ArticlePNAS nexus2026
Health information dynamics and audience responses to avian influenza on YouTube: Implications for digital public health communication.
Article in PNAS nexus, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Effective management of infectious disease relies not only on biomedical interventions but also on the circulation and interpretation of health-related information. Narratives, whether accurate or misleading, influence public perceptions, adherence to protective measures, and policy debates, as illustrated during COVID-19, measles resurgences, and vaccine controversies. YouTube, as a global platform combining an information repository and interactive discussion space, exerts persuasive influence through its audiovisual formats. Avian influenza, a recurrent zoonotic threat with episodic media attention, provides a valuable case for analyzing evolving health narratives. We analyzed 11,465 YouTube videos and associated comments related to avian influenza published between 2020 and 2025. Thematic structures were identified using an MPNet-based topic modeling approach, and sentiment analysis was conducted with XLM-RoBERTa to assess emotional tone across content and audience interactions. Temporal patterns of narrative clusters were also examined. Video content predominantly conveyed factual health information aligned with epidemiological updates and preventive measures. In contrast, user comments displayed substantial interpretive activity, including contestation, speculation, and the adoption of controversial frames concerning virus origins, institutional trust, public health interventions, and alternative treatments. These discussions were characterized by predominantly negative sentiment, indicating that audiences frequently recontextualize online information, potentially fostering ambiguity and misinformation. YouTube serves as both a disseminator of factual health information and a forum for audience reinterpretation, highlighting the platform's dual role in digital health communication. Understanding these dynamics is crucial for public health authorities seeking to design interventions that mitigate misinformation and promote effective protective behaviors during emerging infectious disease threats.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.