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DAVIS, Calif .– COVID-19 has been in the news for over a year now. Although the virus is still present and new cases are emerging every day, a new study reveals that the public is starting to ignore updates on coronaviruses. Researchers at the University of California-Davis say society is becoming immune to the health crisis, especially when it comes to keeping up with pandemic-era security measures.
Their study looked at both the new COVID-19 articles and the reaction to those updates on Twitter to see how public attitudes have changed since the start of 2020. Researchers say that despite the continuing death toll, increase, people are generally less concerned about COVID-19 news.
It’s a radical change from what the world was like a little over a year ago. In the spring of 2020, many people started hoarding essential supplies like toilet paper, panicking around buying any items they could find, and generally reacting with extreme anxiety on social media.
Communication doctoral student Hannah Stevens says that’s no longer the case. In fact, the results reveal that people are now reverting to risky social behavior and are less concerned about ignoring pandemic measures such as social distancing.
“COVID-19 has left an indelible mark on history, and now is the time to examine what went wrong so that we can better communicate more effectively in future health crises, and even now, as the delta variant is becoming more widespread, ”says Stevens. in a university outing. “First and foremost, we need to understand how and why the scary health news has lost its impact over time, despite the rapidly rising death toll.”
News overload makes people less worried about COVID
The study authors examined the effect of early fear-based health messages in the news. They found that such a report motivated many to change their behavior to help curb the spread of COVID. This includes social distancing and indoors quarantine. However, researchers also find that overexposure to the constant stream of fear-based reporting desensitizes people to the message.
Using computer programs to analyze the language people use on Twitter, the researchers measured the levels of anxiety the public displayed throughout the crisis. They also compared these results to the overall number of deaths from COVID in the United States. The results show that over the months, the anxiety of Twitter’s reaction to the coronavirus news is just not there. Although generalized vaccinations may play a role in this regard, researchers believe it is important that people do not become immune to the health risks that are still present.
“Our study shows that there is a need to go deeper into how to re-sensitize the public and motivate them to act in the face of an ongoing emergency. Testing the effectiveness of various health risk communication strategies could very likely mean the difference between life and death in the future, ”adds Stevens.
“Should another health crisis occur today, or if COVID-19 takes another turn for the worse, it is essential that public health officials consider that they are communicating with an unresponsive public. I hope this article can be an impetus to start this discussion.
The results appear in the Journal of Medical Internet Research Infodemiology.
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