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Harnessing Social Media in the Modelling of Pandemics—Challenges and Opportunities

As COVID-19 spreads throughout the world without a straightforward treatment or widespread vaccine coverage in the near future, mathematical models of disease spread and of the potential impact of mitigation measures have been thrust into the limelight. With their popularity and ability to dissemina...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Sooknanan, Joanna, Mays, Nicholas
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Springer US 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8033284/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33835296
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11538-021-00895-3
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author Sooknanan, Joanna
Mays, Nicholas
author_facet Sooknanan, Joanna
Mays, Nicholas
author_sort Sooknanan, Joanna
collection PubMed
description As COVID-19 spreads throughout the world without a straightforward treatment or widespread vaccine coverage in the near future, mathematical models of disease spread and of the potential impact of mitigation measures have been thrust into the limelight. With their popularity and ability to disseminate information relatively freely and rapidly, information from social media platforms offers a user-generated, spontaneous insight into users’ minds that may capture beliefs, opinions, attitudes, intentions and behaviour towards outbreaks of infectious disease not obtainable elsewhere. The interactive, immersive nature of social media may reveal emergent behaviour that does not occur in engagement with traditional mass media or conventional surveys. In recognition of the dramatic shift to life online during the COVID-19 pandemic to mitigate disease spread and the increasing threat of further pandemics, we examine the challenges and opportunities inherent in the use of social media data in infectious disease modelling with particular focus on their inclusion in compartmental models.
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spelling pubmed-80332842021-04-09 Harnessing Social Media in the Modelling of Pandemics—Challenges and Opportunities Sooknanan, Joanna Mays, Nicholas Bull Math Biol Perspectives As COVID-19 spreads throughout the world without a straightforward treatment or widespread vaccine coverage in the near future, mathematical models of disease spread and of the potential impact of mitigation measures have been thrust into the limelight. With their popularity and ability to disseminate information relatively freely and rapidly, information from social media platforms offers a user-generated, spontaneous insight into users’ minds that may capture beliefs, opinions, attitudes, intentions and behaviour towards outbreaks of infectious disease not obtainable elsewhere. The interactive, immersive nature of social media may reveal emergent behaviour that does not occur in engagement with traditional mass media or conventional surveys. In recognition of the dramatic shift to life online during the COVID-19 pandemic to mitigate disease spread and the increasing threat of further pandemics, we examine the challenges and opportunities inherent in the use of social media data in infectious disease modelling with particular focus on their inclusion in compartmental models. Springer US 2021-04-09 2021 /pmc/articles/PMC8033284/ /pubmed/33835296 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11538-021-00895-3 Text en © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Society for Mathematical Biology 2021 This article is made available via the PMC Open Access Subset for unrestricted research re-use and secondary analysis in any form or by any means with acknowledgement of the original source. These permissions are granted for the duration of the World Health Organization (WHO) declaration of COVID-19 as a global pandemic.
spellingShingle Perspectives
Sooknanan, Joanna
Mays, Nicholas
Harnessing Social Media in the Modelling of Pandemics—Challenges and Opportunities
title Harnessing Social Media in the Modelling of Pandemics—Challenges and Opportunities
title_full Harnessing Social Media in the Modelling of Pandemics—Challenges and Opportunities
title_fullStr Harnessing Social Media in the Modelling of Pandemics—Challenges and Opportunities
title_full_unstemmed Harnessing Social Media in the Modelling of Pandemics—Challenges and Opportunities
title_short Harnessing Social Media in the Modelling of Pandemics—Challenges and Opportunities
title_sort harnessing social media in the modelling of pandemics—challenges and opportunities
topic Perspectives
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8033284/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33835296
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11538-021-00895-3
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