2,996,979
511,675
July 1st, 2021
Our project aimed to characterize the public opinion of the COVID-19 pandemic by applying machine learning on COVID-related tweets. Our methodology is detailed below:
We queried the pre-curated dataset of COVID-related tweets published by Chen et al. in JMIR for those tweets posted on July 1st, 2021. A total of 2,996,979 tweets were identified.
We filtered this initial dataset for tweets which were written in the English language and which were not retweets (i.e., were original content). The resulting 540,642 tweets were hydrated in Python using the Twitter API.
The 511,675 successfully hydrated tweets were parsed from JSON/HTML and cleaned in R, followed by feature extraction (e.g., hashtags, URLs, replies, retweets, location, etc.).
Finally, we used natural language processing tools including structural topic modeling to derive aggregate features from our dataset.
Analyses were performed in Python and R. All code is available via our GitHub repository.
Tweet preprocessing was performed using a wrapper to the tm
package. Briefly, extra white space was stripped; numbers, stop words, punctuation, and low-frequency terms were removed; and words were stemmed using snowball stemmers.
After constructing the tweet term matrix and the vocabulary index of words in the corpus, we then used the stm
package to estimate a structural topic model (STM) using semi-collapsed variational EM. STMs permit the study of interaction betweeen tweet-level covariates (from feature extraction) and topical prevalence and/or content. We use spectral initialization and applied the algorithm of Lee and Mimno (2014) to estimate the number of topics. A maximum of 100 EM iterations were permitted; if convergence was not met at this point, the model was discarded.
The resulting topics were examined, and topics of interest were selected for further analysis. For each topic, top tweets ranked by the MAP estimate of the topic’s theta value (which captures the modal estimate of the proportion of word tokens assigned to the topic under the model) were identified. Representative tweets are displayed here.
#LargestVaccineDrive:
— Regional Outreach Bureau, Lucknow (@adgroblko) July 1, 2021
➡️ More than 9.36 Cr Vaccine doses administered in the age group 18-44, so far.
➡️ More than 13.43 Lakh vaccine doses administered to 18-44 age group for first dose today.
Details: https://t.co/gsze6Buq5y#We4Vaccine#IndiaFightsCorona#Unite2FightCorona pic.twitter.com/HWqdQx4NAX
Waterloo 18+ Moderna
— Vaccine Hunters Ontario (@VaxHuntersON) July 1, 2021
Appts avail at:
-Ryerson P.S. - July 2/3
-Forest Heights - July 3
-Resurrection C.S.S. - July 6-10
-St. Mary’s H.S. - July 6-10
-Pinebush - July 30/Aug 1
Book here: https://t.co/S0t5kQCLes#COVID19ON #COVID19Vaccine #vhcON #VHCDose2
📌 #COVID19VaccinationUpdate
— PIB in Assam (@PIB_Guwahati) July 1, 2021
India’s COVID-19 Vaccination Coverage reaches nearly 34 Cr
More than 38.17 lakh Vaccine Doses administered today till 7 pm
More than 9.61 Cr Vaccine doses administered in the age group 18-44, so far
🔗 https://t.co/VsSuG10Cvh@MoHFW_INDIA pic.twitter.com/3beeCEy3D6
A walk-in vaccination clinics at @RJAH_NHS today, no appointment necessary…just walk in and #grabajab!
— Shropshire, Telford & Wrekin ICS (@STW_ICS) July 1, 2021
- Pfizer Clinic (18-39) 8am to 1pm.
- AstraZeneca Clinic (40s and over) 2pm to 5.30pm
More clinics here: https://t.co/ZI9hst3B3a#getthejabdoneSTW pic.twitter.com/pPQZoh9lRE
Aged 18 or over❓ Not had your #COVID19 vaccination yet❓
— NHS Northumberland CCG 🌈💙 (@NHSNlandCCG) July 1, 2021
GRAB A JAB this week at Hexham Mart!💉
No appointments needed👇@alnwickgazette @hexhamcourant @ActiveNland @N_landCouncil @NorthumberlandR @hexhamtv @BBCNEandCumbria @ChronicleLive @NorthumbriaNHS pic.twitter.com/qgEvB3DsV0
#IndiaFightsCorona:
— DD News Gujarati (@DDNewsGujarati) July 1, 2021
📍#COVID19 Vaccine Doses: Age-wise Distribution (As on July 01st, 2021, till 09:00 AM)
✅60 વર્ષથી ઉપર: 28.2%
✅45-60 વર્ષ: 34.9%
✅18-44 વર્ષ: 36.8%#We4Vaccine #LargestVaccineDrive #Unite2FightCorona @ICMRDELHI @MoHFW_INDIA pic.twitter.com/kXQR8kl4vb
Forest Heights Collegiate is doing walk ins for for first or second dose vaccines today until 6pm 🕺 #Kitchener #waterloo #vaccine #Moderna @ROWPublicHealth
— Kenndal S (@ksoull) July 1, 2021
RT SheffCouncil "RT @NHSSheffieldCCG: This Sunday, St Charles Borromeo Church, in Attercliffe, will be hosting a walk-in clinic for people aged 18+ to receive a first or second dose of the Pfizer vaccine.
— r/Sheffield (@sheffieldreddit) July 1, 2021
👉 10am – 1pm (no need to book but first come,… pic.twitter.com/dnKbSKBRvJ"
Get your Covid-19 Pfizer vaccination at a walk-in near you. On Friday 2 July, you can get yours at Chelmsley Wood Primary Care Centre (16 Crabtree Drive, Chelmsley Wood, B37 5BU) between 9am and 5pm. Other walk-in dates/locations: https://t.co/akwJzwAURn pic.twitter.com/LsKJlNlVtN
— University Hospitals Birmingham (@uhbtrust) July 1, 2021
Vaccine appointments available at Walgreens Morton Grove from Jul 1 to Jul 15. Sign up here, zip code 60053:https://t.co/nZkkxk2ES3 (as of 11:01) 😷
— edgar vaccine bot (@VaccineEdgar) July 1, 2021
Over 40? Then go and grab a jab at the @SMStadium Vaccination Centre today, open until 7.30pm. First and second doses of Astra Zeneca vaccine available.
— hiyabucks (@hiyabucks1) July 1, 2021
You can find the centre at Stoke Mandeville Stadium, Guttmann Road, Aylesbury, HP21 9PP.#getthejab pic.twitter.com/muIl9KaWR6
Vaccine appointments available at Walgreens La Grange Highlands from Jul 1 to Jul 14. Sign up here, zip code 60525:https://t.co/nZkkxk2ES3 (as of 7:50)
— edgar vaccine bot (@VaccineEdgar) July 1, 2021
Topic 5 pertains to vaccination; specifically, vaccine scheduling and availability. Representative tweets are displayed here. Please note that tweets have not been filtered for objectionable content, and presentation here does not imply endorsement.
Word profiles for Topic 5 are reported below based on several metrics, including highest probability, FREX (weighted by overall frequency and topic exclusivity), lift (weighted by dividing by word frequency in other topics), and score (log frequency of the word in the topic divided by the log frequency of the word in other topics).
Highest Probability: vaccin, avail, sign, appoint, near, dose, covid-
FREX: walgreensduan, walgreen, zip, appoint, cvs, berwyn, skoki
Lift: 𝐔𝐏𝐃𝐀𝐓𝐄, 𝐕𝐚𝐜𝐜𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧, ઉપર, વર્ષ, વર્ષથી, activenland, alnwickgazett
Score: appoint, avail, dose, sign, vaccin, near, jul
Hmm... You're at 48% with the perfect storm of Brexit, Covid, and a "Toaaarrrie" government in Westminster. As for "we havent (sic) started yet"—you've had years of constant agitation for #Scexit with no concerted opposition.
— yescotland (@yescotland) July 1, 2021
I do not miss the incompetence, inexperience, whining, self grandizing and regressive policies from the failed Trump Presidency that culminated in a bungled pandemic response and a violent insurrection.
— Doreen (@DoreenL53510887) July 1, 2021
Well if Trump had not thrown out the Pandemic Playbook left by the Obama/Biden Administration they would not have killed 1000’s of Americans & wrecked the economy left by the Obama/Biden Administration. Republicans create crises. Democrats fix them.
— Dorthea Crenshaw (@dorthealynn) July 1, 2021
Nice sentiment. But the federal govt already spent $4.7 trillion extra on COVID in 2020 plus Biden's own $1.9 trillion. He wants the federal budget to increase by 50% to $6 trillion. This doubles the annual deficit to $2 trillion and the national debt to $30 trillion.
— Vaccinated and NOT masking (@marc_v27) July 1, 2021
COVID allowed our government to enact the biggest wealth transfer ever… and you should be furious https://t.co/ndJH0BexRR #FoxBusiness
— Lois Levine Fishman (@FishmanLevine) July 1, 2021
Every Republican in Congress voted against America's economic recovery from the pandemic. https://t.co/VdXsbL6Cwt
— Jesse Ferguson (@JesseFFerguson) July 1, 2021
Modi government is ensuring food to needy during COVID pandemic.
— Prateek Patel 🇮🇳 (@prateekpatelbjp) July 1, 2021
• 77.42 lakh metric tonnes of food grains were supplied to all states under PMGKAY-III.
• 198.78 lakh metric tonnes of food grains allocated under PMGKAY-IV.#IndiaFightsCorona pic.twitter.com/z7YSqLWLIC
A mere drop in the ocean of corrupt incompetence in Scotland.
— Snp-out (@MundayHugh) July 1, 2021
We’re still waiting to here about the £2.7b withheld from the COVID relief given by Westminster to Scotland.
Or the small matter of the £600k stolen from the accounts.
Democratic Party Out...democratic hate, democratic hypocrisy, democratic crime, democratic CRT, democratic riots, democratic border crisis, democratic defunding police, democratic destruction OUT! America's only Covid19 frontline President Trump. pic.twitter.com/B05PCPtehN
— Hope Torres (@Evysdove) July 1, 2021
Trump was running a trillion dollar deficit before covid.
— Scott McMurtrie (@ScottMcMurtrie3) July 1, 2021
COVID fraud set to cost UK taxpayers tens of billions pounds-report https://t.co/M71dPRnztf
— Avocado (@Avocado59833900) July 1, 2021
Hannity was also complicit in downplaying and denying the pandemic.
— Les Gillon (@LGillon2) July 1, 2021
The continued lockdown your party condones, with the associated state supports, is ensuring that the financing needed to fulfil your promises of vast swathes of affordable housing, provided by the state, will not be a reality.
— Dship (@Dship16) July 1, 2021
We are in the middle of a pandemic and an economic crisis and yet we are spending $50 mil on upgrading some jets🤦🏽♂️ https://t.co/SgVtP88jXY
— Munsif Muzammir (@_munsif_) July 1, 2021
How are states allocating Coronavirus State Fiscal Recovery Funds (CSFRF) allocations? @NCSLorg’s Erlinda Doherty walked us through provisions in The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARPA). https://t.co/GPUyBb7jGG | #NCSLinDC pic.twitter.com/DWiB7tVWqp
— NCSL (@NCSLorg) July 1, 2021
Dr Raza Baqir addresses in his speech at IPRI about how Pakistan overturned Covid crises into Pakistan's Economy #RezaBaqir_at_IPRI pic.twitter.com/4ZLWpW5L4g
— Sanaa. (@sanna_60_) July 1, 2021
Then why did you vote against the covid rescue act, which provides money to defund the police? We see you Elise.
— Joyce Heckler (@heckler_joyce) July 1, 2021
Enormous amounts of federal spending during the covid pandemic will push the budget deficit to $3 trillion for the 2021 fiscal year, CBO says. @jimtankersley https://t.co/66d6bpMOHR
— Peter Baker (@peterbakernyt) July 1, 2021
Topic 9 contains tweets discussing politics and COVID-19. Representative tweets are displayed here. Please note that tweets have not been filtered for objectionable content, and presentation here does not imply endorsement.
Word profiles for Topic 9 are reported below based on several metrics, including highest probability, FREX (weighted by overall frequency and topic exclusivity), lift (weighted by dividing by word frequency in other topics), and score (log frequency of the word in the topic divided by the log frequency of the word in other topics).
Highest Probability: trump, american, money, biden, vote, presid, cost
FREX: capitol, deficit, tax, republican, incit, cost, infrastructur
Lift: andymoor, cjuliasm, dinosaurtrix, gonnaeeeno, scotsmistt, deathstrump, gridsinfrastructur
Score: trump, vote, american, biden, tax, cost, republican
Saluting the efforts of our real heroes, IFW wishes a very happy doctor's day. Pandemic has once again reminded us about the contributions and sacrifices made by #doctors and #healthcareworkers around the globe!#doctorsday #doctors #doctor #ifw #ifwwebstudio #digitalmarketing pic.twitter.com/9V9Z22oPYa
— IFW Web Studio (@IFWWebStudio) July 1, 2021
Happy National Doctor's Day!! #Sprw thanks all the health workers across the world for their service. We salute all doctors.#NationalDoctorsDay #ThankYou #Hardwork #Doctors #SuperHeros #Gratitude #RealHero #TopicalSpot #trending #DoctorsDay2021 #medical #COVID19 #saviour #sprw pic.twitter.com/lAUgUOh6ZV
— SP Robotic Works (@sproboticworks) July 1, 2021
"Medicine cures disease but doctors heal patients”. Let us, as a nation salute the medical fraternity for their tireless effort and hard work during the challenging times of this pandemic. Wishing all the Doctors A Happy Doctor’s Day.#doctorsday #nationaldoctorsday pic.twitter.com/q1pBFoKtPT
— Divecha Centre for Climate Change (@DivechaFor) July 1, 2021
Pandemic has once again reminded us about the contributions and sacrifices made by doctors and healthcare workers around the globe.
— Avantika University (@AvantikaUniv) July 1, 2021
We salute your efforts. Thank You for your service towards humanity!#DoctorsDay2021 #DoctorsDay #NationalDoctorsDay #Thankyoudoctors #gratitude
National Doctor’s Day is an opportunity to thank all the heroes in the medical fraternity for their selfless contributions. We express our sincere gratitude to the brave souls working round the clock to heal the world from this pandemic.
— anshuman (@anshuman131073) July 1, 2021
Happy Doctor's Day ...❤❤
On the occasion of #NationalDoctorsDay let us salute and pay tribute to the real superheroes who are not only risking their own health but are working tirelessly in fighting the pandemic. To all our inspiring Doctor’s , a very happy doctor’s day.#doctorsday2021 #doctorsday pic.twitter.com/KhTrYZNWOC
— Nucleus Properties (@NucleusProp) July 1, 2021
The Best Tributes would be to reduce the passing PERCENTAGE of the #FMGE to 30% on this #DoctorsDay, allowing thereby thousands of Foreign Medical Graduates to join the fight against COVID-19 Pandemic#FMGEREDUCETO30
— FMG 🌐👥 (@Interna36203317) July 1, 2021
Medicines Cure Diseases, But only #doctors can cure #patients.
— Sophia Ronald (@SophiaRonald6) July 1, 2021
Happy National Doctors Day 🩺💉💊https://t.co/xSFu3ECB0S#DoctorsDay #DoctorsDay2021 #doctorslife #medicine #selfcare #pandemic #StaySafe #StateBankDay #NarayaniSena #Thalaivi #Covidshield #CharteredAccountantDay
Doctors are the true warriors to save people in the world pandemic. Wishing you happy National Doctors' Day!
— Shivam Giri (@Shivamgiri_) July 1, 2021
“Medicines cure diseases, but only doctors can cure patients.” - Carl Jung#DoctorsDay#NationalDoctorsDay#neet2021 #medtwitter Happy Doctors #DoctorsDay2021 #Doctor pic.twitter.com/1poDpsML5L
Topic 14 contains tweets expressing gratitude to doctors and frontline healthcare workers. Representative tweets are displayed here. Please note that tweets have not been filtered for objectionable content, and presentation here does not imply endorsement.
Word profiles for Topic 14 are reported below based on several metrics, including highest probability, FREX (weighted by overall frequency and topic exclusivity), lift (weighted by dividing by word frequency in other topics), and score (log frequency of the word in the topic divided by the log frequency of the word in other topics).
Highest Probability: doctor, thank, pandem, doctorsday, medic, fight, day
FREX: fmgereduceto, help🙏, aashiwini, “medicines💊, fmge, doctordoctor, salutedoctor
Lift: ‘mankind’, “medicines💊, 𝐷𝑎𝑦👨⚕️🥰💓, 𝐷𝑜𝑐𝑡𝑜𝑟𝑠, 𝐻𝑎𝑝𝑝𝑦, 𝗗𝗼𝗰𝘁𝗼𝗿’𝘀, 👍drharshvardhan
Score: doctor, doctorsday, nationaldoctorsday, thank, salut, happydoctorsday, fight
From CNN: Surgeon General on Delta variant: If you are not vaccinated, you are in trouble Surgeon General on Delta variant: If you are not vaccinated, you are in troublehttps://t.co/afiKkM7yZW
— Amanda Searant (@Amandat77144062) July 1, 2021
Dr Fauci says 'quite concerned' over Delta COVID variant in US, infection spread prompts reconsideration of precautions#Fauci #DeltaVariante #DeltaPlusVariant #WHOhttps://t.co/kIqBfxu9BP
— Catch News (@CatchNews) July 1, 2021
“If you are vaccinated you’re probably unlikely to get it, and if you do it should be mild,” Dr. Leverence said.
— Katye Brought (@KatyeBrought) July 1, 2021
The Delta variant is spreading rapidly in unvaccinated populations. Get vaccinated! https://t.co/qbazwB0l74
Highly Infectious Delta Variant Could Already Be Dominant in The US: https://t.co/f0iwd0AuTH
— Ken Gusler (@kgusler) July 1, 2021
CDC director: Delta variant is growing threat to unvaccinated people https://t.co/4cw2YcVJ3v
— POLITICO Pro (@POLITICOPro) July 1, 2021
Doesn’t get any simpler than this folks: “Vaccinated people are safer than ever despite the variants. But unvaccinated people are in more danger than ever because of the variants.” https://t.co/n6Q82sukMZ
— David Simerly (@davidksimerly) July 1, 2021
"It does appear that the vaccines we have do work against the Delta variant. They appear to be less effective against Delta than they were against Alpha and other previously dominant variants." https://t.co/mqbmPpJVPG
— KION News 5 46 (@KION546) July 1, 2021
The growing threat to the unvaccinated: “it’s even more important that people who aren’t vaccinated yet quickly get the vaccine before the delta variant reaches them” https://t.co/10VUGQ9Vsm
— Jonathan Overpeck (@GreatLakesPeck) July 1, 2021
The Delta variant is more transmittable.https://t.co/YRBSjB3ahF
— Dan 🌊 #MaskItOrCasket #EndQualifiedImmunity #FBR (@immydadsson) July 1, 2021
the who said that?
— Anarcho-based (@anarchy361) July 1, 2021
If so ye I agree the CDC should as well but it seems that to vaxxed people the delta variant isn't that major of a threat?
Singapore data seems to show quite a lot of transmission from vaccinated people-even to other vaccinated people-with delta. https://t.co/pgBX681Fao
— Rebecca Real (@RebeccaReal6) July 1, 2021
My point is…folks are going to be vaccinated, or they’re going to be infected. Unlike many viruses COVID variants thus far don’t seem to be less infectious and continue to be highly transmissible. This is going to be here for a while.
— JimM (@JimMea) July 1, 2021
It means if you’re vaccinated you likely won’t be harmed from covid nor the delta variant. The variant appears to be spreading faster.
— Somebody Son (@MrFlintstone328) July 1, 2021
"The vaccines are beating variants. Variants are pummeling the unvaccinated." @edyong209: https://t.co/x5LX84fA0b
— Agustin Fuentes (@Anthrofuentes) July 1, 2021
Young, unvaccinated or over 50? You're most at risk from the Covid delta variant - CNBC https://t.co/J2dQ3waMNd
— Carmen Shier (@CarmenShier) July 1, 2021
Delta variant of COVID, the most contagious strain, is spreading rapidly in under-vaccinated populations.
— Jacob Gagnon 🇺🇸 (@jakega5) July 1, 2021
Many children under the age of 12 can't get vaccinated at all.@SenTomCotton@marcorubio@RandPaul@SenBillCassidy@SenHydeSmith@SenatorLankfordhttps://t.co/yVkwKoNQ22
The only people who are dying from #COVID are unvaccinated people.
— Rick Marín (@rcmarin963) July 1, 2021
People spreading the #Delta variant are more likely than not, unvaccinated people.
…and they’re still refusing to get vaccinated.
NYT:Masks Again? Delta Variant’s Spread Prompts Reconsideration of Precautions.-https://t.co/ZjlJ75enX6
— Tushar Singh Kothari (@Tushar__Kothari) July 1, 2021
SARS-CoV-2 immune evasion by the B.1.427/B.1.429 CAL.20C variant of concern
— Merlot Vine (@MerlotVine) July 1, 2021
Terugzoektag variant californiehttps://t.co/p9QDmBY8UC
Yes, because COVID will mutate in infected people and eventually there will be a vaccine resistant variant.
— Michael Little (@Michael_Little_) July 1, 2021
The Delta already shows some immune escape and can cause breakthrough infections.
— John Muir (@MrJMuir1) July 1, 2021
AZ is only 60% effective v symptomatic covid for example.
It could evolve more escape.
Topic 34 pertains to the COVID-19 variants, including and especially the Delta variant. Representative tweets are displayed here. Please note that tweets have not been filtered for objectionable content, and presentation here does not imply endorsement.
Word profiles for Topic 34 are reported below based on several metrics, including highest probability, FREX (weighted by overall frequency and topic exclusivity), lift (weighted by dividing by word frequency in other topics), and score (log frequency of the word in the topic divided by the log frequency of the word in other topics).
Highest Probability: variant, peopl, delta, vaccin, risk, cdc, covid
FREX: hypertransmiss, walenski, cnet, edyong, unvaccin, trvrb, delta
Lift: ampquotthi, youampquot, shelbymccowan, bannedword, cdcword, doubleplusgoodspeak, trumphasdementia
Score: variant, delta, cdc, risk, vaccin, peopl, unvaccin
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