Impactful COVID-19 discoveries from China are neglected in the media

Abstract

Do the media and the scientific community often agree on what research is worth public attention? During the COVID-19 pandemic, I analyzed all COVID-related research articles (n = 665) published in 13 world-leading medical and science journals. I found that the media attention an article receives is positively associated with its scientific impact—proxied by citation counts. However, given the same level of scientific impact, an article from China, on average, would receive 5.25 times fewer media mentions per additional citation, compared to an article from other parts of the world. The articles being neglected feature timely and impactful discoveries including asymptomatic carriers of SARS-CoV-2, and the origins and transmission dynamics of the virus. The underrepresentation of Chinese articles persisted even after controlling for various factors, including the research team’s preexisting media sources and self-country citations, i.e., cites coming from the same country. Such media bias may come at the cost of global public health.