What is the topic on Indonesian Twitter about vaccines?

Although there are many pros and cons related to the availability of vaccines, especially for anti-vaccines, in fact as many as 200,547,666 have been injected for all citizens, with details of the number of vaccine doses 1 are 123,433,856 and for vaccine 2 are 77,113,810. This number continues to be accelerated by the government because the vaccine target for this year is about 208,265,720 for health workers, the elderly, public officials, vulnerable communities and the general public as well as ages 12-17 years.

This number makes Indonesia become the 5th largest number of vaccines in the world. It’s not only at the point of vaccination location that conversations about this are discussed, but in cyberspace, vaccination activities attract the attention of citizens.

*Then how do netizens respond to vaccines in Indonesia? *

This article will discuss the response of twitter citizens related to vaccines using wordcloud. Data was collected on October 7, 2021. Here are the results.

In the wordcloud, it can be seen that the most words are vaccines themselves, then the words lawan, kena, hoax, and vaksinasi are shown in a row.

The interesting thing about this wordcloud was the appearnce of the word “hoaks” which turned out to be a topic that was widely discussed.

The hoaxes topic on social media related to vaccines is quite a lot. Reporting from the kominfo.go.id page, there are at least 2,225 hoax content related to the covid-10 vaccine from social media. The largest distribution was Facebook which contained 2,042 content and followed in second place was Twitter, which recorded 108 hoaxes spread widely. In addition, there are also YouTube and TikTok which are not spared from the target of hoaxes.

One of the hoax according to Antaranews is that vaccines cause blood to change color. The following is a photo that has been widely spread on netizens' timelines: The head of the American Red Sign Biomedia Service, Dr. Pampee Young, explained that there is no ingredient in the COVID-19 vaccine that can change the color of blood.

Blood color is influenced by the oxygen content in the blood cells. If oxygen-rich blood vessels leave the heart, the blood will be bright red in color. Conversely, if the blood vessels with little oxygen content return to the heart, the blood will be dark red in color.

Hoaxes will always exist with the dynamics change in society, especially during a pandemic. This can be minimized through strengthening digital literacy and critical thinking about the news that we read.

Conclusion: This pandemic which is entering its almost 2nd year has many change. In Indonesia, vaccines are currently being administered to all citizens with a target of 208,265,720 by the end of 2021. The large number of vaccines has made Indonesia ranked 5th in the world. This vaccine activity has also attracted netizens to discuss it on social media, one of which is Twitter. The topic of vaccines is related to other topics, namely opponents, exposure, hoaxes, and vaccinations. The topic of hoaxes emerged as one that there was still a misunderstanding in the community regarding vaccinations carried out by the government to reduce the spread of the COVID-19 virus. This can be prevented by strengthening digital literacy and increasing critical thinking about all the news we read.

Source:

[1] Hoax during vaccination period (2021) https://aptika.kominfo.go.id/2021/10/kominfo-urunkan-2-225-konten-hoaks-seputar-vaksin-covid-19-dari-medsos/

[2] Hoax about Changing Color after Taking Vaccine (2021) https://www.antaranews.com/news/2429013/hoaks-vaccin-covid-19-ubah-warna-blood

[3] Indonesia in 5th largest number of vaccination (2021) https://databoks.katadata.co.id/datapublish/2021/11/04/berian-dosis-vaksin-covid-19-indonesia-fifth-most-in-the-world