‘Vaccinfluencers’: a study of influential voices criticizing COVID-19 vaccination efforts and negative vaccine information discourse on Twitter

In late 2020, the large-scale rollout of COVID-19 vaccines to combat the global pandemic ignited a firestorm of debates and media discourse on vaccines. We conducted a discourse analysis of tweets (n = 875) criticizing the COVID-19 vaccination process and/or containing negative vaccine information (NVI) authored by influential Twitter accounts receiving the highest user engagement. Results showed news media and private citizens to be important …