Perception of emergent epidemic of COVID-2019 / SARS CoV-2 on the Polish Internet

Andrzej Jarynowski; Monika Wojta-Kempa; Vitaly Belik

People are looking for information on further epidemiological topics related to infection and epidemics as well [ Fig. 2 ]. It should be noted that professional vocabulary such as "hand hygiene" practically does not appear in queries (below the "noise threshold" compared to other epidemiological terms [ Fig. 2] ). Queries related to hand hygiene had a peak in late February and beginning of March. Queries related to masks had their peak of popularity at the end of February and the lack of increase in popularity in March (compared to other epidemiological queries [ Fig. 2 ]) may be due to the success of information campaigns on their alleged low effectiveness or simply due to the lack of the masks on the market. Figure 2 . The intensity of queries with the phrases "quarantine", "protective mask", "hand washing", "hand disinfection" ( "kwarantanna" "maseczka ochronna", "mycie rÄ…k", "dezynfekcja rÄ…k") in Polish Google (01.01-10.03/2020) generated using the Google Trend tool. Disease introduction marked with the blue vertical line. knowledge of basic definitions about the disease in the society. After the first confirmed case, there is a small peak around this day and a slight growth during actual epidemic and massive mitigation strategies.