Infodemic and the spread of fake news in the COVID-19-era

Orso, Daniele; Federici, Nicola; Copetti, Roberto; Vetrugno, Luigi; Bove, Tiziana

doi:10.1097/mej.0000000000000713

Cited by 231 publications

(190 citation statements)

References 6 publications

(4 reference statements)

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“…The internal political con icts in Brazil and the spread of fake news still in uence the willingness of the public to adopt the promoted protective measures against COVID-19. The general population in Brazil remains clueless about the pandemic situation they are currently experiencing, and no speci c guidelines are given to them to stop further transmission of the virus [18][19][20]. Negative assumptions and fake news regarding the risks of wearing face masks were widely disseminated during the second period (April 25 to May 15) [21][22].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Public Utilization of Face Masks in Brazil During COVID-19 Pandemic Outbreak: Temporal Trend Analysis

Pereira-Ávila

Botelho

Góes

et al. 2020

Preprint

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Background: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has recorded approximately 8.6 million confirmed cases and more than 450.000 deaths worldwide. As of today, Brazil remains the second most affected country, with more than 1 million confirmed cases and more than 50,000 related deaths. This study aimed to evaluate the temporal trend of the frequency of face mask use among Brazil’s general population.Method: A cross-sectional survey method was adopted in this study. Online survey regarding sociodemographic and protective personal measures against COVID-19 was used to collect data. Data were collected from April 17 to May 15, 2020. The frequency of face mask use was divided into five categories: “never,” “rarely,” “sometimes,” “frequently,” and “always.” Joinpoint regression model was employed to analyze the daily percentage change (DPC) of each category. Ethics aspects were considered.Results: A total of 14,756 volunteers comprised the study sample. The “frequently” and “always” categories represented 71% of the sample, with the former being superior to the latter (39.4% vs. 31.6%, respectively). Temporal trend analysis showed two trend periods for all categories. The “never,” “rarely,” and “sometimes” categories decreased in the first period and stabilized in the second period. Conversely, the “frequently” and “always” categories showed an upward trend. Like other categories, the “frequently” category had stabilized in the second period. However, the “always” category still showed an increasing trend in the second period. The association analysis results showed a decrease in the use of face masks in women, postgraduate people, those aged above 35 years, and those earning more than seven times the federal monthly income minimal wage. However, the use of masks increased among young people and those with elementary to graduate degrees. The “always” use of face masks increased in the south and decreased in the southeast of Brazil. Conclusion: The preponderance of the “frequently” category and the slow DPC in the second trend period of the “always” category suggest the necessity of further enforcement of the use of face masks in Brazil. The adaptation of this new habit among Brazilians is time demanding, and thus strategies must be implemented in a more natural way.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…local authorities to incorporate this new habit in the daily routine of the general population and reinforce the importance of face masks [19][20][21][22].…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Public Utilization of Face Masks in Brazil During COVID-19 Pandemic Outbreak: Temporal Trend Analysis

Pereira-Ávila

Botelho

Góes

et al. 2020

Preprint

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“…Since its rst appearance in China in December 2019, and even more with its worldwide subsequent diffusion, COVID-19 epidemic has paralleled with the so called infodemic. Countless pieces of information (often lacking scienti c validity) have been disseminated on putative risk factors for COVID-19 trough traditional and social media channels [1]. Among this information, the notion that people suffering from autoimmune diseases (AIDs) have a higher risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection emerged.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Association between autoimmune diseases and COVID-19 as assessed in both a test-negative case-control and population case-control design

Murtas

Andreano

Gervasi

et al. 2020

Preprint

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Background: COVID-19 epidemic has paralleled with the so called infodemic, where countless pieces of information have been disseminated on putative risk factors for COVID-19. Among those, emerged the notion that people suffering from autoimmune diseases (AIDs) have a higher risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection. Methods: The cohort included all COVID-19 cases residents in the Agency for Health Protection (AHP) of Milan that, from the beginning of the outbreak, developed a web-based platform that traced positive and negative cases as well as related contacts. AIDs subjects were defined ad having one the following autoimmune disease: rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus, systemic sclerosis, Sjogren disease, ankylosing spondylitis, myasthenia gravis, Hashimoto's disease, acquired autoimmune hemolytic anemia, and psoriatic arthritis. To investigate whether AID subjects are at increased risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection, and whether they have worse prognosis than AIDs-free subjects once infected, we performed a combined analysis of a test-negative design case-control study, a case-control with test-positive as cases, and one with test-negative as cases (CC-NEG). Results: During the outbreak, the Milan AHP endured, up to April 27th 2020, 20,364 test-positive and 34,697 test-negative subjects. We found no association between AIDs and being positive to COVID-19, but a statistically significant association between AIDs and being negative to COVID-19 in the CC-NEG. If, as likely, test-negative subjects underwent testing because of respiratory infection symptoms, these results imply that autoimmune diseases may be a risk factor for respiratory infections in general (including COVID-19), but they are not a specific risk factor for COVID-19. Furthermore, when infected by SARS-CoV-2, AIDs subjects did not have a worse prognosis compared to non-AIDs subjects. Results highlighted a potential unbalance in the testing campaign, which may be correlated to the characteristics of the tested person, leading specific frail population to be particularly tested.Conclusions: Lack of availability of sound scientific knowledge inevitably lead unreliable news to spread over the population, preventing people to disentangle them form reliable information. Even if additional studies are needed to replicate and strengthen our results, these findings represent initial evidence to derive recommendations based on actual data for subjects with autoimmune diseases.

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“…Nevertheless, scientific journals have a tremendous responsibility in helping combat the infodemic by appropriately filtering reliable research and educational work for publication and dissemination. 17 In fact, timely publication of relevant, high-quality, peer-reviewed articles is considered a social responsibility of medical journals. 18 This edition of the Journal of Neuroanaesthesiology and Critical Care (JNACC) includes two narrative reviews and a commentary related to COVID-19.…”

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confidence: 99%

Advancing Neuroanesthesia and Neurocritical Care during the COVID-19 Pandemic and Infodemic: Focus on Education, Innovation, and Collaboration

Sharma

2020

Journal of Neuroanaesthesiology and Critical Care

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Infodemic and the spread of fake news in the COVID-19-era

Cited by 231 publications

References 6 publications

Public Utilization of Face Masks in Brazil During COVID-19 Pandemic Outbreak: Temporal Trend Analysis

Public Utilization of Face Masks in Brazil During COVID-19 Pandemic Outbreak: Temporal Trend Analysis

Association between autoimmune diseases and COVID-19 as assessed in both a test-negative case-control and population case-control design

Advancing Neuroanesthesia and Neurocritical Care during the COVID-19 Pandemic and Infodemic: Focus on Education, Innovation, and Collaboration

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