The Politicization of Ivermectin Tweets during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Background: We explore the ivermectin discourse and sentiment in the United States with a special focus on political leaning through the social media blogging site Twitter. Methods: We used sentiment analysis and topic modeling to geospatially explore ivermectin Twitter discourse in the United States and compared it to the political leaning of a state based on the 2020 presidential election. Results: All modeled topics were associated with a negative sentiment. Tweets originating from democratic leaning states were more likely to be negative. Conclusions: Real-time analysis of social media content can identify public health concerns and guide timely public health interventions tackling disinformation.