Research hypotheses were confirmed.
The global spread of the novel coronavirus is affected by the spread of related misinformation—the so-called COVID-19 Infodemic—that makes populations more vulnerable to the disease through resistance to mitigation efforts. Here, we analyze the prevalence and diffusion of links to low-credibility content about the pandemic across two major social media platforms, Twitter and Facebook. We characterize cross-platform similarities and differences in popular sources, diffusion patterns, influencers, coordination, and automation. Comparing the two platforms, we find divergence among the prevalence of popular low-credibility sources and suspicious videos. A minority of accounts and pages exert a strong influence on each platform. These misinformation “superspreaders” are often associated with the low-credibility sources and tend to be verified by the platforms. On both platforms, there is evidence of coordinated sharing of Infodemic content. The overt nature of this manipulation points to the need for societal-level solutions in addition to mitigation strategies within the platforms. However, we highlight limits imposed by inconsistent data-access policies on our capability to study harmful manipulations of information ecosystems.
Racial differences exist with respect to HCV risk factor ascertainment and testing, (3) Minority patients, positive for HCV, are less likely to be referred for subspecialty care and treatment. Overall, minorities are less likely to be tested for HCV than whites in the presence of a known risk factor. INTRODUCTIONSeveral studies have suggested that hepatitis C (HBV) manage-ment is suboptimal in primary care settings [1][2][3][4][5] . In fact, only 59% of primary care physicians (PCPs) reported asking patients about HCV risk factors [3] . A similar conclusion was made by another study which found that 46% and 62% of physicians reported that they routinely asked patients about a history of blood transfusion and injection drug use, respectively [4] . Shehab reported that HCV testing is rarely initiated in primary care clinics based on physician identified risk factors such as transfusion prior to 1992 or a history of injection drug use [1] . Similar studies among urban primary care practices, comprising patients at highest risk for exposure to HCV risk factors, have not been reported. Such a study would be important to better assess the feasibility of implementing wide scale risk assessment, testing, and treatment strategies.The purpose of this retrospective cohort study is to assess the rates of HCV risk factor ascertainment, testing and referral for treatment in urban primary care practices, with particular attention to the effect of race and ethnicity as determined by systematic review of the medical records. Abstract AIM: To determine rates of hepatitis C (HCV) risk factor ascertainment, testing, and referral in urban primary care practices, with particular attention to the effect of race and ethnicity. MATERIALS AND METHODS METHODS:Retrospective chart review from four primary care sites in Philadelphia; two academic primary care practices and two community clinics was performed. Demographics, HCV risk factors, and other risk exposure information were collected. RESULTS:Four thousand four hundred and seven charts were reviewed. Providers documented histories of injection drug use (IDU) and transfusion for less than 20% and 5% of patients, respectively. Only 55% of patients who admitted IDU were tested for HCV. Overall, minorities were more likely to have information regarding a risk factor documented than their white counterparts (79% vs 68%, P < 0.0001). Hispanics were less likely to have a risk factor history documented, compared to blacks and whites (P < 0.0001). Overall, minorities were less likely to be tested for HCV than whites in the presence of a known risk factor (23% vs 35%, P = 0.004). Among patients without documentation of risk factors, blacks and Hispanics were more likely to be tested than whites (20% and 24%, vs 13%, P < 0.005, respectively). CONCLUSION:(1) Documentation of an HCV risk factor history in urban primary care is uncommon, (2)
With a substantial proportion of the population currently hesitant to take the COVID-19 vaccine, it is important that people have access to accurate information. However, there is a large amount of low-credibility information about vaccines spreading on social media. In this paper, we present the CoVaxxy dataset, a growing collection of English-language Twitter posts about COVID-19 vaccines. Using one week of data, we provide statistics regarding the numbers of tweets over time, the hashtags used, and the websites shared. We also illustrate how these data might be utilized by performing an analysis of the prevalence over time of high- and low-credibility sources, topic groups of hashtags, and geographical distributions. Additionally, we develop and present the CoVaxxy dashboard, allowing people to visualize the relationship between COVID-19 vaccine adoption and U.S. geo-located posts in our dataset. This dataset can be used to study the impact of online information on COVID-19 health outcomes (e.g., vaccine uptake) and our dashboard can help with exploration of the data.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.