Ha-Linh Quach, Thai Quang Pham, Ngoc-Anh Hoang, Dinh Cong Phung, Viet Cuong Nguyen, Son Hong Le, Thanh Cong Le, Thu Minh Thi Bui, Dang Hai Le, Anh Duc Dang, Duong Nhu Tran, Nghia Duy Ngu, Florian Vogt, Cong Khanh Nguyen
Background Trends in the public perception and awareness of COVID-19 over time are poorly understood. We conducted a longitudinal study to analyze characteristics and trends of online information during a major COVID-19 outbreak in Da Nang province, Vietnam in July-August 2020 to understand public awareness and perceptions during an epidemic. Methods We collected online information on COVID-19 incidence and mortality from online platforms in Vietnam between 1 July and 15 September, 2020, and assessed their trends over time against the epidemic curve. We explored the associations between engagement, sentiment polarity, and other characteristics of online information with different outbreak phases using Poisson regression and multinomial logistic regression analysis. We assessed the frequency of keywords over time, and conducted a semantic analysis of keywords using word segmentation Results
We found a close association between collected online information and the evolution of the
COVID-19 situation in Vietnam. Online information generated higher engagements during
compared to before the outbreak. There was a close relationship between sentiment polarity
and posts’ topics: the emotional tendencies about COVID-19 mortality were significantly
more negative, and more neutral or positive about COVID-19 incidence. Online newspaper
reported significantly more information in negative or positive sentiment than online forums
or social media. Most topics of public concern followed closely the progression of the
COVID-19 situation during the outbreak: development of the global pandemic and vaccination; the unfolding outbreak in Vietnam; and the subsiding of the outbreak after two months.
Conclusion
This study shows how online information can reflect a public health threat in real time, and
provides important insights about public awareness and perception during different outbreak
phases. Our findings can help public health decision makers in Vietnam and other low and
middle income countries with high internet penetration rates to design more effective communication strategies during critical phases of an epidemic
Asia Pacific Journal of Public Health
Thai Quang Pham, Ngoc-Anh Hoang, Khanh Cong Nguyen, Samantha Colquhoun, Stephen Lambert, Luong Huy Duong, Quang Dai Tran, Duc Anh Ha, Dinh Cong Phung, Nghia Duy Ngu, Tu Anh Tran, Quang Ngoc La, Tai Trong Nguyen, Quynh Mai Thi Le, Duong Nhu Tran, Florian Vogt, Duc-Anh Dang
BMC Infectious Diseases
Background: International air travel plays an important role in the global spread of SARS-CoV-2, and tracing of close contacts is an integral part of the public health response to COVID-19. We aimed to assess the timeliness of contact tracing among airlin
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