Just a bad flu? Tackling the “infodemic” in Ireland through a comparative analysis of hospitalised cases of COVID-19 and influenza

Abstract

Objectives COVID-19 infection has been compared to seasonal influenza as an argument against non-pharmacological population based infection control measures known as “lockdowns”. Our study sought to compare disease severity measures for patients in Ireland hospitalised with COVID-19 against those hospitalised with seasonal influenza. Study Design Retrospective population-based cohort study. Methods COVID-19 hospital episodes and seasonal influenza hospital episodes were identified using relevant International Classification of Disease (ICD-10) codes in the Irish national hospitalisation dataset. Occurrence of key metrics of disease severity, length of stay, intensive care admission, ventilatory support, haemodialysis and in-hospital mortality were measured and compared between the two groups using odds ratios with 95% confidence intervals, stratified by age. Results Hospitalised COVID-19 episodes had a mean length of stay more than twice as long as hospitalised influenza episodes (17.7 days vs. 8.3 days). The likelihood of all measures of disease severity were greater in COVID-19 episodes, and the odds of in-hospital mortality were five-fold higher in this group compared with seasonal influenza episodes (OR 5.07, 95% C.I. 4.29-5.99, p<0.001). Greater likelihood of increased disease severity was observed for COVID-19 episodes in most age groups. Conclusions COVID-19 is a more severe illness than seasonal influenza in hospitalised cohorts. It is imperative that public health professionals ensure evidence-based advocacy is part of the response to COVID-19 to tackle a dangerous “infodemic” which can undermine public health control measures.

Diabetes Research and Resource Sharing During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Systematic Review and Experience from an Academic/Non-Profit Resource Website

“…16 The pandemic was similarly described by authors in several other countries, including China, 17 Africa, 18 South Korea, 19 and Ireland. 20 The high media-dependency for rapid dissemination of current data and research on COVID-19 information that emerged during the pandemic only exacerbated the infodemic, 21 as people were hoping to learn from quick information sources in a rush to obtain substantive data and research about COVID-19. Traditional mass media, such as television, newspapers, and websites, provided an abundance of pandemic-related information, and many people relied on the news for reliable information, especially if they were of the low-income category.…”

Pelanggaran Inews Siang Rcti Dan Liputan 6 SCTV Terhadap Aturan Komisi Penyiaran Nomor 12 Tahun 2020

“…Sebuah riset di Irlandia menunjukkan bahwa infodemic telah mengancam proses penanganan Covid-19 mulai dari sisi kebijakan kesehatan hingga kepercayaan publik pada institusi kesehatan. Infodemic juga berkali-kali diungkapkan oleh World Health Organization (WHO) sebagai salah satu permasalahan baru yang harus dihadapi di saat penyebaran virus Covid-19 (Beatty et al, 2021).…”

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“…With most of both populations having a neutral response or believing they are less likely to contract COVID-19 compared to others, it could be because they perform good practices towards COVID-19 and believe that they can protect themselves [11]. A study carried out by Beatty et al [25] observed that 81.3% of respondents were under the impression that COVID-19 is more severe than the flu. The authors measured the severity and impact of COVID-19 from the healthcare sector and compared the statistics to hospitalisations from influenza.…”