scholarly journals The Response of Governments and Public Health Agencies to COVID-19 Pandemics on Social Media: A Multi-Country Analysis of Twitter Discourse

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lan Li ◽  
Aisha Aldosery ◽  
Fedor Vitiugin ◽  
Naomi Nathan ◽  
David Novillo-Ortiz ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Health Agency ◽  
Economic Consequences ◽  
Public Health Agencies ◽  
Health Authorities ◽  
Public Health Authorities ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
The Difference ◽  
The Uk

During the COVID-19 pandemic, information is being rapidly shared by public health experts and researchers through social media platforms. Whilst government policies were disseminated and discussed, fake news and misinformation simultaneously created a corresponding wave of “infodemics.” This study analyzed the discourse on Twitter in several languages, investigating the reactions to government and public health agency social media accounts that share policy decisions and official messages. The study collected messages from 21 official Twitter accounts of governments and public health authorities in the UK, US, Mexico, Canada, Brazil, Spain, and Nigeria, from 15 March to 29 May 2020. Over 2 million tweets in various languages were analyzed using a mixed-methods approach to understand the messages both quantitatively and qualitatively. Using automatic, text-based clustering, five topics were identified for each account and then categorized into 10 emerging themes. Identified themes include political, socio-economic, and population-protection issues, encompassing global, national, and individual levels. A comparison was performed amongst the seven countries analyzed and the United Kingdom (Scotland, Northern Ireland, and England) to find similarities and differences between countries and government agencies. Despite the difference in language, country of origin, epidemiological contexts within the countries, significant similarities emerged. Our results suggest that other than general announcement and reportage messages, the most-discussed topic is evidence-based leadership and policymaking, followed by how to manage socio-economic consequences.

Reptile-associated salmonellosis in children aged under 5 years in South West England

2014 ◽  
Vol 100 (4) ◽  
pp. 364-365 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dan Murphy ◽  
Femi Oshin
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Severity Of Illness ◽  
Invasive Disease ◽  
Exposure Age ◽  
South West ◽  
Health Authorities ◽  
Public Health Authorities ◽  
The Uk ◽  
South West England ◽  
Children Under 5

ObjectiveTo determine the proportion of Salmonella cases in children aged <5 years that were reptile-associated salmonellosis (RAS) and to compare the severity of illness.DesignTo analyse all cases of salmonellosis reported to public health authorities in children aged under 5 years in the South West of the UK from January 2010 to December 2013 for reptile exposure, age, serotype, hospitalisation and invasive disease.Results48 of 175 (27%) Salmonella cases had exposure to reptiles. The median age of RAS cases was significantly lower than non-RAS cases (0.5 vs 1.0 year). RAS cases were 2.5 times more likely to be hospitalised (23/48) compared with non-RAS cases (25/127; p=0.0002). This trend continued in cases aged under 12 months, with significantly more RAS cases hospitalised (19/38) than non-RAS cases (8/42; p=0.003). Significantly more RAS cases had invasive disease (8/48: 5 bacteraemia, 2 meningitis, 1 colitis) than non-RAS cases (4/127: 3 bacteraemia, 1 meningitis).ConclusionsReptile exposure was found in over a quarter of all reported Salmonella cases in children under 5 years of age. RAS is associated with young age, hospitalisation and invasive disease.

scholarly journals Use of Health Belief Model–Based Deep Learning Classifiers for COVID-19 Social Media Content to Examine Public Perceptions of Physical Distancing: Model Development and Case Study (Preprint)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aravind Sesagiri Raamkumar ◽  
Soon Guan Tan ◽  
Hwee Lin Wee
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Public Perceptions ◽  
Perceived Barriers ◽  
Classification Models ◽  
Perceived Severity ◽  
The Public ◽  
Health Authorities ◽  
Public Health Authorities

BACKGROUND Public health authorities have been recommending interventions such as physical distancing and face masks, to curtail the transmission of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) within the community. Public perceptions toward such interventions should be identified to enable public health authorities to effectively address valid concerns. The Health Belief Model (HBM) has been used to characterize user-generated content from social media during previous outbreaks, with the aim of understanding the health behaviors of the public. OBJECTIVE This study is aimed at developing and evaluating deep learning–based text classification models for classifying social media content posted during the COVID-19 outbreak, using the four key constructs of the HBM. We will specifically focus on content related to the physical distancing interventions put forth by public health authorities. We intend to test the model with a real-world case study. METHODS The data set for this study was prepared by analyzing Facebook comments that were posted by the public in response to the COVID-19–related posts of three public health authorities: the Ministry of Health of Singapore (MOH), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Public Health England. The comments made in the context of physical distancing were manually classified with a Yes/No flag for each of the four HBM constructs: perceived severity, perceived susceptibility, perceived barriers, and perceived benefits. Using a curated data set of 16,752 comments, gated recurrent unit–based recurrent neural network models were trained and validated for text classification. Accuracy and binary cross-entropy loss were used to evaluate the model. Specificity, sensitivity, and balanced accuracy were used to evaluate the classification results in the MOH case study. RESULTS The HBM text classification models achieved mean accuracy rates of 0.92, 0.95, 0.91, and 0.94 for the constructs of perceived susceptibility, perceived severity, perceived benefits, and perceived barriers, respectively. In the case study with MOH Facebook comments, specificity was above 96% for all HBM constructs. Sensitivity was 94.3% and 90.9% for perceived severity and perceived benefits, respectively. In addition, sensitivity was 79.6% and 81.5% for perceived susceptibility and perceived barriers, respectively. The classification models were able to accurately predict trends in the prevalence of the constructs for the time period examined in the case study. CONCLUSIONS The deep learning–based text classifiers developed in this study help to determine public perceptions toward physical distancing, using the four key constructs of HBM. Health officials can make use of the classification model to characterize the health behaviors of the public through the lens of social media. In future studies, we intend to extend the model to study public perceptions of other important interventions by public health authorities.

The system, the virus and the law

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 134-137
Author(s):  
John Finch
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Healthcare Delivery ◽  
Legal Liability ◽  
Institutional Framework ◽  
Health Authorities ◽  
Public Health Authorities ◽  
The Law ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Right

As the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic progresses, with no visible end in sight, healthcare practitioners may ask whether the measures taken by public health authorities in the UK are going in the right direction. Who is legally responsible? John Finch looks at the institutional framework in which practitioners work and at the place of legal liability in healthcare delivery and management

scholarly journals Germs on a Plane: The Transmission and Risks of Airplane-Borne Diseases

2018 ◽  
Vol 2672 (29) ◽  
pp. 93-102 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nereyda L. Sevilla
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Infectious Diseases ◽  
Close Contact ◽  
Air Travel ◽  
Economic Consequences ◽  
Disease Spread ◽  
Pneumonic Plague ◽  
Health Authorities ◽  
Public Health Authorities ◽  
The Impact

This research explored the role of air travel in the spread of infectious diseases, specifically severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), H1N1, Ebola, and pneumonic plague. Air travel provides the means for such diseases to spread internationally at extraordinary rates because infected passengers jump from coast to coast and continent to continent within hours. Outbreaks of diseases that spread from person to person test the effectiveness of current public health responses. This research used a mixed methods approach, including use of the Spatiotemporal Epidemiological Modeler, to model the spread of diseases, evaluate the impact of air travel on disease spread, and analyze the effectiveness of different public health strategies and travel policies. Modeling showed that the spread of Ebola and pneumonic plague is minimal and should not be a major air travel concern if an individual becomes infected. H1N1 and SARS have higher infection rates and air travel will facilitate the spread of disease nationally and internationally. To contain the spread of infectious diseases, aviation and public health authorities should establish tailored preventive measures at airports, capture contact information for ticketed passengers, expand the definition of “close contact,” and conduct widespread educational programs. The measures will put in place a foundation for containing the spread of infectious diseases via air travel and minimize the panic and economic consequences that may occur during an outbreak.

scholarly journals How do Canadian public health agencies respond to the COVID-19 emergency using social media: a protocol for a case study using content and sentiment analysis

BMJ Open ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. e041818
Author(s):  
Anita Kothari ◽  
Lyndsay Foisey ◽  
Lorie Donelle ◽  
Michael Bauer
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Research Ethics ◽  
Sentiment Analysis ◽  
Health Agency ◽  
Message Content ◽  
Public Health Agencies ◽  
The Public ◽  
Board Review

IntroductionKeeping Canadians safe requires a robust public health (PH) system. This is especially true when there is a PH emergency, like the COVID-19 pandemic. Social media, like Twitter and Facebook, is an important information channel because most people use the internet for their health information. The PH sector can use social media during emergency events for (1) PH messaging, (2) monitoring misinformation, and (3) responding to questions and concerns raised by the public. In this study, we ask: what is the Canadian PH risk communication response to the COVID-19 pandemic in the context of social media?Methods and analysisWe will conduct a case study using content and sentiment analysis to examine how provinces and provincial PH leaders, and the Public Health Agency of Canada and national public heath leaders, engage with the public using social media during the first wave of the pandemic (1 January–3 September 2020). We will focus specifically on Twitter and Facebook. We will compare findings to a gold standard during the emergency with respect to message content.Ethics and disseminationWestern University’s research ethics boards confirmed that this study does not require research ethics board review as we are using social media data in the public domain. Using our study findings, we will work with PH stakeholders to collaboratively develop Canadian social media emergency response guideline recommendations for PH and other health system organisations. Findings will also be disseminated through peer-reviewed journal articles and conference presentations.

scholarly journals The danger of denialism: lessons from the Brazilian pandemic

2021 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Heslley Machado Silva
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Developing Countries ◽  
Main Body ◽  
Conspiracy Theories ◽  
Health Authorities ◽  
Public Health Authorities ◽  
The Usa

Abstract Background Scientific denialism has always had harmful consequences for humanity, but with the advent of the pandemic these effects seem to have been accentuated. Main body Unwillingness to accept the facts about the COVID-19 pandemic ascertained by scientists and public health authorities has led to widespread scientific denialism, including the emergence of conspiracy theories of all sorts. Examples are diverse, reaching both developed and developing countries, arriving through populist leaders and the spread of conspiracy theories through social media. Short conclusion It is important to pay attention to the risk of the extremes of this denialism and the possible repercussions, especially in countries that have leaders who agree with these conceptions, such as Brazil and the USA.

scholarly journals PUBLIC REACTION TO COVID-19 ON TWITTER: A THEMATIC ANALYSIS

2020 ◽  
pp. 349-358
Author(s):  
Akif Mustafa ◽  
Imaduddin Ansari ◽  
Subham Kumar Mohanta ◽  
Shalem Balla
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Thematic Analysis ◽  
Public Attention ◽  
The Public ◽  
Emergency Situations ◽  
Public Health Emergencies ◽  
Health Authorities ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Public Reaction

Emergency situations typically lead to a plethora of public attention on social media platforms like ‘Twitter’. Twitter provides a unique opportunity for public health researchers to analyze untampered information shared during a disease outbreak. Considering the ongoing public health emergency, we conducted a study investigating the public reaction to COVID-19 pandemic around the world using in-depth thematic analysis of Twitter data. A dataset of 212846 tweets was retrieved over a period of seven days (from April 13, 2020, to April 19, 2020) via Twitter Application Programme Interface (API). The following five keywords were used to collect the tweets: “coronavirus”, “covid-19”, “corona”, “covid”, “covid19”. After data filtering and cleaning 6348 tweets were randomly selected for in-depth thematic analysis. Thematic analysis was done manually using a two-level coding guide. A total of six main themes emerged from the analysis: ‘sentiments and feelings’, ‘Information’, ‘General Discussion’, ‘Politics’, ‘Food’, and ‘Sarcasm or humor’. The aforementioned themes were divided into 26 sub-themes. The results of the thematic analysis show that 30.1% of the tweets were regarding ‘sentiments and feelings’, 15.6% were regarding ‘politics’, and 6.5% were related to ‘sarcasm or humor’. The present study is the first study that has analyzed the public response to COVID-19 on Twitter. The study demonstrates that social media platforms (like Twitter) can be used to conduct infodemiological studies related to public health emergencies like the COVID-19 pandemic. We believe that the results of this study will be of potential interest to policymakers, health authorities, stakeholders, and public health and social science researchers. KEYWORDS:COVID-19, Twitter, Social Media, Coronavirus, Lockdown, Pandemic

Tracking COVID-19 in Real-time: Challenges Faced and Lessons Learned

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lauren Gardner
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Systems Science ◽  
International Media ◽  
Public Health Agencies ◽  
Governmental Organizations ◽  
Health Authorities ◽  
Johns Hopkins University ◽  
Health Community ◽  
Public Health Authorities

&lt;p&gt;In response to the COVID-19 public health emergency, we developed an&amp;#160;, first released publicly on January 22, 2020, hosted by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University. The dashboard visualizes and tracks the number of reported confirmed cases, deaths and recoveries for all countries affected by COVID-19. Further, all the data collected and displayed on the dashboard is made freely available&amp;#160;in a GitHub repository,&amp;#160;along with the live feature layers of the dashboard. The motivation behind the development of the dashboard was to provide researchers, public health authorities and the general public with a user-friendly tool to track the outbreak situation as it unfolds, critically, with access to the data underlying it. The demand for such a service became evident in the first weeks the dashboard was online, and by the end of February we were receiving over one billion requests for the dashboard feature layers every day, which since increased to between three and 4.5 billion requests every day. The dashboard has been featured on most major national and international media outlets (NYT, Washington Post,&amp;#160;CNN, NPR, etc), and is either directly embedded in their websites, or used as the data source for in-house mapping efforts. Further, members of the public health community, including local and national governmental organizations, emergency response teams, public health agencies, and infectious disease researchers around the world rely on the dashboard and its data for informing and planning COVID-19 response. In this talk I will give a brief overview of the evolution of the dashboard, discuss some of the challenges we faced along the way, and suggest some methods by which disease tracking could be done better in the future.&lt;/p&gt;

Facade of media and social media during COVID-19: A review

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (SPL1) ◽  
pp. 142-149 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kumar Chandan Srivastava ◽  
Deepti Shrivastava ◽  
Kumar Gaurav Chhabra ◽  
Waqar Naqvi ◽  
Arti Sahu
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Digital Media ◽  
Fake News ◽  
Health Authorities ◽  
Rapid Spread ◽  
Public Health Authorities ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
The Government ◽  
Novel Coronavirus ◽  
Fear And Anxiety

A novel coronavirus (COVID-19) arose in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. Soon it spread to other countries worldwide to become a pandemic. Globally, governments enforced quarantine and social distancing measures to prevent the spread of the infection. Mass media and social media platforms played a crucial role in providing information regarding the Coronavirus. Since little is known about COVID-19, various fake news, misinformation and rumours spread across the digital media that panicked people into making panic decisions. The rapid spread of misinformation and stories via social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube became a vital concern of the government and public health authorities. Medical misinformation and unverifiable content about the COVID-19 pandemic are spreading on social media at an unprecedented pace. Mitigating the advent of rumours and misinformation during the COVID-19 epidemic is crucial, since misinformation and fake news creates panic, fear and anxiety among people, predisposing them to various mental health conditions. Instead of considering social media as a secondary medium, it should be utilised to convey important information. Besides, it allows citizens to address their queries directly. Several governments across the world have taken actions to contain the pandemic of misinformation, yet measures are required to prevent such communication complications.

Resilient Information Networks for Coordination of Foodborne Disease Outbreaks

2015 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 186-198
Author(s):  
Liaquat Hossain ◽  
Muhammad Rabiul Hassan ◽  
Rolf T. Wigand
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Disease Outbreaks ◽  
Information Networks ◽  
Outbreak Detection ◽  
Information Network ◽  
Foodborne Disease ◽  
Health Security ◽  
Health Authorities ◽  
Public Health Authorities

AbstractFoodborne disease outbreaks are increasingly being seen as a greater concern by public health authorities. It has also become a global research agenda to identify improved pathways to coordinating outbreak detection. Furthermore, a significant need exists for timely coordination of the detection of potential foodborne disease outbreaks to reduce the number of infected individuals and the overall impact on public health security. This study aimed to offer an effective approach for coordinating foodborne disease outbreaks. First, we identify current coordination processes, complexities, and challenges. We then explore social media surveillance strategies, usage, and the power of these strategies to influence decision-making. Finally, based on informal (social media) and formal (organizational) surveillance approaches, we propose a hybrid information network model for improving the coordination of outbreak detection. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2015;9:186-198)

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