"Objective: The purpose of this study was to understand the public's perception on the safety and acceptance of COVID-19 vaccines in real time by using Twitter polls.
Methods: We developed 2 Twitter polls to explore the public's views on available COVID-19 vaccines. The surveys were pinned to the Digital Health and Patient Safety Platform Twitter timeline for 1 week in mid-February 2021, and Twitter users and influencers were asked to participate in and retweet the polls to reach the largest possible audience."
There are literally dozens maybe hundreds more studies using Twitter as the data source (just look at the 'Similar Articles' on PubMed for instance)
"Methods: First, a total of 803278 Persian tweets were retrieved from Twitter, mentioning COVIran Barekat (the homegrown vaccine), Pfizer/BioNTech, AstraZeneca/Oxford, Moderna, and Sinopharm (imported vaccines) between April 1, 2021 and September 30, 2021. Then, we identified sentiments of retrieved tweets using a deep learning sentiment analysis model based on CNN-LSTM architecture. Finally, we investigated Iranian views toward COVID-19-vaccination."
If random twitter is good enough to assess people's sentiments, surveys asking specific questions are surely at least as accurate at conveying people's experience/knowledge
Apparently, twitter polls can be used to extrapolate scientific data - what's good for the goose is good for the gander:
People's Willingness to Vaccinate Against COVID-19 Despite Their Safety Concerns: Twitter Poll Analysis
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33872185/
"Objective: The purpose of this study was to understand the public's perception on the safety and acceptance of COVID-19 vaccines in real time by using Twitter polls.
Methods: We developed 2 Twitter polls to explore the public's views on available COVID-19 vaccines. The surveys were pinned to the Digital Health and Patient Safety Platform Twitter timeline for 1 week in mid-February 2021, and Twitter users and influencers were asked to participate in and retweet the polls to reach the largest possible audience."
There are literally dozens maybe hundreds more studies using Twitter as the data source (just look at the 'Similar Articles' on PubMed for instance)
They even have a Twitter-vaccine study from *Iran* of all places (!!):
Twitter sentiment analysis from Iran about COVID 19 vaccine
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34933273/
"Methods: First, a total of 803278 Persian tweets were retrieved from Twitter, mentioning COVIran Barekat (the homegrown vaccine), Pfizer/BioNTech, AstraZeneca/Oxford, Moderna, and Sinopharm (imported vaccines) between April 1, 2021 and September 30, 2021. Then, we identified sentiments of retrieved tweets using a deep learning sentiment analysis model based on CNN-LSTM architecture. Finally, we investigated Iranian views toward COVID-19-vaccination."
If random twitter is good enough to assess people's sentiments, surveys asking specific questions are surely at least as accurate at conveying people's experience/knowledge