scholarly journals Topic Relevance of Public Health Emergencies Influence on Internet Public Opinion Resonance: Simulation Based on Langevin’s Equation

2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
Quan Cheng ◽  
Yan-gang Zhang ◽  
Yi-quan Li

Public health emergencies occurred frequently, which usually result in the negative Internet public opinion events. In the complex network information ecological environment, multiple public opinion events may be aggregated to generate public opinion resonance due to the topic category, the mutual correlation of the subject involved, and the compound accumulation of specific emotions. In order to reveal the phenomenon and regulations of the public opinion resonance, we firstly analyze the influence factors of the Internet public opinion events in the public health emergencies. Then, based on Langevin’s equation, we propose the Internet public opinion stochastic resonance model considering the topic relevance. Furthermore, three exact public health emergencies in China are provided to reveal the regulations of evoked events “revival” caused by original events. We observe that the Langevin stochastic resonance model considering topic relevance can effectively reveal the resonance phenomenon of Internet public opinion caused by public health emergencies. For the original model without considering the topic relevance, the new model is more sensitive. Meanwhile, it is found that the degree of topic relevance between public health emergencies has a significant positive correlation with the intensity of Internet public opinion resonance.

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Xing Zhang ◽  
Yan Zhou ◽  
Fuli Zhou ◽  
Saurabh Pratap

PurposeThe sudden outbreak of COVID-19 has become a major public health emergency of global concern. Studying the Internet public opinion dissemination mechanism of public health emergencies is of great significance for creating a legalized network environment, and it is also helpful for managers to make scientific decisions when encountering Internet public opinion crisis.Design/methodology/approachBased on the analysis of the process of spreading the Internet public opinion in major epidemics, a dynamic model of the Internet public opinion spread system was constructed to study the interactive relationship among the public opinion events, network media, netizens and government and the spread of epidemic public opinion. The Shuanghuanglian event in COVID-19 in China was taken as a typical example to make simulation analysis.FindingsResearch results show three points: (1) the government credibility plays a decisive role in the spread of Internet public opinion; (2) it is the best time to intervene when Internet public opinion occurred at first time; (3) the management and control of social media are the key to public opinion governance. Besides, specific countermeasures are proposed to assist control of Internet public opinion dissemination.Originality/valueThe epidemic Internet public opinion risk evolution system is a complex nonlinear social system. The system dynamics model is used to carry out research to facilitate the analysis of the Internet public opinion propagation mechanism and explore the interrelationship of various factors.


2021 ◽  
Vol 51 (1) ◽  
pp. 26-31
Author(s):  
Massimo Candela ◽  
Antonio Prado

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, governments introduced several social restrictions. As of 18 March 2020, more than 250 million people were in lockdown in Europe. This drastically increased the number of online activities. Due to this unprecedented situation, some concerns arose about the suitability of the Internet network to sustain the increased usage. Italy was severely hit by the first wave of the pandemic and various regions underwent a lockdown before the main country-wide one. The Italian network operators started sharing information about improvements carried out on the network and new measures adopted to support the increase in Internet usage. In this report, by means of a questionnaire, we collect information and provide a quantitative overview of the actions undertaken by network operators in Italy. The attitude of Italian operators was synergic and proactive in supporting the changed market conditions caused by the public health emergency.


Complexity ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Yi-Cheng Zhang ◽  
Zhi Li ◽  
Guo-Bing Zhou ◽  
Nai-Ru Xu ◽  
Jia-Bao Liu

After the occurrence of public health emergencies, due to the uncertainty of the evolution of events and the asymmetry of pandemic information, the public’s risk perception will fluctuate dramatically. Excessive risk perception often causes the public to overreact to emergencies, resulting in irrational behaviors, which have a negative impact on economic development and social order. However, low-risk perception will reduce individual awareness of prevention and control, which is not conducive to the implementation of government pandemic prevention and control measures. Therefore, it is of great significance to accurately evaluate public risk perception for improving government risk management. This paper took the evolution of public risk perception based on the COVID-19 region as the research object. First, we analyze the characteristics of infectious diseases in the evolution of public risk perception of public health emergencies. Second, we analyze the characteristics of risk perception transmission in social networks. Third, we establish the dynamic model of public risk perception evolution based on SEIR, and the evolution mechanism of the public risk perception network is revealed through simulation experiments. Finally, we provide policy suggestions for government departments to deal with public health emergencies based on the conclusions of this study.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Zhiqi Xu ◽  
Yukun Cheng ◽  
Shuangliang Yao

Public health emergencies are more related to the safety and health of the public. For the management of the public health emergencies, all parties’ cooperation is the key to preventing and controlling the emergencies. Based on the assumption of bounded rationality, we formulate a tripartite evolutionary game model, involving the local government, the enterprises, and the public, for the public health emergency, e.g., COVID-19. The evolutionary stable strategies under different conditions of the tripartite evolutionary game are explored, and the effect from different factors on the decision-makings of participants for public health emergencies is also analyzed. Numerical analysis results show that formulating reasonable subsidy measures, encouraging the participation of the public, and enforcing the punishment to enterprises for their negative behaviors can prompt three parties to cooperate in fighting against the epidemic. Our work enriches an understanding of the governance for the public health emergency and provides theoretical support for the local government and related participants to make proper decisions in public health emergencies.


1997 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 30-35 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbara A. McIntosh ◽  
Patricia Hinds ◽  
Lorraine M. Giordano

AbstractIntroduction:Until now, the public health response to the threat of an epidemic has involved coordination of efforts between federal agencies, local health departments, and individual hospitals, with no defined role for prehospital emergency medical services (EMS) providers.Methods:Representatives from the local health department, hospital consortium, and prehospital EMS providers developed an interim plan for dealing with an epidemic alert. The plan allowed for the prehospital use of appropriate isolation procedures, prophylaxis of personnel, and predesignation of receiving hospitals for patients suspected of having infection. Additionally, a dual notification system utilizing an EMS physician and a representative from the Office of Infectious Diseases from the hospital group was implemented to ensure that all potential cases were captured. Initially, the plan was employed only for those cases arising from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDCJ/Public Health Service (PHS) quarantine unit at the airport, but its use later was expanded to include all potential cases within the 9–1–1 system.Results:In the two test situations in which it was employed, the plan incorporating the prehospital EMS sector worked well and extended the “surveillance net” further into the community. During the Pneumonic Plague alert, EMS responded to the quarantine facilities at the airport five times and transported two patients to isolation facilities. Two additional patients were identified and transported to isolation facilities from calls within the 9–1–1 system. In all four isolated cases, Pneumonic Plague was ruled out. During the Ebola alert, no potential cases were identified.Conclusion:The incorporation of the prehospital sector into an already existing framework for public health emergencies (i.e., epidemics), enhances the reach of the public safety surveillance net and ensure that proper isolation is continued from identification of a possible case to arrival at a definitive treatment facility.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tao Hu ◽  
Siqin Wang ◽  
Wei Luo ◽  
Mengxi Zhang ◽  
Xiao Huang ◽  
...  

BACKGROUND The COVID-19 pandemic has imposed a large, initially uncontrollable, public health crisis both in the US and across the world, with experts looking to vaccines as the ultimate mechanism of defense. The development and deployment of COVID-19 vaccines have been rapidly advancing via global efforts. Hence, it is crucial for governments, public health officials, and policy makers to understand public attitudes and opinions towards vaccines, such that effective interventions and educational campaigns can be designed to promote vaccine acceptance OBJECTIVE The aim of this study is to investigate public opinion and perception on COVID-19 vaccines by investigating the spatiotemporal trends of their sentiment and emotion towards vaccines, as well as how such trends relate to popular topics on Twitter in the US METHODS We collected over 300,000 geotagged tweets in the US from March 1, 2020 to February 28, 2021. We examined the spatiotemporal patterns of public sentiment and emotion over time at both national and state scales and identified three phases along the pandemic timeline with the significant changes of public sentiment and emotion, further linking to eleven key events and major topics as the potential drivers to induce such changes via cloud mapping of keywords and topic modelling RESULTS An increasing trend of positive sentiment in parallel with the decrease of negative sentiment are generally observed in most states, reflecting the rising confidence and anticipation of the public towards vaccines. The overall tendency of the eight types of emotion implies the trustiness and anticipation of the public to vaccination, accompanied by the mixture of fear, sadness and anger. Critical social/international events and/or the announcements of political leaders and authorities may have potential impacts on the public opinion on vaccines. These factors, along with important topics and manual reading of popular posts on eleven key events, help identify underlying themes and validate insights from the analysis CONCLUSIONS The analyses of near real-time social media big data benefit public health authorities by enabling them to monitor public attitudes and opinions towards vaccine-related information in a geo-aware manner, address the concerns of vaccine skeptics and promote the confidence of individuals within a certain region or community, towards vaccines


Author(s):  
Michael Westerlund ◽  
Karolina Krysinska

An overview of research on suicide and the internet, as well as the practical applications of online interventions in suicide prevention efforts is given. The text presents how much material about suicide is available online and what are the contents, with a special focus on pro-suicide and harmful online material and communication, and how people at risk of suicide use the internet. The topic of advantages and dangers of suicide-related material available on social media platforms will be covered. The range and effectiveness of online and web-based crisis interventions are discussed, along with support available online for people bereaved by suicide. The text also presents existing efforts on regulation and legislation in relation to suicide-related websites and content.


Author(s):  
Andrea H. Tapia ◽  
Nicolas J. LaLone

In this paper the authors illustrate the ethical dilemmas that arise when large public investigations in a crisis are crowdsourced. The authors focus the variations in public opinion concerning the actions of two online groups during the immediate aftermath of the Boston Marathon Bombing. These groups collected and organized relief for victims, collected photos and videos taken of the bombing scene and created online mechanisms for the sharing and analysis of images collected online. They also used their large numbers and the affordances of the Internet to produce an answer to the question, “who was the perpetrator, and what kind of bomb was used?” The authors view their actions through public opinion, through sampling Twitter and applying a sentiment analysis to this data. They use this tool to pinpoint moments during the crisis investigation when the public became either more positively or negatively inclined toward the actions of the online publics. The authors use this as a surrogate, or proxy, for social approval or disapproval of their actions, which exposes large swings in public emotion as ethical lines are crossed by online publics.


2020 ◽  
Vol 173 (11) ◽  
pp. 926-928
Author(s):  
Mary Catherine Beach ◽  
Howard M. Lederman ◽  
Megan Singleton ◽  
Roy G. Brower ◽  
Joseph Carrese ◽  
...  

2019 ◽  
Vol 34 (7) ◽  
pp. 553-557 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sonja Kristine Kittelsen ◽  
Vincent Charles Keating

AbstractThe 2014–15 Ebola epidemic in West Africa highlighted the significance of trust between the public and public health authorities in the mitigation of health crises. Since the end of the epidemic, there has been a focus amongst scholars and practitioners on building resilient health systems, which many see as an important precondition for successfully combatting future outbreaks. While trust has been acknowledged as a relevant component of health system resilience, we argue for a more sustained theoretical engagement with underlying models of trust in the literature. This article takes a first step in showing the importance of theoretical engagement by focusing on the appeal to rational models of trust in particular in the health system resilience literature, and how currently unconsidered assumptions in this model cast doubt on the effectiveness of strategies to generate trust, and therein resilience, during acute public health emergencies.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document