Search interest in alleged COVID-19 treatments over the pandemic period: the impact of mass news media
Authors: Ricotta Emily E. , Bents Samantha , Lawler Brendan , Smith Brianna A. , Majumder Maimuna S. 
Published: November 2024

Background

Understanding how individuals obtain medical information, especially amid changing guidance, is important for improving outreach and communication strategies. In particular, during a public health emergency, interest in unsafe or illegitimate medications can delay access to appropriate treatments and foster mistrust in the medical system, which can be detrimental at both individual and population levels. It is thus key to understand factors associated with said interest.

Methods

We obtained US-based Google Search Trends and Media Cloud data from 2019-2022 to assess the relationship between Internet search interest and media coverage in three purported COVID-19 treatments: hydroxychloroquine, ivermectin, and remdesivir. We first conducted anomaly detection in the treatment-specific search interest data to detect periods of interest above pre-pandemic baseline; we then used multilevel negative binomial regression— controlling for political leaning, rurality, and social vulnerability—to test for associations between treatment-specific search interest and media coverage.

Findings

We observed that interest in hydroxychloroquine and remdesivir peaked early in 2020 and then subsided, while peak interest in ivermectin occurred later but was more sustained. We detected significant associations between media coverage and search interest for all three treatments. The strongest association was observed for ivermectin, in which a single standard deviation increase in media coverage was associated with more than double the search interest (164%, 95% CI: 148, 180), compared to a 109% increase (95% CI: 101, 118) for hydroxychloroquine and a 49% increase (95% CI: 43, 55) for remdesivir.

Interpretation

Search interest in purported COVID-19 treatments was significantly associated with contemporaneous media coverage, with the highest impact on interest in ivermectin, a treatment demonstrated to be ineffectual for treating COVID-19 and potentially dangerous if used inappropriately.

Funding

This work was funded in part by the US National Institutes of Health and the US National Science Foundation.

Research in context

Evidence before this study

We reviewed the existing literature on public interest in COVID-19 treatments during the pandemic, with a focus on studies using internet search data. Databases included PubMed, Google Scholar, and Embase. For example, in Embase, we iterated on search terms such as (‘SARS-CoV-2’ OR ‘nCoV’ OR ‘COVID-19’) AND (‘treatment’/exp OR ‘treatment’ OR ‘medicine’/exp OR ‘medicine’) combined with (‘search engine’/exp OR ‘search engine’ OR ‘google’/exp OR ‘google’ OR ‘google search trends’) for GST; or (‘publication’/exp OR ‘publication’ OR ‘news’/exp OR ‘news’) AND (‘behavior’/exp OR ‘behavior’ OR ‘sentiment analysis’/exp OR ‘sentiment analysis’ OR ‘public opinion’/exp OR ‘public opinion’) to find relevant articles. Searches were not restricted to the English language. Several studies were found that used internet search data or discussed how news media impacts public opinion related to health topics. These methods were uncommon in the literature, and none were found to use these data sources to examine public opinion about potential COVID-19 treatments.

Added value of this study

This study adds to the existing evidence by specifically examining the relationship between public interest in and news media coverage about three specific purported COVID-19 treatments: hydroxychloroquine, ivermectin, and remdesivir. It uses a robust methodological approach, combining internet search interest data and news media coverage with state-level covariates like political leaning, rurality, and social vulnerability. This provides a nuanced understanding of how media coverage and sociopolitical factors interact to influence public interest in clinically appropriate, potentially controversial, or unproven medical treatments.

Implications of all the available evidence

The findings highlight the significant influence of news media coverage on public interest in medical treatments, particularly during a public health crisis. This emphasizes the need for responsible reporting and the potential for utilizing media as a tool for effective health communication. However, the study also reveals the susceptibility of the public to misinformation and the potential for heightened interest in treatments lacking scientific evidence. This underscores the importance of critical media literacy and the need for clear and consistent communication from public health officials to counteract the spread of misinformation. Future research should focus on understanding the mechanisms driving the relationship between media coverage and public interest, including the role of social media and other information sources.