Spread of Misinformation About Face Masks and COVID-19 by Automated Software on Facebook

John W Ayers; Brian Chu; Zechariah Zhu; Eric C Leas; Davey M Smith; Mark Dredze; David A Broniatowski

doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2021.2498

Spread of Misinformation About Face Masks and COVID-19 by Automated Software on Facebook

JAMA Intern Med. 2021 Sep 1;181(9):1251-1253. doi: 10.1001/jamainternmed.2021.2498.

Authors

John W Ayers¹, Brian Chu², Zechariah Zhu³, Eric C Leas⁴, Davey M Smith¹, Mark Dredze⁵, David A Broniatowski⁶

Affiliations

¹ Division of Infectious Diseases and Global Public Health, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla.
² Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.
³ Department of Mathematics, University of California, Los Angeles.
⁴ Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health and Human Longevity Science, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla.
⁵ Department of Computer Science, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland.
⁶ Department of Engineering Management and Systems Engineering, The George Washington University, Washington, DC.

Abstract

This cross-sectional study examines the spread of misinformation regarding the Danish Study to Assess Face Masks for the Protection Against COVID-19 Infection on Facebook.

Publication types

Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural

MeSH terms

Attitude to Health*
COVID-19 / prevention & control*
Communication*
Denmark
Health Behavior*
Humans
Masks / adverse effects
Masks / statistics & numerical data*
Physical Distancing
Social Media / statistics & numerical data*
Socioeconomic Factors

Grants and funding

P30 AI036214/AI/NIAID NIH HHS/United States