How 18 Million Tweets Proved COVID-19 Vaccination Was a Successful Fear Management Campaign

A JAMA Network Open study co-authored by an NIH employee documents the successful replacement of virus anxiety with media-suppressed vaccine injuries — and calls it a communication strategy win.

Jun 05, 2026

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By Peter A. McCullough, MD, MPH

Around the country, starting in December 2020 and into 2021, I can remember people lining up at community vaccination sites for hours waiting for their mRNA COVID-19 vaccines. What was driving this? Was there an immediate emotional response to getting jabbed?

Summary: Jaidka et al. (2026) — Emotional Responses to COVID-19 Vaccination on Social Media

This cross-sectional study analyzed 18 million geotagged tweets from 3,062 US counties across the 100 days before and after December 14, 2020 (first US COVID-19 vaccine administration). Using the NRC Word-Emotion Association Lexicon, the authors tracked fear, anger, joy, and sadness.

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