Research on the Influence of Information Diffusion on the Transmission of the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19)

Lin Shanlang; Ma Chao; Lin Ruofei; Huang Junpei; Xu Ruohan; Yuan Aini

The mechanism of the influence of information dissemination on the spread of COVID-19 is as follows: When a disease spreads among people, information about the disease spreads immediately. In the early days of the outbreak, a small amount of information spread, mainly about the popular science of the virus and the current infection dynamics. The information has improved the public's awareness of the virus. Many people choose to continue to pay attention to the epidemic-related information, and respond faster when the outbreak later occurs, reducing the probability of infection. In the stage of the outbreak, information about it will also be spread on major social media. When individuals learn about the existence of the disease, they will change their behavior, such as wearing a mask and vaccinating to avoid being infected, which can have an impact on the spread of the disease. The susceptible (or infected person) who knows the information of the epidemic will break the connection with the around infected person (or susceptible person) in order to prevent the further spread of the