Social media and the new world of scientific communication during the COVID19 pandemic

Pollett, S; Rivers, C

The human and social toll of the COVID19 pandemic has already spurred several major public health ‘lessons learned’, and the theme of effective and responsible scientific communication is among them. We propose that Twitter has played a fundamental – but often precarious - role in permitting real-time global communication between scientists during the COVID19 epidemic, on a scale not seen before. Here, we discuss three key facets to Twitter-enabled scientific exchange during public health emergencies, including some major draw-backs. This discussion also serves as a succinct primer on some of the pivotal epidemiological analyses (and their communication) during the early phases of the COVID19 outbreak, as seen through the lens of a Twitter- feed.