Abstract
Objective: Along with the rapid spread of the COVID-19 pandemic around the globe, a proliferation of mass media information exposed the population to an infodemic with various implications documented worldwide. The present study analyzed Romanian healthcare practitioners’ (HCPs) appraisal of COVID-19 mass media information and governmental measures throughout 2020, ranking vaccination priorities and moral values. Methods: 97 HCP completed a cross-sectional survey with items referring to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Results: Findings were consistent with other studies, indicating an overall negative appraisal of mass media information, which predicted anxiety and relaxation difficulties. Unlike other studies, our sample reported a moderate level of satisfaction with official measures in 2020, which was not related to their view on mass media information. The ranking of population categories in the vaccination order showed similarities with the governmental vaccination program in 2021. Despite placing freedom third after health and love in the hierarchy of values, HCPs showed a high tendency of limiting individual liberty for the common good. Conclusions: Results showed a dissociation between the overall negative appraisal of mass media information and the satisfaction with governmental measures in 2020. Romanian HCPs shared a secular perspective on moral values and assumed an authoritarian position.
Highlights
According to the World Health Organization, the COVID-19 pandemic has generated an infodemic [1]
Appraisal of Mass Media Information Related to Symptoms of Stress
Unlike studies indicating high levels of distrust in official or governmental policies in some populations [16,22,25,26], the present results revealed a different perspective of our Romanian healthcare practitioners’ (HCPs) sample on the adopted governmental measures
Summary
According to the World Health Organization, the COVID-19 pandemic has generated an infodemic (i.e., an abundance of digital or physical information that includes false or misleading news and causes confusion, disinformation, insecurity, and mistrust in government officials and health authorities) [1]. A meta-analysis on mainstream and social media information sources reflected the infodemic’s expansion, revealing 2311 reports from 87 countries containing COVID-19 related information, of which 82% were false [7]. International infodemiology studies [8,9] revealed a higher prevalence and a more rapid spread of bogus news, leading to a higher incidence of misinformation, in poorer countries. Among the implications of the infodemic, in Romania, we observed several phenomena that were documented worldwide: the proliferation of rumors about false treatment or prophylactic methods [6,11,12,13], the emergence of extremist discourse and conspiracy theories [5,14,15,16], and vaccine acceptance vs hesitancy [17,18,19,20,21]. The need to empirically investigate such observations and the lack of COVID-19-related research on Romanian samples represented motivations for the present study
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