Kersevidence that the influenza vaccine is not effective. Some research has also suggested that online forums are a popular outlet for negative sentiments to proliferate and that these stories are more frequently shared than positive ones in social media [37]. Real-time responses to negative comments could have a role in slowing the propagation of erroneous ideas about future public health Leupeptin (hemisulfate) web announcements. For many commenters, qhw.v5i4.5120 the belief that influenza vaccines are ineffective is linked to a distrust of the government, public health, and pharmaceutical companies. Many users believe, even if they have positive sentiments towards influenza vaccines and support the BC policy, that the government or public health officials have inappropriate ties with the pharmaceutical industry. A previous study that examined public perceptions of measles using a similar methodology also found a strong distrust with these bodies [38], suggesting that this is not solely an issue of influenza vaccines but a broader topic about vaccines and government-industry relations in general. Therefore, in the initial public health messaging of similar future policies, healthcare organizations should be clear about the relationship between government and the pharmaceutical industry to counter public mistrust. Studies of attitudes of both HCWs who worked at organizations with mandatory vaccination or alternative N-hexanoic-Try-Ile-(6)-amino hexanoic amide web programs (such as mandatory vaccine or mask policies) and those who worked at organizations with voluntary programs reflect similar themes [39?1].LimitationsThe major limitation of this study is that the online commenting population does not necessarily reflect the readership of each news source, nor of the general population. Individuals who are most likely to comment are those with particularly strong (and often negative) opinions [23]. Further, although we treated each unique username as a unique person, it was possible that the same person may have used different usernames on different news sites, or even that persons were creating, and posting under, multiple accounts on the same news site to bolster the perceived support of a particular viewpoint. Finally, although we attempted to be comprehensive in our search, because we only included sites that allowed comments we missed some media sources, particularly smaller local news sites without reader comments. However, these types of jir.2014.0227 sites would most likely have generated a small volume of comments based on the readership size. This biases the results towards articles on larger media sources that allow commenting. We used online newspaper articles’ comments as our sole source of public perception data. Future studies could consider other social media such as Facebook, Twitter, and blogs to confirm findings. Finally, our study was conducted in 2013, reflecting opinions prior to the policy being upheld in court, and therefore may not reflect current opinions. We only searched English-language articles, and given BC’s large East Asian and South Asian populations, this is a limitation on the generalizability of these results. This topic has not been addressed by the French-language media in Quebec and BC does not have a large Francophone population.ConclusionOur study identified a variety of themes in the public perception of the 2012 BC HCW condition of service influenza vaccine policy. The majority of comments did not support the policy, and a plurality of comments contained negative sentiment towards influenza vacc.Kersevidence that the influenza vaccine is not effective. Some research has also suggested that online forums are a popular outlet for negative sentiments to proliferate and that these stories are more frequently shared than positive ones in social media [37]. Real-time responses to negative comments could have a role in slowing the propagation of erroneous ideas about future public health announcements. For many commenters, qhw.v5i4.5120 the belief that influenza vaccines are ineffective is linked to a distrust of the government, public health, and pharmaceutical companies. Many users believe, even if they have positive sentiments towards influenza vaccines and support the BC policy, that the government or public health officials have inappropriate ties with the pharmaceutical industry. A previous study that examined public perceptions of measles using a similar methodology also found a strong distrust with these bodies [38], suggesting that this is not solely an issue of influenza vaccines but a broader topic about vaccines and government-industry relations in general. Therefore, in the initial public health messaging of similar future policies, healthcare organizations should be clear about the relationship between government and the pharmaceutical industry to counter public mistrust. Studies of attitudes of both HCWs who worked at organizations with mandatory vaccination or alternative programs (such as mandatory vaccine or mask policies) and those who worked at organizations with voluntary programs reflect similar themes [39?1].LimitationsThe major limitation of this study is that the online commenting population does not necessarily reflect the readership of each news source, nor of the general population. Individuals who are most likely to comment are those with particularly strong (and often negative) opinions [23]. Further, although we treated each unique username as a unique person, it was possible that the same person may have used different usernames on different news sites, or even that persons were creating, and posting under, multiple accounts on the same news site to bolster the perceived support of a particular viewpoint. Finally, although we attempted to be comprehensive in our search, because we only included sites that allowed comments we missed some media sources, particularly smaller local news sites without reader comments. However, these types of jir.2014.0227 sites would most likely have generated a small volume of comments based on the readership size. This biases the results towards articles on larger media sources that allow commenting. We used online newspaper articles’ comments as our sole source of public perception data. Future studies could consider other social media such as Facebook, Twitter, and blogs to confirm findings. Finally, our study was conducted in 2013, reflecting opinions prior to the policy being upheld in court, and therefore may not reflect current opinions. We only searched English-language articles, and given BC’s large East Asian and South Asian populations, this is a limitation on the generalizability of these results. This topic has not been addressed by the French-language media in Quebec and BC does not have a large Francophone population.ConclusionOur study identified a variety of themes in the public perception of the 2012 BC HCW condition of service influenza vaccine policy. The majority of comments did not support the policy, and a plurality of comments contained negative sentiment towards influenza vacc.