Emotions and Topics Expressed on Twitter During the COVID-19 Pandemic in the United Kingdom: Comparative Geolocation and Text Mining Analysis.

Through large-scale text mining of Twitter, our study found meaningful differences in public emotions and topics regarding the COVID-19 pandemic among different UK cities. Furthermore, efficient location-based and time-based comparative analysis can be used to track people's thoughts and feelings, and to understand their behaviors. Based on our analysis, positive attitudes were common during the pandemic; optimism and anticipation were the dominant emotions. With the outbreak and epidemiological change, the government developed control measures and vaccination policies, and the topics also shifted over time. Overall, the proportion and expressions of emojis, sentiments, emotions, and topics varied geographically and temporally. Therefore, our approach of exploring public emotions and topics on the pandemic from Twitter can potentially lead to informing how public policies are received in a particular geographical area.