Emily Chan|G. J. Choi|Kam-Fai Wong|Sheng Zeng|Anish Verma
An analysis of the COVID-19 Infodemic: The impact of American public sources on sentiment, conversation, and physician behaviour towards hydroxychloroquine
University of British Columbia|University of British Columbia|University of British Columbia|University of British Columbia|QLT (Canada)
covid19 infodemic described overabundance accurate inaccurate information poses significant public health risk spreading fear provoking inappropriate prescription overwhelming often contradictory information potential treatments covid19 contributed infodemic public sources including us federal government health organizations research publications released conflicting statements efficacy hydroxychloroquine previous research analyzed influence sources public attitudes conversation towards drug evaluate impact changes number sentiment tweets tagged hashtag keyword hydroxychloroquine march 12th june 22nd 2020 relation public sources analyzed found us government statistically significant influence public attitudes behaviour p lt 0001 unlike health organizations research publications public sentiment hydroxychloroquine also observed become negative time suggesting public attitudes towards controversial topics change study also found positive correlation public sentiment hydroxychloroquine drugs ie azithromycin remdesivir indicates public sources disseminating hydroxychloroquinerelated information could also affect public attitudes towards related treatments public health crisis statements actions public sources regarding contentious topics like hydroxychloroquine made caution mitigate disproportionate influence public sources infodemic recommend three solutions education empower individuals ages develop critical thinking digital literacy skills b stronger action social media platforms labeling misinformation c cooperation entities strong influence eg federal government sources public health measures together recommendations could resolve shortcomings existent single approach future research conducted custom trained model sentiment analysis would also valuable conduct similar version study social media platforms well public health issues beyond covid19