COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy linked to increased internet search queries for side effects on fertility potential in the initial rollout phase following Emergency Use Authorization

The Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) of the COVID-19 vaccine on December 11, 2020 has been met with hesitancy for uptake with some citing potential impacts on future fertility. We hypothesised that irrespective of sex, fertility-related queries would markedly increase during the 48 days following EUA of the coronavirus vaccine. We sought to objectively identify trends in internet search queries on public concerns regarding COVID-19 vaccine side effects on fertility that might impact vaccine uptake. We used Google Trends to investigate queries in Google's Search Engine relating to the coronavirus vaccine and fertility between 10/24/2020 and 1/27/2021. The five most queried terms were identified as: ‘COVID Vaccine Fertility’, ‘COVID Vaccine and Infertility’, ‘COVID Vaccine Infertility’, ‘COVID Vaccine Fertility CDC’, and ‘COVID 19 Vaccine Infertility’ with an increase of 710.47%, 207.56%, 264.35%, 2,943.7%, and 529.26%, respectively, all p < .001. This study indicates that there was an increase in online COVID-19 vaccine-related queries regarding fertility side effects coinciding with the Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) on December 11, 2020. Our results objectively evidence the increased concern regarding the vaccine and likely demonstrate a major cause for hesitancy in vaccine uptake. Future studies and counselling with patients should be undertaken to help mitigate these concerns.     

Vaccine hesitancy and anti-vaccination in the time of COVID-19: A Google Trends analysis

The COVID-19 pandemic has produced many calls for a vaccine. There is growing concern that vaccine hesitancy and anti-vaccination presence will dampen the uptake of a coronavirus vaccine. There are many cited reasons for vaccine hesitancy. Mercury content, autism association, and vaccine danger have been commonly found in anti-vaccination messages. It is also mused that the reduced disease burden from infectious diseases has paradoxically reduced the perceived requirement for vaccine uptake. Our analysis using Google Trends has shown that throughout the pandemic the search interest in a coronavirus vaccine has increased and remained high throughout. Peaks are found when public declarations are made, the case number increases significantly, or when vaccine breakthroughs are announced. Anti-vaccine searches, in the context of COVID-19, have had a continued and growing presence during the pandemic. Contrary to what some may believe, the burden of coronavirus has not been enough to dissuade anti-vaccine searches entirely.     

The Causality Inference of Public Interest in Restaurants and Bars on Daily COVID-19 Cases in the United States: Google Trends Analysis

BackgroundThe COVID-19 pandemic has affected virtually every region in the world. At the time of this study, the number of daily new cases in the United States was greater than that in any other country, and the trend was increasing in most states. Google Trends provides data regarding public interest in various topics during different periods. Analyzing these trends using data mining methods may provide useful insights and observations regarding the COVID-19 outbreak.ObjectiveThe objective of this study is to consider the predictive ability of different search terms not directly related to COVID-19 with regard to the increase of daily cases in the United States. In particular, we are concerned with searches related to dine-in restaurants and bars. Data were obtained from the Google Trends application programming interface and the COVID-19 Tracking Project.MethodsTo test the causation of one time series on another, we used the Granger causality test. We considered the causation of two different search query trends related to dine-in restaurants and bars on daily positive cases in the US states and territories with the 10 highest and 10 lowest numbers of daily new cases of COVID-19. In addition, we used Pearson correlations to measure the linear relationships between different trends.ResultsOur results showed that for states and territories with higher numbers of daily cases, the historical trends in search queries related to bars and restaurants, which mainly occurred after reopening, significantly affected the number of daily new cases on average. California, for example, showed the most searches for restaurants on June 7, 2020; this affected the number of new cases within two weeks after the peak, with a P value of .004 for the Granger causality test.ConclusionsAlthough a limited number of search queries were considered, Google search trends for restaurants and bars showed a significant effect on daily new cases in US states and territories with higher numbers of daily new cases. We showed that these influential search trends can be used to provide additional information for prediction tasks regarding new cases in each region. These predictions can help health care leaders manage and control the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on society and prepare for its outcomes.     

Static smartphone images supplemented by videoconferencing for breast telepathology

BackgroundBoth static images and videoconferencing by smartphone have been tried for telepathology. Combining the two approaches for telepathology might offset some of the limitations of both techniques.MethodsA total of 150 cases of breast pathology were retrieved and were photographed by a trained junior pathologist using a smartphone camera and binocular microscope and the images were sent as Google photos attachments with email to three pathologists. The pathologists opened the emailed attachments during separate prescheduled google meet videoconferencing sessions and rendered the diagnosis verbally to the junior pathologist. The pathologists were given the option of asking for live dynamic images of the cases during the meet which were transmitted using the rear camera of the smartphone with the video option of google meet.ResultsThe overall concordance rates for the three pathologists were 96.6%, 99.3% and 98.0% (Mean 98.0%). The reporting pathologists asked for dynamic live images in 23, 20 and 18 cases respectively. Out of these 61 cases, a discrepant diagnosis was made in 7 cases (11.4%). The reporting pathologist was satisfied with the quality of static images (Mean Likert score 4.2/5). However, concerns were raised on the consistency of video quality (Mean Likert score 2.5/5). The screen share option of Google meet was found useful to discuss specific features of the case. (Mean Likert Score 4.6/5)ConclusionThe combined approach to telepathology has shown some promise and it is hoped that with adequate training the discordance can be reduced.     

Evaluating the impact of global awareness days on rheumatological search interest before and during the coronavirus-19 (COVID-19) pandemic

Aim of the workWe assessed the online efficacy of global awareness days (GADs) related to 5 rheumatological conditions: ankylosing spondylitis, fibromyalgia, gout, osteoporosis, and rheumatoid arthritis before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.MethodsGoogle Trends was used to obtain global relative search volume (RSV) for each condition, for a 41-day period around each GAD, per annum, between the years 2015 and 2020, inclusive. A joinpoint (time-trend) analysis was subsequently used to identify statistically significant perturbations (p < 0.05) in the overall RSV trend for the 41-day period, per condition, per annum.ResultsBetween the years 2015 and 2019, inclusive, we found that only 1 out of 5 rheumatological conditions was associated with 3 joinpoints centred around the respective GAD. In contrast, for 2020, 3 out of 5 conditions were associated with 3 joinpoints centred around the respective GAD (p < 0.001, p = 0.03, p = 0.04, for fibromyalgia, gout, and osteoporosis respectively).ConclusionsGADs between the years 2015 and 2019, inclusive, were found to be inconsistent at increasing Google Interest (1 out of 5 conditions, per annum), but that GADs in 2020 were notably more consistent at increasing Google Interest (3 out of 5 conditions). This change in GAD efficacy described for 2020, at least in part, may be explained by the COVID-19 pandemic. Greater insight into how specific populations acquire health information could be leveraged into more effective health campaigns, with far-reaching benefits in screening, prevention, and early diagnosis.     

Quality of internet information to aid patient decision making in locally advanced and recurrent rectal cancer

BackgroundTo review whether online decision aids are available for patients contemplating pelvic exenteration (PE) for locally advanced and recurrent rectal cancer (LARC and LRRC).MethodsA grey literature review was carried out using the Google Search? engine undertaken using a predefined search strategy (PROSPERO database CRD42019122933). Written health information was assessed using the DISCERN criteria and International Patient Decision Aids Standards (IPDAS) with readability content assessed using the Flesch-Kincaid reading ease test and Flesch-Kincaid grade level score.ResultsGoogle search yielded 27, 782, 200 results for the predefined search criteria. 131 sources were screened resulting in the analysis of 6 sources. No sources were identified as a decision aid according to the IPDAS criteria. All sources provided an acceptable quality of written health information, scoring a global score of 3 for the DISCERN written assessment. The median Flesch-Kincaid reading ease was 50.85 (32.5–80.8) equating to a reading age of 15–18 years and the median Flesch-Kincaid grade level score was 7.65 (range 3–9.7), which equates to a reading age of 13–14.ConclusionsThis study has found that there is a paucity of online information for patients contemplating PE. Sources that are available are aimed at a high health literate patient. Given the considerable morbidity associated with PE surgery there is a need for high quality relevant information in this area. A PDA should be developed to improve decision making and ultimately improve patient experience.     

An evaluation of the contents and quality of menopause information on the World Wide Web

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the content and quality of currently available World Wide Web based information about menopause. DESIGN: A sample of the 100 top sites obtained with the search engine Google for the key word "menopause" was evaluated according to predefined general and specific criteria, content type, language, and quality. The Internet popularity was established by the number of links to each website. Using a systematic scoring tool each site was assessed on factual information provided and quality of site. RESULTS: The websites studied were heterogeneous in content and quality. The most frequent type of website has commercial content with low quality, biased or useless information. Few sites provided comprehensive medical information about menopause. The scientific societies not always provided complete information about the possible adverse events related with hormone replacement therapy. The results of the Women's Health Initiative (WHI) and the Million Women (MW) studies are discussed by very few websites. Internet popularity did not correlate with measures of quality such as display of authorship, attribution or references, currency of information, and disclosure. CONCLUSION: The content and quality of the websites concerning menopause are widely varied and sometimes biased to commercial goals. The dominant medical information is of low quality and do not comply with general quality scores although the most informative sites have comprehensive content about the menopause including the recent results of the WHI and MW studies.     

COVID-19 Changes Public Awareness about Food Sustainability and Dietary Patterns: A Google Trends Analysis

The COVID-19 pandemic has not only affected healthcare systems and global economies but also directly impacted food security and purchasing behaviors. The aim of this study is to investigate if COVID-19 has induced changes in public interest regarding Food Sustainability and healthy-sustainable dietary patterns across Europe and in European regions. A Google Trends search was performed using the search terms “Food Sustainability + Sustainable Diet + Sustainable Food” (grouped as “Food Sustainability”) and the topics “Sustainability”, “Healthy Diet”, “Mediterranean Diet”, and “Flexitarianism” for the years 2010 to 2022. Data were obtained for 12 countries in Europe. The trends in interest after the COVID-19 outbreak were forecast based on previous data. After the COVID-19 outbreak, an increase in Food Sustainability interest was observed and was higher than forecast based on the previous data. A significant interest increase in Sustainability was observed; nevertheless, this increase was smaller than the forecast increase. Mixed results were obtained for dietary patterns across European regions, yet, considering the mean interest for Europe, it seems that the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak dampened the interest in dietary patterns such as the Healthy Diet and Flexitarianism and promoted an interest in the Mediterranean Diet. Understanding consumers’ beliefs and behaviors toward food choices is crucial for the transition towards sustainable diets, and definitions of educational and behavioral interventions are essential to this transition.