Analysis of the search for COVID-19 vaccines in South American countries; Análisis de la búsqueda sobre vacunas contra la COVID-19 en países sudamericanos

Abstract

Introduction: Since the development of COVID-19 vaccines, the world population has been increasingly interested in learning about them. Objective: To perform a search analysis on COVID-19 vaccines in South American countries. Methods: Observational, descriptive, and retrospective study; of data obtained from the Google Trends tool. The use of 6 terms ("COVID-19 vaccine", "Effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines", "Pfizer vaccine", "Sinopharm vaccine", "side effects of Pfizer vaccine", "side effects of Sinopharm vaccine") was compared in nine Spanish-speaking South American countries. Results: The country with the highest search result for the term "COVID-19 vaccine" was Bolivia. Regarding the search for the term "COVID vaccine effectiveness" in South American countries, there is a strong trend in Peru, Ecuador, Argentina and Chile, between January and July 2021. Conclusion: There was no decrease in the general interest regarding the 6 terms used for this study; however, the general interest in coronavirus vaccines among Google search engine users has presented changes in the trend, while the popularity of COVID-19 vaccine side effects has increased, showing significant variation according to the context of each country. © 2022 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.