In December 2019, Wuhan, China, reported an outbreak of nSARS-CoV2 that caused viral pneumonia, COVID-19. Li Wenliang, a Chinese ophthalmologist, first communicated on Chinese social media about the existence and spread of the unknown viral pneumonia in Wuhan, China. By the end of March 2020, the virus had spread worldwide. However, non-scientific information related to the viral outbreak, disease, and mortality spread even faster on social media. This study performed literature searches among different databases, i.e., PubMed, PubMed Central, and Web of Science, to understand the pitfall of social media during the COVID-19 pandemic and the impact of non-scientific information on public health. Social media not only shared information regarding the outbreak of nSARS-CoV2 and COVID-19 disease but also misinformation regarding epidemiology, government policies, prevention, cure, and vaccination. Thus, strict regulation is required to control the spread of misleading information.
Keywords: COVID-19; falsification; nSARS-CoV2; pitfalls; social media.