Vaxera: An Empathetic Chatbot for COVID-19 Vaccination

Abstract

Rumors about the COVID-19 vaccines are spreading rapidly on social media platforms, questioning their intentions and efficiency. Currently, chatbots are used to combat the risk of misinformation amplification during the pandemic. They provide users with information from trusted and reliable sources. However, most of the current COVID-19 chatbots are non-personalized and do not focus on the vaccination process, rather they focus on answering general questions and performing symptom checking. In this paper, an empathetic chatbot named “Vaxera” was developed to provide users with accurate and up-to-date information about COVID-19 and its vaccines specifically. Vaxera provides users with information regarding COVID-19 frequently asked questions, advice and precautions, available vaccines, rumors and myths, and travel regulations. Additionally, it clears the circulating misconceptions about the vaccines and motivates the users on social media platforms to get vaccinated in a friendly manner. It tries to build a bond with the users through empathy and humor, so users will not feel forced. The results showed positive feedback from the participants who found the chatbot friendly and informative, as it corrected multiple rumors they believed. Moreover, a significant increase in the participants’ intentions to get vaccinated was observed after interacting with the chatbot.