Unmasking twitter discourse: an infodemiology study of covid-19 mitigation practices

Abstract

Social media is emerging as a useful tool in tracking public health concerns and provides timely insights into how individuals understand and respond to public health threats. Almost 85 million tweets containing the keyword ‘coronavirus' were examined to uncover the predominantly discussed Covid mitigating practices and their association with CDC-related tweets. When Twitter users retweeted the CDC regarding mitigation practices, an overwhelming number focused on the mask category, and there was a strong correlation between tweets about masks in the overall dataset and CDC tweets about masks. Qualitative analysis of a subset of 1200 mask-related tweets unveiled that Twitter was used to: 1) share information about masks, 2) express opinions, 3) highlight profiting during Covid, and 4) describe efforts to promote masking. This study can contribute to our understanding of public perceptions and augment the use of Twitter by public health professionals to limit infections and save lives in future pandemics. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Atlantic Journal of Communication is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)