More Filipinos feel positive towards COVID-19 vaccines, Facebook data analysis shows

Filipinos are reacting more positively to coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccines after the government started its vaccination rollout, as shown in Facebook posts reflecting "love" reactions in June 2021.
Based on a big data analysis conducted by data analysis and public relations company BluePrint.PH of two petabytes of data from Facebook in June 2021, "like" reactions by Filipinos on the vaccine rose from 54 percent out of 12,000 posts in January to 76 percent by June from basically the same number of monthly posts.
"Love" reactions rose steadily from 9 percent in January to 15 percent by June, indicating a growing positive sentiment among Filipinos towards the anti-COVID vaccine.
In comparison, the "haha" or laughter reactions decreased from 24 percent of all emoticon reactions in January to only 1 percent by June as 10 million Filipinos have already gotten themselves vaccinated.
Meanwhile, "angry" reactions were low at 4 percent in January and February and decreased further to 2 percent to 1 percent in the succeeding months.
"Sad" reactions were 10 percent in January and decreased also in the succeeding months.
Of the estimated 68,000 Facebook posts by Filipinos from January to June 2021, 58 percent were about the Chinese vaccine Sinovac, which is the dominant brand given to Filipinos by the government since the vaccination program started in 2021.
Meanwhile, American brands Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech received more "love" reactions from Filipinos in their Facebook posts.
The words most associated by Filipinos with the anti-COVID vaccines are the brands AstraZeneca, Sinovac, Pfizer, Moderna; procurement; Covax; and Carlito Galvez, the country's chief adviser on the anti-COVID campaign.
With some 68,000 posts on the vaccine issue since January 1, Filipinos made 1.9 million comments and shares and 12 million reactions on the issue on Facebook during the period.
Of the 12 million reactions, more than half of the reactions for posts on COVID-19 vaccines were likes, followed by haha (14 percent) and love (12 percent).
Only 3 percent of the reactions were angry with another 3 percent sad emoticon reactions.