Did the emergence of the Omicron variant impact the COVID-19 vaccine sentiments in the Arab world? A Twitter-based comparative analysis

Background Vaccine hesitancy constitutes a major obstacle for achieving herd immunity against coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Research has shown high vaccine hesitancy rates and low compliance among Arabic-speaking populations in the 2021–2022 period. The aim of this study was to analyze sentiments related to COVID-19 vaccines before and after the emergence of the COVID-19 Omicron variant in the Arab-speaking world. Methods Tweets were collected before and after the Omicron emergence period in the Arab-speaking world using Python-enabled CAMeL Tools (Arabic Natural Language Processing toolkit) libraries. A sentiment analysis on COVID-19 vaccines using Arabic keywords, a sentiment analysis by city, and a time series were conducted. Results The data sets exhibited a shift towards less negativity, more neutrality, and a possible adoption of a pragmatic discourse towards vaccine uptake. Sentiments by city showed the Gulf region registered the most presence in the Twitter data, and the time series demonstrated change in sentiments followed public health events. Conclusions Despite its limitations, the study pointed to change in sentiments in response to vaccine-related events. Increased neutral sentiments and vaccine discourse shifting towards vaccine uptake pragmatism after the onset of Omicron, indicate change is possible. Future research may focus on how change towards more vaccine acceptance can be triggered; on how Twitter vaccine discourse translates within local communities; on including other social media (for instance Facebook); on vaccine discourse analysis to get nuanced insights; and on ethical implications of vaccine policies.