Does disseminating scientific information on social media promote public health during the COVID-19 pandemic?

Abstract

Countries worldwide are transitioning their emergency response activities into long-term management of COVID-19. One promising strategy to mitigate the pandemic is combining the widespread use of social media with the potential impact of scientists on science education to create healthier information ecosystems. This study analyzed data from 189 online polls involving 1,391,706 participants who are either Sina Weibo or Tencent WeChat users to explore the impact of scientific information disseminated on social media on public health. This study aimed to address the following questions: (1) Does scientific information disseminated on social media help its audiences avoid becoming infected with COVID-19? (2) To what extent does scientific information make a difference in the infection rate of its audiences? Our study found that the COVID-19 un-infection rate of the audiences receiving scientific information is significantly higher than that of the general social media users. There is a significant and lasting positive correlation between the dissemination of scientific information and the un-infection rate of its audiences. We suggest that creating healthier information ecosystems should be integrated into the long-term management of COVID-19, as updating the public's beliefs about the pandemic is fundamental to mitigating the ongoing threat of the COVID-19 pandemic.