HMB202H1 Lecture Notes - Healthmap, 1918 Flu Pandemic
Document Summary
There is a study that found that online social media and news feeds were faster than and broadly as accurate as, the official records at detecting the start and early progress of the epidemic. Scientist emphasized that these informal reports were available online up to two weeks before official government reports, which had to go through traditional chain of command structure to public health. This means they could be used to get earlier estimates of disease outbreak gain early insight to an evolving epidemic and help plan a response soon. Scientists also highlighted that using informal media is cost effective, rapid and can be used to reach populations that otherwise wouldn"t have access to traditional healthcare or would not seek it. It was told that twitter were useful for connecting ground responders to each other, but warned that they may not work as a primary source of information on outbreaks to those involved in ground detection.
