Accepted for/Published in: Journal of Medical Internet Research
Date Submitted: May 10, 2020
Date Accepted: Oct 31, 2020
Date Submitted to PubMed: Nov 5, 2020
Warning: This is an author submission that is not peer-reviewed or edited. Preprints - unless they show as "accepted" - should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behavior and should not be reported in news media as established information.
The media landscape of unverified COVID-19 treatments: An investigation of influence
ABSTRACT
Background:
Individuals with large followings can influence public opinion and behaviours, especially during a pandemic. Recently, Donald Trump (DT) endorsed the use of unproven therapies, with a death attributed to the wrongful ingestion of a chloroquine-containing compound.
Objective:
We investigated his speeches, his twitter, Google searches and purchases, Amazon purchases, and TV airtime for hydroxychloroquine, chloroquine, azithromycin, and remdesivir.
Methods:
Twitter sourcing was catalogued with Factba.se, and analytics, both past and present, was analyzed with TweetBinder to assess average analytics of key metrics. Time spent discussing the unverified treatments on America’s five largest TV stations was catalogued with The Global Database of Events, Language, and Tone, and his speech transcripts were assessed from White House briefings. Google searching and shopping trends was analyzed with google trends. Amazon purchases were assessed Helium 10.
Results:
Over March 1st to April 30th, DT tweeted 11 times unproven therapies, mentioning them 65 times in White House briefings, especially touting hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine. These tweets were 300% above his statistical average impression. Following them, at least 2% of airtime on conservative networks, and continuous mentioning of treatment modalities like azithromycin, was seen on stations like Fox News. Google searches and purchases increased following his first mentions on March 19th, and again with his tweeting on March 21st. The same is true for all medications on Amazon, with purchases like hydroxychloroquine increasing by 200%.
Conclusions:
Individuals in position of power can sway public purchasing, resulting in undesired effects when the claims are unverified. Public health officials must work to dissuade unproven treatments for COVID-19. Clinical Trial: Not applicable
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