ArticleJournal of medical Internet research2021
COVID-19-Related Rumor Content, Transmission, and Clarification Strategies in China: Descriptive Study.
Article in Journal of medical Internet research, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers.
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Who cites it
8 citing papers in PubMed.
- App-based prevention of preschooler unintentional injury in rural China: a cluster randomized controlled trial.NPJ digital medicine · 2025Article
- Survival analysis of the duration of rumors during the COVID-19 pandemic.BMC public health · 2024Article
- Scenario-based assessment of emergency management of urban infectious disease outbreaks.Frontiers in public health · 2024Article
- Hot Topic Recognition of Health Rumors Based on Anti-Rumor Articles on the WeChat Official Account Platform: Topic Modeling.Journal of medical Internet research · 2023Article
- A survey on the publicZhong nan da xue xue bao. Yi xue ban = Journal of Central South University. Medical sciences · 2022Article
- Health-Related Rumor Control through Social Collaboration Models: Lessons from Cases in China during the COVID-19 Pandemic.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- Content characteristics predict the putative authenticity of COVID-19 rumors.Frontiers in public health · 2022Article
- Psychometric evaluation of the Chinese version of the media Health Literacy Questionnaire: A validation study.Digital healthArticle
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Authors and funding
10 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundGiven the permeation of social media throughout society, rumors spread faster than ever before, which significantly complicates government responses to public health emergencies such as the COVID-19 pandemic.
objectiveWe aimed to examine the characteristics and propagation of rumors during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic in China and evaluated the effectiveness of health authorities' release of correction announcements.
methodsWe retrieved rumors widely circulating on social media in China during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic and assessed the effectiveness of official government clarifications and popular science articles refuting those rumors.
resultsWe show that the number of rumors related to the COVID-19 pandemic fluctuated widely in China between December 1, 2019 and April 15, 2020. Rumors mainly occurred in 3 provinces: Hubei, Zhejiang, and Guangxi. Personal social media accounts constituted the major source of media reports of the 4 most widely distributed rumors (the novel coronavirus can be prevented with "Shuanghuanglian": 7648/10,664, 71.7%; the novel coronavirus is the SARS coronavirus: 14,696/15,902, 92.4%; medical supplies intended for assisting Hubei were detained by the local government: 3911/3943, 99.2%; asymptomatically infected persons were regarded as diagnosed COVID-19 patients with symptoms in official counts: 322/323, 99.7%). The number of rumors circulating was positively associated with the severity of the COVID-19 epidemic (ρ=0.88, 95% CI 0.81-0.93). The release of correction articles was associated with a substantial decrease in the proportion of rumor reports compared to accurate reports. The proportions of negative sentiments appearing among comments by citizens in response to media articles disseminating rumors and disseminating correct information differ insignificantly (both correct reports: χ
conclusionsOur results highlight the importance and urgency of monitoring and correcting false or misleading reports on websites and personal social media accounts. The circulation of rumors can influence public health, and government bodies should establish guidelines to monitor and mitigate the negative impact of such rumors.
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