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A Comparative Analysis Of Anti-Vax Discourse On Twitter Before And After Covid-19 Onset, Tareq Nasralah, Ahmed El Noshokaty, Omar El-Gayar, Mohammad A. Al-Ramahi, Abdullah Wahbeh

Computer Information Systems Faculty Publications

This study aimed to identify and assess the prevalence of vaccine-hesitancy-related topics on Twitter in the periods before and after the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak. Using a search query, 272,780 tweets associated with anti-vaccine topics and posted between 1 January 2011, and 15 January 2021, were collected. The tweets were classified into a list of 11 topics and analyzed for trends during the periods before and after the onset of COVID-19. Since the beginning of COVID-19, the percentage of anti-vaccine tweets has increased for two topics, “government and politics” and “conspiracy theories,” and decreased for “developmental disabilities.” Compared to …

Public Discourse Against Masks In The Covid-19 Era: Infodemiology Study Of Twitter Data, Mohammad A. Al-Ramahi, Ahmed El Noshokaty, Omar El-Gayar, Tareq Nasralah, Abdullah Wahbeh

Computer Information Systems Faculty Publications

Background:

Despite scientific evidence supporting the importance of wearing masks to curtail the spread of COVID-19, wearing masks has stirred up a significant debate particularly on social media.

Objective:

This study aimed to investigate the topics associated with the public discourse against wearing masks in the United States. We also studied the relationship between the anti-mask discourse on social media and the number of new COVID-19 cases.

Methods:

We collected a total of 51,170 English tweets between January 1, 2020, and October 27, 2020, by searching for hashtags against wearing masks. We used machine learning techniques to analyze the data …

Mental Health And The Covid-19 Pandemic: Analysis Of Twitter Discourse, Omar El-Gayar, Abdullah Wahbeh, Tareq Nasralah, Ahmed El Noshokaty, Mohammad A. Al-Ramahi

Computer Information Systems Faculty Publications

This study analyzed Twitter discourse to understand the association of the COVID-19 pandemic with mental health. The study compared tweets’ volume over time, tweets’ volume per mental health category, emotions, and the top hashtags on mental health before and after November 2019, the month on which the first COVID-19 case was reported. We analyzed a total of 273 million English tweets on mental health collected from 56 million unique users. Results and analysis showed a significant shift in trend for the volume of tweets on mental health over time. There was also a notable increase in the volume of tweets …