By Laura McIntyre 
Between March 2020 and the end of June 2020 13 named COVID-19 vaccine candidates in clinical evaluation (before the 7 July 2020 WHO update) have been discussed by HCPs on Twitter in 9,428 posts. These posts made up only 7% of the overall online HCP COVID-19 vaccine conversation.
As the overall conversation has been decreasing towards the end of June, the main drivers related to the 13 COVID-19 vaccine candidates discussed remained trial announcements, new collaborations and partnerships formed and publishing of the results.
Moderna’s vaccine created the biggest spikes in the HCP conversation over the past four months and was the most discussed candidate. However, the Oxford University/AstraZeneca candidate received more consistent HCP engagement throughout the months and had a more positive overall sentiment.
AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine candidate partnership receives HCP attention
HCPs actively monitored the Oxford University/AstraZeneca vaccine development engaging with progress announcements, trial initiation and first results. HCP conversation spiked around the news of AstraZeneca coming into a partnership with Oxford University. While the majority of posts shared displayed neutral views, many doctors like Christian Jessen were thrilled about the opportunity to scale the vaccine production by the end of the year and called it ‘excellent news’.
AstraZeneca’s plan to supply Europe with millions of doses also did not go unnoticed. HCPs shared the announcement from Reuters and followed the news of different countries signing up for the deal.
HCPs support their opinions with news articles but are more likely to share the views of others
When talking about the COVID-19 vaccine candidates on Twitter, HCPs mostly shared the content produced by others leaving only 25% of posts original, therefore sharing in the opinions of others or neutral announcements and not adding many comments. When posting original content, HCPs often linked to external resources to support their views or discussion such as Stat News, The New York Times or Forbes articles.
We will be tracking the online HCP conversation to identify trends and change in views relating to COVID-19 vaccines. You can stay up to date with HCP insights by subscribing to CREATION Knowledge e-journal.
