  The Covid-19 pandemic presented an unprecedented global public health
emergency, and concomitantly an unparalleled opportunity to investigate public
responses to adverse social conditions. The widespread ability to post messages
to social media platforms provided an invaluable outlet for such an outpouring
of public sentiment, including not only expressions of social solidarity, but
also the spread of misinformation and misconceptions around the effect and
potential risks of the pandemic. This archive of message content therefore
represents a key resource in understanding public responses to health crises,
analysis of which could help to inform public policy interventions to better
respond to similar events in future. We present a benchmark database of public
social media postings from the United Kingdom related to the Covid-19 pandemic
for academic research purposes, along with some initial analysis, including a
taxonomy of key themes organised by keyword. This release supports the findings
of a research study funded by the Scottish Government Chief Scientists' Office
that aims to investigate social sentiment in order to understand the response
to public health measures implemented during the pandemic.
