Using Social Media to Combat COVID-19
Written by Aditi Mahajan
Edited by Michelle Wong
May 2, 2021
Edited by Michelle Wong
May 2, 2021
COVID-19 has claimed many lives since its emergence. Public health workers are faced with the challenge of constantly updating public health guidelines and distributing them to a large number of people. Surprisingly, social media has become the unlikely hero for these public health workers, as it is now being used as a tool for public health workers to keep people safe from COVID-19 (Merchant et al, 2021).
Media platforms like Instagram, Reddit and Twitter allow people to receive information quickly, and are now being used to distribute public health knowledge. This information includes details about community spread, vaccinations and prevention measures. Though each platform has its own unique user base and method of spreading information, social media can broadly be used to help susceptible populations through surveillance and through the spread of emerging health guidelines (Cinelli et al, 2020).
However, social media comes with some drawbacks. Along with the increased connectivity of our digital age comes a big challenge: the spread of misinformation (Stuck et al, 2020). Misinformation is difficult to correct because of its abundance and the fact that it often comes from sources that the public believes to be trustworthy. This creates a large public health block in the fight against COVID-19. This can then lead to decreased chances of herd immunity, which acts to protect vulnerable populations. Public health organizations must work with technology companies to figure out the best ways to prevent the spread of misinformation (Merchant).
New surveillance strategies can help public health workers monitor how effective current public health measures are. Currently, remote sensors in mobile devices are being used to track movement patterns of the general public. These provide insights into the effectiveness of social distancing guidelines in particular cities. Additionally, monitoring the frequency and information of tweets can allow public health workers to figure out movement patterns (Huang et al, 2020). This information can then be used to develop more effective guidelines for those who are not complying with the current guidelines.
Social media can also be used to deal with issues of health equity. This pandemic has hit America’s Black, Latinx and Native American populations the hardest despite them being minority populations. By raising awareness of racism and health equity problems through social media hashtags such as the #BlackLivesMatter, public health workers can work towards granting equal access to quality medical care (Merchant et al, 2021).
Social media can be a very powerful tool in this pandemic. In order for it to work efficiently, there needs to be partnerships between community influencers, social media companies and public health workers (Stuck et al, 2020). Using social media to spread public health guidelines can help save many lives during this pandemic. It is of utmost importance to keep the public well informed and safe, and social media is the perfect avenue to do so.
References
Cinelli M, Quattrociocchi W, Galeazzi A, et al. (2020). The COVID-19 social media infodemic. Sci Rep. 2020;10 (1):16598. doi:10.1038/s41598-020-73510-5
Huang X, Li Z, Jiang Y, Li X, Porter D. (2020). Twitter reveals human mobility dynamics during the COVID-19 pandemic. PLoS One. 2020;15(11): e0241957. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0241957
Merchant, R. M., South, E. C., & Lurie, N. (2021). Public Health Messaging in an Era of Social Media. JAMA, 325(3), 223. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2020.24514
Stuck, H. Larson (2020). How Vaccine Rumors Start—And Why They Don’t Go Away. Oxford University Press.