Research on the Influence of Information Diffusion on the Transmission of the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19)

With the rapid development of the Mobile Internet in China, epidemic information is real-time and holographic, and the role of information diffusion in epidemic control is increasingly prominent. At the same time, the publicity of all kinds of big data also provides the possibility to explore the impact of media information diffusion on disease transmission. We explored the mechanism of the influence of information diffusion on the transmission of COVID-19, developed a model of the interaction between information diffusion and disease transmission based on the Susceptible–Infected–Recovered (SIR) model, and conducted an empirical test by using econometric methods. The benchmark result showed that there was a significant negative correlation between the information diffusion and the transmission of COVID-19. The result of robust test showed that the diffusion of both epidemic information and protection information hindered the further transmission of the epidemic. Heterogeneity test results showed that the effect of epidemic information on the suppression of COVID-19 is more significant in cities with weak epidemic control capabilities and higher Internet development levels.