Protecting public’s wellbeing against COVID-19 infodemic in China: The role of trust in information sources and rapid dissemination and transparency of information

Abstract Background While the COVID-19 is rapidly spreading around the world, the information and misinformation about the novel virus has also flooded the social media globally. This led to the declaration by World Health Organisation that the world is not only fighting against epidemic but also fighting an infodemic. How media source and the dissemination of information about COVID-19 affect the public’s wellbeing is, however, yet to be empirically examined. The present study aimed to empirically examine how trust in the information about COVID-19 from social media and official media and how the information was disseminated (i.e., rapidity and transparency) affect public’s wellbeing (i.e., positive response and depressive response). Methods At the height of the COVID-19 outbreak in China between 24-Jan to 10-Feb 2020, an online survey of 22,718 participants (Mage = 28.41 years old, SD = 9.90; 47.9% being male) was conducted across China. Key measured variables are trust in official media and social media, dissemination and transparency of COVID-19 related information, perceived safety, and emotional response toward COVID-19. Data analysis includes descriptive statistical analysis, Pearson correlations, and structural equation modelling. Results The results that trust in the information about COVID-19 from social media was lower than from official media. Trust in these two media sources played different roles in affecting public’s wellbeing. While trust in social media was predominantly associated with heightened depressive response toward COVID-19 pandemic, trust in official media was linked to reduced depressive response and increased positive response. Rapid dissemination and transparency of information was strongly associated with increased trust in official media as well as contributed to increased positive response and reduced depressive response directly and indirectly through perceived safety. Conclusion The findings highlight the important roles of fostering public trust in official media, rapid dissemination and transparency of information in mitigating the negative impact of COVID-19 infodemic on public’s wellbeing.

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The impact of the COVID-19 "Infodemic" on Well-being: Social media practices during the pandemic - a cross-sectional study (Preprint)

10.2196/preprints.27920 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Iffat Elbarazi ◽

Basema Saddik ◽

Michal Grivna ◽

Faisal Aziz ◽

Deena Al Souri ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Social Media ◽

United Arab Emirates ◽

Health Care Professionals ◽

Online Survey ◽

Well Being ◽

World Health ◽

Cross Sectional ◽

The World ◽

The Impact ◽

Media Practices

BACKGROUND The COVID-19 pandemic created a crisis in the world of information and digital literacy. The amount of misinformation surrounding COVID-19 that has circulated through social media (SM) since January 2020 is notably significant and it has been linked to rising levels of anxiety and fear amongst SM users. The COVID-19 'infodemic' was singled out by the World Health Organization (WHO) and several newly published studies as one of the causes of anxiety, depression, and fear amongst the global population OBJECTIVE This study aimed to assess SM practices during COVID-19 and investigates their impact on well-being. METHODS An online infodemic cross-sectional survey was distributed via different SM platforms in the United Arab Emirates and other countries. Adults above 18 years of age were invited to complete an online survey that covered multiple domains, including the WHO-5 Well-being Index. RESULTS The study sheds light on the use of SM during the pandemic and its impact on well-being throughout the novel coronavirus pandemic. Out of 993 participants, 73% were females, 76% were non-Emirati, 91% university graduates, and 50% were employed in various occupations, of which 20% were health care professionals. Participants indicated that they acquired COVID-19 related information primarily from social media, of which WhatsApp was the most accessed. Most participants reported sharing the information after the verification. The mean well-being score was 12.6 ±5.6 with 49% of participants had poor well-being (WHO-5 score <12.5). The adjusted linear regression showed that Facebook usage was negatively associated with well-being score. Also, high time-usage was associated with poorer well-being. When adjusting for other factors, including low confidence in information around COVID-19 and poor knowledge overall, SM usage was significantly associated with poorer well-being CONCLUSIONS Social media practices during emergencies and disasters may impact public well-being. Authorities are advised to step in to minimize the spread of misinformation and more frequent use of social media, as it may influence well-being leading to increased levels of anxiety, stress, and depression. Public health specialists, information technology and communication experts should collaborate to limit the infodemic effect on communities.

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Alt. Health Influencers: how wellness culture and web culture have been weaponised to promote COVID-19 conspiracy theories and far-right extremism.

10.31235/osf.io/jt2ha ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Stephanie Alice Baker

Keyword(s):

Social Media ◽

World Health Organisation ◽

Participatory Culture ◽

World Health ◽

Far Right ◽

Conspiracy Theories ◽

The World

This article examines the proliferation of alt. health influencers during the COVID-19 pandemic. I analyse the presentation strategies used by four alt. health influencers to achieve visibility and status on Instagram over a 12-month period from the date the World Health Organisation declared the outbreak a pandemic on 11 March 2020. My analysis reveals the ways in which these influencers appeal to the utopian discourses of early web culture and the underlying principles of wellness culture to build and sustain an online following. While early accounts of micro-celebrity treat participatory culture as democratising and progressive, this article demonstrates how the participatory affordances of social media have been exploited to spread conspiratorial thinking and far-right extremism. These findings develop previous work on ‘micro-celebrity’ and ‘conspirituality’ by demonstrating how wellness culture and web culture can coalesce for authoritarian ends.

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CRITICAL ASSESSMENT OF THE AMBIVALENT POTENTIALS OF SOCIAL MEDIA USE IN COVID 19 PANDEMIC CAMPAIGNS

Nnamdi Azikiwe University Journal of Communication and Media Studies ◽

10.47851/naujocommed.v1i1.70 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 1 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Ephraim Ejimnkeonye Ezebuenyi ◽

Rosemary Obianuju Ekwunife ◽

Felicia Chinyere Nweke

Keyword(s):

Social Media ◽

Media Use ◽

Empirical Studies ◽

World Health Organisation ◽

World Health ◽

Research Approach ◽

Social Media Use ◽

The World ◽

The Face ◽

Social Media Platforms

The fear created by the Coronavirus as seen in the world today and the manner social media is churning out all manner of information (misinformation, disinformation, memes, innuendos, half - truths, lies etc.) about its cure and prevention is creating a situation of uncertainty. The situation becomes more disturbing since none of the claims in social media platforms regarding the therapies and recipes (solutions) for the cure or prevention of COVID-19 has been approved or certified by the World Health Organisation (WHO) or the Centre for Disease Control (CDC). It seems, however, that only the prevalence of social media can suffice for the provision of adequate, regular and up - to - date information on the pandemic. This can also explain the reason for leveraging social media platforms to enhance fast and wide diffusion of knowledge about Coronavirus all over the world. By its nature, social media allows for information to be readily shared – a role it has seemingly played in the face of the COVID- 19 pandemic - and unlike traditional news outlets there is no filter, no fact - checking and often a lot of bias. It becomes imperative therefore to assess the ambivalent potentials which social media display in the face of COVID- 19 pandemic vis-à-vis the impacts they have on the consumers of the information. The paper adopted the library research approach in which relevant conceptual literatures and empirical studies were analysed with the aim to ascertain whether social media display ambivalence in the campaign against the spread of COVID-19. The paper found, among others that the ambivalent potentials of social media use in the campaign against COVID-19 was glaring. It recommends, among others that consumers of social media products in this period should listen more to and, or check for updates by governments and other authorised agencies such as WHO and CDC rather than relying on unwholesome information from social media platforms.

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Review Article on Myths about COVID-19

Psychology and Education Journal ◽

10.17762/pae.v58i2.1879 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 58 (2) ◽

pp. 516-526

Author(s):

Bharat Jotwani

Keyword(s):

Social Media ◽

World Health Organisation ◽

Review Article ◽

World Health ◽

Indian Society ◽

Common People ◽

The World ◽

The Common ◽

The Mind

A substitute disease was recently discovered in Wuhan, China at the beginning of 2019. It is recognized that this disease was caused by a new kind of substitute coronavirus and almost affects the whole world. The 2019-nCov or Wuhan-coronavirus was identified by Chinese investigators. But the World Health Organisation has called it as COVID-19 virus when communicating with the COVID-19 media worldwide as well as in India to prevent doubts and misunderstandings. It has disturbed and made people unstable. In Indian society there are numerous misunderstandings and rumours of coronavirus that cause trepidation in the mind of people. The myths and facts about coronavirus must be discerned so that we can alleviate the panic between people so that adequate precautions can be taken for our safety. This article thus aims to make the common people aware of the myths and the facts. We must understand and keep knowledge of myths through social media so that we can protect you with such harsh evils. At individual levels, people must avoid COVID 19. Appropriate action will be beneficial to the whole world in discreet communities and countries.

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Knowledge and Awareness-based Survey of COVID-19 within the Eye Care Profession in Nepal: Misinformation is Hiding the Truth

10.1101/2020.06.06.20123505 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Sandip Sanyam Das ◽

Sanjay Sah Kumar ◽

Pankaj Chaudhary ◽

Jeremy J Hoffman

Keyword(s):

Social Media ◽

Disease Transmission ◽

Online Survey ◽

World Health ◽

Eye Care ◽

The World

AbstractBackgroundNepal is currently under lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic with misinformation circulating on social media. This study aimed to analyse the knowledge and awareness of COVID-19 amongst eye care professionals in Nepal.MethodologyWe invited 600 participants from 12 ophthalmic centres across Nepal to complete a qualitative, anonymous online survey.ResultsOf the 600 eye care professionals invited, 310 (51%) participated in the survey. The symptoms of COVID-19 were known to 94%, whilst only 49% were aware of disease transmission. 98% of participants recognised the World Health Organization’s (WHO) awareness message, yet 41% of participants felt that consumption of hot drinks helps to destroy the virus. 41% disagreed that PPE should be mandatory for eye care practitioners.ConclusionThere is still considerable scope to improve the knowledge of COVID-19 amongst ophthalmic professionals in Nepal. Opinion is also split on measures to prevent transmission, with misinformation potentially fuelling confusion.

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Alt. Health Influencers: how wellness culture and web culture have been weaponised to promote conspiracy theories and far-right extremism during the COVID-19 pandemic

European Journal of Cultural Studies ◽

10.1177/13675494211062623 ◽

2022 ◽

pp. 136754942110626

Author(s):

Stephanie Alice Baker

Keyword(s):

Social Media ◽

World Health Organisation ◽

Participatory Culture ◽

The Self ◽

World Health ◽

Far Right ◽

Self Presentation ◽

Conspiracy Theories ◽

The World

This article examines the proliferation of alt. health influencers during the COVID-19 pandemic. I analyse the self-presentation strategies used by four alt. health influencers to achieve visibility and status on Instagram over a 12-month period from 11 March 2020, when the pandemic was declared by the World Health Organisation. My analysis reveals the ways in which these influencers appeal to the utopian discourses of early web culture and the underlying principles of wellness culture to build and sustain an online following. While early accounts of micro-celebrity treat participatory culture as democratising and progressive, this article demonstrates how the participatory affordances of social media have been exploited to spread misinformation, conspiratorial thinking and far-right extremism. These findings develop previous work on ‘conspirituality’ by demonstrating how wellness culture and web culture can coalesce for authoritarian ends.

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Analysis of the Impact of Media Trust on the Public’s Motivation to Receive Future Vaccinations for COVID-19 Based on Protection Motivation Theory

Vaccines ◽

10.3390/vaccines9121401 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 9 (12) ◽

pp. 1401

Author(s):

Zeming Li ◽

Xinying Sun

Keyword(s):

Social Media ◽

Interpersonal Communication ◽

Structural Equation ◽

Online Survey ◽

Negative Impact ◽

Positive Impact ◽

Positive Influence ◽

Traditional Media ◽

Media Trust ◽

The Impact

Object: Media trust is one of the essential factors affecting health behavior. Based on the protection motivation theory (PMT), this study explores the impact of different public media trust (traditional media, social media, interpersonal communication) on future COVID-19 vaccine motivation. Methods: The online survey was conducted from 14 April to 30 April 2021, and 2098 adults were recruited to participate in the online survey through the Wenjuanxing online survey platform. The survey included the PMT constructs (threat appraisal, coping appraisal, and motivation for future COVID-19 vaccination), trust in different media, vaccine hesitation reasons, and implementation of other non-pharmaceutical interventions. Structural equation model (SEM) was used for latent variable analysis, and Spearman linear correlation coefficient matrix was used to explore the relationships between variables. Results: In terms of trust in different media, participants who had a higher education level (p = 0.038), who was married (p = 0.002), and who had not been vaccinated against COVID-19 during the survey (p = 0.002) show greater trust in traditional media. Participants who were married (p = 0.001), who had a relatively high income (p = 0.020), and who had not been vaccinated (p = 0.044) show greater trust in social media. Older participants (p < 0.001) and married (p < 0.001) showed greater trust in interpersonal communication. In the structural equation, trust in traditional media had a direct positive impact on perceived severity (β = 0.172, p < 0.001) and a direct negative impact on internal rewards (β = −0.061, p < 0.05). Trust in both traditional and social media separately had a direct positive impact on self-efficacy (β = 0.327, p < 0.001; β = 0.138, p < 0.001) and response efficiency (β = 0.250, p < 0.001; β = 0.097, p < 0.05) and a direct negative impact on response costs (β = −0.329, p < 0.001; β = −0.114, p < 0.001). Trust in interpersonal communication had a direct positive impact on external rewards (β = 0.186, p < 0.001) and response costs (β = 0.091, p < 0.001). Overall, traditional media trust had an indirect positive influence on vaccine motivation (β = 0.311), social media trust had an indirect positive influence on vaccine motivation (β = 0.110), and interpersonal communication had an indirect negative influence on vaccine motivation (β = −0.022). Conclusion: This study supports the use of PMT as an intermediate variable to explore the effect of media trust on vaccination intention. High trust in traditional media has helped reduce vaccine hesitation, increased the public’s future COVID-19 vaccination motivation, and maintained other non-pharmacological interventions. Social media also had a certain promotion effect on vaccine motivation. In this context, attention should also be paid to interpersonal communication, and the science publicity work was suggested for an individual’s family members and friends in the future to improve the quality and ability of interpersonal communication.

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A Collaborative Study to Establish the Second International Standard for Streptokinase

Thrombosis and Haemostasis ◽

10.1055/s-0038-1647298 ◽

1990 ◽

Vol 64 (02) ◽

pp. 267-269 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

A B Heath ◽

P J Gaffney

Keyword(s):

High Purity ◽

Collaborative Study ◽

World Health Organisation ◽

World Health ◽

Clot Lysis ◽

Current Standard ◽

International Standard ◽

Accelerated Degradation ◽

The World ◽

International Collaborative Study

SummaryAn International Standard for Streptokinase - Streptodomase (62/7) has been used to calibrate high purity clinical batches of SK since 1965. An international collaborative study, involving six laboratories, was undertaken to replace this standard with a high purity standard for SK. Two candidate preparations (88/826 and 88/824) were compared by a clot lysis assay with the current standard (62/7). Potencies of 671 i.u. and 461 i.u. were established for preparations A (88/826) and B (88/824), respectively.Either preparation appeared suitable to serve as a standard for SK. However, each ampoule of preparation A (88/826) contains a more appropriate amount of SK activity for potency testing, and is therefore preferred. Accelerated degradation tests indicate that preparation A (88/826) is very stable.The high purity streptokinase preparation, coded 88/826, has been established by the World Health Organisation as the 2nd International Standard for Streptokinase, with an assigned potency of 700 i.u. per ampoule.

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Coronavirus diseases and pregnancy: COVID-19,SARS, and MERS

Przeglad Epidemiologiczny ◽

10.32394/pe.74.21 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 276-289

Author(s):

Mobina Fathi ◽

Kimia Vakili ◽

Niloofar Deravi

Keyword(s):

Pregnant Women ◽

Intrauterine Growth Retardation ◽

Negative Impact ◽

World Health ◽

Wuhan City ◽

Intrauterine Growth ◽

Exponential Increase ◽

The World ◽

Health Organization ◽

Respiratory Droplets

Around the end of December 2019, a new beta-coronavirus from Wuhan City, Hubei Province, China began to spread rapidly. The new virus, called SARS-CoV-2, which could be transmitted through respiratory droplets, had a range of mild to severe symptoms, from simple cold in some cases to death in others. The disease caused by SARS-CoV-2 was named COVID-19 by WHO and has so far killed more people than SARS and MERS. Following the widespread global outbreak of COVID-19, with more than 132758 confirmed cases and 4955 deaths worldwide, the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic disease in January 2020. Earlier studies on viral pneumonia epidemics has shown that pregnant women are at greater risk than others. During pregnancy, the pregnant woman is more prone to infectious diseases. Research on both SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV, which are pathologically similar to SARS-CoV-2, has shown that being infected with these viruses during pregnancy increases the risk of maternal death, stillbirth, intrauterine growth retardation and, preterm delivery. With the exponential increase in cases of COVID-19 throughout the world, there is a need to understand the effects of SARS-CoV-2 on the health of pregnant women, through extrapolation of earlier studies that have been conducted on pregnant women infected with SARS-CoV, and MERS-CoV. There is an urgent need to understand the chance of vertical transmission of SARS-CoV-2 from mother to fetus and the possibility of the virus crossing the placental barrier. Additionally, since some viral diseases and antiviral drugs may have a negative impact on the mother and fetus, in which case, pregnant women need special attention for the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of COVID-19.

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Comparative docking of SARS-CoV-2 receptors antagonists from repurposing drugs

10.26434/chemrxiv.12044538.v4 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Micael Davi Lima de Oliveira ◽

Kelson Mota Teixeira de Oliveira

Keyword(s):

World Health Organisation ◽

World Health ◽

Lung Cells ◽

The Novel ◽

High Modulation ◽

Main Protease ◽

The World ◽

Novel Coronavirus ◽

Viral Receptors ◽

Theoretical Results

According to the World Health Organisation, until 16 June, 2020, the number of confirmed and notified cases of COVID-19 has already exceeded 7.9 million with approximately 434 thousand deaths worldwide. This research aimed to find repurposing antagonists, that may inhibit the activity of the main protease (Mpro) of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, as well as partially modulate the ACE2 receptors largely found in lung cells, and reduce viral replication by inhibiting Nsp12 RNA polymerase. Docking molecular simulations were performed among a total of 60 structures, most of all, published in the literature against the novel coronavirus. The theoretical results indicated that, in comparative terms, paritaprevir, ivermectin, ledipasvir, and simeprevir, are among the most theoretical promising drugs in remission of symptoms from the disease. Furthermore, also corroborate indinavir to the high modulation in viral receptors. The second group of promising drugs includes remdesivir and azithromycin. The repurposing drugs HCQ and chloroquine were not effective in comparative terms to other drugs, as monotherapies, against SARS-CoV-2 infection.

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