Scite scout5/7/2023 ![]() It is understandable that we all want to protect our families and friends and that the lack of answers regarding this new disease increases the level of anxiety in society. Covid-19: how to be careful with trust and expertise on social media. These messages and texts always start the same way: they feature a physician, nurse, surgeon, or other authority figure who shares advice-such as holding your breath as a COVID-19 confirmation test, or taking vitamins to decrease the possibility of infection ( 5 5. We are living not just in a pandemic, but also in an “infodemic” where fake news is becoming more common. Who is right, the ones who recommend chloroquine or those who tell you to take your antipyretic medicine and stay home if you have mild symptoms? It is not uncommon to see hundreds of daily texts, videos and even scientific publications in social media groups defending each argument. ![]() Even a pandemic can be used as a political battle, where some will recommend social isolation while others recommend doing nothing that will stop the economy. The biggest problem is in determining which news to trust. ![]() These days, people are overwhelmed by the information they receive on their smartphones through channels such as Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, YouTube and Instagram. However, for the general population, this has no impact on raising awareness. For health professionals, this may be adequate. Many scientific journals have allowed open access for most manuscripts on COVID-19. The biggest challenge may be to deliver information to the people who are at the battlefront in severely affected areas faster than the dissemination rate of the disease. Social media for rapid knowledge dissemination: early experience from the COVID-19 pandemic. Chan AKM, Nickson CP, Rudolph JW, Lee A, Joynt GM. 2017 3(1):e14.ĭelivering fast and reliable information is crucial to decrease the transmission of highly contagious infections, not only for healthcare workers but also for the general population ( 4 4. Tweet for Behavior Change: Using Social Media for the Dissemination of Public Health Messages. Gough A, Hunter RF, Ajao O, Jurek A, McKeown G, Hong J, et al. For the government, it means doing its best to efficiently share factual and up-to-date information ( 3 3. For businesses, this means leveraging social media to support employees and customers like never before. With the advent of social media in the 21 st century, we are not only learning the latest news but also using platforms like Facebook and Twitter to provide personal and business updates. The role of social media during a pandemic. For context, a public health report on response to that pandemic in the city of Minneapolis showed that critical information about the virus was spread primarily via postal workers, Boy Scouts, and teachers ( 2 2. Regulating the 1918-19 pandemic: flu, stoicism and the Northcliffe press. Social historians have argued that the reason the 1918-19 pandemic left so few traces in public memory is that it was overshadowed by the First World War hence its historiographical characterization as the ”forgotten pandemic” due to the crucial role played by wartime propaganda ( 1 1. During the 1918-19 “Spanish” influenza pandemic, people did not have the same sources of communication we now have in the 21 st century to quickly share news and information.
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