A pandemic of COVID-19 mis- and disinformation: manual and automatic topic analysis of the literature

• Main Authors: Abdi D. Wakene (Author), Lauren N. Cooper (Author), John J. Hanna (Author), Trish M. Perl (Author), Christoph U. Lehmann (Author), Richard J. Medford (Author)
• Format: Book
• Published: Cambridge University Press, 2024-01-01T00:00:00Z.
• Subjects: article
• Online Access: Connect to this object online.
• Notes: 10.1017/ash.2024.379; 2732-494X
• Keywords: Infectious and parasitic diseases; RC109-216; Public aspects of medicine; RA1-1270
• Source: Antimicrobial Stewardship & Healthcare Epidemiology, Vol 4 (2024)

Abstract Objective: Social media's arrival eased the sharing of mis- and disinformation. False information proved challenging throughout the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic with many clinicians and researchers analyzing the "infodemic." We systemically reviewed and synthesized COVID-19 mis- and disinformation literature, identifying the prevalence and content of false information and exploring mitigation and prevention strategies. Design: We identified and analyzed publications on COVID-19-related mis- and disinformation published from March 1, 2020, to December 31, 2022, in PubMed. We performed a manual topic review of the abstracts along with automated topic modeling to organize and compare the different themes. We also conducted sentiment (ranked −3 to +3) and emotion analysis (rated as predominately happy, sad, angry, surprised, or fearful) of the abstracts. Results: We reviewed 868 peer-reviewed scientific publications of which 639 (74%) had abstracts available for automatic topic modeling and sentiment analysis. More than a third of publications described mitigation and prevention-related issues. The mean sentiment score for the publications was 0.685, and 56% of studies had a negative sentiment (fear and sadness as the most common emotions). Conclusions: Our comprehensive analysis reveals a significant proliferation of dis- and misinformation research during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our study illustrates the pivotal role of social media in amplifying false information. Research into the infodemic was characterized by negative sentiments. Combining manual and automated topic modeling provided a nuanced understanding of the complexities of COVID-19-related misinformation, highlighting themes such as the source and effect of misinformation, and strategies for mitigation and prevention.