Estudio exploratorio de los bulos difundidos por WhatsApp en España para prevenir o curar la COVID-19

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Abstract

Objetivo: Examinar las características de los bulos difundidos por WhatsApp en España durante el confinamiento por la pandemia de COVID-19 e identificar qué tipo de sustancias se promovieron para su ingesta o uso.

Método: Se habilitó un número de teléfono para recibir bulos por WhatsApp. Se recibieron 2353 mensajes, de los que se identificaron y validaron 584 bulos distintos, entre el 18 de marzo y el 18 de abril de 2020. De los 584 bulos, se seleccionó una submuestra de 126 relacionados con el objeto de estudio y se aplicó una ficha de análisis de contenido con 14 campos de registro. Además, se extrajeron las medias y medianas de los campos cuantitativos.

Resultados: La mayor parte de los mensajes fueron cadenas de texto (39%) y vídeos (30%). En la mayoría, el sujeto se presentaba como personal médico (36,5%) o como persona anónima (30,9%). Los vídeos tuvieron una duración de entre 2’ 40’’ y 18’ 18’’, mientras que los audios fueron de entre 1’ 35’’ y 7’ 48’’. Con respecto al sexo, se apreció una gran diferencia: el 45,2% de los protagonistas fueron hombres, frente al 13,5% de mujeres; el 41,3% no era identificable.

Conclusiones: Uno de cada cinco bulos recibidos fue sobre prevención o curación del coronavirus, argumentados sobre el principio de autoridad médica y básicamente promoviendo el uso y consumo de sustancias de origen natural.

Translated abstract

Objective: To review the characteristics of hoaxes and identify what kind of substances were promoted for consumption or application.

Method: A phone number was activated to receive hoaxes via WhatsApp. A total of 2353 messages were collected, and among those 584 different hoaxes were identified and validated, between March 18 and April 18, 2020. From these 584 hoaxes, a sub-sample of 126 was selected, exclusively related to the object of study, and a content analysis table with fourteen registration fields was applied. Besides, the averages and medians of the quantitative fields were extracted.

Results: Most of the messages received were texts (39%) and videos (30%). In the majority, the acting subject was presented as medical personnel (36.5%) or as an anonymous person (30.9%). The videos lasted between 2’ 40’’ and 18’ 18’’, while the audios ranged between 1’ 35’’ and 7’ 48’’. Regarding the gender of the informant, there was a significant difference, with 45.2% being male, and 13.5%, female and 41.3% non-identifiable.

Conclusions: One out of five false health claims received was about prevention or cure of the coronavirus, based on the principle of medical authority, and basically promoting the use and consumption of substances of natural origin.

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Using social and behavioural science to support COVID-19 pandemic response

Jay Bavel, Katherine Baicker, Paulo S Boggio … (2020)

The COVID-19 pandemic represents a massive global health crisis. Because the crisis requires large-scale behaviour change and places significant psychological burdens on individuals, insights from the social and behavioural sciences can be used to help align human behaviour with the recommendations of epidemiologists and public health experts. Here we discuss evidence from a selection of research topics relevant to pandemics, including work on navigating threats, social and cultural influences on behaviour, science communication, moral decision-making, leadership, and stress and coping. In each section, we note the nature and quality of prior research, including uncertainty and unsettled issues. We identify several insights for effective response to the COVID-19 pandemic and highlight important gaps researchers should move quickly to fill in the coming weeks and months.

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How to fight an infodemic

John Zarocostas (2020)

WHO's newly launched platform aims to combat misinformation around COVID-19. John Zarocostas reports from Geneva. WHO is leading the effort to slow the spread of the 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak. But a global epidemic of misinformation—spreading rapidly through social media platforms and other outlets—poses a serious problem for public health. “We’re not just fighting an epidemic; we’re fighting an infodemic”, said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus at the Munich Security Conference on Feb 15. Immediately after COVID-19 was declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern, WHO's risk communication team launched a new information platform called WHO Information Network for Epidemics (EPI-WIN), with the aim of using a series of amplifiers to share tailored information with specific target groups. Sylvie Briand, director of Infectious Hazards Management at WHO's Health Emergencies Programme and architect of WHO's strategy to counter the infodemic risk, told The Lancet, “We know that every outbreak will be accompanied by a kind of tsunami of information, but also within this information you always have misinformation, rumours, etc. We know that even in the Middle Ages there was this phenomenon”. “But the difference now with social media is that this phenomenon is amplified, it goes faster and further, like the viruses that travel with people and go faster and further. So it is a new challenge, and the challenge is the [timing] because you need to be faster if you want to fill the void…What is at stake during an outbreak is making sure people will do the right thing to control the disease or to mitigate its impact. So it is not only information to make sure people are informed; it is also making sure people are informed to act appropriately.” About 20 staff and some consultants are involved in WHO's communications teams globally, at any given time. This includes social media personnel at each of WHO's six regional offices, risk communications consultants, and WHO communications officers. Aleksandra Kuzmanovic, social media manager with WHO's department of communications, told The Lancet that “fighting infodemics and misinformation is a joint effort between our technical risk communications [team] and colleagues who are working on the EPI-WIN platform, where they communicate with different…professionals providing them with advice and guidelines and also receiving information”. Kuzmanovic said, “In my role, I am in touch with Facebook, Twitter, Tencent, Pinterest, TikTok, and also my colleagues in the China office who are working closely with Chinese social media platforms…So when we see some questions or rumours spreading, we write it down, we go back to our risk communications colleagues and then they help us find evidence-based answers”. “Another thing we are doing with social media platforms, and that is something we are putting our strongest efforts in, is to ensure no matter where people live….when they’re on Facebook, Twitter, or Google, when they search for ‘coronavirus’ or ‘COVID-19’ or [a] related term, they have a box that…directs them to a reliable source: either to [the] WHO website to their ministry of health or public health institute or centre for disease control”, she said. Google, Kuzmanovic noted, has created an SOS Alert on COVID-19 for the six official UN languages, and is also expanding in some other languages. The idea is to make the first information that the public receive be from the WHO website and the social media accounts of WHO and Dr Tedros. WHO also uses social media for real-time updates. WHO is also working closely with UNICEF and other international agencies that have extensive experience in risk communications, such as the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. Carlos Navarro, head of Public Health Emergencies at UNICEF, the children's agency, told The Lancet that while a lot of incorrect information is spreading through social media, a lot is also coming from traditional mass media. “Often, they pick the most extreme pictures they can find…There is overkill on the use of [personal protective equipment] and that tends to be the photos that are published everywhere, in all major newspapers and TV…that is, in fact, sending the wrong message”, Navarro said. David Heymann, professor of infectious disease epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, told The Lancet that the traditional media has a key role in providing evidence-based information to the general public, which will then hopefully be picked up on social media. He also observed that for both social and conventional media, it is important that the public health community help the media to “better understand what they should be looking for, because the media sometimes gets ahead of the evidence”.

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Corona Virus (COVID-19) “Infodemic” and Emerging Issues through a Data Lens: The Case of China

Jinling Hua, Rajib Shaw (2020)

Coronavirus (COVID-19) is a humanitarian emergency, which started in Wuhan in China in early December 2019, brought into the notice of the authorities in late December, early January 2020, and, after investigation, was declared as an emergency in the third week of January 2020. The WHO declared this as Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) on 31th of January 2020, and finally a pandemic on 11th March 2020. As of March 24th, 2020, the virus has caused a casualty of over 16,600 people worldwide with more than 380,000 people confirmed as infected by it, of which more than 10,000 cases are serious. Mainly based on Chinese newspapers, social media and other digital platform data, this paper analyzes the timeline of the key actions taken by the government and people over three months in five different phases. It found that although there was an initial delay in responding, a unique combination of strong governance, strict regulation, strong community vigilance and citizen participation, and wise use of big data and digital technologies, were some of the key factors in China’s efforts to combat this virus. Being inviable and non-measurable (unlike radioactive exposure), appropriate and timely information is very important to form the basic foundation of mitigation and curative measures. Infodemic, as it is termed by WHO, is a key word, where different stakeholder’s participation, along with stricter regulation, is required to reduce the impact of fake news in this information age and social media. Although different countries will need different approaches, focusing on its humanitarian nature and addressing infodemic issues are the two critical factors for future global mitigation efforts.

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Author and article information

Contributors

Carolina Moreno-Castro

Journal

Journal ID (nlm-ta): Gac Sanit

Journal ID (iso-abbrev): Gac Sanit

Title: Gaceta Sanitaria

Publisher: SESPAS. Published by Elsevier España, S.L.U.

ISSN (Print): 0213-9111

ISSN (Electronic): 1578-1283

Publication date PMC-release: 31 August 2020

Publication date (Electronic): 31 August 2020

Affiliations

[a ]Instituto de Investigación de Políticas de Bienestar Social (Polibienestar), Universitat de València, València, España

[b ]Departament de Teories del Llenguatge i Ciències de la Comunicació, Universitat de València, València, España

Author notes

[* ]Autora para correspondencia Carolina.moreno@ 123456uv.es

Article

Publisher ID: S0213-9111(20)30195-3

DOI: 10.1016/j.gaceta.2020.07.008

PMC ID: 7457912

PubMed ID: 32950328

SO-VID: 7d373fbb-b99f-4b5f-9f78-463c118b9cac

License:

Since January 2020 Elsevier has created a COVID-19 resource centre with free information in English and Mandarin on the novel coronavirus COVID-19. The COVID-19 resource centre is hosted on Elsevier Connect, the company's public news and information website. Elsevier hereby grants permission to make all its COVID-19-related research that is available on the COVID-19 resource centre - including this research content - immediately available in PubMed Central and other publicly funded repositories, such as the WHO COVID database with rights for unrestricted research re-use and analyses in any form or by any means with acknowledgement of the original source. These permissions are granted for free by Elsevier for as long as the COVID-19 resource centre remains active.

History

Date received : 27 May 2020

Date accepted : 25 July 2020

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Estudio exploratorio de los bulos difundidos por WhatsApp en España para prevenir o curar la COVID-19 Translated title: Exploratory study of the hoaxes spread through WhatsApp in Spain to prevent or cure COVID-19

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Abstract

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Novel Coronavirus Disease COVID-19

Most cited references 29

Using social and behavioural science to support COVID-19 pandemic response

How to fight an infodemic

Corona Virus (COVID-19) “Infodemic” and Emerging Issues through a Data Lens: The Case of China

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