COVID-19 warnings were on Twitter in seven countries by end of 2019

Editor's Note

This study by researchers at IMT School for Advanced Studies Lucca (Lucca, Italy) finds that unexpected levels of concerns about pneumonia had been raised for several weeks on Twitter before the first cases of COVID-19 infection were officially announced.

The researchers also found that these “whistleblowers” came primarily from the geographical regions that turned out to be the key breeding grounds for COVID-19 infections.

The countries discussing COVID-19 pneumonia between December 15, 2019, and January 21, 2020, were:

• Italy
• France
• Spain
• United Kingdom
• Germany
• The Netherlands
• Poland.

By leveraging social media, these findings offer the first clear accounting of how far behind many European countries were in detecting COVID-19, the researchers say. They suggest that social medial can be an effective tool for epidemiological surveillance.