Decoding vaccine discourse: A comparative analysis of Twitter conversations in the USA and India

The digital infrastructure of anti-vaccination tweets circulates and amplifies vaccine hesitancy, leading to declined vaccination rates, amplified susceptibility to preventable diseases, and an endangered public health landscape. The article carefully looks at a collection of tweets from different sources, such as individuals, political leaders, and health agencies, to find out how arguments for and against vaccinations are discussed, how people interact with each other, and what makes Twitter users in the USA and India different. We applied a Mann–Whitney U test to understand the engagement patterns of pro- and anti-vaccination tweets, and used a critical discourse analysis method on a corpus of tweets to reveal the four discursive strategies of vaccination: (a) vaccination management, (b) government emergency preparedness, (c) concerns and criticisms, and (d) the emotional spectrum surrounding vaccination. The findings show that engagement is higher for proponents of vaccines in both countries. However, the motivation factors of vaccine proponents and vaccine boycotts in India differ substantially from those in the USA. These results underscore the imperative for healthcare entities, governments, and policymakers to develop population-specific strategies, considering their geographical and cultural backgrounds, to address the epidemics surrounding vaccines.