.
Credit: Meningitis Now
Researchers at the University of Waterloo in Canada found analyzing trends on Twitter and Google helped predict vaccine scares.
The researchers used artificial intelligence (AI) and a mathematical model to analyze Google searchers and geocoded tweets, producing data that described the public perceptions of the value of getting vaccinated and indicating when a population was approaching a tipping point.
"By monitoring people's attitudes towards vaccinations on social media, public health organizations may have the opportunity to direct their resources to areas most likely to experience a population-wide vaccine scare, and prevent it before it starts," says University of Waterloo professor Chris Bauch.
The researchers focused on tweets mentioning the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine and classified their sentiment using AI software.
The researchers also collected data on measles-related Google searches, and the mathematical model predicted how the 2014-2015 Disneyland outbreak helped push California back from the tipping point by making residents more afraid of the disease than the vaccine.
From University of Waterloo News
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Abstracts Copyright © 2017 Information Inc., Bethesda, Maryland, USA
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