Understanding the Impact of Social Media Information and Misinformation Producers on Health Information Seeking. Comment on "Health Information Seeking Behaviors on Social Media During the COVID-19 Pandemic Among American Social Networking Site Users: Survey Study".

Abstract

Our team's article serves as a response to Neely and colleagues' recent paper: Health Information Seeking Behaviors on Social Media During the COVID-19 Pandemic Among American Social Networking Site Users: Survey Study, wherein we provide additional information, challenge certain viewpoints, and provide future insight on the topic of how social media is influencing COVID-19 vaccination rates. While the original article suggests that social media serves as a determinant to COVID-19 vaccination rates in some respects, we provide novel perspective that suggests that the opposite outcome may be occurring. Additionally, our team proposes that the question at hand needs to be addressed by an alternative methodology to more accurately capture the magnitude of social media and its members, rather than a survey type model. Our team congratulates Neely and associates' work and addition to the ever-growing topic of social media in medicine, and we seek to provide additional viewpoints and suggestions in an effort to better understand the current COVID-19 landscape.