Harnessing social media for effective utilisation in pandemic
Over the past two decades, three novel coronaviruses — SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) in 2002, MERS (Middle East respiratory syndrome) in 2012 and now 2019 Covid19 — have emerged, with both health and economic consequences around the globe. As the public looks for information and scientists rush for answers, advances in social media and technology have offered some good, some bad pockets of information. But I believe it’s largely more beneficial to the society.
With the use of Twitter, Skype, WhatsApp and bioRxiv (a website where scientists can upload their scientific papers for public review), clinicians, virologists, bioinformaticians (biologists who work with big data) and epidemiologists from around the world have focused and co-ordinated their efforts to fight the outbreak and contain its spread.
One private Facebook created by Dr. Kabir Rezvankhoo (an E.R. and intensive-care-unit doctor) reserved for doctors who have or are likely to care for critically ill patients with Covid-19. The group quickly grew to nearly 15,000 members. The reason Dr. Rezvankhoo created the group, was simple: “Because information on the new coronavirus is difficult to come across.” Another Covid-19 Facebook group which is less restrictive and intended for all health care providers, has more than 100,000 members. The group’s administrator says hundreds of posts come through every hour.
The World Health Organization, “Safe Hands Challenge” has turned the Switzerland-based entity into probably the most important influencer on Earth right now. The WHO, a 71-year-old organ of the United Nations, is consistently putting out life-saving information. And it’s doing so in a way that successfully catches the attention of both those likely to heed patrician authority, as well as the young people who form the core consistencies on the outlets that the WHO is increasingly focused on: Twitter and TikTok. It’s also on Facebook and LinkedIn.
The Safe Hands Challenge, for instance, has been used as a TikTok hashtag nearly a half billion times in 48 hours. The WHO posted its first video to TikTok in beginning of March 2020 and has since added nine more. They’ve been viewed an average of 10.3 million times. The WHO has 448,000 followers on TikTok, 2.3 million on LinkedIn and close to 6 million on both Twitter and Facebook. In real life, people have checked into its Geneva headquarters nearly 54,000 times using its Facebook page.
Today, many methods of sharing information have been subsumed by giant social media platforms that have incredible speed, reach, and penetration. More than 2.9 billion individuals use social media regularly, and many for long stretches of time.
Current understanding of how these platforms can be harnessed to optimally support emergency response, resilience, and preparedness is not well understood. In this Viewpoint, a framework for integrating social media as a critical tool in managing the current evolving pandemic as well as transforming aspects of preparedness and response for the future by government bodies and global health organisations is given below.
Awareness creation
Of course it all starts with awareness creation to masses in a regularised way to make people to understand how and where to see for authentic information and the dos and don’ts in using Social media responsibly
Directing People to Trusted Sources
It’s time for social media platforms to take on an active public health role and in parallel use banners, pop-ups, and other tools to directly message users about hand washing and social distancing. This approach increases the likelihood of millions of people seeing the same messages whenever they access the platform, even if they forgo accessing the WHO website or other trusted sites.
Counteracting Misinformation
Unlike any prior event, WHO has identified that the “the 2019-nCoV outbreak and response has been accompanied by a massive ‘infodemic’—an over-abundance of information—some accurate and some not—that makes it hard for people to find trustworthy sources and reliable guidance”. Research is needed to better understand the origins and spread of misinformation as well as coordinated efforts to disrupt its sources and identify, remove, and reduce its dissemination.
Social Media as a Diagnostic Tool and Referral System
Social media should be used to disseminate reliable information about when to get tested, what to do with the results, and where to receive care. If a vaccine becomes available, the same platforms could be used to encourage uptake and address challenges associated with vaccine hesitancy. These targeted efforts can occur in response to what people search for or in a more personalized approach based on an individual’s online profile, posts, and underlying risk. Social media platforms are well poised to enable users to remotely assess symptoms and determine their most appropriate course of action.
Enabling Connectivity and Psychological First Aid
As individuals start to self-quarantine and telecommute, new forms of social isolation are occurring. In some places in the US, funerals, weddings, religious services, in-restaurant dining, and other places of traditional socialization have already been severely limited or completely restricted. The long-term effects of social distancing and isolation will likely affect populations differently, necessitating comprehensive strategies for addressing the downstream sequelae. Navigating social isolation will be particularly challenging for already disadvantaged populations, such as older individuals, individuals with low socioeconomic status or housing insecurity, individuals managing chronic illnesses or disabilities, and individuals who are undocumented. Social media should be used to raise awareness about the needs of these groups in disasters and for development of new methods for communities to mobilize resources and support in the absence of physical contact. The “crisis response,” “safety check,” and related functions available on some social media platforms could enable more frequent status updates and sharing.8 Psychological first aid could be delivered through chatbots that use artificial intelligence to learn from the millions of interactions that are occurring in response to the pandemic and better understand critical needs. While social media cannot replace in-person contact, there may be ways to better use it to support recovery and resilience.
Advancing Remote Learning New approaches to enhance the education of health care professionals is needed. Social distancing will affect clinical training (eg, emergency department rotation) and didactic education (eg, anatomy laboratory). Stand-alone video conferencing services may be overwhelmed as many institutions move entirely online. Social media can be a useful tool for facilitating contact among students and supporting active learning. Front-line health care clinicians and other health care workers who provide care for critically ill patients with COVID-19 would also benefit from being able to share their experiences broadly in a deidentified way to advance education and teaching in an evolving crisis.
Accelerating Research
Social media data about symptoms, interactions, photos at events, travel routes, and other digital footprints about human behavior should be analyzed in real time to understand and model the transmission and trajectory of COVID-19. At present, Facebook is providing aggregated and anonymized data to researchers about how people move from location to location and associated population density maps to better inform how the virus is spreading. Merged social media data and electronic medical record data from consenting patients could also provide insights about individual-level risk.9 Basic and translational science can also be advanced through social media channels. Foundations have funded researchers to sequence the complete genome of COVID-19 in a short period of time. The output of these efforts included a research tool to further analyze the genome and a cell atlas that can be used to study how COVID-19 affects different organ functions. This infrastructure can be strengthened to facilitate communication among scientists working to address critical priorities related to animal and environmental research and candidate therapeutics and vaccines.
Enabling a Culture of Preparedness
More than 100 years ago, a global pandemic affected more than 500 million people worldwide. Today, in the midst of another public health emergency, some lessons from history demonstrate the importance of understanding how information spreads and individuals interact. Integrating social media as an essential tool in preparedness, response, and recovery can influence the response to COVID-19 and future public health threats.
Social media usage is one of the most popular online activities. In 2018, an estimated 2.65 billion people were using social media worldwide, a number projected to increase to almost 3.1 billion in 2021.
According to an estimate from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 100 000 lives could be saved every year if everyone in the United States received clinical preventive services.1 Preventive health care includes well-established approaches such as blood pressure checks, cancer screening, counseling in regard to tobacco use, and vaccination. These interventions enable early detection of disease when treatment is likely to be most effective. Previous work has shown that less than 10% of US adults aged 35 years and older routinely receive all high-priority clinical preventive services recommended for their age group. Access, cost, and awareness continue to be barriers to receiving these services.
Social media usage is one of the most popular online activities. More than 2.9 billion individuals use it regularly, and many for long stretches of time. Just imagine how powerful this can be for Government bodies and Global health systems Organisations if they use it effectively. ** This article is a reflection of many thoughts leaders’ opinion and articles shared in Social Media, many of the points have been collated for better dissemination of the authors’ understanding and opinions.