A national discussion of COVID-19 on Twitter

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Twitter became an essential tool for analyzing public sentiment regarding government actions. Users showed the most interest in vaccines, followed by lockdowns, schooling, and masking, with the highest engagement on schooling tweets. Our analysis of sentiment, emotion, and content revealed valuable insights into public beliefs about COVID-19 in Canada, highlighting regional differences and shifts in sentiment, particularly negative reactions to school closures as government recommendations evolved. Our study adds to the growing evidence supporting the use of natural language processing for real-time analysis of social media content to early identify public health concerns.