Addressing COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy: A content analysis of government social media platforms in England and Italy during 2020–2021

OBJECTIVES: This study investigates how England's and Italy's Public Health Governmental Departments addressed COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy (VH) on social media platforms. STUDY DESIGN: A conventional content analysis of the social media accounts of Public Health England (PHE), currently the UK Health Security Agency, and the Italian Ministry of Health (IMH) were performed during December 1st, 2020–April 30th, 2021. METHODS: A total of 531 and 110 posts were extracted from the accounts of PHE and the IMH respectively. RESULTS: Similar themes were identified in the government social media posts from both countries, however, significant differences in theme distribution were noted. In England, the most common theme around COVID-19 vaccinations was the vaccine rollout (51%), while themes aimed at addressing VH specifically (44.8%) were debunking vaccine myths (10.5%), reaching/addressing minorities (8.5%), institutional encouragement (13.4%), and benefits of vaccines (12.4%). In contrast, Italian government posts majorly discussed COVID-19 vaccine news and updates (27.3%). Posts addressing VH (62.7%) focused on encouraging vaccination (37.3%), describing the benefits of vaccines (17.3%), debunking myths (4.5%), and communication campaigns (3.6%). CONCLUSIONS: Approximately half of British and Italian government social media posts on COVID-19 were related to addressing vaccine hesitancy. Although similar themes were evident, there were also themes unique to each country.