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Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Human Factors

Date Submitted: Aug 6, 2020
Date Accepted: Dec 23, 2020
Date Submitted to PubMed: Feb 25, 2021

The final, peer-reviewed published version of this preprint can be found here:

Prevalence of Misinformation and Factchecks on the COVID-19 Pandemic in 35 Countries: Observational Infodemiology Study

Cha M, Cha C, Singh K, Lima G, Ahn YY, Kulshrestha J, Varol O

Prevalence of Misinformation and Factchecks on the COVID-19 Pandemic in 35 Countries: Observational Infodemiology Study

JMIR Hum Factors 2021;8(1):e23279

DOI: 10.2196/23279

PMID: 33395395

PMCID: 7909456

COVID-19 Infodemic Prevalence over 35 Countries

  • Meeyoung Cha; 
  • Chiyoung Cha; 
  • Karandeep Singh; 
  • Gabriel Lima; 
  • Yong-Yeol Ahn; 
  • Juhi Kulshrestha; 
  • Onur Varol

ABSTRACT

Background:

The COVID-19 pandemic has created a so-called infodemic, in which a plethora of false information is rapidly disseminated online, leading to serious harm around the world.

Objective:

This work aims to analyze the prevalence of common misinformation related to the coronavirus pandemic.

Methods:

We conducted a survey and asked participants whether they have been exposed to a rich set of false claims regarding the disease and their respective fact-checks.

Results:

We obtained more than 63,000 responses from 86 countries (N=1,451), and we identified a strong negative correlation between a country's economic status and the prevalence of the misinformation (ρ=-0.742, P<0.001). Our results also suggest that fact-checks spread slowly than their respective false claims following a sublinear trend (β=0.552).

Conclusions:

Our results imply that the potential harm of misinformation could be more substantial for developing economies than developed economies. The weakest economies with weak infrastructures not only have to combat the spreading pandemic but also the infodemic on COVID-19, which can derail crucial efforts in saving lives.


 Citation

Please cite as:

Cha M, Cha C, Singh K, Lima G, Ahn YY, Kulshrestha J, Varol O

Prevalence of Misinformation and Factchecks on the COVID-19 Pandemic in 35 Countries: Observational Infodemiology Study

JMIR Hum Factors 2021;8(1):e23279

DOI: 10.2196/23279

PMID: 33395395

PMCID: 7909456

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© The authors. All rights reserved. This is a privileged document currently under peer-review/community review (or an accepted/rejected manuscript). Authors have provided JMIR Publications with an exclusive license to publish this preprint on it's website for review and ahead-of-print citation purposes only. While the final peer-reviewed paper may be licensed under a cc-by license on publication, at this stage authors and publisher expressively prohibit redistribution of this draft paper other than for review purposes.