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Study: COVID-19 warnings were on Twitter well before outbreak of pandemic
Study: COVID-19 warnings were on Twitter well before outbreak of pandemic Monday, February 1, 2021 IWK Bureau
A new study shows that posts revealing concern for pneumonia circulated very early, suggesting social media can be an effective tool for epidemiological surveillance.
Even before public announcements of the first cases of COVID-19 in Europe were made, at the end of January 2020, signals that something strange was happening were already circulating on social media. The new study led by researchers at IMT School for Advanced Studies Lucca was published in Scientific Reports. It has identified tracks of increasing concern about pneumonia cases on posts published on Twitter in seven countries, between the end of 2019 and the beginning of 2020. The analysis of the posts shows that the whistleblowing came precisely from the geographical regions where the primary outbreaks later deve
27 JANUARY 2021
People in Europe were tweeting about a dry cough more than usual as early as January 2020, newly analysed data reveal.
While social media has played a key role in disseminating health information during the relentless COVID-19pandemic, the new findings show it has the potential to be useful in other ways, too.
Authorities could be using such platforms to obtain real time, localised information about emerging viral hotspots before they re detected by official means, statistician Milena Lopreite from the University of Calabria and colleagues suggest in their new study. Our study adds on to the existing evidence that social media can be a useful tool of epidemiological surveillance, said economist Massimo Riccaboni from IMT School for Advanced Studies Lucca.
A new study of researchers at IMT School for Advanced Studies Lucca, published in Scientific Reports, has identified tracks of increasing concern about pneumonia cases on posts published on Twitter in seven countries, between the end of 2019 and the beginning of 2020. The analysis of the posts shows that the whistleblowing came precisely from the geographical regions where the primary outbreaks later developed.